Sexuality and Self-Identity in the Ethno-Media-scapes of Wayne Wang’s Film Adaptation of
“The Princess of Nebraska”
從《內布拉斯加公主》中的民族-媒體圖景看性別與自我認同議題
陳榮強
紐約州立大學石溪校區
In Modernity at Large, Arjun Appadurai introduces five aspects of global cultural flows
(ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, financescapes and ideoscapes) as framework to
investigate the disjunctive, yet overlapping complex order of global cultural economy. This
essay explores the theme of sexuality and self-identity in Wayne Wang’s film adaptation of Yiyun
Li’s 2007 short story “The Princess of Nebraska” by mapping out the ethnoscapes, technoscapes
and mediascapes of the film. Moving the setting in the original story from Chicago to San
Francisco in the film, Wang’s adaptation is the anecdote of Sasha, a pregnant migrant student,
delineated by the shifting terrains of gender, culture, social mores and personal desire. Instead
of subscribing to the norms of collective identification, Sasha embarks on a day-long journey to
establish relations with X, a member of a demimonde in the bay area whom she engages with
homoerotic adventures, Boshen, the homosexual lover of her child’s father, Yang, and her
selfhood that is estranged by her pregnancy. Moral values, ethnic affinity and sexuality are
depicted as fluid and ambiguous. Technoscapes of the film showcases Sasha’s desire to connect
with her past through the text-messages she sends to Yang, who still lives in Beijing, and her
engagement with her present self by documenting her life with her cell-phone camera. The use
of naturalism as cinematic style and the choice of close-up techniques on Sasha create an
intimacy between the protagonist and her individual identity. Alternatively, this identity is
greatly contradicted by the aloof attitude and emotional instability of Sasha, a product of the
post-Tiananmen era. Finally, although the feature film premiered at the Toronto International
Film Festival in 2007, Wang’s The Princess of Nebraska was not officially released in the United
States until October 2008 via Youtube Screening Room, a new system of media distribution.
The non-profit online debut of the film attracted 140,000 hits over one weekend, which is a much
larger number compared to any art-house release in theater; this debut reconfigured the roles of
the theater and audience in Asian American film history. In conclusion, this essay posits that
the disjuncture in the global formation of an (Asian American) cultural identity, in the case of
The Princess of Nebraska, is negotiated between Sasha’s diasporic experience, ambiguous
sexuality, and the changing roles of technology and media.
E.K. Tan