Screening Asian Americans

This essay collection explores Asian-American cinematic representations historically and socially, on or off screen, as they contribute to the definition of American character. The history of Asian Americans on movie screens, as outlined in the introduction, provides a context for the individual readings that follow. Asian-American cinema is charted in its diversity, ranging across activist, documentary, experimental and fictional modes, and encompassing a wide range of ethnicities (Filipino, Vietnamese, INdian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese). Covered in the discussion are film-makers Theresa Hak-Kyung Cha, Ang Lee, Trinh T. Minh-ha and Wayne Wang, and films such as The Wedding Banquet , Surname Viet Given Name Nam and Chan is Missing . Throughout the volume, as Feng explains, the term screening has a twofold meaning, referring to the projection of Asian Americans as cinematic bodies and the screening out of elements connected with these images. In this doubling, film representation can function to define what is American and what is foreign. Asian-American film-making is one of the fastest-growing areas of independent and studio production. This volume explores the vitality of the new cinema.