Asian American Film and Media

Asian American Film and Media : A Comparison of Female Sexuality and Patriarchy in the Films

Asian American film is a problematic generic distinction This is primarily due to its hybridisation of two vast cultures . These cultures themselves are hard to identify in any one distinction Therefore , by merging the two cultures the difficulty in analysing them as distinct from one another becomes somewhat blurry . The term Asian America was a term coined to politically motivate the unification between two nations and recognise Asians living and growing up in American culture . However

, when applied to arts and culture , the term itself has many discrepancies between the varied experiences of Asian filmmakers and the experiences of the Asians living in the US that they intend to depict . For example , many first generation Asian 's who recognise themselves as part of the trans-national Asian Diaspora are often made distinct from the second and third generation Asian 's who were born and raised in America and subsequently recognise themselves as Asian Americans . It is with this conflict between the first and second generation Asian American cultures that we turn to the films The Wedding Banquet and Saving Face to examine the role of sexuality and patriarchy in particular

The Wedding Banquet and Saving Face both dialectically relate to the demise of the traditional patriarchal system personified in the family , family relations and the construction of the cultural other . This can be seen initially through the obvious tension and conflict of generation . This is played...