Cinema and the Cultural Cold War

Sangjoon Lee

Description

Cinema and the Cultural Cold War explores the ways in which postwar Asian cinema was shaped by transnational collaborations and competitions between newly independent and colonial states at the height of Cold War politics. Sangjoon Lee adopts a simultaneously global and regional approach when analyzing the region's film cultures and industries. New economic conditions in the Asian region and shared postwar experiences among the early cinema entrepreneurs were influenced by Cold War politics, US cultural diplomacy, and intensified cultural flows during the 1950s and 1960s. By taking a closer look at the cultural realities of this tumultuous period, Lee comprehensively reconstructs Asian film history in light of the international relationships forged, broken, and re-established as the influence of the non-aligned movement grew across the Cold War.Lee elucidates how motion picture executives, creative personnel, policy makers, and intellectuals in East and Southeast Asia aspired to industrialize their Hollywood-inspired system in order to expand the market and raise the competitiveness of their cultural products. They did this by forming the Federation of Motion Picture Producers in Asia, co-hosting the Asian Film Festival, and co-producing films. Cinema and the Cultural Cold War demonstrates that the emergence of the first intensive postwar film producers' network in Asia was, in large part, the offspring of Cold War cultural politics and the product of American hegemony.Film festivals that took place in cities as diverse as Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Kuala Lumpur were annual showcases of cinematic talent as well as opportunities for the Central Intelligence Agency to establish and maintain cultural, political, and institutional linkages between the United States and Asia during the Cold War. Cinema and the Cultural Cold War reanimates this almost-forgotten history of cinema and the film industry in Asia.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• United States of America
• 20th century
• History of the Americas
• History of Asia
• History of film
• États-Unis
• Asia

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501752322
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 10 Mo

Extrait

CINEMA AND THE CULTURAL COLD WAR

A volume in the series

The United States in the World

Founded by Mark Philip Bradley and Paul A. Kramer Edited by Benjamin Coates, Emily ConroyKrutz, Paul A. Kramer, and Judy TzuChun Wu

A list of titles in this series is available at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

CINEMA AND THE CULTURAL COLD WAR

US Diplomacy and the Origins of the Asian Cinema Network

Sangjoon Lee

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2020 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

First published 2020 by Cornell University Press

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Names: Lee, Sangjoon, author. Title: Cinema and the cultural Cold War : US diplomacy and the origins of the Asian cinema network / Sangjoon Lee. Description: Ithaca [New York] : Cornell University Press, 2020. | Series: The United States in the world | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020022546 (print) | LCCN 2020022547 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501752315 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501753916 (paperback) | ISBN 9781501752322 (pdf ) | ISBN 9781501752339 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Asia Foundation—Influence. | Motion picture industry— Political aspects—Asia—History—20th century. | Motion pictures— Political aspects—Asia—History—20th century. | Cold War—Influence. | Communism and motion pictures—Asia. | Motion pictures and transnationalism—Asia. | Asia—Relations—United States. | United States—Relations—Asia. Classification: LCC PN1993.5.A75 L44 2020 (print) | LCC PN1993.5.A75 (ebook) | DDC 791.43/6582825—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020022546 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020022547

For Jungyoun and Bohm

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction: The Cultural Cold War and the Birth of the Asian Cinema Network

Part I: The First Network 1. The Asia Foundation’s Motion Picture Project 2. The FPA, US Propaganda, and Postwar Japanese Cinema 3. It’s Oscar Time in Asia! 4. Constructing the Anticommunist Producers’ Alliance 5. Projecting Asian Cinema to the World

Part II: The Second Network 6. The Rise and Demise of a Developmental State Studio

ix xv

1

17 47 68 92 114

137

viii

Contents

7. Hong Kong, Hollywood, and the End of the Network Epilogue: From Asia to AsiaPacific

Appendix: Suggestions for Further Reading Notes Bibliography Index

171 196

209 215 261 279

Acknowledgments

When I commenced a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michi gan in 2011, my plan was to write a historical study that traced the net work of motion picture studios in Asia—South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan—during the 1960s and ’70s. Everything changed, however, after a short research trip to Palo Alto in January 2012. It was a twoday visit to the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University, and I just wanted to check details about the Asia Foundation. But at the Hoover, I found a massive trove of the foundation’s records. In particular, I discovered two big boxes of information on their motion picture project in Asia. This was my “Eureka!” moment. I had to postpone my initial publication plans accord ingly. Between 2012 and 2016, I conducted extensive archival research at the Hoover Institution Archives, Yale University’s Manuscripts and Archives, the C. V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University, the Margaret Herrick Library of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, East West Center at the University of Hawaii, National Film and Sound Ar chive in Australia, the Hong Kong Film Archive, Hong Kong University’s Special Collections, the Korean Film Archive, the National Library of Korea, the Asian Film Archive, and the National Archive of Singapore. The first five chapters in this book are the outcome of this extensive archival research and