Wendy Su
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813167060
- eISBN:
- 9780813167077
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813167060.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter posits that between 2000 and 2013, a new Chinese martial arts cinema emerged. This new genre was a collective cultural phenomenon arising from the Chinese government’s full embrace of ...
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This chapter posits that between 2000 and 2013, a new Chinese martial arts cinema emerged. This new genre was a collective cultural phenomenon arising from the Chinese government’s full embrace of the concept of “soft power” in an attempt to battle the global dominance of US popular culture. The author argues that this new Chinese martial arts cinema was a direct result of China’s changing cultural policy, as well as a survival strategy adopted by mainland Chinese and Hong Kong filmmakers to cope with the dual pressures of film marketization and state censorship. This genre reemerged in a seemingly hybrid mode that conforms to the aesthetics of the Hollywood spectacle but reinforces nationalism, patriotism, and orthodox Confucian values, which are especially conducive to state rule. The genre is also a deliberate construction and promotion of Chinese history, culture, and philosophy. New Chinese martial arts cinema thus represents both escapism from and conformity to the established social order, and it reinforces both governmental power and cultural power.Less
This chapter posits that between 2000 and 2013, a new Chinese martial arts cinema emerged. This new genre was a collective cultural phenomenon arising from the Chinese government’s full embrace of the concept of “soft power” in an attempt to battle the global dominance of US popular culture. The author argues that this new Chinese martial arts cinema was a direct result of China’s changing cultural policy, as well as a survival strategy adopted by mainland Chinese and Hong Kong filmmakers to cope with the dual pressures of film marketization and state censorship. This genre reemerged in a seemingly hybrid mode that conforms to the aesthetics of the Hollywood spectacle but reinforces nationalism, patriotism, and orthodox Confucian values, which are especially conducive to state rule. The genre is also a deliberate construction and promotion of Chinese history, culture, and philosophy. New Chinese martial arts cinema thus represents both escapism from and conformity to the established social order, and it reinforces both governmental power and cultural power.
Man-Fung Yip
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9789888390717
- eISBN:
- 9789888390397
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390717.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The martial arts film, despite being long regarded as a vehicle of Chinese cultural nationalism, can also paradoxically be conceptualized as a mass cultural expression of Hong Kong’s ...
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The martial arts film, despite being long regarded as a vehicle of Chinese cultural nationalism, can also paradoxically be conceptualized as a mass cultural expression of Hong Kong’s colonial-capitalist modernity. Moving beyond generalized notions of martial arts cinema’s appeal, this book argues that the important and popular genre articulates the experiential qualities, the competing social subjectivities and gender discourses, as well as the heightened circulation of capital, people, goods, information, and technologies in Hong Kong of the 1960s and 1970s. In addition to providing an original conceptual framework for the study of Hong Kong martial arts cinema and shedding light on the nexus between social change and cultural/aesthetic form, this book offers perceptive analyses of individual films—not just the canonical works of King Hu, Chang Cheh, and Bruce Lee, but many lesser-known ones by Lau Kar-leung and Chor Yuen, among others.Less
The martial arts film, despite being long regarded as a vehicle of Chinese cultural nationalism, can also paradoxically be conceptualized as a mass cultural expression of Hong Kong’s colonial-capitalist modernity. Moving beyond generalized notions of martial arts cinema’s appeal, this book argues that the important and popular genre articulates the experiential qualities, the competing social subjectivities and gender discourses, as well as the heightened circulation of capital, people, goods, information, and technologies in Hong Kong of the 1960s and 1970s. In addition to providing an original conceptual framework for the study of Hong Kong martial arts cinema and shedding light on the nexus between social change and cultural/aesthetic form, this book offers perceptive analyses of individual films—not just the canonical works of King Hu, Chang Cheh, and Bruce Lee, but many lesser-known ones by Lau Kar-leung and Chor Yuen, among others.
