Deus ex machina

 

 

 

 

 

 

HISTORIANS READING OF CHINESE CULTURE THROUGH CINEMA

By

CHRISTOPHER DARDER

 

 

I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither

given nor received unauthorized help on this work.

Chris Darder

 

 

History 471: Chinese Culture in Late 20^th Century China

April 23 2008

Professor Fernsbener

Chinese culture can be discerned through their cinema, much like American culture can be seen in our cinema.  We can find a culture’s hopes, dreams, and wishes, and likewise we find insight into their complaints, fears, and nightmares.  This investigation can be amplified when we focus our attention onto a culture’s hero and their interpretation in cinema, and with China that would be that of folk hero Wong Fei-Hung[1]. It can be argued that he is the eastern equivalent of Robin Hood, but cinematically speaking he really has no eastern equal.[2]  Fei-Hung can be seen as the epitome of the Chinese personae, the idealized Chinese citizen, what the film audience considers to be the moral upright person who they can set as a the standard for their moral compass.  In addition to focusing on Fei-Hung’s portrayal for insight we can likewise interpret Fei-Hung’s enemies and their actions in a similar manner, we find the villains are looked down upon by the audience and their actions as being disagreeable with the movie goers.  Taking the portrayal of Fei-Hung and the villains of the movies, together with the context of the period of when the film was created and in succession with prior films we discover rich and diverse culture.  The Chinese culture sees the strong, brave, smart and resourceful Fei-Hung helping the poor and the sick, and defending China against corruption and greed, facing down western imperialism and protecting Chinese culture and nationalism. We can even see fears manifest within the films over the 1997 Hong Kong reunification with mainland China.  Chinese cinema is a significant window into Chinese culture.  The scope of this paper though will focus on recent cinematic iterations of Fei-Hung for two reasons, one is that there are well over hundred films starring the character of Fei-Hung, and secondly many of the older films are inaccessible at this time – they have not been released to the Western world.

Before beginning with an analysis of the films let us first investigate the real life of Wong Fei-Hung.  Fei-Hung was born in 1847 in Xiqiao village, Nanhai county in the Guangdon province and died in 1924.[3]  During his seventy-seven year lifespan, he became famous as a martial artist, lion dancer, and practitioner of herbal medicine.[4]  He took after his father Wong Sr. who taught him the Hung Gar style of martial arts and was a highly regarded practitioner of herbal medicine.[5] Fei-Hung even took over his father school Po Chi Lam, and eventually had his own students.  One student, Lam Sai-wing, would open his own Hung Gar school in Hong Kong and teach Zhu Yuzhau who would eventually write the Wong Fei-Hung biography The Extraordinary Martial Hero of Lingnan.  This came to be a partial basis for the development of the Fei-Hung mythology.[6]  The cinematic Fei-Hung though has grown into being an entirely separate entity from the real life martial arts master, the movie Fei-Hung has taken a life of its own becoming a very real person to the Chinese audience.

Beginning in 1947, actor Kwan Tak Hing took on the mantle of portraying Fei-Hung and would continue to portray him into the 1980s.[7] Kwan Tak Hing’s Fei-Hong was a character based on traditional Chinese values and Confucian morality.[8] These films had simple plots with Fei-Hung rescuing his students who get into trouble with the villain of the film, typically a Northerner.[9]  Fei-Hung reluctantly fights the villain and always shows mercy; a moral lesson is taught in traditional Confucian virtues like benevolence, righteousness, tolerance and forgiveness.[10]  It is here we can read into these series of films as a longing for a traditional Chinese lifestyle, there is a wanting and desire by the film audience for the old ways.  Here was a Confucian hero that the audience can look up to and model themselves after.  In one of the films, Fei-Hung fights a Japanese karate expert, and it is in this that we discover a symbolic national identity of China fighting against foreign entanglement, something that has pestered China since the Qing dynasty.  The influence of western culture was significant enough threat to be taken on by Fei-Hung and he successfully contained the threat for a while.[11]

