Artist: Arthur Dong
Author: Chester
Day
Occupation: Student at Stanford
Nationality: Chinese-American
Date: 6/7/99
Biographical
Details
Born:
Not Available
Education: 1982 San
Francisco State University Film School (Summa Cum Laude)
1984 American Film Institute's Center for Advanced Film and Television
Studies (Director's Program Certificate)
Analysis
Arthur Dong's award winning documentary work reflects his commitment to social activism through media. He has received numerous accolades from both the Asian American community and the LGBTQ community. His company, DeepFocus Productions, emphasizes "Asian American concerns and gay and lesbian issues" with films such as Coming Out Under Fire and Forbidden City, U.S.A. As one of the few Asian-American filmmakers to make significant contributions to both communities, Arthur Dong has demonstrated a remarkable ability to integrate both gay and Asian aspects of his identity into a consistent body of work.
As a queer Asian-American artist, Arthur Dong has community affiliations that pull his work in multiple directions. In his early work, Dong documented the stories of Asian-American garment workers and entertainers, but recently he has shifted the focus of his work to gay and lesbian WWII veterans, activists, and hate crime victims. Mura believes that "the need for art rises out of the community," (Mura p.195) and Dong's work clearly addresses those needs. Artists, as representative community members, are inextricably linked to community organizing, minority politics, and Asian American history. A primary goal of Asian American "historical" literature, for example, is to emphasize, "the agency of Asian immigrant and Asian Americans: the acts of labor, resistance, memory, and survival, as well as the politicized cultural work that emerges from dislocation and disidentification." (Lowe p.12) Asian American art should be something used to empower the Asian American community, and works that preserve our history and that serve our communities are essential to that process of empowerment.
Unlike other minority artists that attempt to create "universal art" with no specific content that addresses Asian American or LGBTQ issues, Dong always emphasizes the specific historical and social contexts of his films. Forbidden City USA, for example, is clearly a work of Asian American art because it explores a forgotten chapter of American history and forces us to acknowledge the ground-breaking work of Asian American dancers, actors, and performers. Similarly, Coming Out Under Fire and OutRage '69 also attempt to recover the lost history and culture of minority communities by documenting the experiences of gays and lesbians during the WWII and civil rights eras. These films are powerful works of art because, "A full and deep grasp of the specificity and particularity of our experience naturally evokes the universal and makes for a truly rich and profound universality." (Houn p. 37) Dong's films were not created in a vacuum; they have a history, a class, a gender, a sexuality, and a race attached to them. Since all of Dong's films provide "a mediation of history, the site through which the past returns and is remembered, however fragmented, imperfect, or disavowed," (Lowe p.19) they should be defined as Asian American films.
Two of Arthur Dong's documentaries, Sewing Women and Licensed to Kill, further reveal how difficult it is to separate the artist from his/her art. The personal nature of Sewing Women, which documents his mother's immigration to the United States, and Licensed to Kill, which was inspired by a first-hand gay-bashing incident in San Francisco, shapes and informs Arthur Dong's films. Like many independent filmmakers, Dong made certain films to explore his personal identity as an Asian American and as a gay man. Although Sewing Women. and Licensed to Kill address entirely different aspects of his identity, they might both be considered Asian American films because they were made by the same artist.
In my opinion, all of Arthur Dong's films are indeed Asian American films because they reflect a certain Asian American aesthetics. An Asian American aesthetics is simply the historically specific understanding of racism, homophobia, and their intersections that pervades the work of many Asian American artists. For example, Licensed to Kill draws "connections between hate crimes and the social environment that nurtured them," in ways that might apply to racial minorities as well as sexual minorities. During the interview of Corey Burley, one of the murderers in Licensed to Kill, Dong asks Burley to consider the racial and cultural identity of Thanh Nguyen, the Vietnamese immigrant who escaped the war only to die as the result of a hate crime. In addition to evoking the bitter irony of Thanh Nguyen's story, Dong also evokes the complex interconnections between racism and homophobia that led to Thanh's murder. Similarly, Jay Johnson, a gay man of mixed race descent, candidly discusses how his strict religious upbringing, internalized homophobia, and encounters with racism within the gay community influenced his decision to murder gay men. Arthur Dong's unique position as a queer Asian filmmaker enables him to investigate issues of race and sexuality in all of his films without diminishing the universal appeal of his work or tailoring his work for a specific audience. Since Arthur Dong's work emphasizes the centrality of both race and sexuality, his films reflect an aesthetics that I would define as Asian American.
