The Chinese Diaspora On American Screens

A look at Chinese filmmaking in the post-1989 American diaspora

From Tian'anmen to Times Square: Transnational China and the Chinese Diaspora on Global Screens, 1989-1997 explores the important interconnections involving questions of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality on world screens by examining a range of films, videos, and digital works associated with global Chinese culture. The ways in which the world has imagined China and the images the Chinese have used to depict themselves have changed dramatically since 1989. The media spotlight placed on Beijing during the spring of 1989 created repercussions that continue to affect how China is seen globally, how it sees itself, and how the Chinese outside the People's Republic see themselves. The films and other texts included in this book represent a range of work by media artists working within China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and on transnational co-productions involving those places. The book also features media from other positions within the Chinese diaspora (including Chinese America) and work produced on China by non-Chinese. Highlighting questions of the circulation of images, people, and commodities, the book explores the important interconnections involving questions of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality on global screens. Beginning and ending with Tian'anmen and world image culture, a portrait emerges of momentous change and persistent challenges facing media artists and filmmakers working within "Greater China."

Leading scholars in the field consider the profound importance of meanings of place and the spatial processes of mobility and settlement for the Chinese overseas. Visit our website for sample chapters!

The first volume of a two-volume set contains 15 essays selected from 150-plus papers presented at the Luodi-shenggen International Conference on Chinese Overseas held in San Francisco in 1998. The theme--luodi-shenggen or the planting of permanent roots in the soils of different countries--represents a departure from both an assimilationist point of view and from a China-centered "sojourner" point of view. The papers cover various aspects of two broad areas: transnational issues and concerns of Chinese overseas, and regional studies, including those of lesser-known regions. No index. Times Academic Press is in Singapore; US distribution is by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

As China rose to its position of global superpower, Chinese groups in the West watched with anticipation and trepidation. In this volume, international scholars examine how artists, writers, filmmakers, and intellectuals from the Chinese diaspora represented this new China to global audiences. The chapters, often personal in nature, focus on the nexus between the political and economic rise of China and the cultural products this period produced, where new ideas of nation, identity, and diaspora were forged.

This volume offers the first comprehensive survey of the cinema of Evans Chan, a New York–based playwright, author, and filmmaker whose acclaimed films include To Liv(e), The Map of Sex and Love, and Datong. In this collection of essays on Chan's documentary and feature films seven experts on cultural and film studies examine the unique blending of fictional representation, historical investigation, and critical essayism that characterize Chan'soeuvre. They discuss how Chan’s work brings out the contradictory nature of the distant and recent past through his exploration of Hong Kong's rapid transformation before and after reunification with China in 1997. The volume concludes with an interview with Evans Chan on his work to date and includes two DVDs containing five of his most important films. The book will appeal to scholars and students who are interested in China and Hong Kong cinema, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, and diaspora studies. "Covering a broad range of topics and issues that shed light on the aesthetic, sociopolitical and intellectual dimensions of Chan's work, the individual chapters contribute to a collective reflection on the formal qualities of Chan's cinematic art, in particular his creative use of the film essay as a mode of artistic expression. The essays have sought out the latent aesthetic and intellectual impulses that inform Chan's cinematic vision."—Vivian Lee, author of Hong Kong Cinema Since 1997: The Post-Nostalgic Imagination "This fascinating anthology is a much-needed examination of Chan's eminent yet underappreciated cinema. The volume illuminates his filmmaking from a number of angles, enriching our understanding of his complex engagement with Chinese politics, history, and the essay film. Capped by a comprehensive interview with Chan himself, this indispensable volume does full justice to one of Hong Kong's most literate and literary filmmakers.”—Gary Bettinson, author of The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai and editor of the journal Asian Cinema

This in-depth historical analysis highlights the enormous contributions of Chinese Americans to the professions, politics, and popular culture of America, from the 19th century through the present day. While the number of Chinese Americans has grown very rapidly in the last decade, this group has long thrived in the United States in spite of racism, discrimination, and segregation. This comprehensive volume takes a global view of the Chinese experience in the Americas. While the focus is on Chinese Americans in the United States, author Jonathan H. X. Lee also explores the experiences of Chinese immigrants in Canada, Mexico, and South America. He considers why the Chinese chose to leave their home country, where they settled, and how the distinctive Chinese American identity was formed. This volume is organized into four sections: historical overview; political and economic life; cultural and religious life; and literature, the arts, and popular culture. Detailed essays capture the essence of everyday life for this immigrant group as they assimilated, established communities, and interacted with other ethnic groups. Alphabetically arranged entries describe the political, social, and religious institutions begun by Chinese Americans and explores their roles as business owners, activists, and philanthropic benefactors for their communities.

With around 40 million people worldwide, the ethnic Chinese and the Chinese in diaspora form the largest diaspora in the world. The economic reform of China which began in the late 1970s marked a huge phase of migration from China, and the new migrants, many of whom were well educated, have had a major impact on the local societies and on China. This is the first interdisciplinary Handbook to examine the Chinese diaspora, and provides a comprehensive analysis of the processes and effects of Chinese migration under the headings of: Population and distribution Mainland China and Taiwan’s policies on the Chinese overseas Migration: past and present Economic and political involvement Localization, transnational networks and identity Education, literature and media The Routledge Handbook of the Chinese Diaspora brings together a significant number of specialists from a number of diverse disciplines and covers the major areas of the study of Chinese overseas. This Handbook is therefore an important and valuable reference work for students, scholars and policy makers worldwide who wish to understand the global phenomena of Chinese migration, transnational connections and their cultural and identity transformation.