In 1978 the film Drunken Master[12] is released starring Jackie Chan.  This is the film that in fact made him a superstar.[13] In Drunken Master we find a much younger Fei-Hung compared to Kwan Tak Hing’s more fatherly portrayal.  This Fei-Hung was played intentionally to contrast the earlier iterations, and also play up on Chan’s strengths.  The young Fei-Hung is not the ultra-Confucius, kind hearted, and caring of prior films.  Here is a Fei-Hung who was a trouble maker, fighting his aunt after womanizing his cousin, unknowingly, beating up the son of an important man in town.  Fei-Hung is also lazy and disobedient to his father; his father eventually gives up on his son after finding out about all the trouble he has been getting into and sends Fei-Hung to learn discipline and kung fu from his uncle, or die trying.[14]  Despite this new light hearted comedic take on the character of Fei-Hung we still find some substance to this film.  Fei-Hung eventually learns self-discipline, and at the end comes to save his father from an assassin.  Though the young Fei-Hung is an apparently flawed character, he still manages to step into the role of the hero looked up to by the film audience, as audience has moved past the tradition Confucius nostalgia of the older films.  This new portrayal of Fei-Hung becomes popular with a new generation—a rebellious Fei-Hung for a younger audience.  However despite this reinvention of the Fei-Hung persona, the next decade saw the creation of very few Fei-Hong films being made.

This drought of Fei-Hung films ended in 1991 when Tsui Hark and Jet Li jumpstart a new era for Fei-Hong with Once Upon a Time in China.[15]  Jet Li’s Fei-Hung, like Jackie Chan’s, is no longer a strict traditional Confucius spouting fatherly figure.  This reflects the culture of a modern audience that no longer has ties to the old Chinese traditions.  In fact filmmaker Tsui Hark wanted this new Fei-Hung to tackle modern issues, “My movies are set in a time when China had contact with the West.  I wanted to explore the cultural conflicts and the struggles for power and positions.”[16]  To understand this film even further, one must understand the context of when this film was made.  It was after the Tiananmen Square massacre, and prior to the 1997 Hong Kong reunification the PRC.  The Chinese audience would identify with Jet Li’s Fei-Hung who is also plagued by the problems of “ethnicity, identity, and cultural self-positioning in unsettling historical moments.”[17]

 The beginning of the film dives right into the heavy drama with Chinese boats out in the ocean surrounded by western ships. On the Chinese boat there is a lion dance in progress and firecrackers being set off in a celebration.  One of the French ships nearby hears the firecrackers going off, and decides to fire their guns onto the Chinese ship killing the lion dancers.  Right away we have a major plot point for this movie: China dealing with western imperial powers, something that the Chinese audience could relate to, and an issue that has been a source of conflict within the culture for generations.  It is in this movie that we find the argument for Chinese culture to learn from the west.  In the film Fei-Hung’s Aunt Thirteen is a very westernized woman who had been in England learning their culture.  She dresses in Victorian style clothing and comes to embrace western life.  Fei-Hung in the beginning of the film, much like Chinese culture, is uncertain about the future prospects of China in dealing with the western world. It is Aunt Thirteen who helps to open Fei-Hung’s mind with the words, “They invented the steam engine, and many other things. Their science is more advanced than ours. If we don’t learn we’ll be left behind.”[18]

Another character within the film will also help illustrate the issues that Chinese culture has to deal with is Yan Zhendong.  He is a northerner who is known to have the skill of ‘the iron cloth’ which basically means the traditional weapons of China could not hurt him.[19]  This northerner was jobless wandering the south being excluded from society, in every sense of the word he was a subaltern, reflecting the question of ethnicity, identity, and cultural self.[20]  He is convinced into fighting Fei-Hung by some local villians. Although he is unable to be harmed by the traditional swords and spears of Chinese culture, he is easily and dispatched by Americans with their rifles riddling his body with bullets.  With his last words Zhendong tells Wong “no matter how great our kung fu is, it is no match for western guns.’[21]  This character and his death give us two insights into the problems plaguing Chinese culture.  The first is the fact that China is weak due to the fact that the Chinese people cannot even get along with themselves.[22]  Him being a northerner in southern China and is considered a subaltern and forced to fight Fei-Hung by his situation. Secondly we again force Fei-Hung and the Chinese audience to realize that to fight against these western cultures, so that Chinese culture would not be undermined, Chinese culture itself would have to evolve and modernize to deal with real issues in a modern world.