Although some critics might define Asian American aesthetics as an "aesthetics of dislocation", Asian American aesthetics is not limited to themes of distance, isolation, longing, loss, divided identities, and cultural heritage. As in "Euro-American aesthetics, there is room for diversity and a myriad of cultural influences." (Paul Pfeiffer p.26) Dong's work draws upon multiple cultural influences, including Asian-American and gay and lesbian cultures. "Asian American culture really is multicultural," (Renee Tajima p.27) and Asian American aesthetics must incorporate the "diversity within Asian generational and national voices, a "multiplicity of voices."" (Margo Machida p.11) Dong's documentary work provides an important outlet for some of the forgotten voices within American history.
Just as my broad definition of Asian American aesthetics tries to incorporate this "multiplicity of voices," Asian American artists can have "multiple anchorages" (Meena Alexander p.10) and identities. The "Asian American" label does not act as "an artificial barrier which destructively separates Asian American artists from their peers in the American art scene," (Paul Pfeiffer p.26) because Asian American artists can simultaneously identify as an American artist, an immigrant artist, a female artist, or a queer artist. Any individual is able to adopt multiple layers of identity, and one aspect of Asian American aesthetics is the ability to draw upon "the full range of resources at our disposal," (Paul Pfeiffer p.26) regardless of national, cultural, religious, and ethnic boundaries. Asian American aesthetics is an important aspect of Arthur Dong's work, which incorporates both gay and lesbian and Asian-American issues, but it is not the only criteria by which to assess Arthur Dong's work. It is necessary to assess Arthur Dong's films from both ethnic studies and gay and lesbian studies perspectives in order to appreciate the diversity and specific historical contexts addressed by his films.
Although it is incorrect to assume that "an artist's race or ethnicity would automatically be manifest in his/her work, transcending national and generational difference, cultural upbringing, and education," (Margo Machida p.11) racism in American society reserves the privilege of making art tout court (race-less art) to white artists only. As Meena Alexander remarks, "There is very little that I can be tout court just by itself in America… Everything that comes to me is hyphenated" (p.10) Asian American artists share a repressed, fragmented, and distorted understanding of their history, culture, and agency. Our Asian American aesthetics reflects this legacy of racial discrimination and participates in the political project of recovering our history and emphasizing our agency.
Like many Asian American artists, Arthur Dong reflects the legacy of racial discrimination and marginalization through his work. However, unlike straight Asian American artists, his work also draws upon the history, culture, and traditions of the gay and lesbian community. By incorporating multiple identities and multiple axes of critique within a single body of work, Arthur Dong's work more closely captures the American experience and becomes even more relevant to universal audience.
Bibliography
Web Sites Cited
FilmMag.Com Biography
of Arthur Dong (http://www.filmmag.com/community/adong/bio.html)
FilmMag.Com Review
of Licensed to Kill (http://www.filmmag.com/community/adong/)
NAATA Review
of Licensed to Kill (http://www.naatanet.org/PublicTV/html/03.Programs/LicensedToKill.html)
DeepFocus Productions
(http://www.deepfocusproductions.com/)
Films Reviewed
Forbidden City, U.S.A.
Licensed to Kill
Filmography
AwardsPublic (1970) 1970 1st Place, California High School Film Festival Living Music For Golden Mountains (1981) 1981 Student Oscar Nomination Sewing Women (1982) 
Sewing Women tells a universal story of one woman's journey from an arranged marriage in old China to life as a garment factory worker for over 30 years. The filmmaker's mother Zem Ping narrates this superb film in an intimate yet powerful voice. Her reflections reveal the inner strength which helped her overcome U.S. immigration policies, family separation and the hard life of a first-generation immigrant. (source)1982 Best Short Documentary, Academy Award Nominee 1982 CINE Gold Eagle Award 1982 Best Social Studies Film, National Educational Film Festival 1982 Silver Plaque, Documentary, Chicago International Film Festival 1982 Best Documentary, Universiade International Film Festival of Canada Lotus (1988) 
Lotus is a traditional women with bound feet in rural China of 1914. She must decide whether or not to bind her young daughter's feet in order to assure a good life with a successful husband. Caught between the wishes of her strict but loving mother-in-law, who insists on the foot binding, and her good friend, who openly challenges the outlawed custom, Lotus makes a decision which will change her daughter's life forever. (source)1988 Red Ribbon, American Film Festival Forbidden City, U.S.A. (1989) 
