Theorizing Ambivalence in Ang Lee's Transnational Cinema

142 Pages·2012·1.99 MB·English

by  Chih-Yun Chiang

Theorizing Ambivalence
in Ang Lee’s
Transnational Cinema
FRAMING FILM
The History & Art of Cinema

Frank Beaver, General Editor

Vol. 17

PETER LANG
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern
Frankfurt (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Chih-Yun Chiang

Theorizing Ambivalence
in Ang Lee’s
Transnational Cinema

PETER LANG
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern
Frankfurt (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chiang, Chih-Yun.
Theorizing ambivalence in Ang Lee’s transnational cinema / Chih-Yun Chiang.
p. cm. — (Framing film: the history and art of cinema; v. 17)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Lee, Ang, 1954– —Criticism and interpretation.
2. Motion pictures and transnationalism.
3. Motion pictures and globalization. I. Title.
PN1998.3.L438C43 791.43’6552—dc23 2012007139
ISBN 978-1-4331-1932-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4539-0828-0 (e-book)
ISSN 1524-7821

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data is available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council of Library Resources.

© 2012 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York
29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006
www.peterlang.com

All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.

Printed in Germany
Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
1 The Disruption of the Global and the Local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
2 Speaking Beyond Postcoloniality:
The Historical Construction of Chinese and Taiwanese Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
3 Theorizing Ambivalence: Ambivalent Formations in Ang Lee’s
Transnational Films and Their Audiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
4 The Burden of Becoming a Chinese Diasporic Director:
The Discourse of Bridging the East and the West in
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
5 The Discourse of Cultural and National Pride:
The Ambivalent Discourse of Chinese Identity in Lust, Caution . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91
6 Who Performs for Whom? The Dynamic of Self-Representation and
Spectatorship in an Age of Cosmopolitanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125
Chiang.indd 5 22/06/12 2:13 PM
Chiang.indd 6 22/06/12 2:13 PM
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my mentor and Ph .D . research advisor, Dr . Darrin
Hicks from the Department of Communication Studies of the University
of Denver, who gave generously his ideas, time, and unwavering advice dur-
ing the process of completing my studies . Dr . Hicks has always been a source
of inspiration, a great mentor, and a long-term example of creative and criti-
cal scholarship for me .
Special thanks to the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International
Scholarly Exchange . Without the awarded fellowship, I would not be able
to complete this study . I am also grateful to Drs . Bernadette M . Calafell
and Kate G . Willink who provided positive feedback for this research . I am
especially grateful to my mentor Dr . Lily Mendoza from Oakland Univer-
sity, who was the inspiration for this study . I am thankful for her long-term
mentoring, friendship, and support, which opened up my interest and a new
world of understanding in cultural studies and intercultural scholarship . I
would also like to thank the series editor, Dr . Frank Beaver from University
of Michigan, for his support and interest of my work . Thanks to the editors
at Peter Lang Publishing for their careful reviews of the manuscript during
the conclusion of the publication process .
In addition to my academic support, I am most grateful to my parents
and family who provided nothing but support . I thank my parents Jim Chi-
ang and Wei-Chen Shih for their support while I completed the research
Chiang.indd 7 22/06/12 2:13 PM
viii Theorizing Ambivalence in Ang Lee’s Transnational Cinema
journey . I am grateful to my aunt, Dr . Yuan-Yuan Chiu, and my uncle, Dr .
Honda Chiu, who helped me numerous times, offered unconditional love
and believed in me throughout these years while I completed my research .
Thanks to John, my life-partner, who provided persistent feedback for the
writing of this manuscript .
Finally, I want to especially thank my American friends and family—
Donna Goben and Vern Irwin . I thank Donna for her many years of unend-
ing support, help, and personal friendship . I thank Vern and the cat Russia
for their kind companionship at the stage of initial writing of the manuscript
of the book . Finally, my gratitude goes to many friends from Taiwan, the
Communication Studies Department at DU, and Stella’s coffee shop, who
have ever given me their hands and words of encouragements .
Chiang.indd 8 22/06/12 2:13 PM
Introduction
This book began with the desire to develop the notion of ambivalence and
the politics of Chinese identity in transnational cinema, theoretically chal-
lenging ideological constructions of racial and ethnic identity that are histori-
cally produced and defined within a homogeneous nation-state mechanism in a
postcolonial and transnational context . In the past two decades, the explosion of
transnational Chinese cinema in the global film market has raised many critical is-
sues . As current transnational feature films such as Curse of the Golden Flower, The
Flower of War, Kung Fu Hustle, and Red Cliff (coproduced with major Hollywood
studios and Pan-Asian actors and distributed internationally) capture worldwide
acclaim, they begin to display the burgeoning demands for a transnational Chi-
nese film market . Issues surrounding the global visibility of a minority subject in
transnational films have become much-debated topics in many academic fields,
obliging us to interrogate the essentialist understanding of culture, nation, and
identity .
In particular, the successful transformation of Chinese identity into a cross-
cultural commodity in the global film market warrants further discussion of the
cultural politics that facilitate the global circulation . Such cultural politics demand
that one take an alternative approach to reexamining the indeterminate, ambiva-
lent, and dynamitic nature of the “local” and the “global,” the “Euro-American
center” and the “Third World local .” As Mackintosh, Berry, and Liscutin (2009)
Chiang.indd 1 22/06/12 2:13 PM