Techno-Orientalism: Asia and Sci-Fi

Your Thoughts on I'm a Cyborg But It's OK

2007-12-07T15:44:00.000-08:00

Blogging this week is optional, and if you do post, you'll earn 2 points of Extra Credit!! However, since you have both a final essay and a final exam to do this weekend, I'd much rather you prioritize those tasks rather than blogging.

So, for those of you that are terribly behind in the points game and desperately need the 2 extra points, here are some questions to answer about I'm a Cyborg, But It's OK:

1. In class and in the WIRED article "Seoul Machine," you heard/read about South Korea's rapid rise to the forefront of global technological development. How do you think I'm a Cyborg relates to S. Korea having grown into a tech powerhouse so quickly and so recently?

2. One could say that both 2046 and I'm a Cyborg are romances/love stories first, and sci-fi stories second. Why do you think Wong Kar-Wai and Chan-Wook Park both decided that sci-fi would be a good complement to romantic fictions? How did technology and science work to illustrate or facilitate love in both films?

Good luck on your final projects for the class!!

Schedule for 1-on-1 Meetings re: Essay Proposals

2007-12-02T12:03:00.000-08:00

Here is the schedule of meetings to discuss your Essay Proposals. Please show up on time. My office is in 624 S. Michigan, floor 13, office 13F. When you get out of the elevator on the 13th floor, look to the left. You will see Suite 1300. Go inside that suite of offices, mine is office "F."

Monday, 3 December 07

11:45: Josh

12 noon: Gunnar

1:00 pm: Nikko

1:15 pm: Tom

1:30 pm: Shane

2:00 pm: Tim

2:15 pm: McCurry

2:30 pm: Nila

3:00 pm: Claire

Tuesday, 4 December 07

12 noon: Steve Madonna...Yeah!

2:15 pm: Elliot

2:30 pm: Rachel

2:45 pm: Lindsey

3:00 pm: Briana

If you haven't set a time with me yet, then email me at abigail.derecho@gmail.com or aderecho@colum.edu to do so.

Your Thoughts on 2046

2007-11-25T17:24:00.000-08:00

Remember, THERE IS NO ASIA/SCI-FI CLASS THIS TUESDAY, 27 NOVEMBER. The next time that our class will meet is TUESDAY, 4 DECEMBER. Therefore, you can have until 5 pm on Monday, 3 December to post your responses to the questions below.

I passed out photocopies of all of the readings related to 2046 in class last week, but in case you lost them or missed class, here is where you can find them on the Web (i.e., they are not on OASIS):

1. "Sci-Fi Ascendant" by Mara Hvistendahl, from Seed Magazine. 2006. At:
http://seedmagazine.com/news/2006/09/scifi_ascendant_1.php

2. "U.S. needs lesson from China on technology" by Steven Schwankert, from InfoWorld. 2006. At:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/12/78257_HNchineselessons_1.html

3. "Science Fiction, Globalization, and the People's Republic of China" by Lavie Tidhar, from The Science Fact and Science Fiction Concatenation. 2007. At:
http://www.concatenation.org/articles/sf~china.html

4. "Desire and Loss in the Curve of a Back" (review of 2046) by Manohla Dargis, from The New York Times. 5 August 2005. At:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/movies/05wong.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Questions on 2046:

1a. What were your reactions to 2046? What thoughts, feelings, and/or questions did you have about it? What did you think it was about? (You might read Manohla Dargis' review from the NYT and consider whether you agree or disagree with her opinion about the film).

1b. What did you make of the film's science fiction aspects? How do you read 2046 as a sci-fi film?

2. In class, we talked about the lack of a Chinese tradition of sci-fi. Two of the assigned articles discuss how science fiction has been alternately condemned and favored by the Chinese government throughout the 20th century, and how the current state now encourages artists to create sci-fi fantasies. 2046 is a part of this fresh wave of Chinese science fiction. How is this example of millennial Chinese sci-fi different than, or similar to, Western and Japanese science fiction? What do you think accounts for these differences or similarities?

