MyCreative Influences

my creative influences 2 my creative influences 3

CHUNG HING SAM LAM (1994) is a 1994 Hong Kong film written and directed by Wong Kar-

wai. The film consists of two stories told in sequence, each about

a Hong Kong cop and his relationship with a woman. The first

story stars Takeshi Kaneshiro and Brigitte Lin and the second

stars Tony Leung, Faye Wong and Valerie Chow.

The Chinese title translates to “Chungking Jungle”, referring to

the metaphoric concrete jungle of the city, as well as to Chungk-

ing Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui, where much of the first part of the

movie is set. The English title refers to Chungking Mansions and

the Midnight Express food stall where Faye works.

Plot outlineThe movie comprises two different stories, told one after the other,

each about a romance involving a policeman. Aside for a brief mo-

ment when the first story ends and the second begins, the two sto-

ries do not interconnect. However, the three main characters from

the second story each momentarily appear during the first.

Story 1The first story concerns Taiwan-born cop He Qiwu, also known as

Cop 223 (played by Kaneshiro). Qiwu’s girlfriend May broke up

with him on April 1 (April Fool’s Day). His birthday is May 1 and

he chooses to wait for May for a month before moving on. Every

day he buys a tin of pineapple with an expiration date of May 1. By

the end of this time, he feels that he will either be rejoined with his

love or that it will have expired forever.

Meanwhile, a woman in a blonde wig (played by Brigitte Lin) tries

to survive in the drug underworld after a smuggling operation goes

sour. On May 1, Qiwu, looking for romance, approaches the woman

in the blonde wig at a bar (the Bottoms Up Club). However, she is

exhausted and falls asleep in a hotel room, leaving him to watch

movies alone. She leaves in the morning and shoots the drug baron

(played by Thom Baker) who had set her up. Qiwu goes jogging

and receives a message from her on his pager wishing him a happy

birthday. He then visits his usual snack food store where he collides

with a new staff member, Faye. At this point, a new story begins.

Story 2In the second story, the unnamed Cop 663 is similarly dealing with a

breakup, this time from a flight attendant. He meets Faye, the new

girl at the snack bar (played by Faye Wong). She falls for him in

secret, and frequently breaks into his apartment during the day to

redecorate and “improve” his living situation. Gradually, her ploys

help Cop 663 to cheer up, and he eventually realises that Faye likes

him and arranges a date at the restaurant ‘California’. However,

Faye stands him up after a last-minute decision to see the world

before settling down; she leaves him a fake boarding pass with

a date a year from now.

ProductionWong made the film during a two month break from the editing of

his wuxia film Ashes of Time. He has said, “While I had nothing to

do, I decided to make Chungking Express following my instincts.”,

and that “After the very heavy stuff, heavily emphasized in Ashes

of Time, I wanted to make a very light, contemporary movie, but

where the characters had the same problems.” Originally, Wong

envisioned the two stories as similar but with contrasting settings:

“One would be located in Hong Kong [that is, Hong Kong Island]

and the other in Kowloon; the action of the first would happen in

daylight, the other at night. And despite the difference, they are

the same stories.”

On the screenplay, Wong has said “When I started to film, I didn’t

have it written completely. I filmed in chronological order. The first

part happened during the night. I wrote the sequel of the story in

one day! Thanks to a brief interruption for the New Year festivi-

ties, I had some more time to finish the rest of the script.”

He kept on writing and developed a third story. However, after

filming the first two stories, he found that the film was getting too

long so he relocated the third segment, about a love-sick hitman, to

an entirely different movie titled Fallen Angels (1995).

Wong had specific locations in mind where he wanted to set the ac-

tion of the film. In an interview, he has said: “One: Tsim Sha Tsui. I

grew up in that area and I have a lot of feelings about it. It’s an area

where the Chinese literally brush shoulders with westerners, and

is uniquely Hong Kong. Inside Chungking Mansion you can run into

people of all races and nationalities: Chinese, white people, black

people, Indian.” This is the setting for much of the first story. As

Wong explains, Chungking Mansion is famous for “its 200 lodgings,

it is a mix of different cultures...it is a legendary place where the

relations between the people are very complicated. It has always

fascinated and intrigued me. It is also a permanent hotspot for the

cops in HK because of the illegal traffic that takes place there. That

mass-populated and hyperactive place is a great metaphor for the

town herself.” (www.wikipedia.com)

my creative influences 5

A Film by Wong Kai Wai

my creative influences 4

Raqs Sharqi

whereby Orientalist artists depicted their interpretations of harem

life in the Ottoman Empire. Around this time, dancers from Out-

side the Middle East, raqs sharqi dancing was popularized during

the Romantic movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, different

Middle Eastern countries began to perform at various World Fairs.

They often drew crowds that rivaled those of the technology ex-

hibits. Some dancers were captured in early films. The short film,

“Fatima’s Dance,” was widely distributed in the nickelodeon movie

theaters. It drew criticism for its “immodest” dancing, and was

eventually censored due to public pressure.

Some Western women began to learn from and imitate the dances

of the Middle East (which by this time had been subjected to Eu-

ropean colonization). Despite posing as a Javanese dancer, Mata

Hari’s mystique is linked not to Indonesian dance but to Middle

Eastern dance forms. The French author Colette, and many other

music hall performers, engaged in “oriental” dancing, sometimes

passing off their own interpretations as authentic folkloric styles.

