The book launch for “The Golden Screen: The Movies that Made Asian America” will be held on Thursday, Nov. 2, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Japanese American National Museum’s Aratani Central Hall, 100 N. Central Ave. (at First Street) in Little Tokyo.
Join New York Times bestselling author Jeff Yang and other special guests for the launch of Yang’s newest book.
The past decade has been a groundbreaking era for Asian-centric storytelling in Hollywood films. “The Golden Screen” celebrates and examines the history of Asian Americans on the big screen, exploring how iconic films have shaped Hollywood, representation, and American culture.
Yang and actor Parry Shen will discuss representation and how it shapes our image. They will be joined by some of the contributors to “The Golden Screen”: editor Zander Kim, Gold House co-founder Jeremy Tran, filmmakers Bao Nguyen and Sujata Day, culture critics Ada Tseng, Nancy Wang Yuen, and Phil Yu, musician and documentarian Dan Matthews, filmmaker Renee Tajima Peña, author and TV writer Paula Yoo, and more.
A book-signing will follow the program. Snacks will be provided by Little Tokyo’s own Rice & Nori, along with Twrl Ube-Flavored Boba Tea, Ito En Iced Tea, and Sanzo Sparkling Water.
“The Golden Screen” is available for purchase at the JANM Store.
Admission is $5 general, free for JANM members. For tickets, click here.
About the Book
Since 2018, the success of “Crazy Rich Asians” ignited new fires in Hollywood to create Asian-centric stories and usher in a new era of filmmaking. But many films, like “The Joy Luck Club” in 1993, paved the way for Asian American–led films before “Crazy Rich Asians” and to today. “The Golden Screen” takes an in-depth look at those films and reaffirms the importance of the Asian American film canon in an increasingly diverse Hollywood.
The book includes commentary from Simu Liu, Lulu Wang, Daniel Dae Kim, Janet Yang, Ronny Chieng, Alice Wu, and Ken Jeong; original artwork from Toma Nguyen, barbarian flower, Jun Cen, Cryssy Cheung, Cliff Chiang, Yu-Ming Huang, JiYeun Kang, Ashraf Omar, and Zi Xu; and features over 100 photographs. The foreword is by Michelle Yeoh and the afterword is by Jon M. Chu.