3. The Chinese government is obviously hoping that Chinese sci-fi written today will help guide future technology development in the country. At the same time, both Hvistendahl and Tidhar point out that science fiction is often used to criticize contemporary social norms. Where does 2046 fall on this spectrum: does it provide an interesting imagined future for China, or is it a critique of the nation? Can you interpret 2046 as a political film in any way, and if so, how?

Once again, our next class will be on TUESDAY, 4 DECEMBER.

Your Thoughts on Wave Twisters/Robot Stories

2007-11-14T22:44:00.001-08:00

Make sure you download the readings for this week!!! And answer these questions by Monday, 19 Nov 07 at 5 pm:

1. Lisa Lowe's chapter discusses the myriad ways that Asian Americans have always been figured as "immigrants" and "aliens" in contradistinction to American "citizens," even when Asian Americans *are* citizens. She talks about the uses of cheap Asian labor, the national origins quotas, the repeals of those quotas, the model minority myth. How can you use Lowe's theories and the history she describes to "read" (i.e., make meaning from) Wave Twisters?

2. How can you use Lowe to read the episode of Robot Stories that we saw?

3. What did you find interesting, intriguing, puzzling, or surprising in either the Greg Pak interviews or the DJ Qbert interviews (or the Wave Twisters reviews) or both?

Note: You won't get any points if your answers are along the lines of, "I don't see any way that the Lowe chapter relates to those movies, and I didn't find anything interesting in the interviews." Not. Acceptable. Answers.

Your Thoughts on Gankutsuou (Count of Monte Cristo) and Casshern

2007-11-08T15:44:00.000-08:00

Next week, we're seeing two pretty short films, so we'll have plenty of time to discuss the anime we saw on Tuesday, Gankutsuou (The Count of Monte Cristo) and Casshern. Just as last week, at least 20 of you have to download the 3 articles from OASIS ("Cyberpunk Anime", "Frankenstein and the Cyborg Metropolis," and "The First Time as Farce: Digital Animation and the Repetition of Cinema") for anyone to get points for blogging. But since that was no problem last week, it definitely won't be a problem this week!

Here are your questions for this week, and be sure to post by Monday, 12 November by 5 pm:

1. In the article "Stylistic Crossings: Cyberpunk Impulses in Anime," Jane Chi Hyun Park points out how Western cyberpunk novels and films often depict the future as Asian, but Asian cyberpunk films are often set in an Occidentalist rather than an Orientalist future. We saw this trend in Memorizu: Canon Fodder a few weeks ago, and more recently we saw in Gankutsuou and Casshern Japanese visions of the future that are saturated with European iconography. Where did you notice Techno-Europeanism in Gankutsuou and Casshern, and why do you think Japanese anime (and anime-style) sci-fi filmmakers have chosen late-19th/early-2oth century Europe as their visual template for the future?

2. In the article "Frankenstein and the Cyborg Metropolis," Sharalyn Orbaugh traces a shift in sci-fi: from the beginning of film through the 1980s, sci-fi novels and films were modernist and highlighted a strict division between "life" (humans) and "non-life" (machines, robots), whereas beginning in the 1980s and continuing today, sci-fi films (especially anime) are postmodern and depict a future in which there is a range of "life forms," posthuman cyborgs (part-human part-machine). Orbaugh uses Blade Runner as an example of a modernist "life vs. non-life" sci fi film. How might we regard Casshern as an example of a postmodern "range of life forms" sci-fi film? Are there other ways you can compare or contrast Blade Runner and Casshern?

3. This is a question about formalism in film. In the article "The First Time as Farce: Digital Animation and the Repetition of Cinema," Thomas Lamarre relates that digital cinema (including recent and contemporary anime) attempts to make cinema "from scratch," or "cinema without cinema"; in other words, the goal of these films is "replicating or simulating cinema within digital animation." Do you think Gankatsuou or Casshern are aiming for this goal - "cinema without cinema"? If so, do you think they succeed? Or, if you think they are aiming at something else - some form of filmmaking that is not trying to replicate or simulate cinema, what do you think they are trying to accomplish with digital animation?

