1st Edition

Global Chinese Cinema The Culture and Politics of 'Hero'

Edited By Gary D. Rawnsley, Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley Copyright 2010
252 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

256 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

256 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

The film Hero , directed by Zhang Yimou and released in 2002, is widely regarded as the first globally successful indigenous Chinese blockbuster. A big expensive film with multiple stars, spectacular scenery, and astonishing action sequences, it touched on key questions of Chinese culture, nation and politics, and was both a domestic sensation and an international hit. This book explores the... Read more

List of figures.  List of contributors.  Editorial Note.  About Hero.  Acknowledgements.  Foreword - Chris Berry  Introduction - Gary D. Rawnsley and Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley  Part I: Changing Discourse of National Identities and Heroism  1. The Political Narrative(s) of Hero - Gary D. Rawnsley  2. Recycled Heroes, Invented Tradition and Transformed Identity - Yingjie Guo  3. The Emperor and the Assassin: China’s National Hero and the Myth of State Origins - Yiyan Wang  4. The King, the Musician and the Village Idiot: Images of Manhood - Kam Louie  Part II: Transformations of Cultural Perception, Genre and Stardom  5. Twenty-first Century Women Warriors: Variations on a Traditional Theme - Louise Edwards  6. On ‘Tian Xia (All under Heaven)’ in Zhang Yimou’s Hero - Xiaoming Chen and Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley  7. Hero: Rewriting the Chinese Martial Arts Film Genre - Haizhou Wang and Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley  8. ‘Would You Rather Spend More Time Making Serious Cinema?’: Hero and Tony Leung’s Polysemic Masculinity - Mark Gallagher  9. Fifteen Minutes of Fame: Transient/Transnational Female Stardom in Hero - Olivia Khoo  Part III: Local vs. Global: Deconstructing Global Chinese Blockbusters  10. Camp Pleasure in an Era of Chinese Blockbusters: Internet Reception of Hero in Mainland China - Sabrina Qiong Yu  11. North American Reception of Zhang Yimou’s Hero - Wendy Larson  12. Heroic Music: From Hunan to Hollywood and Back - Katy Gow  13. Visual Effects Magic: Hero’s Sydney Connection - Mary Farquhar  14.Towards a Global Blockbuster: The Political Economy of Hero’s Nationalism - Anthony Fung and Joseph M. Chan  Filmography. Chinese Glossary: Selected Chinese Names and Terms. Chinese Dynasties at a Glance. Index.

Biography

Gary D. Rawnsley is currently Professor of Asian International Communications at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds, UK. Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley is Research Fellow at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds, UK. Their most recent jointly edited publications include Political Communications in Greater China: The Construction and Reflection of Identity (also published by Routledge) and Critical Security, Democratisation and Television in Taiwan.