Publications
'Directing Hong Kong: The Politics of Contemporary Cinema', in Political Communications in Greater China, Gary and Ming-yeh Rawnsley (eds), Routledge Curzon, 2003.
About 'Directing Hong Kong'
This chapter deals with political filmmaking in Hong Kong during the run up to the handover of the colony from British to Chinese rule in 1997. This period is a particularly interesting one to study because of the general uncertainty about the immediate future and the competing ideologies behind the various parties' efforts to shape that future.
On the one hand there was Britain, with its colonial history, promotion of free trade and a broad commitment to democracy. On the other hand was the People's Republic of China (PRC), keen to reassert its territorial claim over Hong Kong and to use the process as a springboard for the eventual return of Taiwan, but also concerned to preserve the territory's economic legacy.
Between these two was a third party - the people of Hong Kong. They had no say in the negotiations and were effectively sidelined by the political process, being allowed to participate only as members of the British team, never in their own right. In the face of the impotence of their politicians, the voice of Hong Kong's people was instead expressed through popular art forms such as cinema.
It is the hypothesis of this chapter that in times of political restriction or inadequacy, popular films can be read as political statements, manifestos even, either reflecting or seeking to lead popular opinion. The wider argument is that the study of popular culture should be seen in the context of contemporary politics and vice versa. This chapter will therefore also explore cultural issues and trace the parallels and transfer of ideas between the cultural and political spheres.
The specific focus of this chapter is on the films made by John Woo and Wong Kar-wai during the run up to the Hong Kong handover - in particular Woo's The Killer (1989) and Wong's Chungking Express (1994). To test the above hypothesis, I shall attempt a political/cultural reading of these film texts and consider their meaning within a historical context. I believe that many films of this period can be read as expressions of popular discontent, apprehension and confusion of identity during the negotiations.
This chapter was also written as part of a broader research project, considering political cinema across China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Despite the recent popularity of such films on the film festival and art house circuit, the subject is still under-researched. Existing literature tends to fall into two categories: either describing broad cultural patterns, or making close, biographical readings of individual directors' films.
Examples of the former approach include Jianying Zha's 'China's Popular Culture in the 1990s' (1995) and Thomas Gold's 'Go with Your Feelings: Hong Kong and Taiwan Popular Culture in Greater China' (1993), whilst Kwok-kan Tam and Wimal Dissanayake's New Chinese Cinema (1998), is an example of the latter.
There is an equal lack of political film criticism dealing with the Hong Kong directors under consideration here. Existing work on the films of John Woo tends to deal with issues of masculinity and violence, such as Julian Stringer's 'Your Tender Smiles Give me Strength' (1997), whilst that on Wong Kar-wai emphasises visual style and characterisation (Curtis Tsui's 1996 article 'Dissecting the Visual Artistry of Wong Kar-wai').
There is however an extensive literature on Chinese political history, and on the broader issues of globalisation, democratisation, modernisation and the spread of popular culture. This research aims to fill a gap in this literature by applying these general theories to specific film texts, viewing them both as political documents in their own right, and as focal points for larger cultural and political debates, both within Southeast Asia and the West.
About Political Communications in Greater China
This book examines the role played by political communications, including media of all kinds - journalism, television, and film - in defining and shaping identity in Greater China; China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas Chinese. In the context of incrseasing cross-border interactions of people, investment and commercial products between the component parts of greater China, the book explores the idea that identity, rather than nation-states or political entities, may be the key factor in achieving further integration in Greater China. The book focuses on the ways in which identity is communicated, and shows how communication of identity within and between the component parts of greater China plays a central role in bringing about integration.