Join Us for an Engaging Talk on the Fascinating Life of Shirley Yamaguchi (Li Hsiang-Lan 李香兰) led by Richard M. Davis, Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at Duke Kunshan University.
Event Details:
Date: Saturday, November 9
Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (GMT+8)
Location: Sketchyard Cafe, Dong’an Road 888, Haoshang Bay Building 13, F1, Shanghai, China
Event Description:
Explore the extraordinary life of Yoshiko Yamaguchi (1920-2014), also known as Shirley Yamaguchi and Li Hsiang-Lan 李香兰. Born in China to Japanese parents, Yamaguchi was a singer, actress, journalist, and politician whose career spanned China, Japan, and Hollywood. Her life was marked by complex identities and international controversy, including an arrest in 1945 on charges of treason—later dismissed when her true nationality was revealed.
Join Senior Lecturer Richard M. Davis from Duke Kunshan University as he delves into Yamaguchi’s captivating life story, from her dual identity to her cinematic contributions and her marriage to Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. This talk will include insightful film clips showcasing her diverse roles.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn about a woman who navigated multiple identities and left an indelible mark on cinema and history.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
RICHARD M
. DAVIS
Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at DKU
Richard M. Davis is a film and media scholar who works on cinematic crossings between Japan, East Asia, and the United States. He is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Director of Signature Work at Duke Kunshan University. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago’s Joint Degree in East Asian Cinema program, and previously held positions at Singapore Management University and Tsinghua University. His in-progress monograph, One Hundred Million Voices Singing, describes the collisions between aesthetics, ideology, and pleasure in musical films produced in Imperial Japan during the so-called Fifteen Years’ War (1931-1945). Material from this project has been published in Ex-Position, The Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, and the Handbook of Japanese Cinema: The 1930s and the Advent of Sound (forthcoming). Additional research and teaching interests include international film history, East Asian modernities, animation, game studies, sound studies, and film theory.
* Members of the DKU community receive a discounted admission.