Your Thoughts on Firefly

2007-10-31T16:21:00.000-07:00

So, in keeping with my Third-Grade Teacher speech on Tuesday about how many of you need to UP YOUR GAME in this class, I am going to insist that ALL of you download the readings this week. Of course, it would be great if you read the essays, too, since they are interesting and provocative (there is even one with the word "whore" in it this week), but all I'm asking right now is that you download them. Last week, 8 people downloaded one article and 6 people downloaded the other. There are 27 people registered for this class. If at least 20 people don't download the articles this week, I am NOT GOING TO GIVE ANYONE POINTS FOR THIS WEEK'S BLOG. And then you'll all be down 2 points. Who wants that? So go on, go to OASIS and download those articles!!

Okay, now that you've downloaded and read the articles, here are the questions:

1) How does the idea of the "China Threat" relate to Firefly?

2) Do you agree with Wright's claims about the visibility of Asianness, and invisibility of Asians, in Firefly? Why or why not?

3) What did you think of Chinn's argument about Inara as an attempt at depicting a "postfeminist prostitute"?

Your Thoughts on The Matrix/The Animatrix (The Second Renaissance)

2007-10-25T16:58:00.000-07:00

Remember, for those of you who haven't yet handed in your midterms, next Tuesday is the last day I'll be accepting them.

Here are this week's questions; as usual, post your answers by 5 pm on Monday, 29 October:

1) The Wachowski brothers (writers/directors of The Matrix films) have discussed in a number of interviews the tremendous influence that Japanese anime (Ghost in the Shell, Akira) had on their conception of The Matrix, both in story and style.

a) What evidence do you see of Japanese (or other Asian) aesthetics and storytelling techniques becoming prominent in U.S. entertainment? You can describe examples from TV, video games, music, and visual arts, not just from film.

b) Director Shekhar Kapur has predicted that in 10 years, the world will be dominated by Asian media. How likely do you think it is that this forecast will come true? If this does occur, how do you think Hollywood and the West will react?

2) Why do you think that, in the Matrix universe, most of the residents of Zion (the last remaining humans) are not white? Offer your theory about this, and explain how your theory relates to contemporary race issues in the U.S.

3) Nakamura says that "The Matrix constructs a new discourse of race in the Digital Age, one that plugs us in to our own dreamworlds about cyberutopias and cyberfutures. And like any dream, it is conflicted; it opens a window into our cultural anxieties, fears, fantasies, and desires about the Internet and the roles of blacks, whites, machines, and all combinations thereof." (By the way, I think it's very odd that Nakamura, a Japanese-American scholar writing about techno-orientalism, leaves out Asians from her list of races that are interacting in The Matrix.) What do you think The Matrix or The Animatrix - Second Renaissance says about "our cultural anxieties, fears, fantasies, and desires about the Internet," and about race in cyberspace?

Your Thoughts on Memorizu/Aeon Flux

2007-10-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

I hope you enjoyed our "anime" week. Please do the readings and post your answers to the following questions here by 5 pm on Monday, 22 October 2007.

1. On Tuesday, I proposed that one way that Memorizu is a reaction to the U.S.'s (and Europe's) "Japan Panic" is in its insistence on depicting the dystopian future as not Asian (as Blade Runner and Star Wars do) but as specifically European, with abundant visual and textual references to 19th century Europe, WWI and (the European theater of) WWII. Are there any other ways that you interpret Memorizu as a reaction to the West's Japan Panic of the 80s and 90s? You can either develop my line of reasoning further (i.e., suggest other ways that Memorizu is a European futuristic dystopia), or you can come up with completely different ideas about this.

2. I also argued that Aeon Flux plays out certain aspects of the Asian-American-as-"Model Minority" myth. I don't think that Aeon is regarded as a "model minority" by Trevor or the Breen at all (quite the opposite, they think of her as a dangerous radical, though what cause she backs is always a question). Rather, I think that Aeon's fraught relationship with the dominant power (personified by Trevor) allegorizes the ambiguous, alliance-and-resistance, love-and-fear, desire-and-mistrust relationship that Asian Americans have with the dominant powers (government incorporations, corporations, and wealthy whites) in the U.S. While Asian Ams as a group do have some of the advantages that the "model minority" myth ascribes to them (on average, higher education levels and more experience establishing and running businesses than other immigrant groups), there is a question as to whether they will use these advantages to assimilate totally into mainstream U.S. culture or defend (or create) a very distinct, and perhaps oppositional, American culture of their own. That's my interpretation of Aeon Flux as an Asian Am text. What is your interpretation of Aeon Flux as an Asian Am text? As with the Memorizu question, feel free to build on my theory, or propose your own original reading.

