East-West Montage

About this book

"Approximately twelve hours' difference lies between New York and Beijing: The West and the East are, literally, night and day apart. Yet East-West Montage crosscuts the two in the manner of adjacent filmic shots to accentuate their montage-like complementarity. It examines the intersection between East and West - the Asian diaspora (or more specifically the Asian body in diaspora) - and the cultural expressions by and about people of Asian descent on both sides of the Pacific." "Following the introduction, "Establishing Shots," the book is divided into seven intercuts, which in turn subdivide into dialectically paired chapters focusing on specific body parts or attributes. The range of material examined is broad and rich: the iconography of the opium den in film noir, the writings of Asian American novelists, the swordplay and kung fu film, the "Korean Wave" (including soap operas like Autumn Sonata and the cult thriller Oldboy), Rogers and Hammerstein's Orientalist musicals, the comic Blackhawk, the superstar status of the Dalai Lama, and the fate of Hmong refugees and Chinese retirees in the U.S."--BOOK JACKET.