Chinese Face/Off : The Transnational Popular Culture of Hong Kong / Kwai-Cheung Lo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lo, Kwai-Cheung.

Series:

Popular culture and politics in Asia Pacific

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture--China--Hong Kong.

Popular culture.

Hong Kong (China)--Civilization--21st century.

Hong Kong (China).

Hong Kong (China)--Civilization--Foreign influences.

China--Hong Kong.

Physical Description:

282 pages ; 23 cm.

Other Title:

Transnational Popular Culture of Hong Kong

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2005]

Summary:

Jackie Chan's high-flying stunts, giant pandas, and even the unintentionally hilarious English subtitles that often accompany Hong Kong's films are among the many targets of Kwai-Cheung Lo's in-depth study of Hong Kong popular culture. Drawing on current concepts of globalization as well as the theories of Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Zizek, Chinese Face/Off explores the way in which fantasy operates in relation to ethnic and national identity. The book offers a critical perspective for approaching the question of cultural otherness by problematizing what it means to be Chinese and explaining how Hong Kong popular culture serves as an imaginary screen for its many compatriots seeking to understand what it means to be Chinese in a global age. Examining topics including film, newspaper culture, theme parks, and kung-fu comics as well as the interaction of the Hong Kong film industry with Hollywood, Lo uncovers Hong Kong's importantly transnational identity defined in terms of complex relationships with mainland China, other diasporic communities (like Taiwan), and the West. Language and Literature at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Contents:

Introduction: the Chineseness of Hong Kong's transnational culture in today's world

I. From voice to words and back in Chinese identification

Much ado about the ordinary in newspaper column and book culture

Leftovers of the film and television subtitles in a transnational culture

II. Image is everything:

Hong Kong muscles and the sublime Chinese subjectivity

Transnationalization of the local in a circular structure

Charlie Chan reborn as Jackie Chan in Hollywood-Hong Kong representations

Racial passing and face swapping in the wild, wild west

Tigers crouch and dragons hide in new trans-Chinese cinema

III. A show boat to China

Giant panda, Mickey Mouse and other transnational objects of fantasy in theme park Hong Kong.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references [255]-273) and index.

ISBN:

025202978X

0252072286

OCLC:

56086196