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Hoang Bao Linh Du, Deakin University, AustraliaAbstract
This paper examines the Chinese American daughter figure in contemporary American films through the concepts of “model minority” and “liminality”. Particularly, this paper focuses on the two recent independent films, The Farewell (2018) and The Half of It (2019), and their daughter characters, Billi Wang and Ellie Chu. The Chinese American daughter characters will be investigated through critical textual analysis. Drawing on the key concepts of “model minority” and “third space”/“liminal space”, the paper examines how the daughters are positioned and position themselves as 1.5-generation Chinese American women caught between the host country (America) and the motherland (China), especially, through the stereotype of successful and high-achieving racial minority. This paper aims to look into the dynamics of navigating a hyphenated identity and the “in-between” intercultural spaces as they are represented onscreen. As the films’ directors are Chinese American and the films are loosely based on their experiences as daughters of Chinese immigrant families, the findings of this research aim to explore and propose new perspectives on narratives that are told from the standpoint of both the invisible and hypervisible double minority, which can subvert and challenge white masculine dominant identity narratives.
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Conference: MediAsia2025Stream: Film Criticism and Theory
This paper is part of the MediAsia2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Du H. (2026) The Chinese American Daughter Figure in Contemporary American Films: Searching for Belongingness in Liminal Space ISSN: 2186-5906 – The Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film 2025: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 175-187) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5906.2025.14
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5906.2025.14
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