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Description

From 1950s Malay superstar Maria Menado to 2023 Golden Globe winner Michelle Yeoh, Starring Asian Feminities brings together a cross-disciplinary group of scholars to explore the variations and evolutions of Asian femaleness on-screen.

Exploring a range of genres and forms including Chinese “chick flicks” (“Xiaoniu Dianying”), K-Cinema, Bollywood and Asian American stardom in Hollywood, the book examines the confluence of gender and sexual identities of a range of Asian female stars and analyses what media conditions underlie the production of images of Asian femininities.

Through a range of case studies of these Asian female stars, Starring Asian Femininities confronts such questions as: how do Asian female stars transcend Western notions of fame, popularity and celebrity? What positions do they take on issues such as selfhood and identity? And how do they mediate conflicting ideological claims?

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Section One: Correlations
Chapter 1: Modes of Deceptions: The Plasticity of Kyo Machiko, Kimono's Dangerous/Naive Presence in Japanese Film, (Lucile Druet, Kansai Gaidai University, Hirakata, Osaka, Japan)
Chapter 2: Heavy Shadowing: Sono Osato and the Japanese Spectre on the American Screen (Angelene Wong, Independent Researcher, Singapore)
Chapter 3: Tan Kheng Hua's Way: Acting Chinese/Asian/Singaporean (Nadya Wang)
Chapter 4: Chinese Femininity in Huallywood: Branding Jing Tian With Transnational Appeal (Yixuan Feng, University of Liverpool, UK)

Section 2: Transformations
Chapter 5: 'Fat Fat': Lydia Shum as the Most Lovable Hong Kong Comedienne, (Yung-Hang Bruce Lai, King's College, London, UK)
Chapter 6: Between the Male Gaze and Female Expression: Chinese comedienne Jia Ling and her film, 'Hi, Mom', (Xiao Yang, University of Macau, China)
Chapter 7: Celebrity Contradictions and Borrowed Auras: Iza Calzado (Ian Dixon, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Chapter 8: Soft Masculinity, a New Aesthetic and Gender Performance of Tom Identity in Thailand, (Charlin Nukul, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Thailand)

Section 3: Reconfigurations
Chapter 9: Michelle Yeoh and the Cultivation of an Oscar-Winning Screen Persona, (Andrew Hock Soon Ng, Monash University, Malaysia)
Chapter 10: From Occidental Pornstar to Oriental Mistress: The Sexual Re-Orientation of Sunny Leone in Indian Cinema, (Dr. Sony Jalarajan Raj, MacEwan University, Canada, and Mr. Adith K Suresh, MacEwan University, Canada)
Chapter 11: Zhang Ziyi as the 'New Chinese Exotic', (Deng Bingying, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore
)
Chapter 12: Sunmi as 'Heroine, Gashina, and Siren': How a Former Member of the K-Pop Group The Wonder Girls Developed 'Sunmi-Pop', (Grace Kao, Yale University, USA)

Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 17 Sep 2026
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Pages 240
ISBN 9781350434400
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Series Asian Celebrity and Fandom Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Anthology Editor

Ian Dixon

Ian Dixon completed his PhD at The University of M…

Anthology Editor

Kirsty Fairclough

Kirsty Fairclough is Professor of Screen Studies a…

Anthology Editor

Lisa Gotto

Lisa Gotto is a Professor of Film Theory at the In…

Anthology Editor

Angelene Wong

Angelene Wong earned her PhD at the School of Art,…

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