Cultural Control and Globalization in Asia
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017.qxd 9/29/2006 2:28 PM Page 1 Batch number: 1 CHECKLIST (must be completed before press) (Please cross through any items that are not applicable) Front board: Spine: Back board: ❑ Title ❑ Title ❑ ISBN ❑ Subtitle ❑ Subtitle ❑ Barcode ❑ Author/edited by ❑ Author/edited by Laikwan Pang IN ASIA AND GLOBALIZATION CONTROL CULTURAL ❑ Series title ❑ Extra logo if required ❑ Extra logo if required Cultural Control and General: ❑ Book size Globalization in Asia ❑ Type fit on spine Copyright, piracy, and cinema CIRCULATED Date: SEEN BY DESK EDITOR: REVISE NEEDED Initial: Date: APPROVED FOR PRESS BY DESK EDITOR Initial: Date: Laikwan Pang ,!7IA4BISBN 978-0-415-35201-7 Routledge Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia www.routledge.com ï an informa business PC4 Royal Demy B-format Spine back edge Laik-FM.qxd 16/11/05 3:15 PM Page i Cultural Control and Globalization in Asia When does inspired creativity become plagiarism? What is the difference between video piracy and free trade? Globalization has made these hot button issues today, and Pang Laikwan’s Cultural Control and Globalization in Asia shows us why. Her analyses of, for example, stylized violence in the production of an Asian cinematic identity and Kill Bill’s copying of it versus attempts to control copying of DVDs of Kill Bill, are vivid and vital reading for anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping contemporary Asian cinematic culture. Chris Berry, Professor of Film and Television Studies, Goldsmiths College, University of London This book makes a valuable contribution to discussions of global film culture. Through an original exploration of the role of “copying” in Asian (and American) cinema, Pang offers us new ways to think about issues ranging from copyright to the relations between global and local cinematic production. And through an equally original discussion of “violence” in cinema, Pang opens up a new perspective on the problem of the relations between images and practices of violence. It will be a welcome addition to those trying to “globalize” the study of media. Lawrence Grossberg, Morris Davis Distinguished Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies, University of North Carolina This book challenges the prevailing view of cinema culture, that Hollywood and the US creates, produces, and exports, with other countries importing, modifying, and sometimes pirating “original” American work. Instead the book challenges the construct of the so-called original ideas, which underpin the moneymaking activities of the creative industries, and for which ownership is secured through copyright. Culture is made up of, and constantly renewed through, processes of copying, which is particularly prominent in today’s entertainment culture reinforced by globalization and capitalism. This book introduces a truly interdisciplinary approach to study issues related to copyright in contemporary popular culture, particularly in relation to the current development of Asian cinema, and explores how copyright is appropriated to regulate culture. It examines the many meanings and practices pertaining to “copying” in the cinema, demonstrating the dynamics between globalization’s desire for cultural control and cinema’s own resistance to such manipulation. The book considers especially the cinema of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and film “piracy” in these places and other Asian countries, to show that ideas of cultural ownership and copyright are not as straightforward as they may at first seem, and that copyright is a highly contested realm in which cultural control is exercised and battled. Laikwan Pang is Associate Professor at the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Laik-FM.qxd 8/11/05 9:55 AM Page ii Routledge Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia Series editor: Stephanie Hemelryk Donald Institute for International Studies, University of Technology, Sydney Editorial Board: Devleena Ghosh University of Technology, Sydney Yingjie Guo University of Technology, Sydney K.P. Jayasankar Unit for Media and Communications, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay Vera Mackie University of Melbourne Anjali Monteiro Unit for Media and Communications, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay Gary Rawnsley University of Nottingham Ming-yeh Rawnsley University of Nottingham Jing Wang (MIT) The aim of this series is to publish original, high-quality work by both new and established scholars in the West and the East, on all aspects of media, culture