Criminalization/Assimilation

PHILIPPA GATES is a professor of film studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada. She is the author of several books, including Transnational Asian Identities in Pan-Pacific Cinemas.

• ContentsPart I: Hollywood's Chinese America1          Introduction2          Yellow Peril, Protest, and an Orientalist Gaze: Hollywood's Constructions of Chinese/AmericansPart II: Chinatown Crime3          Imperilled Imperialism: Tong Wars, Slave Girls, and Opium Dens   4          The Whitening of Chinatown: Action Cops and Upstanding CriminalsPart III: Chinatown Melodrama5          The Perils of Proximity: White Downfall in the Chinatown Melodrama6          Tainted Blood: White Fears of Yellow MiscegenationPart IV: Chinese American Assimilation7          Assimilation and Tourism: Chinese American Citizens and Chinatown Rebranded8          Assimilating Heroism: The Chinese American as American Action Hero9          EpilogueFilmographyAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

"A most informative analysis…. The main strength of Criminalization/Assimilation may be its detailed outline of the various shifts in representations that occurred over a fifty-year period, that certainly complexifies a strictly axiological appreciation of Chinatown films as either racist or non-racist." — Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television"Philippa Gates takes us on an engrossing journey through the Chinatown streets of Hollywood's imagination in her comprehensive study of the ambivalent depiction of Chinese people and places on American screens. Her superlative book provides essential reading for scholars, students, and concerned readers who need to understand this history fully to critique the images and ideas that continue to shape today's cultural landscape."— Gina Marchetti, author of Citing China: Politics, Postmodernism, and World Cinema"Meticulously researched and laudably comprehensive, Criminalization/Assimilation explores Chinatown's place in the lexicon of early Hollywood films. This is a unique and important contribution to film studies and Asian American studies—a highly satisfying read!"— Karla Rae Fuller, author of Hollywood Goes Oriental: CaucAsian Performance in American Film