Zipangu & doc film

[anne mcknight]

I think there’s a film connection here, too, if 
memory serves correctly.  I think one of the 
Zipangu collective (who seem to enunciate solely 
under that name, without individual 
spokesperson), is the doc. film-maker Kurihara 
Nanako.  She made a 1993 doc. on second-wave-
ish Japanese feminism called Ripples of 
Change, also during the Japan-bashing years, 
distributed by Women Make Movies.  It too relies 
on the US-Japan dialectic for illustrating the 
author’s self-discovery, enabled by leaving Japan 
in favor of New York, but is more a ‘personal is 
political’ kind of film essay.  Certainly more 
palatable than the insufferable first-person 
testimonials of Kristof being disappointed with the 
lived experience of 90s Japan!  Although I have to 
say that this disenchantment with the postwar’s 
most favored nation is playing out interestingly in 
media coverage of other geo-politics, most 
notably the NYX coverage of the middle east, its 
least-favored territory.  

Anne

on 1/8/02 10:55 PM, Roddey Reid at 
rreid at ucsd.edu wrote:

Readers of this list may be interested in a 
Japanese/English publication that appeared in 
September 1998 titled Warawareru nihonjin/ 
Japan: Made in USA. It contained articles by 
Japanese and American journalists and scholars 
dissecting the NYT long-standing reportorial 
pratices with respect to Japan. There is even reply 
by the notorious Nicolas De Kristof. Published by 
Zipangu (IBN4-8123-0615-9), it was released at a 
special colloquium organized by the International 
House in Tokyo.

Roddey Reid

on 1/8/02 10:55 PM, Roddey Reid at 
rreid at ucsd.edu wrote:

-- 


Anne McKnight
Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies
3434 McTavish
McGill University
Montreal, PQ  H2A 1X9 
Canada
(o) 514-398-8164