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Copyright by Shu-Ching Chan 2011 The Dissertation Committee for Shu-Ching Chan Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The Bamboo Cinema: A Formal, Cultural and Industrial Analysis of Hong Kong Cinema in the 1990s Committee: Thomas G. Schatz, Supervisor Horace Newcomb Joseph Straubhaar Karin G. Wilkins Sung-Sheng Yvonne Chang The Bamboo Cinema: A Formal, Cultural and Industrial Analysis of Hong Kong Cinema in the 1990s by Shu-Ching Chan, Dip.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2011 Dedication To my mother, may she rest in peace. Acknowledgements This project would not have started without the inspiration, support and tremendous patience of my supervisor Thomas Schatz. His sense of humor has helped me get through the tough times. Professor Yvonne Chang nurtures me with food for thought, providing a veritable delicatessen across the Pacific. My committee members, Horace Newcomb, Joe Straubhaar and Karin Wilkin, who at various points visited or taught in Hong Kong, share with me their passion for travel, jokes and new ideas, making my stay at UT a pleasant one. My best friends in film sequence, of the then Hong Kong Baptist College, Rita Fung, Maria Tong and Hester Yip gave me contacts and have coordinated my interviews with the filmmakers for me. I appreciate their long time friendship, and their passion and respect for their profession. I greatly appreciate those Hong Kong filmmakers granting me formal interviews and informal chats, which were accompanied with nice food, jokes and their personal stories. I am grateful to my seniors in college, Herman Yau and Liu Damu, for telling me insider stories and being generous in their time, in order to feed me a background knowledge in the history of the Hong Kong film industry of which they are part of. Liu Damu loaned me his entire collection of Film Bi-weekly, which has helped me tremendously since I was doing most of this research at long distance. It would have been impossible to complete this project without these filmmakers and my college friends‘ input and insights. Some of their names are listed in the bibliography, but some of them were too shy to let me quote them in this dissertation. v I am touched by the dedication of my friend Elaine Chiu, who promptly came to my rescue with library research in Hong Kong when I once left an entire file on the plane. She spent hours meticulously verifying data, photocopying and scanning documents for me amidst her own exams, family responsibilities and her day job. Johnny Lam gave me his computer as a backup shortly before mine crashed. Yannie Wong, Joe Chan, Cheung Suk Yee, Hester Yip, Hans-Martin Liebing and Ben Harris gave me logistical and technical support with my interviews in Los Angeles on Hong Kong filmmakers in Hollywood. Wong Ain-ling and her research team at the Hong Kong Film Archive supported me on the Oral History project on Hong Kong film producers. Law Kar gave me a file on the connection between the Taiwan and Hong Kong film industries. He has been generous to me with his snacks, videos of old movies and the use of reference books in his office, since the time I worked with him at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Sam Ho of the Hong Kong Film Archive also gave me a file on the study of Tsui Hark‘s productions. Anne Lee of the Hong Kong Joint Publishing Company introduced to me several Hong Kong film art directors, and sent me their video reference material. Ben Harris sent me book on Hollywood women producers, and read the early draft of my paper on Hong Kong film producers. Chien-hsin Tsai read the final draft of that paper and has been generous in giving me advice. Anita Lee sent me books on Hong Kong history and women entrepreneurs. Tao Siu Tip discussed with me the authorship approach, shared with me her knowledge of Hong Kong drama theaters and the television industry. She has helped me tremendously in verifying the English names of personalities of the Hong Kong television industry. Carolyn Cunningham kept me entertained with her research on girls and technology. She kept me company with her healthy cooking and yoga exercise when I needed a supportive friend the most. Lü Yi has shared with me her vi experience about the cultural specificity of the film academy and film industry in Chinese societies. Zeng Jianmin, her husband George Garcia and her daughter Wenya have let me share their family joy when I am far away from home. Dr. Paula Ann Rogge, Hans- Martin Liebing, and Mu Jianhua have helped keep me healthy and stable to be able to get to the finish line. There are many friends, not directly involved in this project but who have been cheering me all along. I cannot list them all here, but thank them from the bottom of my heart. My supervisor at Le Grain de Seneve, Leung Hou Yeung has served as a valuable sounding board when I worked on the previous topic of my dissertation. His mentoring on children‘s literature has infused my writing in this dissertation. My editors Gordon Orris and Kelly Besecke are professional and accommodating. They have helped me in improving my writing. Charmarie Burke and Armineh Nourbakhsh helped me to get to the last step. My teacher and a genuine friend Wong Kee Chee has supported me in my work in Hong Kong, and my research projects in graduate school in the U.S. He lent me great support during trying times, and shared with me his joy in art, music and cinema. May he rest in peace. My niece Helen inspires me on my responsibility for my own happiness and helps me adjust my perspectives on life. My sisters Connie and Tournai, inheriting perseverance from our mother, have demonstrated their strength during difficult times. I am particularly grateful to Tournai. I admire her intelligence and her dedication to the family. I would not have come this far, and this project could not have been finished without her unflinching support. vii The Bamboo Cinema: A Formal, Cultural and Industrial Analysis of Hong Kong Cinema in the 1990s Publication No._____________ Shu-Ching Chan,PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2011 Supervisor: Thomas G. Schatz In the 1990s, the fact that Hong Kong cinema thrived in the world market, with both art and commercial films, is a theoretical anomaly. Despite its petite size and lack of government support and protection, it has survived both colonial administration and Hollywood domination. Hong Kong has a long history of prolific filmmaking, and has flourished during a decade full of challenges, and out of proportion to the size of the city and the industry. Hong Kong film is now recognized for its directors‟ personal style and action aesthetic. How did this happen? How did Hong Kong filmmaking develop into an efficient system that could survive the harsh conditions of its past and thrive in the competitive environment of the 1990s? Hong Kong‟s story is one of paradox and Hong Kong cinema relates that story by embracing paradox in both its industrial system and cultural ideology. This project is a formal, cultural and industrial analysis of Hong Kong cinema in its multiple contexts. Instead of replicating the Hollywood studio system or viii other national cinema models, Hong Kong cinema, like bamboo surviving by bending with the wind, has developed a flexible system adapted to its habitat, but that also simultaneously created a space for a unique style of filmmaking with a transnational perspective. I will investigate how the cinematic system worked, and how individual filmmakers devised tactics to both work within and push the limits of the system. I will explore what they reveal about the local condition I call “orphan island anxiety”, a deep sense of insecurity underneath the economic miracle, and a paradoxical state that people from a non-conventional nation state experience in an age of universal and normative ideas of the nation. The case of Hong Kong cinema will illuminate for us an industrial model substantially different from that of Hollywood, and a voice that was missing from official Sino-British talks, which reveals a cultural sensibility not found in either Hollywood or in Chinese national cinema. ix Table of Contents List of Tables .................................................................................................... xii List of Figures .................................................................................................. xiii Chapter 1 Introduction: To Live .......................................................................... 1 Chapter review ......................................................................................... 11 SECTION I THE CURIOUS CASE OF HONG KONG CINEMA ................................ 15 Chapter 2 The Blind Men‘s Moving Elephant .................................................... 18 Incognito: neglected by public and private sectors in Hong Kong ............. 19 Misrecognition: official and academic studies on Hong Kong cinema ....... 21 Chapter 3 The Duckling‘s Reflection ................................................................. 51 Cultural Studies ........................................................................................ 52 Global Media and Regional Studies .......................................................... 54 East Asian Studies .................................................................................... 57 Studies