China's Encounter with Global Hollywood by Su Wendy;

Author:Su, Wendy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2021-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

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Chinese Martial Arts Cinema in the Twenty-First Century

Hybridity and Soft Power

The resurgence of Chinese martial arts cinema in the first decade of the twenty-first century is a remarkable phenomenon. Neither the genre nor its popularity is new, but its latest resurgence reflects social, political, and global forces with significant implications far beyond the genre’s entertainment value and its previous range of filmic expression. These forces include the Chinese state’s cultural policy, the demands of film marketization, the inflow and legacy of Hong Kong’s kung fu movies, and the influence of global Hollywood. Intertwined and entangled, they become driving forces and determining factors in the revitalization of this genre in contemporary China.

Historically, Chinese martial arts cinema enjoyed three periods of popularity in the twentieth century: its original emergence in the 1920s; its relocation and revival in Hong Kong from the 1950s to the 1980s, after the Nationalist government’s anti-superstition campaign and ban in 1934; and its resurgence in mainland China in the 1980s as part of the new wave of entertaining cinema. Its resurgence after 2000 in mainland China has been described as moving “closer to its original base in China, signifying a historic closing of the circle.”1 This closing of the circle is the focus of this chapter.

From the Bruce Lee period, when oriental kung fu movies debuted on the international film market, to the global presence of action-packed Hong Kong films featuring Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, and Jet Li in the 1990s, Chinese martial arts cinema exerted an increasing influence. However, not until Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won an Oscar and Zhang Yimou’s Hero became both a national and an international box office hit did this genre and its global impact begin to attract intense scholarly interest. Within the fields of international communication, international cultural studies, and film studies, Chinese martial arts cinema has become a popular research topic. A number of studies have investigated the resurgence of the genre and its implications in an era of globalization. Some research has mapped the trajectory of the history of Chinese martial arts cinema.1 Other studies are devoted to the genre’s aesthetic connotations and philosophical implications. Chinese martial arts cinema has been posited as a negotiation between science and fate and between nationalism and modernity,1 as an embrace of cultural nationalism and a mode of transnationalism,1 and as an expression of antiorder resistance and a representation of identity crises.1 Researchers have used Hero as a case study, discussing its discourses and themes, philosophical essence, and aesthetic significance.1 Some have taken the perspective of political economy to analyze the “global-local alliance” in the successful production and distribution of a Chinese “global blockbuster.”1 Others have provided pungent criticism of the “spirit” and “structure” of Hero and concluded that the film reflects both the fascist spirit and the post-9/11 imperial logic.1 Researchers thus bring up the issue of global-local dialectic and raise this question: “In various accounts of ‘glocalization,’ ‘hybridization’ and ‘transculturation,’ which side is prevailing?”1 They have suggested that Hero represents a triumph of globalization.

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