04.16.08
Chinese Film from 1916 is a rare gem
The filmmaker Arthur Dong was amazed when he uncovered the earliest known Chinese-American feature film which had been in one family’s possession since 1916 and which is still shedding light on the lives of Chinese Americans in the Bay Area. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences considers this a gem because the Asian images you see in this silent film are in stark contrast to the ones people were viewing in the big Hollywood movies of that time which portrayed Asians as mysterious, opium smoking deviants.