Fei-Hung also has to struggle against a complacent Chinese government that is subservient to the western powers hindering the Chinese citizenry and culture.  The government is not the only collaborators as the triad within the film offer to sell women to the Americans to be used as prostitutes in California.  Here we find a fear in Chinese culture of being sold out by their own government for the self interests of those in power.  There is a sense of helplessness on the part of the Chinese audience when it comes to these international affairs.

The film is complex and representative of the real life complex nature of the Chinese culture, do you give up your identity to modernize yourself according to western traditions.  Do you hide from the western world ignoring them to retain your culture, or can there be a balance of acceptance of western modernization while retaining your Chinese identity.  This complexity also applies to the western culture, in the film not all westerners are bad guys. There is a Jesuit priest who comes to aid Fei-Hung willing to be his witness in criminal proceedings concerning the triads.  This is after all the other Chinese citizens Fei-Hung has asked decline out of fear.  This same priest later takes a bullet for Fei-Hung when the triads and Americans attempt to assassinate Fei-Hung.  This adds confusion and complexity on an already confusing situation for Fei-Hung and the audience.  The line between who is good and evil is blurred; the issues at hand are complex and representative of a complex culture.  The question of culture gets blurred even more when, by the end of the film, Fei-Hung takes up guns himself to fight against the Americans who have kidnapped Aunt Thirteen.

In the second film we find a continuation of the complex themes associated with Chinese culture and its response to western pressures.  In this film, Fei-Hung fights more corrupt government officials, and an isolationist cult that focuses on eradicating all western influence from China.  Fei-Hung, representative of Chinese culture, is forced to grow and learn from the situations he finds himself in, and discards traditions that hold him back from his self-development.[23]  The nationalistic xenophobia exhibited by the cult is shown to be detrimental to China’s interests.[24]  The corrupt government official uses the cult to attack a British embassy. Both paths are unacceptable for Fei-Hung and he fights on behalf of the westerners in adherence to his own path.

In 1993 we find the release of a prequel of sorts to the Once Upon a Time in China films, in Iron Monkey. Fei-Hung is just a child but learns from his father and the Iron Monkey about honor, righteousness, and the evils of corruption.  The iron monkey, played by Donnie Yen, says he played his character as if though he himself was Fei-Hung, the “upright, righteous master.”[25] In this film the main villain is a group of corrupt government officials profiting while people are starving due to famine.  Here we find a common fear for Chinese culture, especially in the shadow of the 1997 reunification when a communist government would take over Hong Kong.  The people feared for their own basic survival and comfort while their government officials lived lavishly, cognizant that the common working man was being worked to death.

In fact the final fight between the Iron Monkey with Fei-Hung’s father versus an evil monk creates an illicit foreshadowing of sorts for the future for Hong Kong.  They fight atop burning poles –a hellish vision of Hong Kong, a city on fire.[26]  This vision is a reflection of the real fears spreading in the culture over the looming take over and the abuse of laws, greed, corruption and disregard for human life that seemed inevitable.  The filmmakers not only hint at their cause, but create a literal example so that all viewers will be able to take away the true meaning.  It is a powerful scene in which the fiery imagery takes on a duality of meaning.  The fear of the Chinese people takes on a tangible meaning as culture and the human life that sustained it literally goes up in smoke. 

Jackie Chan, in response to the popularity of the new wave of Fei-Hung films, released Drunken Master 2 in 1994.[27]  This film, unlike its predecessor, has a definite cultural and political message.  In the sequel, Fei-Hung must face traitors helping the British smuggle Chinese artifacts out of the country.  This again is a quite literal interpretation of Chinese fears – where Western powers intend and carry out the corruption and theft of Chinese culture.  The fear of western subversion of Chinese culture proves to be even more real as the western influences grow and begin to change Chinese life and thinking.   Of course, at the end of the film Fei-Hung succeeds in stopping the illegal smuggling, hopefully signaling that in the final outcome China will be able to prevail.

