Enter the Triads: American Cinema’s New Racialized Criminal Other

This chapter discusses the presence of Chinese criminal elements or representations of triad and gangland violence in Hollywood. It examines Hollywood films such as Lethal Weapon 4, The Corruptor, Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2, and Romeo Must Die, and the way they situate the triads in a global/local nexus and, in turn, ethnicize them into criminally monstrous Others within the discourses of American race relations.

This chapter discusses the presence of Chinese criminal elements or representations of triad and gangland violence in Hollywood. It examines Hollywood films such as Lethal Weapon 4, The Corruptor, Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2, and Romeo Must Die, and the way they situate the triads in a global/local nexus and, in turn, ethnicize them into criminally monstrous Others within the discourses of American race relations.