mapping the "reel" china

8/14/2019 Mapping The "Reel" China

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Mapping the Reel China

Kimberly De Vries California State University

Stanislaus

[email protected]


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China Captures the GlobalScreen

Early in 2001, global awareness of Chinese cinemasurged following the release of Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon. This film broke new ground in itsenormous popularity with both audiences and

critics, while also spurring heated controversy overquestions of originality and authenticity.

This controversy highlights the difficulty of defininga national cinema, or of identifying audiences in

terms of national identity. Further, CTHD serves tomark what looks the beginning of a shift inassumptions about who constitutes the audience forChinese film.


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Mixed Reactions

Though majority reactionto CTHD was positive,this picture was deploredby some dedicated fansof martial arts films, andwas officially disdainedin Mainland China.

In contrast, thegovernment of Taiwansponsors an officialwebsite honoring AngLee and this film.

It's a Western privilege tojust deal with anything youwant....be careful here,because what you're saying

is: you good Asians, you goodlittle Chinese and Hong KongArtists, you do your authenticreal stuff. You stay in yourgenre. (James Schamus)

What do they want me tobe? A panda in a zoo? (AngLee)


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Originality, Authenticity,Identity

Criticisms tend to focuson how the first twoterms shape perceptionsof the third. CTHD hasbeen critiqued asunoriginal, compared toother Hong Kong Martialarts films, but also asmisrepresenting Chineseculture and being tooWestern. Whose opinionis the most authentic?


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Originality, Authenticity,Identity

Ang Lee has beenreported as callingthis film a dream ofChina.

Lee seems to tap thenostalgic feelings shared bymany diasporic Chinese, aswell as a more generalnostalgia for times past. --Increasingly, the pastbecomes our only refugefrom postmodernfrustrations of the present.


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The real/reel China

Considering how otherfilms have beendistributed and howviewers have reacted,we can distinguish sometrends in how the realChina is perceived.Some films are critiquedin ways that may bemore determined bythese views than by thefilm itself.

Mainland Chinese are theonly real Chinese.

Mainland films must bepolitical.

Hong Kong films are

(usually) only forobsessive fan-boys.

Chinese film-makers arealways in danger of beingcorrupted by the West.

Westerners are onlyinterested in China's pastor its problems.


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Restless

Director Jule Gilfillan:I hope you'll feel a kinshipwith these characters, withthese people.

Gilfillan's characters voicea central issue, thatAmericans use China as apersonal Disneyland, anescape from responsibility

or problems.

Restless, Arrow Films/Youth FilmStudio, 1998.


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Big Shot's Funeral

The film pokes fun at American film-making, the new Chineseconsumerism, and the difficulty of deciding who or what is reallyChinese.

Very popular in China, it was nominated for a Hong Kong FilmAward as Best Asian Film but received scant attention in the US.

Directed by FengXiaogang.

Columbia Pictures Corp.,Huayi Bros. Advertising,

and Taihe Film

Investment Co. Ltd.2001.


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Fulltime Killer

Director Johnny Tocreates ahyperactive,transnational, andhighly intertextual

tale of duelingassasins.

Wildly popular inChina, and HongKong's Oscar entry

for 2002, it got littleattention in the USbut again generateda love/hate reactionamong critics andviewers.

Andy Lau poaches from El Mariachi.Fulltime Killer, Milkyway Image Ltd.2001.


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Enrichment vs. Corruption

Western directors' worksare enriched by theaddition of Chineseelements, such as in TheMatrix or Kill Bill.

Chinese Directors oftenare charged with beingcorrupted by Westerninfluences, losing anauthentic voice. Theyalso risk being corruptedby capitalism orpandering to theCentral Gov't.

Andy Lau impersonates Clinton andoffers a homage to Point Break.Fulltime Killer, Milkyway Image Ltd.2001.


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Reactions Conditioned byStereotypes

In almost every case ofdivided opinion,expectations of Chinesefilm generally and

familiarity with the genredetermine a positive ornegative reaction.

In some cases, (re)viewersare attached to aparticular definition ofauthentic Chinese film,and object to its violation.

Stereotypes ofChinese Film:

Art House Anti-government (PRC) B-movie shlock (HongKong) Too foreign

Not foreign enough


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Accounting for DivergentViews

Do American and Chinese audiences just havewildly different tastes? Or are we using the reelChina to represent : A land protected from the stress of a global culture? A backwards culture to support our own self-image? A target for our projected anxiety about the privilegedstatus of English and of the US?

When opinions diverge so widely and splitalong national lines, the cause is almostcertainly NOT the actual content of the film.


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Persistent Stereotypes

We see stereotypescontinuing to afflict filmdistribution andreception,

A continued insistenceon authenticity asdefined by most Westerndistributors and critics

hinders our ability toeven access the reelChina.

Still too muchinsistence of politicalfilms.

Narrow view of an

ignorant, largely whitemale audience, or anelite white audience inthe US.

BUT Greater contact

between differentviewing groups andgrowing awarenessfrom somedistributors.


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Changes are Coming

Online retailers offer imports and region-less DVDplayers Filesharing = wide access to Chinese films Loosening regs. on the film industry in China =collaboration Growing recognition of:

diasporic communities China's role in the global community more Americans travelling to China

all lead to breaking stereotypes and questioning thebounds of Chineseness.


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Are National BoundariesImportant?

The borders are dissolving . Nationalidentity slips as transnational film-makersand fans poach from national cultures.

Ang Lee and HeathLedger on the setof BrokebackMountain

From theRottentomatoes.comBrokeback Mountainpage.


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References

Ambroisine, Frederic. ADAPTATION and DEFORMATION: The Perception ofHong Kong Cinema in the West. WestEast Magazine, iss. 15, Nov.2005, Hong Kong.

Ang, Ien. On Not Speaking Chinese: Living Between Asia and the West.Routledge, 2001.

Brown, Nick, et al. New Chinese Cinemas: Forms, Identities, Politics.Cabridge University Press, 1994.

Chinese director seeks Western feast. (Reuters) China Daily, Englishedition. Accessed 3/14/06http://chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-02/05/content_517247.htmChow, Rey. Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography and

Contemporary Chinese Cinema. Columbia University Press, 1995.Chow, Rey, ed. Modern Chinese Literary and Cultural Studies in the Age of

Theory: Reimagining a Field. Duke University Press, 2000.Cunningham, Stuart, and John Sinclair, eds. Floating Lives: The Media and

Asian Diasporas. Rowman and Littlefield, 2001.Dirlik, Arif, and Xudong Zhang, eds. Postmodernism and China. Duke

University Press, 2000.


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References

Lu, Sheldon H.. Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender.University of Hawaii Press, 1997.

Lu, Sheldon H.. China, Transnational Visuality, Global Postmodernity. StanfordUniversity Press, 2001.

Lu, Sheldon H. and Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh. Chinese Language Film,Historiography, Poetics, Politics. University of Hawai'i Press, 2005.

ROC Government website. Accessed 10/24/02 (no longer available)http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/7-av/anglee/

Rotten Tomatoes website. Accessed 4/02/06http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brokeback_mountain/photos.php

Teo, Stephen. We Kicked Jackie Chan's Ass: an interview with JamesSchamus. Senses of Cinema, March-April 2001.

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