Hong Kong Connections

Since the 1960s, Hong Kong cinema has helped to shape one of the world's most popular cultural genres: action cinema. Hong Kong action films have proved popular over the decades with audiences worldwide, and they have seized the imaginations of filmmakers working in many different cultural traditions and styles. How do we account for this appeal, which changes as it crosses national borders? Hong Kong Connections brings leading film scholars together to explore the uptake of Hong Kong cinema in Japan, Korea, India, Australia, France and the US as well as its links with Taiwan, Singapore and the Chinese mainland. In the process, this collective study examines diverse cultural contexts for action cinema's popularity, and the problems involved in the transnational study of globally popular forms suggesting that in order to grasp the history of Hong Kong action cinema's influence we need to bring out the differences as well as the links that constitute popularity.

This is the first study of Chinese stars and their transnational stardom, examining the transnational Chinese actor Jet Li, probably the best martial arts actor alive.Jet Li's career has crossed numerous cultural and geographic boundaries, from mainland China to Hong Kong, from Hollywood to France. In Jet Li: Chinese Masculinity and Transnational Film Stardom, Sabrina Qiong Yu uses Li as an example to address some intriguing but under-examined issues surrounding transnational stardom in general and transnational kung fu stardom in particular.Presenting case studies of audiences' responses to Jet Li films and his star image, this book explores the way in which Li has evolved from a Chinese wuxia hero to a transnational kung fu star in relation to the discourses of genre, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and national identity. By rejecting a text-centred approach which prevails in star studies and instead emphasising the role of audiences in constructing star image, this book challenges some established perspectives in the study of Chinese male screen images and martial arts/action cinema.

The Cold War was a distinct and crucial period in Hong Kong's evolution and in its relations with China and the rest of the world. Hong Kong was a window through which the West could monitor what was happening in China and an outlet that China could use to keep in touch with the outside world. Exploring the many complexities of Cold War politics from a global and interdisciplinary perspective, Hong Kong in the Cold War shows how Hong Kong attained and honed a pragmatic tradition that bridged the abyss between such opposite ideas as capitalism and communism, thus maintaining a compromise between China and the rest of the world. The chapters are written by nine leading international scholars and address issues of diplomacy and politics, finance and economics, intelligence and propaganda, refugees and humanitarianism, tourism and popular culture, and their lasting impact on Hong Kong. Far from simply describing a historical period, these essays show that Hong Kong's unique Cold War experience may provide a viable blueprint for modern-day China to develop a similar model of good governance and may in fact hold the key to the successful implementation of the One Country Two Systems idea. “This is a timely collection of essays on the role of Hong Kong in a global context and its multifaceted relationship with mainland China. It is emerging at a particularly appropriate moment when the local community has been provoked to reflect on its common fate under the notion of ‘one country, two systems.’” —Ray Yep, City University of Hong Kong “Hong Kong, the ‘Berlin of the East,’ was transformed by the Cold War, an existential conflict between capitalism and communism. Consequently, this fine volume is a must-read for political, cultural, and economic historians of Hong Kong. International historians should also add this collection of essays and cutting-edge empirical studies to their reading lists: it will enrich their understandings of the Global Cold War.” —David Clayton, University of York

This collection examines the exchange of Asian identities taking place at the levels of both film production and film reception amongst pan-Pacific cinemas. The authors consider, on the one hand, texts that exhibit what Mette Hjort refers to as, "marked transnationality," and on the other, the polysemic nature of transnational film texts by examining the release and reception of these films. The topics explored in this collection include the innovation of Hollywood generic formulas into 1950's and 1960's Hong Kong and Japanese films; the examination of Thai and Japanese raced and gendered identity in Asian and American films; the reception of Hollywood films in pre-1949 China and millennial Japan; the production and performance of Asian adoptee identity and subjectivity; the political implications and interpretations of migrating Chinese female stars; and the production and reception of pan-Pacific co-productions. .

A Companion to Hong Kong Cinema provides the first comprehensive scholarly exploration of this unique global cinema. By embracing the interdisciplinary approach of contemporary film and cultural studies, this collection navigates theoretical debates while charting a new course for future research in Hong Kong film. Examines Hong Kong cinema within an interdisciplinary context, drawing connections between media, gender, and Asian studies, Asian regional studies, Chinese language and cultural studies, global studies, and critical theory Highlights the often contentious debates that shape current thinking about film as a medium and its possible future Investigates how changing research on gender, the body, and sexual orientation alter the ways in which we analyze sexual difference in Hong Kong cinema Charts how developments in theories of colonialism, postcolonialism, globalization, neoliberalism, Orientalism, and nationalism transform our understanding of the economics and politics of the Hong Kong film industry Explores how the concepts of diaspora, nostalgia, exile, and trauma offer opportunities to rethink accepted ways of understanding Hong Kong’s popular cinematic genres and stars