"Asian actors and filmmakers working in Hollywood are almost as the American cinema itself, beginning with Sessue Hayakawa, a major star in the silent era, and the stunning Anna May Wong (Shanghai Express), Oscar winning cinematographer James Wong Howe (Hud, The Rose Tattoo), and romantic leading man James Shigeta (The Crimson Kimono, The Flower Drum Song). But there is also a darker side to the Asian experience in Hollywood - of Yellow Peril paranoia and subordination to "Yellow Face" stars in films like The Mask of Fu Manchu and The Bitter Tea of General Yen.
The independent Asian American cinema was born from civil rights activism of the 1960s and gave voice to a rich and diverse community neglected by the mainstream media. Asian Americans have made documentaries about the Japanese American internment in the Second World War; on immigration in the early 20th Century; and on their own struggle as minorities, as well as contributed to the birth of the New American Independent cinema with Wayne Wang's Chan is Missing.
This book is an eclectic collection of voices and views, by the known and not-so-known, that presents a cross-section of Asian Americans working in the American cinema today."
The independent Asian American cinema was born from civil rights activism of the 1960s and gave voice to a rich and diverse community neglected by the mainstream media. Asian Americans have made documentaries about the Japanese American internment in the Second World War; on immigration in the early 20th Century; and on their own struggle as minorities, as well as contributed to the birth of the New American Independent cinema with Wayne Wang's Chan is Missing.
This book is an eclectic collection of voices and views, by the known and not-so-known, that presents a cross-section of Asian Americans working in the American cinema today."