The Inheritance: An feature-length screenplay exploring difficulties of existing in the Asian-American hyphen Open Access

Abstract

The Inheritance is a full-length dramatic screenplay with comedic overtones about an estranged Asian-American family who begrudgingly works together in order to search for their late mother’s inheritance. Though this serves as the narrative plot, the screenplay acts as an exploration of reckoning with existing in the Asian-American hyphen. In discovering to what degree each character upholds Chinese values against American ones, the text focuses on the relationship between collectivist and individualist values and how the model minority and yellow peril concepts affect Asian-Americans. More broadly, the screenplay also investigates the breadth of experiences of immigration, assimilation, and the American Dream.

In addition to the feature-length screenplay, The Inheritance also comes with a joint honors creative statement, which details research regarding the history of Asian-American representation in literature, television, and film, a film review of prominent Asian-American films, and a review of common Asian tropes and stereotypes. Further, it also includes a detailed summary of the writing process for a feature-length film, the sequence method, and outlines of the story. 

Table of Contents

Introduction ________________________________________________________________   1

Literature Review ___________________________________________________________    3

           On Asian-American Representation _______________________________________    3

Literature ______________________________________________________    3

           

                       Asians in Film and Television ______________________________________  11

           

           On Writing the Screenplay _______________________________________________ 17

Film Review ________________________________________________________________ 21

The Writing Process __________________________________________________________ 25

           Character Backstories ___________________________________________________ 26

           Hunt Outline Sheet _____________________________________________________ 33

           The Sequence Method ___________________________________________________ 35

           Writing and Rewriting ___________________________________________________ 37

Conclusion __________________________________________________________________ 39

Works’ Cited ________________________________________________________________ 42

About this Honors Thesis

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Emory College
Department	Film and Media Studies
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Asian American Studies
Keyword	model minority
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Professor David Barba, Emory University
Committee Members	Professor Rob Schmidt Barracano, Emory University Professor Chirs Suh, Emory University

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