Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

an Asian American context. However, it is also the case
that the importation of established stars does little to
increase the visibility of Asian American independent
filmmaking. From Hollywood’s perspective, the Asian
American audience (as a market) is equally receptive to
escapist entertainment with established Asian stars as it is
to independent (not to say art-house) movies with
unknown Asian American stars.
In contrast with the Hong Kong industry, there has
been virtually no crossover from the Hindi cinema of
India (known as Bollywood). Indian film stars have occasionally
appeared in English-language films produced in
Canada and the United Kingdom, which is not surprising
given patterns of Indian migration between former
Commonwealth nations. The most notable US-based
filmmaker of South Asian ancestry is Mira Nair, who
has produced films in the United States as well as in
India. Interestingly, many of these films produced by
Britons and Canadians of South Asian ancestry, such as
Hanif Kureishi (b. 1954), Gurinder Chadha (b. 1966),
and Deepa Mehta (b. 1950), have much in common with
Asian American narrative filmmaking. While the context
Asian American Cinema
The ensemble cast of Wayne Wang’s The Joy Luck Club (1993). EVERETT COLLECTION. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION.
of the north of England may differ significantly from that
of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, thematizations
of acculturation, racism, and romance suggest that
much can be learned by taking a ‘‘diasporic’’ approach,
comparing films made by Asian minorities in ‘‘Western’’
(English-speaking) countries. Many of Kureishi’s films
have been produced by Channel Four Films (later Film
Four) or for the BBC; like NAATA and CPB in the
United States, then, the national television service in
the United Kingdom is specifically tasked to distribute
money to diverse, often first-time filmmakers. Unlike the
US system, however, Channel Four funds primarily narrative
features.
SEE ALSO Diasporic Cinema; Race and Ethnicity
FURTHER READING
Feng, Peter X. Identities in Motion: Asian American Film and
Video. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002.
———, ed. Screening Asian Americans. New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press, 2002.
Garcia, Roger, ed. Out of the Shadows: Asians in American
Cinema. Milan: Edizioni Olivares, 2001.
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