In the Wong Fei-Hung films we find a complex Chinese culture fearful of western influence and the loss of their identity in an ever changing and modern world.  These films hint at these fears but also address them in a straightforward manner.  There is no room for error in interpretation when the scenes in the movies, representative for the concerns of the Chinese, outright mirror the situations at hand in the real world. There also is an increasing fear of the government being corrupt and uncaring, especially in light of such events like Tiananmen Square massacre and the reunification of Hong Kong with the PRC.  Fei-Hung symbolizes the hopes and dreams of the Chinese people, representing the people themselves and their Culture.  Whether idealized and revered as a father figure or flawed and easily relatable as a wild young man, the folk hero found in Fei-Hung allows the Chinese people hope. There is a hope that, like Fei-Hung, they will not lose their identity and instead in time will prevail to modernize and retain what makes them inherently and proudly Chinese.
Bibliography

Chan, Jackie. Drunken Master, DVD. Directed by Woo-ping Yuen. Sony Pictures, 2002.

 

Chan, Jackie. The Legend of Drunken Master, DVD. Directed by Jackie Chan. Dimension, 2001.

 

Li, Jet. Once Upon a Time in China, DVD. Directed by Hark Tsui. Sony Pictures, 2001.

 

Li, Jet. Once Upon a Time in China Part 2, DVD. Directed by Hark Tsui. Sony Pictures, 2001.

 

Li, Sl. “Kung Fu: Negotiating Nationalism and Modernity,” Cultural Studies 15 no. 3-4 (July, 2001) 515-542.

 

Myers, Ric and Jeff Yang. “Commentary.” Drunken Master. DVD. Directed by Woo-Ping Yuen. Sony Pictures, 2002.

 

Myers, Ric. “Commentary.” Once Upon a Time in China. DVD. Directed by Hark Tsui. Sony Pictures, 2001.

 

Stokes, Lisa Odham and Micheal Hoover. “Like Father, Like Son; Yuen Wo-Ping’s Iron Monkey and the Evolution of Wong Fei-Hung.” Asian Cinema 12, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2001) 110-118.

 

Williams, Tony. “Under ‘Western Eyes’: The Personal Odyssey of Huang Fei-Hong in “Once upon a Time in China.” Cinema Journal 40 no. 1 (Autumn, 2000) 3-24. http://links.jstor.org/ (accessed January 20, 2008).

 

Yen, Donnie. Iron Monkey. DVD. Directed by Woo-Ping Yuen. Miramax, 2002.

---

                [1] Wong Fei-Hung has also been spelled as Huang Fei-Hong.

            [2] Ric Myers, and Jeff Yang, “Commentary,” Drunken Master, DVD, Directed by Woo-Ping Yuen, Sony Pictures, 2002.

            [3] Lisa Odham Stokes, and Micheal Hoover, “Like Father, Like Son; Yuen Wo-Ping’s Iron Monkey and the Evolution of Wong Fei-Hung,” Asian Cinema 12, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2001) 110.

                [4] Ibid., 110.

                [5] Ibid., 110.

                [6] Ibid., 110.

            [7] Sl Li, “Kung Fu: Negotiating Nationalism and Modernity,” Cultural Studies 15 no. 3-4 (July, 2001) 531.

                [8] Ibid., 531.

                [9] Stokes, 110.

                [10] Li, 532.

                [11] Ibid., 533.

                [12] In China this film is called Drunken Monkey in a Tiger’s Eye

                [13] Myers, and Yang. Prior to Drunken Master Jackie Chan’s films weren’t very successful and he was on the verge of losing his contract.

                [14] Jackie Chan,  Drunken Master, DVD. Directed by Woo-ping Yuen. Sony Pictures, 2002.

                [15] Stokes, 111.

                [16] Ibid., 111.

                [17] Li, 535.

                [18] Li, Jet. Once Upon a Time in China, DVD. Directed by Hark Tsui. Sony Pictures, 2001.

                [19] Li, 535.

                [20] Ibid., 535.

            [21] Li, Jet. Once Upon a Time in China, DVD. Directed by Hark Tsui. Sony Pictures, 2001.