The great dancer Ruth St. Denis also engaged in Middle Eastern-

inspired dancing, but her approach was to put “oriental” dancing on

the stage in the context of ballet, her goal being to lift all dance to

a respectable art form. (In the early 1900s, it was a common social

assumption in America and Europe that dancers were women of

loose morals.) Costumes Because the most visible venue for belly

dance is nightclubs (as well as video and DVD recordings of popu-

lar Egyptian dance celebrities), it is this version, rather than the

folk or social versions, that is most popular. (www.wikipedia.org)

Generalative to North Africa, Asia and the Middle East, belly

dancing (Egyptian Arabic:raqs al sharqi) is based on one

of the oldest social dances in world history. Support for

this theory stems from similarities between poses from

the modern dance form and those depicted in ancient Egyptian art.

There are two forms of belly

dancing. The first is called

raqs baladi, a social dance per-

formed for fun and celebration

by men and women of all ages,

usually during festive occa-

sions such as weddings and oth-

er social gatherings. The sec-

ond form, the more theatrical

version and the one most popu-

lar in America today, is called

raqs sharqi. Like raqs baladi,

raqs sharqi is performed by

both male and female dancers.

In regions where belly dancing is native, boys and girls learn it in-

formally from an early age by observing and imitating their elders

during family/community celebrations and gatherings with friends.

Today, these ancient dance forms are taught in classes throughout

the world where skilled dancers/teachers share the knowledge that

has been passed down to them.

OriginsThe origins of this dance form are actively debated among dance

enthusiasts, especially given the limited academic research on the

topic. Much of the research in this area has been done by the danc-

ers themselves. However, the often overlooked fact that most danc-

ing in the Middle East occurs in a social context rather than the

more visible and glamorous context of professional nightclub per-

formance, has led to a misunderstanding of the dance’s true nature

and has given rise to many conflicting theories about its origins.

Because this dance is a fusion of many different styles it undoubt-

edly has a variety of origins, many of which stem from ethnic folk

dancing that has to do with traditional cultures.

The traditional birthing practices theory relates to a sub-set of

dance movements found in modern raqs sharqi. Strongly publicized

through the research of the dancer/layperson-anthropologist Mo-

rocco (also known as Carolina Varga Dinicu), it asserts that belly

dancing is a reworking of movements traditionally utilized to dem-

onstrate or ease childbirth. Although lacking ideas about the exact

origin of belly dance, this theory does have the advantage of being

supported by numerous oral historical references, and is backed by

commentary in The Dancer of Shamahka.

Wherever it began, the dance has a long history in Africa and the

Middle East. Despite the Islamic restriction of portraying humans

in paintings, depictions of dancers have been found from the pre-

Islamic and Islamic world. Books such as “The Art and Architecture

of Islam 650-1250” show images of dancers on palace walls, as do

Persian miniature paintings from the 12th and 13th centuries.

my creative influences 6

Mansion to the Midnight food stall...

Wang Kai-Wai Presents us life in Hong Kong and

From Chungking

struggles of individuals

my creative influences 10 my creative influences 11

CHINESECONTEMPORARY ART

ue Minjun, with Fang Lijun, is one of the most important

Beijing-based artists of the Chinese avant garde. He is

part of the key movement of the post-1989 era in Chi-

nese avant garde art - Cynical Realism. Cynical Realism devel-

oped in the aftermath of the events of 1989 which included not

only the demonstrations at Tiananmen Square but also the closure

earlier that year of the China Avant Garde?exhibition at the China

National Gallery in Beijing by the authorities. As the 1980s were

characterised by great idealism and hope in the artistic commu-

nity that they would be able to contribute to the regeneration of

Chinese culture, the 1990s were characterised by a loss of ideal-

ism, a more ironical or personal viewpoint and a greater detach-

ment from any regeneration of society or culture.

About “Execution”Yue Minjun works are instantly recognizable by the characteris-

tic laughing figure, actually the artist himself, depicted in vari-

ous guises in virtually all his works. The figure has more teeth

than one could possibly want, like the expensive smiles of fash-

ion models advertising the latest whitening power of a toothpaste

brand. This figure also shares the exaggerated nature of these

advertising images. Yue Minjun

trademark smile is many things at

once. It is hilarious and infectious

yet cynical and mocking. It appears

superficial, mindless, even ridiculous

but is deeply revealing and compel-

ling. There are instant parallels to be

drawn with the Social Realist propagan-

da posters of earlier eras of communism.

There are the bright colours, the intense

enthusiasm in the expressions of the fig-

ures and the implied joy and total fulfil-

ment if one adopts the message of the poster

as one own mission. Yue Minjun was selected

by Harald Szeemann for the 1999 Venice Bien-

nale. In May 2000 Chinese Contemporary gave

Yue Minjun his first solo

exhibition eve.

Yue Minjun acknowledges that “Execution,” in-

spired by the bloody Tiananmen crackdown in

1989, is the most politically sensitive of his work.

But while Tiananmen served as the catalyst, because

of its subject matter, according to Sotheby’s. the oil

painting should not be seen as depicting what hap-

pened at Tiananmen, the Beijing-based artist said this

week through a translator in a phone interview. Billed

by Sotheby’s as “among the most historically important

paintings of the Chinese avant-garde ever to appear at

auction,”

“Execution” had been tucked

away from sight until now. Its

owner bought it from a gallery in

Hong Kong a decade ago under con-

dition that the painting not be shown in

public because of its subject matter, ac-

cording to Sotheby’s.

“Execution” would become the most expensive

work of Chinese contemporary art at auction, selling

for 2.9 million British pounds ($5.9 million). It eclipsed

Yue’s previous record, set in June when his “The Pope” sold

for nearly 2.15 million British pounds ($4.37 million). The sale

of “Execution” also comes on the same week another Yue piece,

“The Massacre at Chios,” sold for nearly $4.1 million at a Sotheby’s

auction of contemporary Chinese art in Hong Kong. (www.cnn.com )

Yue Minjun and His Paintings