Presented By: Department of History
U-M History Film Series: Ten Times Better + About Face
Jennifer Lin (Director)
Join the History Department on the evening of Tuesday, November 17, for a screening of two documentary shorts, Ten Times Better (2024) and About Face (2025), followed by a conversation with director Jennifer Lin. This event will take place in the Screening Room at the Michigan Theater starting at 5:30 pm.
Following each film, there will be a panel discussion with Lin, moderated by Ian Shin (History) and Fangfei Miao (Dance).
Ten Times Better - Runtime 30m
From ballet to Broadway to blackjack, George Lee of Las Vegas has seen it all in his 89 years, but never had his moment to shine. Until now. This short documentary elevates George’s contribution to dance, including originating the Chinese role in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker and working with director Gene Kelly in Flower Drum Song. Plans are underway for a national PBS broadcast of the film, which has been featured in the New York Times and AARP magazine.
About Face - Runtime 1hr
This feature-length documentary spotlights Phil Chan and Georgina Pazcoguin, two NYC dancers of Asian descent who founded the Final Bow for Yellowface movement to jettison offensive Asian stereotypes, including dancing in yellowface, from classical ballet. The pair is taking on entrenched tradition and political pushback as they shine a critical spotlight on The Nutcracker and other beloved classics like La Bayadere in this vivid account of cultural missteps and creative evolution.
Jennifer Lin is a veteran journalist, who was stationed in Beijing, New York and Washington, D.C. for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Beyond Yellowface is her third film project. In 2013, she produced Geil of Doylestown: Forgotten Explorer. In 2021, she produced and co-directed Beethoven in Beijing, which premiered nationally on PBS’s Great Performances and was a finalist for the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film.
Fangfei Miao, an international dance theorist, choreographer, and dancer, is Assistant Professor of Dance in the School of Music, Theatre, & Dance at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she teaches both seminar and physical practice courses. Miao’s scholarly research weaves dance and performance studies, Chinese and East Asian studies, and critical inquiries into globalization. Her in-progress monograph examines the productive historical “mis-steps” engendered by Sino-US cross-cultural dance transmissions in Reform-Era China (1978-the present).
Ian Shin is a social and cultural historian of the United States and Associate Professor of History and American Culture. His research and teaching focus on Asian American history and on the history of the U.S. in the Pacific World between 1850 and 1950. Shin comes to this work as a first-generation American who was born in Hong Kong, grew up in California, and spent the past decade and a half on the East Coast. His work is guided not only by his training in historical methods but also by my dedication to critical race and ethnic studies. He is the author of Imperial Stewards: Chinese Art and the Making of America's Pacific Century (Stanford University Press, 2025).
This event is free and open to the public.
Following each film, there will be a panel discussion with Lin, moderated by Ian Shin (History) and Fangfei Miao (Dance).
Ten Times Better - Runtime 30m
From ballet to Broadway to blackjack, George Lee of Las Vegas has seen it all in his 89 years, but never had his moment to shine. Until now. This short documentary elevates George’s contribution to dance, including originating the Chinese role in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker and working with director Gene Kelly in Flower Drum Song. Plans are underway for a national PBS broadcast of the film, which has been featured in the New York Times and AARP magazine.
About Face - Runtime 1hr
This feature-length documentary spotlights Phil Chan and Georgina Pazcoguin, two NYC dancers of Asian descent who founded the Final Bow for Yellowface movement to jettison offensive Asian stereotypes, including dancing in yellowface, from classical ballet. The pair is taking on entrenched tradition and political pushback as they shine a critical spotlight on The Nutcracker and other beloved classics like La Bayadere in this vivid account of cultural missteps and creative evolution.
Jennifer Lin is a veteran journalist, who was stationed in Beijing, New York and Washington, D.C. for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Beyond Yellowface is her third film project. In 2013, she produced Geil of Doylestown: Forgotten Explorer. In 2021, she produced and co-directed Beethoven in Beijing, which premiered nationally on PBS’s Great Performances and was a finalist for the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film.
Fangfei Miao, an international dance theorist, choreographer, and dancer, is Assistant Professor of Dance in the School of Music, Theatre, & Dance at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she teaches both seminar and physical practice courses. Miao’s scholarly research weaves dance and performance studies, Chinese and East Asian studies, and critical inquiries into globalization. Her in-progress monograph examines the productive historical “mis-steps” engendered by Sino-US cross-cultural dance transmissions in Reform-Era China (1978-the present).
Ian Shin is a social and cultural historian of the United States and Associate Professor of History and American Culture. His research and teaching focus on Asian American history and on the history of the U.S. in the Pacific World between 1850 and 1950. Shin comes to this work as a first-generation American who was born in Hong Kong, grew up in California, and spent the past decade and a half on the East Coast. His work is guided not only by his training in historical methods but also by my dedication to critical race and ethnic studies. He is the author of Imperial Stewards: Chinese Art and the Making of America's Pacific Century (Stanford University Press, 2025).
This event is free and open to the public.
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