Hollywood and the Asian American Imagination (Virtual Symposium)

Submission Deadline EXTENDED: Due April 10

Date: February 20 and February 22, 2024 (Tuesday and Thursday)
Venue: Zoom, hosted by the University of Richmond, Virginia
Keynote speakers: Yiman Wang (UC Santa Cruz) and Alexa Joubin (George Washington U)

The pandemic has witnessed hostility and violence against Asians and Asian Americans in the United States. Perhaps now more than ever, by choice and by coercion, geopolitical constructions of Asia, the Asian diaspora, and racial constructions of Asian Americans inform the lives of many. Recent years have also witnessed in Hollywood the increasing presence of Asian cinema and productions that feature Asian American experience. Those recent developments have a long historical precedence: from the yellow peril to the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) to the transnational stardom of Bruce Lee as an anti-colonial icon that re-imagined solidarity.

This symposium seeks to trace historically how Asian Americans enter the Hollywood imagination and how they are (mis/under)represented. As Asian Americans develop a voice and visual presence in Hollywood, how do they imagine, represent, and perform themselves as Asian Americans on or off-screen, speaking to Hollywood and its global audience? This symposium welcomes essays that provide new perspectives on the following topics as they relate to the (under)representation and contribution of Asian Americans to Hollywood from the silent era to the digital age.

Learn more about this opportunity here.