Images - Asian America Through the Lens

<BODY bgcolor="#CCCC99"> <font size="2"><p>Book Review <font size="4"><br>Asian America Through the Lens</font> <br>by David Ng</font> <font size=3 face="Book Antiqua,Century Schoolbook,Times New Roman"> <p><font size="6" color="#FFFFCC"><b>I</b></font>n 1982 director Wayne Wang made a movie called <i>Chan Is Missing</i>. It was the first feature film to hold a mirror up to Asian American life, revealing something Hollywood hadn't seen before -- a minority group suffering from an identity crisis. The film follows Jo and Steve, two cabbies from San Francisco's Chinatown, who are looking for their friend, Chan Hung. Chan owes them money, sending Jo and Steve on a wild chase through the back-alleys of Chinatown. Each person they meet tells a different story. One person says that "Chan is a communist spy in hiding"; another claims that he is "a robber who cheated his friends"; and yet another says that Chan is "patriotic and has gone back to the mainland to serve his people." At the end, Jo and Steve are no closer to finding Chan than they are to understanding who Chan is. <p><a href="asian-nf.htm">Go to the review</a></font> </body>