University Libraries

The Martial Arts Cinema of the Chinese Diaspora

In The Martial Arts Cinema of the Chinese Diaspora, Dr. Kin-Yan Szeto critically examines three of the most internationally famous martial arts film artists to arise out of the Chinese diaspora and travel far from their homelands to find commercial success in the world at large: Ang Lee, John Woo, and Jackie Chan. She posits the idea that these filmmakers' success is evidence of a cosmopolitical awareness arising from their cross-cultural ideological engagements and geopolitical displacements. Dr. Szeto demonstrates how this unique perspective allows these three filmmakers to develop and act in the transnational environment of media production, distribution, and consumption.

The book begins with a historical retrospective on Chinese martial arts films as a diasporic film genre and the transnational styles and ideologies of the filmmakers themselves. Dr. Szeto uses case studies to explore in depth how the forces of colonialism, Chinese nationalism, and Western imperialism have shaped the identities and work of Lee, Woo, and Chan. She outlines the similarities and differences between the three artists' films, especially their treatments of gender, sexuality, and power. She concludes by analyzing their films as metaphors for their working conditions in the Chinese diaspora and Hollywood, demonstrating how Lee, Woo, and Chan communicate not only with the rest of the world, but also with each other. The Martial Arts Cinema of the Chinese Diaspora investigates the transnational nature of films, the geopolitics of culture and race, and the depths of masculinity and power in movies. Szeto's interdisciplinary approach calls for nothing less than a paradigm shift in the study of Chinese diasporic filmmakers and the embodiment of cosmopolitical perspectives in the martial arts genre.