3. I was surprised to see that so few people in the class had ever heard of Japan Panic or the Model Minority myth. Since these were prominent in American public discourse just a decade ago, I guess I had anticipated you had at least heard of, or experienced traces of, these ideas. As you read the Morley & Robins and the Palumbo-Liu essays, what (from each essay) did you find surprising, or especially informative? I just want to hear more reactions about Japan Panic and the Model Minority myth, now that you've read something about them.

I hope to have pass your graded midterms back to you next Tuesday. At the very latest, I'll hand them back one week from Tuesday.

Your Thoughts on Blade Runner

2007-10-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

This week, posting to the blog is OPTIONAL, and will get you 2 points of extra credit. So, if you'd like a couple of extra points, please answer the following questions by Monday, 15 October at 5 pm:

1) In his interview with WIRED, director Ridley Scott says that he decided to choose either Latino or Asian culture for a template for the city of the future in Blade Runner (he calls it "San Angeles."). Scott chose Asia, though he doesn't say why. What function did the Asian/Oriental imagery, signage, and people serve in Blade Runner? How did the Asian look-and-feel contribute to the film (how did it signify that this was "a city of the future"?)?

2) David Desser writes that as a genre, science fiction consistently features strong binary oppositions like Self/Other, Human/Alien (or Human/Robot), Nature/Technology, High/Low, Male/Female, Middle and Upper Class/Working Class. What dichotomies do you see at work in Blade Runner? Choose some of the plot elements or characters (or sets of characters) and explain how they exemplify some of these binaries.

3) Why do you think Blade Runner depicts street life as Asian (Chinese/Japanese?), but renders the elite world of Tyrell and his Corporation as Egyptian? Or, do you read Rachael as also marked with Japanese (Geisha?) signifiers? Does Rachael fit in with, or stand out (apart) from, the world of the Tyrell corporation?

Good luck with the midterm exam! And remember, you must print it out, staple it, and hand it in by 3:35 pm on Tuesday or you lose beaucoup points. Make sure your name is on every page of your answers, also. Feel free to e-mail me this weekend if you have questions about the exam.

Your Thoughts on Star Wars

2007-10-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

We'll talk more about Star Wars on Tuesday - sorry I had to rush my lecture after the screening, I forgot what the run time on Episode IV is (longer than I thought, obviously) - but between now and then, you have some interesting readings to look at. After reading about the Oriental/Eastern influences on the look and feel of Star Wars, and the relationship of the films to U.S. history, and why Star Wars both updates and displaces the Western genre, post your answers to these questions by Monday, 8 October at 5 pm:

1) Star Wars was released in 1977, only 3 years after the cease-fire was declared in Vietnam and only 2 years after the pull-out of the last U.S. troops. Wright attributes the success of Star Wars, and the death of the Western, at least partially to the Vietnam War. What is the connection that Wright makes between Vietnam and Star Wars becoming a huge hit, and do you agree with him? Why or why not?

2) I mentioned (in my very hurried lecture) that Star Wars has fed into right-wing fantasies, first by being taken up by President Reagan as the name of the Strategic Defense Initiative (as well as providing his moniker for the U.S.S.R., the "Evil Empire") and secondly, by offering an American tale of political and military victory that is purely escapist - that has absolutely nothing to do with American (or any earthly nation's) history. However, Star Wars can also be regarded as a useful fantasy for the left-wing. How do you see the film functioning as a tool of both right-wing and left-wing political views (I'm especially talking about the Right and Left as they existed in the late 1970s, but you can also answer this question in relation to the contemporary Right and Left).

