Network Narratives: Asian Women Directors

This chapter looks at how networks of women’s cinema in Asia constitute an important counter-public sphere in an era of media globalization. Young women directors are becoming visible within disparate Asian national cinemas, and their films’ themes and structures suggest a regional approach. Indonesia’s Nia Dinata works as a producer of other women’s films, revealing new configurations of feminism and media culture. In Taiwan cinema, young women directors like Zero Chou are part of a return to the domestic box office. The commercial success of Chou’s lesbian romance Spider Lilies (2007) brings together ideologies of progress, regional celebrity culture, local LGBT activism, and queer reception circuits in “greater China.” This chapter locates these examples within the festival, scholarly, professional, and audience networks that sustain women’s cinema within Asia and its diasporas.