Yoshiko Yamaguchi (1920-2014) was a Japanese singer, actress, journalist, and politician. Born in China, she made an international career in film in China, Japan and the United States that was controversial for her being presented as a Chinese actor under the name Li Hsiang-Lan 李香兰. In 1945 she was arrested by the Kuomintang and charged with treason and collaboration, a charge that was only withdrawn once it was revealed that she was Japanese, not Chinese.
Advised to leave China immediately, she went to Japan where she was criticized for appearing to be Chinese. She left Japan and made a career in Hollywood under the name Shirley Yamaguchi and married the Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. This talk considers her complex life of dual identities and features clips of her films.
Agenda
Lecture with Film Clips
Speakers
Richard M. Davis
Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at Duke Kunshan UniversityRichard M. Davis is a film and media scholar who works on cinematic crossings between Japan, East Asia, and the United States. He is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Director of Signature Work at Duke Kunshan University. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago's Joint Degree in East Asian Cinema program, and previously held positions at Singapore Management University and Tsinghua University. His in-progress monograph, One Hundred Million Voices Singing, describes the collisions between aesthetics, ideology, and pleasure in musical films produced in Imperial Japan during the so-called Fifteen Years' War (1931-1945). Material from this project has been published in Ex-Position, The Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, and the Handbook of Japanese Cinema: The 1930s and the Advent of Sound (forthcoming). Additional research and teaching interests include international film history, East Asian modernities, animation, game studies, sound studies, and film theory.
Speakers
Richard M.
Davis
Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at Duke Kunshan University
Richard M. Davis is a film and media scholar who works on cinematic crossings between Japan, East Asia, and the United States. He is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Director of Signature Work at Duke Kunshan University. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago's Joint Degree in East Asian Cinema program, and previously held positions at Singapore Management University and Tsinghua University. His in-progress monograph, One Hundred Million Voices Singing, describes the collisions between aesthetics, ideology, and pleasure in musical films produced in Imperial Japan during the so-called Fifteen Years' War (1931-1945). Material from this project has been published in Ex-Position, The Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, and the Handbook of Japanese Cinema: The 1930s and the Advent of Sound (forthcoming). Additional research and teaching interests include international film history, East Asian modernities, animation, game studies, sound studies, and film theory.
Sponsors and Partners
Organizer
Tickets
RAS Members & Friends
RMB 100
Member Price
Buy TicketThis is for RAS members and RAS Friends (registered PRC donors) only.
RAS Institutional Members
RMB 100
Public Price
Buy TicketThis is for Paid and Honorary RAS Institutional Members Only. Approval is required.
Duke Kunshan University Community
RMB 100
Public Price
Buy TicketThis ticket is available to all members of the Duke Kunshan University community who register with a valid @dukekunshan.edu.cn email address.