            [22] Myers, Ric. “Commentary.” Once Upon a Time in China. DVD. Directed by Hark Tsui. Sony Pictures, 2001.

            [23] Tony Williams, “Under ‘Western Eyes’:The Personal Odyssey of Huang Fei-Hong in “Once upon a Time in China,” Cinema Journal 40 no. 1 (Autumn, 2000) , 7.

                [24] Ibid., 13.

                [25] Stokes, 112.

                [26] Ibid., 116.

                [27] In America this film is released on dvd as Legend of the Drunken Master.

I’ve been debating how I would share my primaries sources for my paper since they are not written down, but are actually films.  So I’ve decided I’ll just post the movie trailers for the films I’m using in my investigation, maybe you’ve seen some of them.

Drunken Master (1978)

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Drunken Master II (1994) aka Legend of Drunken Master

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Once Upon a Time in China (1991)

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Once Upon a Time in China II (1992)

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Iron Monkey (1993)

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So apparently in response to videos posted on youtube showing Tibetan protests China has decided to block access to the site.

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/16/tibet-china-blocks-y.html

I guess the Chinese government doesn’t like criticism.

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My project is focusing on the perception of folk hero Wong Fei-Hung within Chinese cinema and how that perception perhaps has changed and evolved to deal with the issues of importance to that time period. The problem I’m facing is tracking down copies of the older Wong Fei-Hung movies. The oldest I could find is Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master released in 1978, the great thing about this DVD is the audio commentary talks a bit about how Chan’s portrayal of Wong Fei-Hung was in contrast to earlier films. The other films I have is Once Upon a Time in China I and II both released in the early 1990s starring Jet Li. I also have Iron Monkey released in 1993, and Drunken Master 2 released in 2000. There are however over a hundred films and TV shows based on the Wong Fei-Hung persona. I’m sure I could find some of the older films but being that my Chinese is a little rusty it would be hard to analyze the cultural significance of the films. I’ve watched the films I have, each one at least once, and Fei-Hung’s portrayal in the films are very telling of Chinese’s thoughts on the idea man, morally upright, defending the weak and just doing good deeds all humbly and all the while not seeking self-gain.

Here is a clip from a 1968 Wong Fei-Hung film.

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Here is another clip of an older Wong Fei-Hung film

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Here is another old Wong Fei-Hung film clip of a fight in a tea house

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It’s a God awful small affair
To the girl with the mousey hair
But her mummy is yelling, “No!”
And her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is no where to be seen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seats with the clearest view
And she’s hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a sadd’ning bore
For she’s lived it ten times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on

Sailors
Fighting in the dance hall
Oh man!
Look at those cavemen go
It’s the freakiest show
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man!
Wonder if he’ll ever know
He’s in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

It’s on America’s tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
‘Cause Lennon’s on sale again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns
But the film is a sadd’ning bore
‘Cause I wrote it ten times or more
It’s about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on

Sailors
Fighting in the dance hall
Oh man!
Look at those cavemen go
It’s the freakiest show
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man!
Wonder if he’ll ever know
He’s in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

_____________________________________________________________

Chris Darder

Hist 471: A Cultural History of Late 20^th c. China

Musical Analysis of David Bowie’s Life on Mars?

David Bowie’s Life on Mars? is open to a variety of interpretations due to its ambiguous and somewhat cryptic lyrics. Life on Mars? was initially released in the 1971 album Hunky Dory, and was later released as a single in 1973 after Hunky Dory failed to do as well as Bowie desired. After its re-release as a single, the song reached the #3 spot on the UK charts and stayed on the charts for 13 weeks. Recently the resurgence of the single’s popularity occurred due to the BBC television program named after the song which liberally uses music within the show. The song was released during a tumultuous period of history when the Vietnam War was still raging, although it was nearing its completion. The once optimistic hippie movement began to fade, especially after the violence at Altamont Music Festival of December 1969 and the Manson murders in August, and gave way to a more cynical public. Within this context of historical occurrences we can achieve a depth of understanding of the song Life on Mars?