and social change in Asia. 1 Television Across Asia Television industries, programme formats and globalisation Edited by Albert Moran and Michael Keane 2 Journalism and Democracy in Asia Edited by Angela Romano and Michael Bromley 3 Cultural Control and Globalization in Asia Copyright, piracy, and cinema Laikwan Pang 4 Conflict, Terrorism and the Media in Asia Edited by Benjamin Cole Laik-FM.qxd 8/11/05 9:55 AM Page iii Cultural Control and Globalization in Asia Copyright, piracy, and cinema Laikwan Pang Laik-FM.qxd 8/11/05 9:55 AM Page iv First published 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2006 Laikwan Pang Typeset in Garamond by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0–415–35201–0 Laik-FM.qxd 8/11/05 9:55 AM Page v To KC Laik-FM.qxd 8/11/05 9:55 AM Page vi Laik-FM.qxd 8/11/05 9:55 AM Page vii Contents Acknowledgments viii Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1 Expressions, originality, and fixation 16 2 Copyright’s limits and ethics 31 3 Violence and New Asian Cinema 47 4 Copying Kill Bill 63 5 Movie piracy as a technological threat to Hollywood 80 6 The despair of Chinese cinema 98 Notes 117 Bibliography 121 Index 135 Laik-FM.qxd 8/11/05 9:55 AM Page viii Acknowledgments The book began as a casual conversation with Stephanie Hemelryk Donald two years ago. I had been interested in issues of movie piracy, but had not yet attempted any- thing more ambitious than individual articles. Stephanie, and later Peter Sowden of Routledge, gave me the strongest encouragement to develop my discrete ideas into a book-length study. Without their support, this book might never have been written. Despite its published form, the book, I have to admit, is still a work in progress. One of my aims is to introduce a truly interdisciplinary approach to study intellec- tual property issues in contemporary cinema, and the related discussions recorded in this small book are best seen as reflections of a learning experience. This learning experience is built on help from many other people. I have to thank my research assis- tants, little joe and Felix Shum, who have aided my research at different stages in a number of important ways. My most sincere thanks go to those friends and scholars who generously gave their time to read and contribute constructive comments to the earlier drafts of my chapters: James Steintrager, Chris Connery, Arif Dirlik, Chua Beng Huat, Jon Solomon, Yu Xingzhong, and Mireille Rosello. I also want to thank the anonymous reviewers of Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Social Text, boundary 2, and Culture, Theory and Critique who showed me the blind spots and flawed argu- ments of my earlier writings. Other scholars and friends who have supplied informa- tion and corrected mistakes at different states of my writing include Darrell Davis, Charles Leary, Dai Jinhua, and David Desser. I thank their generous sharing; all final mistakes, are, of course, mine. I am indebted to Rey Chow and Chris Berry for their scholarships and friendships – their encouragement has meant much to me. I am also thankful to my wonderful students and colleagues at The Chinese University of Hong Kong who make my teaching and research joyful. Among them, I am grateful to K.Y. Wong, Pan-chiu Lai, Leo Ou-fan Lee, Archie Lee, Ming-yan Lai, Natalia Chan, Lai Chi Tim, and Thomas Luk for their continual support and generous shar- ing of scholarship; I thank my sharp and diligent postgraduate students who strug- gled with me through readings that shaped my own scholarship. I would specifically like to thank Angela Wai-ching Wong, whose friendship I can always count on, and whose kindness to her colleagues and students I strive to emulate. For editing and publication assistance I must thank my copyeditor Dawn Ollila for her elegant work smoothing over my bumpy non-native English in the manuscript’s early stages; once again I thank Stephanie Hemelryk Donald and Laik-FM.qxd 8/11/05 9:55 AM Page ix Acknowledgments ix Peter Sowden, who have given me the most professional and generous editorial and scholarly advice. I also thank John Clement and his staff, whose timely and professional works in the final production period are most appreciated. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following sources to reprint material in this book in edited form: Chapter 3: “New Asian Cinema and Its Circulation of Violence,” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 17. 1 (Spring 2005): 159–87. Chapter 4: “Copying Kill Bill,” Social Text 83 (Summer 2005). Chapter 5: “Mediating the Ethics of Technology: Hollywood and Movie Piracy,” Culture, Theory and Critique 45.