Arthur Dong's survey course in movie form takes a two-pronged approach to the Chinese experience in Hollywood, examining both images of Chinese people and culture and the personal experiences of Chinese and Chinese-American actors and filmmakers, from the industry's earliest days to the present.
The film is rich in vintage film clips, from the mainstream - THE GOOD EARTH (1937), THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG (1960), FLOWER DRUM SONG (1961) -- to the exploitative, including the dozens of features built around mystery writer Earl Derr Biggers' detective Charlie Chan, who used the wisdom of the East for good, and pulp novelist Sax Rohmer's super-villain Fu Manchu, sn...
Released:
2008
Rated:
NR
Length:
89 mins