Way back in 1984, amidst the triple threat of Cold War “Commies,” nuclear weapons and lingering unemployment, Hollywood alchemized national fears with the propagandistic blockbuster film, “Red Dawn.” Part action thriller, part coming-of-age story, Red Dawn depicts a surprise Russian-Cuban invasion that would drown the American midwest in its own children’s blood if it were not for a few teenagers-turned-guerrilla fighters (Patrick Swayze and [...]

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Commentary china, film, Hollywood, mass media, Propaganda, Red Dawn, Red Dawn 2010, xenophobia

I remember walking into a cramped recording studio in Shandong Province with a fellow colleague of mine, an ABC (American-born Chinese). We’d been contracted as voiceover actors for a series of English-language textbooks geared toward Chinese middle-school students. Following a rather awkward chat about payment terms, the producer turned to me and said something to [...]

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Commentary china, international business, migration, nationalism, racism, stereotypes, US-China relations, xenophobia