頁籤選單縮合
題名 | Ancestors and Descendants of Charlie Chan= |
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作者 | 沈曉茵; |
期刊 | Tamkang Review |
出版日期 | 19891200 |
卷期 | 20:2 民78.冬 |
頁次 | 頁217-234 |
分類號 | 987.952 |
語文 | eng |
關鍵詞 | |
英文摘要 | This essay takes a close look at the portrayal of “Chinese” characters in American cinema in the twentieth century. It begins with the Harte-Twain play Ah-Sin (1877) and moves through the silent films “Broken Blossoms” (1919) and “The Thief of Bagdad” (1924) to such classic Hollywood talkies as “The Hatchet Man” (1932), “The Phantom of Chinatown” (1940) and, pre-eminently, the Charlie Chan series (especially popular to American viewers during the World War II years). The point is to show the use and abuse of racial stereotypes: the heathen and poker-faced Ah-Sin, the onedimensional Oriental males-the too-passive and immasculated Yellow Man of “Broken Blossoms,” the evil Fu Manchu, Chan's cerebral detective-and females (subservient and sexually vulnerable or “dragon ladies.”) Even more insidious than the cardboard characterization of a Charlie Chan, whose intelligence and wit made him well-liked by the American film audience, is perhaps the superficial mystified reality just American wisecracks); this may be more insidious because more subtle than the Hatchet Man’s “Buddhism” of violence and revenge in the name of (a pagan) god. Chan’s “fortune cookie” Confucianism, unlike “Hatchet Buddhism,” still abounds in Chinese restaurants across the United States. The essay concludes with a glance at Chinese-American films of the ‘80’s, which show a refreshing and much-needed turn, in the presentation of Chinese-American life, toward realism, honesty, moral ambiguity and complexity, the breaking down of stubborn stereotypes which have lain deep-and no doubt linger still-in the American psyche. |
本系統之摘要資訊系依該期刊論文摘要之資訊為主。