Chinese face/off : the transnational popular culture of Hong Kong

282 S.

23cm

Angaben zum Inhalt: Jackie Chan's high-fiying stunts, giant pandas, and even the unintentionally hilarious English subtitles that often accompany Hong Kong's films are among the many targets of Kwai-Cheung Lo's in-depth study of Hong Kong popular culture. Drawing on current concepts of globalization as well as the theories of Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Zizek, Chinese Face/Off explores the way in which fantasy operates in relation to ethnic and national identity. The book offers a critical perspective for approaching the question of cultural otherness by problematizing what it means to be Chinese and explaining how Hong Kong popular culture serves as an imaginary screen for its many compatriots seeking to understand what it means to be "Chinese" in a global age. Examining topics including film, newspaper culture, theme parks, and kung-fu comics as well as the interaction of the Hong Kong film industry with Hollywood, Lo uncovers Hong Kong's importantly "transnational" identity defined in terms of complex relationships with mainland China, other diasporic communities (like Taiwan), and the West.

Includes bibliographical references ([255]-273) and index

Inhalt: Introduction: the Chineseness of Hong Kongs transnational culture in todays world -- I. FROM VOICE TO WORDS AND BACK IN CHINESE IDENTIFICATION -- Much ado about the ordinary in newspaper column and book culture -- Leftovers of the film and television subtitles in a transnational culture -- II. IMAGE IS EVERYTHING: CONSTRUCTIONS AND MUTATIONS OF CULTURAL IDENTITY -- Hong Kong muscles and the sublime Chinese subjectivity -- Transnationalization of the local in a circular structure -- Charlie Chan reborn as Jackie Chan in Hollywood-Hong Kong representations -- Racial passing and face swapping in the wild, wild west -- Tigers crouch and dragons hide in new trans-Chinese cinema -- III. A SHOW BOAT TO CHINA -- Giant panda, Mickey Mouse, and other transnational objects of fantasy in theme park Hong Kong -- Notes -- References -- Index