Jet Li Chinese Masculinity and Transnational Film Stardom

by Yu, Sabrina Qiong

• ISBN13: 9780748645473
• ISBN10: 0748645470
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-04-04
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Summary

This is the first study of Chinese stars and their transnational stardom, examining the transnational Chinese actor Jet Li, arguably 'the best martial arts star alive in the world'. Li's developing star persona has been constantly constructed, negotiated and modified by audiences from different cultural locations and at different historical moments. Organized around a series of case studies of audiences' responses to Jet Li's films and his star image, this book explores the way in which Li has evolved from a Chinese kung fu hero to a transnational action star. Yu argues that Li's career illustrates how to become a transnational star, by being flexible but retaining the global currency of his martial arts skills. It also analyses the ways in which Chinese masculinity is constructed and transformed within trans-cultural contexts in relation to the discourses of genre, gender, sexuality, race and cultural identity. In focusing on redressing the lack of critical attention given to male representation and male images, audience reception studies are used to challenge some established frameworks and fundamental precepts in the study of cinematic masculinities in English-language scholarship. This book is valuable to anyone studying or researching Chinese film, stardom or transnational cinema.

Table of Contents

List of figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Jet Li and Transnational Kung Fu Stardom
Part One - Jet Li as Chinese Wuxia Hero
Chapter 1 Jet Li and the New Wuxia Cinema in the 1990s
Chapter 2 Kung Fu Master: Martial Arts and Acting in Once Upon a Time in China (1991)
Chapter 3 Gay lover? Gender Trouble and Male Identification in Swordsman 2 (1992)
Chapter 4 Mother''s Boy: Adolescent Hero and Male Masquerade in Fong Sai-yuk (1993; Part Two - Jet Li as Transnational Kung Fu Star
Chapter 5 Villain/Killer/Child: Crossover Images and Orientalist Imagination
Chapter 6 Asexual Romeo? Male Sexuality and Cultural Perspective
Chapter 7 National Hero/Spectacular Body: National and Transnational Identities
Chapter 8 Borderless Icon: Star Construction and Internet Fandom
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index