3) I mentioned that I feel that Lucas co-opts Asian visual culture without any consideration for how Asian or Asian American audiences might feel about that (a lack of consideration that continued into the prequel trilogy, where Asian visual references became, if anything, even more explicit). What are your thoughts on this issue? Remember, I encourage you to disagree with me, as long as you can articulate the reasons for your differing opinion.

One quick reminder: The TAKE-HOME MIDTERM gets passed out next Tuesday, and is due the following Tuesday at the top of class!!!

Your Thoughts on Son of Sinbad

2007-09-26T21:49:00.001-07:00

It was a great pleasure, as it always is for me, to watch The Son of Sinbad on Tuesday. Please read the 2 assigned articles (they are on OASIS, and you can find the list of readings on OASIS, too, if you didn't get the handout in class) and answer the following questions by 5 pm on Monday, 1 October:

1. In Ellen Strain's "Defining the Tourist Gaze," Strain makes the argument that anthropology, film, and tourism are all linked.
a) Describe how the links between the three fields work.
b) Where do you see an anthropologist's perspective or a tourist's perspective in The Son of Sinbad?
c) Where do you see a Son of Sinbad-type perspective (a cinematic influence) in scientific or historical or journalistic accounts of the East (Near, Middle, or Far)?
d) Where do you see a Son of Sinbad-type perspective (a cinematic influence) in Westerners' touristic journeys to the East (Near, Middle, or Far)?

2. Ella Shohat's "Gender in Hollywood's Orient" states that Orientalist films "superimposed the visual traces of civilizations as diverse as Arab, Persian, Chinese and Indian into a single portrayal of the exotic Orient, treating cultural plurality as if it were a monolith." I made an argument on Tuesday that Son of Sinbad is in part a response to the Korean War, a fantasy that fulfills some sublimated, repressed wishes aroused by that conflict. What traces of Korea (South or North) or China, or any other Eastern nations or peoples, did you notice in Son of Sinbad? (These "traces" aren't necessarily literal, they can be metaphorical.)

3. Shohat also discusses the "Western rescue fantasy" in Orientalist films.
a) What does she mean by "Western rescue fantasy"?
b) Do you interpret Son of Sinbad to be a Western rescue fantasy in any way?
c) Do you see the Western rescue fantasy still at work in any recent films or TV shows that you can think of? In what media texts have you seen this fantasy included?

Your Thoughts on Godzilla, Part II

2007-09-21T04:55:00.001-07:00

Do you like this "Godzilla Saves America" comic book cover? I'm not sure what's going on in that illustration, but if anyone can shed light on this particular comic book series, I'd be psyched to read/hear about it.

Here are the questions that you must reply to by 5 pm on Monday, 24 Sept 07:

1. Only a few of you shared your impressions of, thoughts about, reactions to Gojira in class. So post here about what you thought about this 1954 film. And those of you that did respond to this question in class, think of this as an opportunity elaborate on your answers!

2. Anisfield talks about the ecological damage symbolized by Godzilla. How do you think Godzilla represents our guilt/fear/anxieties over the environment?

3. Now that you've heard two lectures on Godzilla, read 3 articles about him, and watched the original film, what do *you* think Godzilla represents, and why?

Your Thoughts: Gojira (Godzilla) (1954) Readings

2007-09-12T15:34:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry that we weren't able to watch the original Gojira (Godzilla) in class on Tuesday. The reason I brought in a Japanese DVD is that for more than fifty years, the only way you could watch the uncut original Gojira was by buying a copy from a Japanese media company. There was no version of the film for sale in the U.S. You could buy that bizarre adulterated Raymond Burr version, but not the original. Well, now the original is for sale in the U.S. (actually, there's a Collector's Edition with both the uncut version and the Raymond Burr edit). So I'm going to get a hold of that, and as I said in class yesterday, either I'll figure out a way to upload it for you this weekend, or we'll all watch it together in class next Tuesday.

Since you won't have access to the film till at least the weekend, this week's blog questions pertain only to the assigned readings: Noriega's "When 'Them!' Is U.S." article, Napier's "Panic Sites" article, and the photo of MacArthur with Emperor Hirohito.

