Audible Divides: Japanese Americans and Cinema’s Sound Transition
Speaker: DENISE KHOR, Assistant Professor, American Studies Department, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Moderator: ALEXANDER ZAHLTEN, Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
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Summary:
This presentation examines Japanese Americans and the technological transformation of the cinema into a sound medium. I consider the ways Japanese in Hollywood were incorporated into the industry’s sound transition by serving as foreign language actors and interpreters. Reinforcing the industry’s system of racialized casting and production practices, I also explore the transformation of screen Orientalism in the sound era.
Reischauer Institute Japan Forum Lecture Series
