Chungking Express
Journal of Chinese Cinemas Volume 3 Number 2 © 2009 Intellect Ltd
Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/jcc.3.2.163/1
Made in China, sold in the United States, and vice versa - transnational 'Chinese'
cinema between media capitals
Yiman Wang University of California,Santa Cruz
Abstract
This articleconsiders the reconfigurationof 'Chinese' cinema in the international media capitals. By analysing the US marketing of Wong Kar Wai's Chungking
Express and Zhang Yimou's Hero, both mediated by Quentin Tarantino,I emphasize Tarantino's role in facilitating a border-crossing eeding loop of production, f exhibition and reception. This is crystallizedin the success of DreamWork's Kung
Fu Panda. The three films demonstrate a switch from made in China, sold in the
United States to the reverse direction. The completion of the feeding loop requires that we re-recognize 'Chinese' cinema as cinema made with 'Chinese elements' that are dissociatedfrom a geographicallocation or national identity, and are consequently extracted, appropriated nd produced by internationalmedia capitals. a What makes Chinese cinema 'Chinese'? What is not so 'Chinese' about
Chinese cinema? To what extent does foreignized 'Chinese' cinema contribute to its transnationalization? I explore these questions in this study of transnational translation, exhibition, reception and production of contemporary Chinese cinema.
I emphasize the importance of re-recognizing Chinese cinema, which means to problematize the reifying epistemological model fixated on the subject-object, Self-Other binary, and to refocus on their interweaving transactions and mutual constitution. In the context of exhibiting Chinese cinema to the western audience, it means to study the role of western exhibition in reconstituting Chinese cinema. The border-crossing feeding loop of cinematic address, response and recalibration constitutes the very conditions for transnational Chinese cinema. Importantly, the
Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/jcc.3.2.163/1
Made in China, sold in the United States, and vice versa - transnational 'Chinese'
cinema between media capitals
Yiman Wang University of California,Santa Cruz
Abstract
This articleconsiders the reconfigurationof 'Chinese' cinema in the international media capitals. By analysing the US marketing of Wong Kar Wai's Chungking
Express and Zhang Yimou's Hero, both mediated by Quentin Tarantino,I emphasize Tarantino's role in facilitating a border-crossing eeding loop of production, f exhibition and reception. This is crystallizedin the success of DreamWork's Kung
Fu Panda. The three films demonstrate a switch from made in China, sold in the
United States to the reverse direction. The completion of the feeding loop requires that we re-recognize 'Chinese' cinema as cinema made with 'Chinese elements' that are dissociatedfrom a geographicallocation or national identity, and are consequently extracted, appropriated nd produced by internationalmedia capitals. a What makes Chinese cinema 'Chinese'? What is not so 'Chinese' about
Chinese cinema? To what extent does foreignized 'Chinese' cinema contribute to its transnationalization? I explore these questions in this study of transnational translation, exhibition, reception and production of contemporary Chinese cinema.
I emphasize the importance of re-recognizing Chinese cinema, which means to problematize the reifying epistemological model fixated on the subject-object, Self-Other binary, and to refocus on their interweaving transactions and mutual constitution. In the context of exhibiting Chinese cinema to the western audience, it means to study the role of western exhibition in reconstituting Chinese cinema. The border-crossing feeding loop of cinematic address, response and recalibration constitutes the very conditions for transnational Chinese cinema. Importantly, the