Mapping the “Reel” China

● Kimberly De Vries
● California State University

Stanislaus
● kdevries@csustan.edu
China Captures the Global
Screen
Early in 2001, global awareness of Chinese cinema
surged following the release of Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon. This film broke new ground in its
enormous popularity with both audiences and
critics, while also spurring heated controversy over
questions of originality and authenticity.

This controversy highlights the difficulty of defining

a national cinema, or of identifying audiences in
terms of national identity. Further, CTHD serves to
mark what looks the beginning of a shift in
assumptions about who constitutes the audience for
“Chinese” film.
 Mixed Reactions
Though majority reaction
to CTHD was positive, “It's a Western privilege to
this picture was deplored just deal with anything you
want....be careful here,
by some dedicated fans because what you're saying
of martial arts films, and is: you good Asians, you good
was officially disdained little Chinese and Hong Kong
in Mainland China. Artists, you do your authentic
real stuff. You stay in your
genre.” (James Schamus)
In contrast, the
government of Taiwan “What do they want me to
sponsors an official be? A panda in a zoo?” (Ang
website honoring Ang Lee)
Lee and this film.
Originality, Authenticity,
Identity
Criticisms tend to focus
on how the first two
terms shape perceptions
of the third. CTHD has
been critiqued as
unoriginal, compared to
other Hong Kong Martial
arts films, but also as
misrepresenting Chinese
culture and being too
Western. Whose opinion
is the most “authentic?”
Originality, Authenticity,
Identity
Ang Lee has been
reported as calling
this film a dream of
China.
Lee seems to tap the
nostalgic feelings shared by
many diasporic Chinese, as
well as a more general
nostalgia for times past. --
Increasingly, the past
becomes our only refuge
from postmodern
frustrations of the present.
 The “real/reel” China
● Mainland Chinese are the
Considering how other only “real” Chinese.
films have been ● Mainland films must be
distributed and how political.
● Hong Kong films are
viewers have reacted,
(usually) only for
we can distinguish some
obsessive fan-boys.
trends in how the “real” ● Chinese film-makers are
China is perceived. always in danger of being
Some films are critiqued corrupted by the West.
in ways that may be ● Westerners are only
more determined by interested in China's past
these views than by the or its problems.
film itself.
 Restless
Director Jule Gilfillan:
“I hope you'll feel a kinship
with these characters, with
these people.”

Gilfillan's characters voice

a central issue, that
Americans use China as a
“personal Disneyland,” an
escape from responsibility
or problems.

Restless, Arrow Films/Youth Film

Studio, 1998.
 Big Shot's Funeral

Directed by Feng
Xiaogang.

Columbia Pictures Corp.,

Huayi Bros. Advertising,
and Taihe Film
Investment Co. Ltd.
2001.

The film pokes fun at American film-making, the new Chinese

consumerism, and the difficulty of deciding who or what is really
Chinese.

Very popular in China, it was nominated for a Hong Kong Film

Award as Best Asian Film but received scant attention in the US.
 Fulltime Killer
Director Johnny To
creates a
hyperactive,
transnational, and
highly intertextual
tale of dueling
assasins.

Wildly popular in
China, and Hong
Kong's Oscar entry
for 2002, it got little
attention in the US
but again generated
a love/hate reaction Andy Lau poaches from El Mariachi.
among critics and Fulltime Killer, Milkyway Image Ltd.
viewers. 2001.
Enrichment vs. Corruption
Western directors' works
are “enriched” by the
addition of Chinese
elements, such as in The
Matrix or Kill Bill.

Chinese Directors often

are charged with being
“corrupted by Western
influences, losing an
“authentic” voice. They
also risk being corrupted
by capitalism or
“pandering to the
Andy Lau impersonates Clinton and
Central Gov't. offers a homage to Point Break.
Fulltime Killer, Milkyway Image Ltd.
2001.
Reactions Conditioned by
Stereotypes
In almost every case of
divided opinion, Stereotypes of
expectations of Chinese
film generally and Chinese Film:
familiarity with the genre ● Art House
● Anti-government (PRC)
determine a positive or
● B-movie shlock (Hong
negative reaction.
Kong)
In some cases, (re)viewers ● Too foreign

are attached to a ● Not foreign enough

particular definition of
authentic Chinese film,
and object to its violation.
Accounting for Divergent
Views
Do American and Chinese audiences just have
wildly different tastes? Or are we using the reel
China to represent :
● A land protected from the stress of a global culture?
● A backwards culture to support our own self-image?

● A target for our projected anxiety about the privileged

status of English and of the US?

When opinions diverge so widely and split

along national lines, the cause is almost
certainly NOT the actual content of the film.
 Persistent Stereotypes

We see stereotypes ● Still too much

continuing to afflict film insistence of political
distribution and films.
reception, ● Narrow view of an
ignorant, largely white
A continued insistence male audience, or an
on authenticity as elite white audience in
defined by most Western the US.
distributors and critics BUT
hinders our ability to ● Greater contact
even access the “reel” between different
China. viewing groups and
growing awareness
from some
distributors.
 Changes are Coming

● Online retailers offer imports and region-less DVD

players
● Filesharing = wide access to Chinese films

● Loosening regs. on the film industry in China =

collaboration
● Growing recognition of:

– diasporic communities
– China's role in the global community
– more Americans travelling to China
all lead to breaking stereotypes and questioning the
bounds of “Chineseness.”
 Are National Boundaries
Important?
The borders are dissolving . National
identity slips as transnational film-makers
and fans poach from national cultures.

Ang Lee and Heath

Ledger on the set
of Brokeback
Mountain

From the
Rottentomatoes.com
Brokeback Mountain
page.
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