Masculinities and Hong Kong Cinema

357 Pages·2005·17.2 MB·English

by  Laikwan Pang

M a s c u l i n i t i e s a nd
H o ng K o n g C i n e ma
Edited by Laikwan Pang & Day Wong
M a s c u l i n i t i e s a nd
Hong K o n g C i n e ma
Hong Kong University Press thanks Xu Bing for writing the Press's name in his
Square Word Calligraphy for the covers of its books. For further information,
see p. iv.

M a s c u l i n i t i e s a nd
H o ng K o n g C i n e ma
Edited by
Laikwan Pang & Day Wong
# m * # ta BS, fi
HONG KONG UNIVERSITY PRESS
Hong Kong University Press
14/F Hing Wai Centre
7 Tin Wan Praya Road
Aberdeen
Hong Kong
© Hong Kong University Press 2005
ISBN 962 209 737 5 (Hardback)
ISBN 962 209 738 3 (Paperback)
All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval
system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Secure On-line Ordering
http ://www. hkupress. org
Printed and bound by Rainbow Graphic & Printing Co., Ltd., Hong Kong, China.
Hong Kong University Press is honoured that Xu Bing, whose
art explores the complex themes of language across cultures, has
written the Press's name in his Square Word Calligraphy. This signals
our commitment to cross-cultural thinking and the distinctive nature
of our English-language books published in China.
"At first glance, Square Word Calligraphy appears to be nothing
more unusual than Chinese characters, but in fact it is a new way
of rendering English words in the format of a square so they
resemble Chinese characters. Chinese viewers expect to be able
to read Square Word Calligraphy but cannot. Western viewers,
7k however are surprised to find they can read it. Delight erupts when
meaning is unexpectedly revealed."
— Britta Erickson, The Art ofXu Bing
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Contributors ix
Introduction: The Diversity of Masculinities in Hong Kong Cinema 1
Laikwan Pang
Part I History and Lineage 15
Chapter 1 Making Movies Male: Zhang Che and the Shaw 17
Brothers Martial Arts Movies, 1965-1975
David Desser
Chapter 2 Post-1997 Hong Kong Masculinity 35
Laikwan Pang
Chapter 3 Queering Masculinity in Hong Kong Movies 57
Travis S. K. Kong
Chapter 4 Unsung Heroes: Reading Transgender Subjectivities 81
in Hong Kong Action Cinema
Helen Hok-sze Leung
Part n Transnational Significations 99
Chapter 5 Kung Fu Films in Diaspora: Death of the Bamboo 101
Hero
Sheng-mei Ma
Vi c Contents
Chapter 6 Obtuse Music and the Nebulous Male: 119
The Haunting Presence of Taiwan in
Hong Kong Films of the 1990s
Shen Shiao-Ying
Chapter 7 Fighting Female Masculinity: Women Warriors 137
and Their Foreignness in Hong Kong Action
Cinema of the 1980s
Kwai-cheung Lo
Chapter 8 An Unworthy Subject: Slaughter, Cannibalism 155
and Postcoloniality
James A. Steintrager
Part HI Production, Reception, and Mediation 175
Chapter 9 Bringing Breasts into the Mainstream 177
Yeeshan Chan
Chapter 10 Post-Fordist Production and the Re-appropriation 199
of Hong Kong Masculinity in Hollywood
Wai Kit Choi
Chapter 11 Masculinities in Self-Invention: Critics' Discourses 221
on Kung Fu-Action Movies and Comedies
Agnes S. Ku
Chapter 12 Women's Reception of Mainstream Hong Kong 239
Cinema
Day Wong
Notes 261
Glossary 297
Bibliography 317
Index 333
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which
funded this research project, and its General Education Centre, which
provided the necessary technical and staff support. Our research
assistant, Yvonne Leung Yee-man, provided research and editorial help
to not only the editors but also many of the contributors. We are grateful
for her prompt, accurate, and often creative work. We thank Mina Cerny
Kumar of Hong Kong University Press who initiated this project, and
we thank Colin Day, Delphine Ip and Phoebe Chan who followed up
on this project with care and enthusiasm. Special thanks also to Fiona
Ng who assisted our last phase of editing.
Chapter 2 is a revised and expanded version of Laikwan Pang's
"Masculinity in Crisis: Films of Milkyway Image and Post-1997 Hong
Kong Cinema" previously published in Feminist Media Studies 2.3 (Fall
2002): 325-40 (www.tandf.co.uk).

Contributors
Yeeshan CHAN is a film scriptwriter and Ph D candidate in the
Department of Japanese Studies at the University of Hong Kong Her
Ph D dissertation focuses on the community of zanryu-hojm, Japanese
civilians left behind in the former Manchuria after WWII, who since the
1980s have been repatriated with their extended Chinese families She
has written for multimedia in Hong Kong She is also conducting research
with a criminologist on Chinese organized crime in Japan, the results of
which will be published in an anthropological paper on the subject
Wai Kit CHOI is a Ph D candidate in the Department of Sociology at
the University of California, Irvine His dissertation is on
proletarianization under Chinese capitalisms His research interests are
in social theory, economic sociology and political economy, and he is a
contributor to an edited volume titled Labor Versus Empire Race, Gender
and Migration (Routledge, forthcoming)
David DESSER is Professor in the Unit for Cinema Studies and the
Program in Comparative and World Literatures at the University of
Illinois He has published numerous books and essays on various aspects
of Asian cinema and has edited, among others, Ozu's "Tokyo Story" and
The Cinema of Hong Kong History, Arts, Ldentity
Travis S. K. KONG received his Ph D in sociology from the University
of Essex (England) in 2000 He currently lectures at the Hong Kong
Polytechnic University and teaches courses on topics such as sexuality,
gender, media, and culture His research interests focus primarily on the
issues of gay men and lesbians, sex workers and people with HIV/AIDS
He has been published in journals such as Body & Society and
Sexuahties