So after you do the readings, please read the following questions and post your answers by 5 pm on Monday, 17 Sept 07:

1) According to Noriega, the creature Godzilla has served many different functions and taken on multiple meanings for Japanese filmmakers and audiences. Godzilla, always produced and/or awakened by nuclear weapons, has represented Japan's WWII military monstrosity and atrocities, Japan's suffering as the only nation ever to ever be subjected to nuclear attacks, and Japan's "middle ground" status as a nation that has consistently refused to build or possess nuclear arms, yet is surrounded and deeply affected by nuclear discourses (the U.S. tested its H-bombs near Japan in the 1950s; geographically, Japan was situated between the two mightiest nuclear powers of the Cold War; and today Japan regards nearby N. Korea as a nuclear threat). Yet, Godzilla movies are almost synonymous with light entertainment; they are almost universally regarded as mindless "monster movies," the predecessors of today's comic-book-based summer blockbusters. Do you think that the low-culture status of the Godzilla films has enabled (or allowed) Godzilla to take on so many cultural and historical meanings, or do you think the fact that the films have never attained critical value have hindered the films' audiences from discerning the deeper meanings of the monster? Explain your opinion and give reasons for it.

2) Did reading the Noriega and Napier articles change your point-of-view on the social relevance and importance of popular cinema, particularly sci-fi cinema, in any way? If so, in what ways? If not, why not?

3) Nuclear weapons still exist and are still a major threat to human and environmental health and safety. What examples of (what Napier describes as) "the imagination of disaster" and fantasies of "secure horror" do you see in present-day media (fictional or not) that address or allude to the possibility of nuclear warfare and weaponry? What role do notions of Asia, "the Orient," and Orientalist discourses play in contemporary nuclear narratives?

Gojira (Godzilla) Readings

2007-09-12T15:29:00.000-07:00

The required readings on Gojira (Godzilla) for the Techno-Orientalism class on 18 Sept 07 are:

1. (OASIS) Chon Noriega, “Godzilla and the Japanese Nightmare: When “Them!” is U.S.” From Cinema Journal, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 63-77.

2. (OASIS) Susan J. Napier, “Panic Sites: The Japanese Imagination of Disaster from Godzilla to Akira.” From Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer, 1993), pp. 327-351.

3. (WWW) “American Experience: MacArthur: People & Events: Emperor Hirohito.” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/peopleevents/pandeAMEX97.html. (Or, go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/index.html, click on “People & Events” in the left column, and on the next page, click on “Emperor Hirohito” at the top of the page.)

OASIS = Readings can be downloaded from the course OASIS site.
WWW = Can be found on the World Wide Web.

Your Thoughts: The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)

2007-09-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed watching The Mask of Fu Manchu with you all yesterday, despite the technical difficulties (sorry about that; our permanent projector and DVD player should be installed by next class session). No matter how many times I've seen this film, I find that I always notice and appreciate new, wonderful, amazing aspects of it. This time, I noticed the way that Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy use their hands, with those super-long fingernails; I noticed that Sheila, like Fu Manchu's daughter, also is an extension of her father's work (both women are "tools" to carry out their fathers' missions); I noticed that Fu Manchu "thinks" technologically in every respect, whether he is deploying low technology (the bell-ringing torture, the sword of Genghis Khan) or high technology (that crazy serum, the hydraulic spiked-door torture, the lightning machine). What a bizarre and fantastic film.

This week, please post on the following questions:

(1) If, as Ling suggests in her "Monster Within" article, Fu Manchu's popularity stems from the fact that "the hunter" (the U.S./U.K.) needs and desires "prey," what made Fu Manchu such attractive prey from the 1910s to the present day (the latest Fu Manchu novel is set to be published this year)? What, do you think, has made Fu Manchu such an appealing supervillain for British and American readers and moviegoers for generations?

(2) What did you learn from the Wong article that you didn't know before (about film history, American and Asian American history, or Fu Manchu)?