Like the Cotton Club of Harlem which featured Black entertainers, San Francisco's internationally-renowned Forbidden City was the nation's premiere all-Chinese nightclub in the '30s and '40s. The glamour and social significance of this chapter of entertainment history is artfully and lovingly captured through interviews, archival film and photographs.1989 CINE Gold Eagle Award 1989 Blue Ribbon, Best Ethnic Studies Film, American Film Festival 1989 Gold Apple Award, Best Ethnic Studies Film, National Educational Film Festival Claiming A Voice: the Visual Communications Story (1990)
Life & Times Series (1991-1992) KCET - TV (Public Television-Los Angeles), ten documentaries:Double Vision Breaking the Silence Dust of Life (L.A. Emmy nomination) Serious Jokers Building Memories Other Voices, Other Dancers Echoes in the Grid (L.A. Emmy nomination) Exit King Blvd. (L.A. Emmy nomination) High Notes Straight Hate Coming Out Under Fire (1994) 
A look at the experiences of nine gay and lesbian veterans who joined the armed forces in World War II only to find themselves fighting two wars: one for their country, and the other as targets of a military policy that sought to label them mentally ill and “undesirable.” (source)1996 Peabody Award 1995 Emmy Nomination 1995 Gold Apple, National Educational Media Network 1995 Outstanding Film Documentary, GLAAD National Media 1995 Best of Festival, Golden Gate Awards, San Francisco International Film Festival 1994 Special Jury Award for Technical Excellence, Sundance Film Festival 1994 Silver Certificate, International Documentary Association The Question of Equality: Out Rage '69 (1995) 
OUT RAGE '69 introduces the first public television series to cover the homosexual community's struggle for equal rights (source) by examining the social and historical environment that gave rise to the current movement for gay and lesbian civil rights in America as told by those who were there. (source)1996 Outstanding Television Series, GLAAD National Media Licensed to Kill (1997) 
Licensed To Kill is an uncompromising investigation into the roots of anti-gay violence. As seen through the eyes of
murderers, the film examines the social, political and cultural environments of these men and questions whether society had
given them a "license to kill" homosexuals. (source)1997 Best Documentary Director, Sundance Film Festival 1997 Filmmakers Trophy, Sundance Film Festival Tap! The Tempo of America (In Post-Production) 
A documentary on tap dance legends based on the book by Rusty E. Frank. (source)
LinksMedia Awards 1970 1st Place, California High School Film Festival 1981 Student Oscar Nomination 1982 Best Short Documentary, Academy Award Nominee 1982 CINE Gold Eagle Award 1982 Best Social Studies Film, National Educational Film Festival 1982 Silver Plaque, Documentary, Chicago International Film Festival 1982 Best Documentary, Universiade International Film Festival of Canada 1988 Red Ribbon, American Film Festival 1989 CINE Gold Eagle Award 1989 Blue Ribbon, Best Ethnic Studies Film, American Film Festival 1989 Gold Apple Award, Best Ethnic Studies Film, National Educational Film Festival 1991 L.A. Emmy Nomination, Life & Times: Dust of Life 1992 L.A. Emmy Nomination, Life & Times: Echoes in the Grid 1992 L.A. Emmy Nomination, Life & Times: Exit King Blvd. 1994 Special Jury Award for Technical Excellence, Sundance Film Festival 1994 Silver Certificate, International Documentary Association 1995 Gold Apple, National Educational Media Network 1995 Outstanding Film Documentary, GLAAD National Media 1995 Best of Festival, Golden Gate Awards, San Francisco International Film Festival 1995 Emmy Nomination 1996 Peabody Award 1997 Best Documentary Director, Sundance Film Festival 1997 Filmmakers Trophy, Sundance Film Festival Media Fellowships 1995 Rockefeller Film & Video Fellow Gay / Lesbian Awards 1995 Outstanding Film Documentary GLAAD Media Award (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) 1996 Outstanding Television Series GLAAD Media Award (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Asian American Awards James Wong Howe Media Award from the Association of Asian Pacific Artists Asian American Media Award from Asian CineVision Steve Tatsukawa Award from Visual Communications Funding National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA Media Fund) Rockefeller Foundation National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Soros Foundation American Film Institute Independent Television Service (ITVS) Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Hugh Hefner Foundation Paul Robeson Fund
DeepFocus Productions (DFP)
National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA) Distribution Catalog Review of Sewing Women Review of Lotus Review of Licensed to Kill FilmMag.Com Review of Licensed to Kill L.A. Times Review of Licensed to Kill Licensed to Kill Study Guide Licensed to Kill Murderer Profiles Licensed to Kill Ordering Info Cineaste Interview of Arthur Dong Biography of Arthur Dong Independent Television Service (ITVS) Review of Coming Out Under Fire Coming Out Under Fire Website Coming Out Under Fire Film Guide Coming Out Under Fire Veterans Profiles Coming Out Under Fire Biography of Arthur Dong Review of Question of Equality Question of Equality Website OutRage '69 Show Guide OutRage '69 Participant Profiles OutRage '69 Biography of Arthur Dong Online Directory of Asian-American Artists
Images and Text Courtesy of DFP, NAATA, ITVS, and FilmMag.Com Copyright 1999 by Chester Day
Last Modified 6/7/99