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Identities in Motion: Asian American Film and Video
(Duke Univeristy Press, 2002)

This innovative book shows how Asian American filmmakers and videomakers frame and are framed by history—how they define and are defined by cinematic projections of Asian American identity. Combining close readings of films and videos, sophisticated cultural analyses, and detailed production histories that reveal the complex forces at play in the making and distributing of these movies, Identities in Motion offers an illuminating interpretative framework for assessing the extraordinary range of Asian American films produced in North America.

I consider a wide range of works—from genres such as detective films to romantic comedies to ethnographic films, documentaries, avant-garde videos, newsreels, travelogues, and even home movies. I begin by examining movies about three crucial moments that defined the American nation and the roles of Asian Americans within it: the arrival of Chinese and Japanese women in the American West and Hawai‘i; the incorporation of the Philippines into the U.S. empire; and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. In subsequent chapters I discuss cinematic depictions of ideological conflicts among Asian Americans and of the complex forces that compel migration, extending his nuanced analysis of the intersections of sexuality, ethnicity, and nationalist movements.

Identities in Motion illuminates the fluidity of Asian American identities, expressing the diversity and complexity of Asian Americans—including Filipinos, Indonesians, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Laotians, Indians, and Koreans—from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century.

I am in the early stages of a book on television as an infrastructure that shapes race generally and Asian Americans specifically. By television "as an infrastructure," I mean that I look at much more than television programs: I ask questions such as Where are transmitter towers built? What neighborhoods are wired for High-Definition cable? What communities regulate satellite dishes? I contend that the answers to these questions illuminate the racial landscape of the U.S. Of course, I discuss television programming as well, but rather than focusing on producers (as quasi-authors), I'm interested in the ways that the structures of the television industry shape programming. Why are "action adventure" shows excluded from network television? What kinds of international programs are seen in the U.S., and how is their content adapted for American audiences? I think literary studies could ask similar questions, asking what kinds of books are published and who reads them instead of focusing on the author and the text.

For more information, see the English Department's faculty profile for Peter Feng.

Peter Feng

Associate Professor