Stephen Teo
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748632855
- eISBN:
- 9780748670833
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748632855.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The martial arts genre known as wuxia (literally ‘martial chivalry’) is one of the oldest in the Chinese cinema. Its antecedents are closely tied to the historical knights-errant known as xia who ...
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The martial arts genre known as wuxia (literally ‘martial chivalry’) is one of the oldest in the Chinese cinema. Its antecedents are closely tied to the historical knights-errant known as xia who were said to have roamed ancient China over two thousand three hundred years ago, fighting injustices and righting wrongs. This book delves into the cinematic development of the genre from its beginnings in the Shanghai film industry in the late 1920s to its recent state of evolution in the Chinese, Taiwan, and Hong Kong cinemas, as represented by works such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Hero (2002). Essentially, this book is a history of the genre, covering the landmarks of its development, one of which is the banning of the genre in the 1930s due to the perception by educationists and intellectuals that it fostered feudal superstition and anti-social rebellion. It goes on to analyse the concepts and values of the heroic xia, or knights-errant, often considered controversial figures because they resorted to violence as a means to practice chivalry and achieve righteous ends. Chapters are devoted to discussing the female knight-errant, a unique figure in the tradition, and in cinema that has charmed and beguiled cinemagoers since the beginning of the genre. Themes that further explore the genre include nationalism, transnationalism, and the supernatural powers and characteristics of the heroic protagonists (as well as villains).Less
The martial arts genre known as wuxia (literally ‘martial chivalry’) is one of the oldest in the Chinese cinema. Its antecedents are closely tied to the historical knights-errant known as xia who were said to have roamed ancient China over two thousand three hundred years ago, fighting injustices and righting wrongs. This book delves into the cinematic development of the genre from its beginnings in the Shanghai film industry in the late 1920s to its recent state of evolution in the Chinese, Taiwan, and Hong Kong cinemas, as represented by works such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Hero (2002). Essentially, this book is a history of the genre, covering the landmarks of its development, one of which is the banning of the genre in the 1930s due to the perception by educationists and intellectuals that it fostered feudal superstition and anti-social rebellion. It goes on to analyse the concepts and values of the heroic xia, or knights-errant, often considered controversial figures because they resorted to violence as a means to practice chivalry and achieve righteous ends. Chapters are devoted to discussing the female knight-errant, a unique figure in the tradition, and in cinema that has charmed and beguiled cinemagoers since the beginning of the genre. Themes that further explore the genre include nationalism, transnationalism, and the supernatural powers and characteristics of the heroic protagonists (as well as villains).
Kenneth Chan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474424592
- eISBN:
- 9781474444705
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474424592.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Through a close analysis of Hong Kong director Tsui Hark’s Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010), this chapter argues that the film’s successful appeal to local and global Chinese ...
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Through a close analysis of Hong Kong director Tsui Hark’s Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010), this chapter argues that the film’s successful appeal to local and global Chinese audiences is based on a conservative reading of the familiar cultural trope of modernity versus tradition, as mirrored in the supposed tensions between the police procedural and the horror/supernatural elements in the wuxia shenguai genre. These tensions are problematic precisely because their narrative and rhetorical purpose is to shore up the deterministic logic of Chinese cultural history, the interpellative call of Chinese political power, and the cultural nationalist logic of being Chinese. However, the film is also capable to generating counter-readings of its politics by recasting itself as a global cinematic text of political irony and oppositional resistance.Less
Through a close analysis of Hong Kong director Tsui Hark’s Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010), this chapter argues that the film’s successful appeal to local and global Chinese audiences is based on a conservative reading of the familiar cultural trope of modernity versus tradition, as mirrored in the supposed tensions between the police procedural and the horror/supernatural elements in the wuxia shenguai genre. These tensions are problematic precisely because their narrative and rhetorical purpose is to shore up the deterministic logic of Chinese cultural history, the interpellative call of Chinese political power, and the cultural nationalist logic of being Chinese. However, the film is also capable to generating counter-readings of its politics by recasting itself as a global cinematic text of political irony and oppositional resistance.
