Brilliant Disguises 2nd cut part One.wmv

This was the video I put together for my "Brilliant Disguises: The Good Earth - Chinese Images in American Film"....I tried to give them something worth talking about...They were college-aged kids and the course was "conversation" and they were paying for it..so the least a college can do is provide students engaging discussions...I was a bit cautious about being too confrontational but I didn't shy away from the punches....Started with a Chinese film called "Dam Street" (see it if you can) with the title "whence comes this foreign face?" in the water...which presents the current situation with the Hollywood industry and Chinese markets..the advent of the watery "information" age....China can make films without Hollywood...But "cinema" is a Western invention..So you open up the dynamics, complexities and insinuations of "identity politics"....Then I went into the "Toll of the Sea" which was a perfect little bit...First I introduced Anna Mae Wong, the first successful Chinese or "Asian" film actress, in Hollywood...What made her popular?..What does the category of "Asian" mean to you? Hmmm.....How about her English, was that surprising to you?....She was a good actress which I thought "Picadilly" proved but.......I told them today she is considered an icon for homosexuals..I guess because she was explicitly sexual....Is that OK? Then I introduced "The Good Earth" with a little talk about the differences of Literature and Film...and who the market was for at that time.. ..The upper nouveau rich, Industrialist, Anglo, educated classes....Not really the kid playing in the alley....What about today?....Who would want to see this film? Also talked a bit about the technology of the day and how the locust scene was done really well for what was available...

Category:

Education

Tags:

• TEFL/
• Chinese
• Images
• in
• American
• Film/Sean
• Sarto/The
• Good
• Earth