(3) Wong argues that the Hollywood film industry has long been not only ignorant, but willfully ignorant. What do you think the film industry had to gain by purposefully perpetuating stereotypes of non-white races for many years? Do you think Hollywood has demonstrated a greater knowledge of minority races and ethnicities in recent years? Why or why not?

(4) Do you detect any "yellow peril" thinking in present-day U.S. political discourse? If so, where (and with respect to what nations) do you see the yellow peril theme? If you think that yellow peril fear is totally outdated, when do you think this type of fear stopped being a common part of American life?

Fu Manchu Readings

2007-09-05T14:54:00.001-07:00

The readings for Techno-Orientalism for 9.11.07 are the following:

Required Reading:

1. (OASIS) L.H.M. Ling, “The Monster Within: What Fu Manchu and Hannibal Lecter Can Tell Us about Terror and Desire in a Post 9/11-World” (2004).

2. (OASIS) Eugene Franklin Wong, “The Early Years: Asians in the American Films Prior to World War II” (1978).

3. (WWW) “Yellow Myths on the Silver Screen” at
http://web.mit.edu/21h.153j/www/aacinema/intro.html.

Additional Resources:

4. Vernellia R. Randall (editor), “Asian Pacific Americans: Laws and Policies” at http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/aspilaws.htm
(part of “Race, Racism, and the Law” website).

5. Population Resource Center, “Executive Summary: U.S. Immigration: A Legislative History” at
http://www.prcdc.org/summaries/usimmighistory/usimmighistory.html.

6. Lawrence J. Knapp, “The Page of Fu Manchu” at
http://www.njedge.net/~knapp/FuFrames.htm.

OASIS = Article can be downloaded from the course site on OASIS.
WWW = Article can be found on the World Wide Web.

Welcome to the Techno-Orientalism Blog.

2007-08-31T19:33:00.000-07:00

Currently, this blog serves as a site of discussion among members of the Columbia College Chicago course "Techno-Orientalism: Asia and Technology in Sci-Fi Film and Television," which I am teaching this fall semester. In the course, we are screening the following media texts:

(C) = Only clips of these films will be screened.
(E) = Only certain episodes of these series will be screened.

The Mask of Fu Manchu (USA: 1932, dir: Charles Brabin)
Gojira (Godzilla) (Japan: 1954, dir: Ishiro Honda)
Hollywood Harems (USA: 1999, dir: Tania Kamal-Eldin)
Son of Sinbad (USA: 1955, dir: Ted Tetzlaff)
(C) The Hidden Fortress (Japan: 1958, dir: Akira Kurosawa)
(C) Star Wars, Episodes I-VI (USA: 1977-2005, creator: George Lucas)
(E) Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (USA: 1938, dirs: Ford Beebe and Robert Hill)
(E) Flash Gordon [TV] (USA: 1954, dirs: Gunther von Fritsch and Joseph Zigman)
Flash Gordon (USA: 1980, dir: Mike Hodges)
(C) Metropolis (Germany: 1927, dir: Fritz Lang)
Blade Runner (USA: 1982, dir: Ridley Scott)
(E) Aeon Flux [TV] (USA: 1995, creator: Peter Chung)
Memorizu: Cannon Fodder (Japan, 1995, dirs: Koji Morimoto and Tensai Okamura)
(C) The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions (USA:
1999-2003, dirs: Andy and Larry Wachowski)
The Animatrix: The Second Renaissance, Parts I and II (from The Animatrix)
(USA/Japan: 2003, dir: Mahiro Maeda)
(E) Firefly [TV] (USA: 2002, creator: Joss Whedon)
(C) Serenity (USA: 2005, dir: Joss Whedon)
(E) Gankutsuou (The Count of Monte Cristo) [TV] (Japan: 2004, dir: Mahiro Maeda)
(C) Casshern (Japan: 2004, dir: Kazuaki Kiriya)
Wave Twisters (USA: 2001, dirs: Syd Garon and Eric Henry, creator: DJ Qbert)
Robot Stories: Clay (USA: 2003, dir: Greg Pak)
2046 (China: 2004, dir: Wong Kar Wai)
I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK (South Korea: 2006, dir: Chan-wook Park)