The song begins with a young girl getting into some kind of trouble with her parents. Her mother is telling her “No” and her father rejects her and ultimately kicks her out of the home – is the girl pregnant, or perhaps coming out of the closet, maybe she’s dating someone whom the parents dislike. Either way she leaves and goes to seek refuge and escape the drudgery of her life within a movie. Unfortunately she finds the movie a “bore”, perhaps because she’s seen it already or the film happens to be a reflection of her own life. It is this perspective of anguish and rejection coupled with boredom that reflects Bowie’s view of the early 1970s.

In the next stanza we find a critique of American society. America appears to be a confused and misguided country. American staples such as Mickey Mouse being described as “grown up a cow” has come to symbolize American culture being commercialized and cheapened. “The Lennon’s on sale again” refers to John Lennon, and “with the workers striking for fame” is a commentary on Lennon and his Marxist views. People are little more than mice “in their million hordes”. Finally in the chorus we find disgust of the violent culture that seems to exude from society. The violence of the sailors and lawman is also violence celebrated by society because they end up being in the “show.” Here Bowie laments on the current tide of culture flowing through the American landscape. Culture has been overtaken by commercial aspects and violence has become the norm for society.

Life on Mars by David Bowie, reflects the times it was created: moral ambiguity, rejection, boredom of the masses, drudgery of everyday life, the lamentation of an increasingly violent culture being celebrated. Bowie encapsulates his fears into his song and shares it with his audience, hoping for the audience to come to a self-realization of their predicament and affect a change in the culture.

Found this clip on youtube of a movie I own called Trinity and Beyond:The Atomic Bomb Movie. I found the part with China testing the bomb fascinating.

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Such an odd dichotomy to witness,  a highly advanced piece of technology such at the bomb side by side with men on horseback racing towards the mushroom cloud.

Here is a poster found at http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/.

Here is my analysis of said poster.

Here is an obviously militaristic and nationalistic poster. We find the focus of the poster being a Chinese soldier. He is not alone though because behind him is an entire army of fellow Chinese citizens ready to defend China from imperial enemies. The main soldier appears to be highly decorated and his uniform is crisp and neat. He is the ideal Chinese solider standing tall and firm. All the soldiers appear to be looking up and to the left probaly looking ahead and into the bright future of China.

The soldier holds in his hand a rifle with a fixed bayonet. The bayonet is piercing the Japanese flag, U.N. flag, and an American military helmet respectively. Immediately the viewer of the poster would recognize the enemies of China being Japan, United States, and finally the United Nations. The bayonet striking through the flags and helmet signifies to the viewer China’s dominance over these governments.

The poster shows who China’s enemies are and also how easily those enemies can be conquered. The poster would instill pride into the viewer and inspire them to take on the cause against China’s imperial foes.

Chris Darder
Hist 471
Paper Proposal
Chinese culture can be found represented in their art. Their values, ethics, and beliefs also exist in their films. I would like to explore Chinese cinema and discover Chinese culture reflected through film. Specifically I would focus on folk hero Wong Fei Hung’s portrayal as seen in film throughout the duration of Chinese cinema and how that portrayal may have changed or stayed the same through the decades. I believe his portrayal in film reflects an idealized Chinese citizen, someone whom the Chinese look up to and strive to emulate and that this ideal person has perhaps changed from generation to generation. Other motifs seen through the films include China vs. the western world, nationalism, government corruption, etc. The films can tell us a lot about the society in which created it.
My second idea for a topic is along the same lines as my first idea, Chinese culture as seen in cinema, but focus on Wong Fei Hung’s numerous portrayals in which I would look at a broader scope of films. Ideally, I would focus on certain motifs found in Chinese cinema, again nationalism, and western oppression including Japanese oppression. Especially prevalent in Chinese cinema is western nations and Japan seen as evil empires coming to bully the Chinese people, steal and plunder the resources of the Chinese nation and the complicity of corrupt government officials.
My paper will be a historian’s reading of culture seen through Chinese cinema. I would use as my primary sources films such as Once Upon a Time in China made in 1991, Drunken Master made in 1978. I would use secondary sources such as Chris Berry’s 2006 book China on Screen: Cinema and Nation, and Poshek’s 1997 article The Ambiguity of Entertainment: Chinese Cinema in Japanese-Occupied Shanghai, 1941 to 1945.

