Asian American Film and Video- B Shroff—Assignment #1
DUE ON TUESDAY JULY 3rd by 11:59 pm ON CANVAS
Prompts for Discussion and Reflection Paper- SELECT ONLY ONE QUESTION
2 pages, double spaced Max 3
You can upload your paper preferably in:
1)Times New Roman; 2) 12-point font; 3) in docx or pdf format
WRITE ON ONLY ONE QUESTION:
Kent Ono and Vincent Pham in their chapter “The Persistence of Yellow Peril Discourse” comment on the film Broken Blossoms as follows: “The film treats Yellow Man’s Buddhist non-violence as not serious through shots of his addictive use of opium, his fawning…He is constructed throughout the film as primitive…(p33).
Keeping in mind Ono and Pham’s analysis of Yellow Man or Cheng Huan from the film, Broken Blossoms, how does Griffith’s film contrast Cheng Huan ( or the Yellow Man) and Battling Burrows?
For example, discuss how Cheng Huan is feminized and made primitive and alien (strange), compared to Lucy’s brutal father, Battling Burrows.
In her article, “Lotus Blossoms Don’t Bleed” Renee Tajima states that “Asian women in film are, for the most part, passive figures who exist to serve men, especially as love interests for white men” (p 309). From the film, Slaying the Dragon, select one character such as Suzy Wong, or another character and discuss how Suzy Wong, or the character you have selected is shown as “ready to serve the white man”
Peter Feng in his article “Lost In the Media Jungle” writes: “while Tiana’s father progresses…as a patriot in exile, and finally becomes a model immigrant…Tiana herself passes from suburban adolescence ashamed of her Asian heritage…to examining the U.S. construction of the Vietnamese (in media particularly)” (p 86).
Keeping in mind Feng’s words, discuss Tiana’s film From Hollywood to Hanoi as a journey, a discovery of herself, a journey of learning about Vietnam as a beautiful country and people, and not Vietnam as only a war.
Peter Feng states: “The film’s dedication, “For Dad,” suggests that Tiana is particularly invested in
inscribing her father into this narrative, in making him see the war through her eyes. Tiana brings her father a souvenir NVA (North Vietnamese Army) helmet from Vietnam,” since they’re now being made in Danang, his hometown.” (p 97).
With Feng’s quotation in mind discuss Tiana’s need to address the film to her father. Why do you suppose Tiana wants herself and her father to get out of the father’s nostalgia for pre-war Vietnam? What does Feng make of the gift of the helmet? What has the journey to Vietnam revealed about the country to Tiana which she wants her father to understand through her gift?
Link BELOW FOR the film From Hollywood to Hanoi on Google drive
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2pe02K6HNQxLTFFV1lGbUVfaGs/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-PK8t6UHwBRt_0OIHX9mItwLinks to an external site.
