Cinema and Moviegoing in American Chinatowns: Digital Tools and Storytelling
CEAS 306
Spring 2025
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
FILM 316, WLIT 324 |
| Course Cluster and Certificates: Asian American Studies |
In the latter decades of the twentieth century, movie theaters dedicated to the screening of Chinese-language cinema dotted Chinatowns and Chinese ethnoburbs across the United States. What historical and economic forces explain the development of these unique exhibition sites, and how can we understand their social and cultural impacts? This seminar explores the production, distribution, and exhibition of Chinese-language films for overseas audiences and the moviegoing cultures that emerged around cinemas in Chinatowns and Chinese ethnoburbs. Units will explore Chinese immigration to North America, the establishment of Chinatowns, and early cinema spaces; Chinese immigrant and American-born Chinese filmmaking pioneers, the growth of "Chinese Hollywood," and challenges to Hollywood's dominant representations of Chinese characters and communities; the significance of diaspora audiences for Hong Kong movie studios and the creation of affiliated film distribution chains in the US; the expansion of Chinese-language cinemas in the 1960s and 1970s; the Mandarin and Cantonese films seen by overseas audiences and their range of appeals; and the social and cultural functions served by Chinese-language movie theaters. Students will learn qualitative and quantitative digital tools for film history research and use them to analyze original data sets, visualize research results, and create interactive GIS maps, storymaps, digital timelines, databases, web pages, oral histories, and other digital work related to cinema and moviegoing in American Chinatowns. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA CEAS |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (CEAS-Lit&Cult)(FILM-MN)(FILM) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
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Examinations and Assignments:
Assessment in the class will be based on a data visualization project and presentation, a digital storytelling project and presentation, weekly online discussion contributions, and participation in class. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Class screenings will be held Sunday evenings.
Students interested in the course should contact the professor ASAP during the fall semester, describe their interest in the course, and submit an electronic POI request.
Sophomores, minors, and non-majors/minors are welcome.
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| Instructor(s): Dombrowski,Lisa Times: .M.W... 01:20PM-02:40PM; S.T.... 07:00PM-10:00PM; Location: FEAS SEM; AWKS010; |
Permission of Instructor Required
Enrollment capacity: 8 | Permission of instructor approval will be granted by the instructor during pre-registration through the Electronic Portfolio. Click "Add to My Courses" and "To request a POI electronically, click here" to submit your request. |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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