Spotlighting Asian Americans on both sides of the motion picture camera, this title examines the aesthetics, material circumstances, and politics of a broad spectrum of films released over the years. It focuses on the presence of Asian Americans as makers of independent films and cross-over successes.

Writing about Hollywood stars Anna May Wong and Nancy Kwan, director Wayne Wang, and erotic films, several contributors probe into the complex and ambivalent responses of Asian American audiences to stereotypical roles and commerical success. Taken together, the spirited, illuminating essays in this collection offer an unprecedented examination of a flourishing cultural production.Darrell Y. Hamamoto is Associate Professor in the Asian American Studies Program at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of "Nervous Laughter: Television Situation Comedy and Liberal Democratic Ideology", "Monitored Peril: Asian Americans and the Poltics of Television Representation", and "New American Destinies: a Reader in Contemporary Asian and Latino Immigration". Sandra Liu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: On Asian American Film and Criticism
Darrell Y. Hamamoto Part I: Resignifying Asian American Bodies 2. When Dragon Ladies Die, Do They Come Back as Butterflies? Re-Imagining Anna May Wong
Cynthia W. Liu 3. Recuperating Suzie Wong: A Fan's Nancy Kwan-dary
Peter X. Feng Part II: Negotiating Institutional Boundaries 4. The Joy Fuck Club: Prolegomenon to an Asian American Porno Practice
Darrell Y. Hamamoto 5. Negotiating the Meaning of Access: Wayne Wang's Contingent Film Practice
Sandra Liu 6. Through the Mirror, Sideways
Lindsey Jang Part III: Critical Approaches to Representing Japanese American Internment 7. Re/membering Spectators: Meditations on Japanese American Culture
Kent A. Ono 8. Antidote for Collective Amnesia: Rea Tajri's Germinal Image
Glen Masato Mimura 9. The Gendering of Historical Trauma in Internment Camp Documentary: The Case of Steven Okazaki's Days of Waiting
Elena Tajima Creef Part IV: Exploring Form 10. Fighting Fire with Fire: Detournement, Activism, and Video Art
Valerie Soe 11. Hybrid Cinema by Asian American Women
Jun Xing 12. Character-Zone: A Conversation with Trinh T. Minh-ha
Gwendolyn Foster and Trinh T. Minh-ha 13. Bad Asians: New Film and Video by Queer Asian American Artists
Eve Oishi Part V: Going Beyond the Nation-Based Model: Diasporas and Hybrid Identities 14. No Mo Po Mo and Other Tales of the Road, Renee Tajima-Pena 15. "Unashamed to be so beautiful": An Interview with Celine Salazar Psarrenas
Theodore S. Gonzalves 16. The Wedding Banquet: Global Chinese Cinema and the Asian American Experience
Gina Marchetti 17. Cultural Identity and Diaspora in Contemporary Hong Kong Cinema
Julian Stringer Distributors About the Contributors