Hong Kong Cinema: Coloniser, Motherland and Self

by Chu,Yingchi

• ISBN13: 9780700717460
• ISBN10: 0700717463
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-06
• Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon

Summary

Examining Hong Kong cinema from its inception in 1913 to the end of the colonial era, this work explains the key areas of production, market, film products and critical traditions.Hong Kong Cinemaconsiders the different political formations of Hong Kong's culture as seen through the cinema, and deals with the historical, political, economic and cultural relations between Hong Kong cinema and other Chinese film industries on the mainland, as well as in Taiwan and South-East Asia. Discussion covers the concept of 'national cinema' in the context of Hong Kong's status as a quasi-nation with strong links to both the 'motherland' (China) and the 'colonizer' (Britain), and also argues that Hong Kong cinema is a national cinema only in an incomplete and ambiguous sense.

Author Biography

Yingchi Chu is a lecturer in Chinese Studies and Media Studies at Murdoch University, Western Australia.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction: National cinema and Hong Kong cinema	xi
Hong Kong cinema as part of Chinese national cinema 1913--56	1	(21)
Minimum intervention and Chinese nationalism	2	(3)
National politics and the mainland market	5	(9)
China as the subject	14	(5)
Conceptualising Hong Kong films as national art	19	(3)
Hong Kong cinema as Chinese diasporic cinema 1956--79	22	(20)
The dilemma of Hong Kong as a diasporic community	24	(4)
Unifying a diasporic film industry and market	28	(4)
Constructing a Chinese cultural identity beyond China	32	(6)
The diversity of local film criticism	38	(1)
The demise of Chinese diasporic cinema	39	(3)
Hong Kong film production, market and criticism 1979--97	42	(21)
Hong Kong as a quasi-nation	43	(8)
`National' characteristics in film industry and market	51	(7)
`National' characteristics in film criticism	58	(5)
Hong Kong films: the cultural specificity of quasi-national film	63	(14)
Film narratives	63	(4)
Film genres	67	(5)
Codes and conventions	72	(1)
Gesturality and morphology	73	(1)
The star as sign	74	(3)
Hong Kong films: cinematic constructions of Hong Kong history and territory	77	(14)
History, territory and nation	78	(3)
History and territory in Hong Kong films	81	(10)
Hong Kong films: cinematic constructions of Hong Kong's quasi-national identity	91	(28)
National identity and Hong Kong identity	92	(4)
Quasi-national identity in a cinematic context	96	(2)
Hong Kong: A `nation' without sovereignty	98	(16)
The demise of a quasi-national identity?	114	(5)
Hong Kong cinema after 1997	119	(15)
Continuation of the quasi-nation	120	(2)
Film industry and film markets	122	(5)
Films	127	(5)
Film criticism	132	(2)
Conclusion: Hong Kong cinema and quasi-national cinema	134	(5)
Notes	139	(4)
Chinese glossary	143	(8)
Filmography	151	(8)
Bibliography	159	(22)
Index	181