Works Consulted

Berry, Chris, and Mary Farquhar. China on Screen: Cinema and Nation. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.

Berry, Chris. “If China Can Say No, Can China Make Movies? Or, Do Movies Make China?
Rethinking National Cinema and National Agency,” Modern Chinese Literary and Cultural Studies in the Age of Theory: Reimagining a Field. 25, no. 3 (Autumn, 1998) 129-150. http://links.jstor.org

Chan, Jackie. Drunken Master, DVD. Directed by Woo-ping Yuen. Sony Pictures, 2002.

Chan, Jackie. The Legend of Drunken Master, DVD. Directed by Jackie Chan. Dimension, 2001.

Fu, Poshek. “The Ambiguity of Entertainment: Chinese Cinema in Japanese-Occupied
Shanghai, 1941 to 1945,” Cinema Journal, 37, no. 1 (Autumn, 1997), 66-84.
http://links.jstor.org/ (accessed January 20, 2008).

Latham, Kevin. Pop Culture China!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle. Denver, ABC CLIO, 2007.

Li, Jet. Once Upon a Time in China, DVD. Directed by Hark Tsui. Sony Pictures, 2001.

Li, Jet. Once Upon a Time in China Part 2, DVD. Directed by Hark Tsui. Sony Pictures, 2001.

Li, Sl. “Kung Fu: Negotiating Nationalism and Modernity,” Cultural Studies 15 no. 3-4 (July, 2001) 515-542.

Yoshimoto, Mitsuhiro. “The Difficulty of being Radical: The Discipline of Film Studies and the Postcolonial World Order,” Japan in the World 18, no. 3 (Autumn, 1991) 242-257. http://links.jstor.org/ (accessed January 20, 2008).

Zhang, Yingjin “Chinese Cinema in the New Century: Prospects and Problems,” World Literature Today (July-August, 2007) 36-41.

Hello class my name is Chris but you can call me Darder. I’m from Manassas, VA but was orginally born in Seoul South Korea. I’ve lived in alot of different places like Texas, and Germany. I’m a History major and a senior to boot. I’m taking this class because as a Korean I’m very interested in Asian history and there was no Korean classes offered. I’m engaged and will be married August 9th 2008. I’ve been blogging for years now so forgive me if my blog comes across as being very informal as that has been my style for a while. I will force myself to create a more professional feeling to this blog. The picture shown is of me on set of a WWII documentary, I myself am an amateur film maker you can find some of the films I’ve made at Gaucho Pictures check out the site and tell me what you think.

Thanks,

Darder

What to write for my big Hist471 Project…

1. Chinese Muslims and how they live and are treated in China
2. Anything to do with China and Korea
3. China and the Internet
4. Chinese Film
   1. Portrayal of Chinese heroes such as Wong Fei-Hung in film
   2. Chinese portrayal of Japanese and or Western oppression in film.
   3. Chinese nationalism as seen in film.

I wonder if China’s explosive economic growth is sustainable. From reading the following article I’m not sure if China can grow at the same pace without poisoning itself.  China’s economic growth has a causative effect on China’s environment and with such rapid economic growth come rapid pollution.  This would be a good article for anyone interested in China’s economy and China’s environmental policies.

As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes

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From sweatshops to stateside corporations, some people are profiting off of MMO gold.

by James Lee 07.05.2005

ast month we showed you some of the scammers and crooks that lurk in MMO games. Now, let’s go into the field for a firsthand account of another part of the online underworld.

“Sack” is the only name I’m given for the person I’m supposed to contact. He lives in the Fujian province of China, but his place of business is online—he plays Lineage II. He’s paid about 56 cents an hour to work in a videogame “sweatshop.”

Rest of the article found here

I find this very interesting and I think its a testament at how innovative and flexible the Chinese can be in the creation of this new virtual economy. They have already started taking advantage of the fact that there are many who are willing to pay for virtual items and characters. Good article for those interested in Chinese pop culture and Chinese economics.