Yeo, Su-Anne. 2016. Transnational Screens and Asia Pacific Public Cultures: Vancouver, Toronto, and Hong Kong, 1997-2007. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/18872/ The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Goldsmiths, University of London via the following email address: [email protected]. The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. For more information, please contact the GRO team: [email protected] 1 Transnational Screens and Asia Pacific Public Cultures: Vancouver, Toronto, and Hong Kong, 1997-2007 Su-Anne YEO Thesis submitted to Goldsmiths, University of London for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2016 2 Declaration I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Name: Su-Anne Yeo Signature: __________________________________ Date: __________________________________ 3 Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible with the generosity of several organizations and many individuals both in the UK and overseas. First, I would like to acknowledge the contribution of the many people who agreed to participate in this study by being interviewed or by sharing archival materials. Their assistance has been invaluable. For financial support, I thank the Overseas Research Student Award (ORSAS), the University of London Central Research Fund, and the Daiwa Charitable Foundation of Hong Kong. I am forever indebted to my thesis supervisor, Chris Berry, who taught by example, read closely and critically, and never lost faith in my abilities, especially when I doubted myself. His unstinting commitment has seen me through to the end of my PhD journey. At Goldsmiths, I thank Zehra Arabadji, Catriona Brodie, Des Freedman, Anne Glynn, Lesley Hewings, Rachel Shepley, Richard Smith, and my second thesis supervisor, Gareth Stanton. Janet Harbord also supervised my research in its early years. I am grateful to my entire PhD cohort for their intellectual fellowship and moral support during often difficult times, most especially Yachi Chen, Lina Dencik, Kirsten Forkert, Eyal Lavi, Tereza Pavlickova, and Joanna Redden. I also want to thank Stefania Charitou, Federica Fabretti, Zindi Jong, Eleftheria Lekakis, Gabriel Menotti, and Phaedra Shanbaum. For providing me with a much needed home-away-from-home, I thank Mark Edmondson, Gina Edmondson, and Estelle, as well as Bertha Chin and Benedict Chin. 4 Last but not least, I need to acknowledge the support in all possible forms of my mother and father, my sister Su-Laine, my brother-in-law Dima, and my niece, Aria. I could not have completed this research without them. This thesis is dedicated with love to my parents. 5 Abstract Despite widespread scholarly interest in media globalization in East Asia and the Asia Pacific region, there has been very little attention paid to the circulation of independent screen media. This thesis aims to address this gap by examining three sites and processes of non-mainstream screen distribution and exhibition: a non-profit film distributor in Hong Kong, a diasporic film festival in Toronto, and a non-collecting gallery in Vancouver. Using a scavenger methodology and through empirical research, the thesis reveals how these sites have responded proactively to opportunities and threats posed by deregulation, privatization, and the rise of Asia. Unlike governments or media conglomerates, however, these sites have not been driven by competition and profit-seeking, but by a commitment to social and political transformation. The study highlights the sites’ adoption of a minor transnational strategy—a linking together of peripheral screen cultures and marginal groups to other peripheral screen cultures and marginal groups— as an alternative within globalism and regionalization. It argues that minor transnational practices depend first on “independent sole traders”— educational migrants and cultural workers who broker the movement of media within and across marginal groups—and second, on minor-to-minor distribution and exhibition circuits that are contingent and dispersed. By staging cultural connections and exchanges within and between peripheries, these sites have led to the production of new identities, such as queer Asian, and social imaginaries, such as an “imagined community of indies,” that exceed the logics of the market and the neoliberal nation-state. 6 Abbreviations APEC Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation APFC Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada CCA Canada Council for the Arts CYAP Canada’s Year of Asia-Pacific CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CIFA Chinese Independent Filmmaking Alliance CEPA Closer Economic Partnership Agreement DAAN Diasporic Asian Art Network FIAPF Fédération Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films HKADC Hong Kong Arts Development Council HKAFF Hong Kong Asian Film Festival HKAIFF Hong Kong Asian Independent Film Festival HKindieFF Hong Kong Independent Film Festival HKIFF Hong Kong International Film Festival ifva Incubator for Film and Visual Media in Asia (formerly Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards) HKLCS Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department 7 HKTEDO Hong Kong Trade and Economic Development Office INDAAR International Network for Diasporic Asian Art Research NFB National Film Board of Canada TIFF Toronto International Film Festival TRAIFF Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival VAG Vancouver Art Gallery YEC Ying E Chi 8 Contents INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 11 CHAPTER ONE: SCREEN CIRCULATION, GLOBALIZATION, AND PUBLIC CULTURE IN THE ASIA PACIFIC REGION: KEY ISSUES AND DEBATES ..... 28 THEORIZING DISTRIBUTION AND EXHIBITION: FROM INDUSTRIAL PIPELINE TO SOCIAL AND CULTURAL PRACTICE ............................................................................................... 29 THEORIZING GLOBALIZATION: FROM WORLD SYSTEM TO TRANSNATIONAL RHIZOMES ......................................................................................................................... 44 SCREEN GLOBALIZATION: FROM GLOBAL HOLLYWOOD TO PERIPHERAL CINEMAS . 56 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 65 CHAPTER TWO: PERIPHERAL SCREEN CULTURES IN TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE: METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES AND RESPONSES ....... 98 THEORETICAL CONTEXTS: SITUATING THE APPROACH ................................................. 99 A MULTI-SITED SCAVENGER METHODOLOGY ............................................................. 102 PRACTICAL ISSUES: DOING THE RESEARCH .................................................................. 107 CHAPTER THREE: SITUATING MINOR TRANSNATIONALISM WITHIN GLOBAL AND REGIONAL FLOWS: STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN CANADA AND HONG KONG .................................................................................... 125 CANADA, GLOBALIZATION, AND THE TURN TO ASIA ................................................. 126 STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN CANADA: FROM OFFICIAL MULTICULTURALISM TO CULTURAL DIVERSITY ............................................................................................... 129 STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN HONG KONG: FROM OFFICIAL EXCHANGES TO CREATIVE INDUSTRIES .................................................................................................... 137 A NEW CULTURAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR INDEPENDENT WORK .............................. 142 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 151 9 CHAPTER FOUR: A NON-PROFIT FILM DISTRIBUTOR: YING E CHI .......... 168 SITUATING MINOR TRANSNATIONALISM IN HONG KONG ......................................... 169 INDEPENDENT SOLE TRADERS AND MINOR-TO-MINOR CIRCUITS ............................. 176 AN IMAGINED COMMUNITY OF INDIES ......................................................................... 201 CHAPTER FIVE: A THEMED FILM FESTIVAL: TORONTO REEL ASIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL .......................................................................... 228 SITUATING MINOR TRANSNATIONALISM IN TORONTO ............................................... 229 INDEPENDENT SOLE TRADERS AND MINOR-TO-MINOR CIRCUITS ............................. 239 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 267 CHAPTER SIX: A NON-COLLECTING GALLERY: CENTRE A .......................... 293 SITUATING MINOR TRANSNATIONALISM IN VANCOUVER .......................................... 294 INDEPENDENT SOLE TRADERS AND MINOR-TO-MINOR CIRCUITS ............................. 303 MINOR-TO-MINOR CIRCUITS ......................................................................................... 325 A PLATFORM FOR TRANSNATIONAL DIALOGUE AND DEBATE ................................... 333 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 359 DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ............................................................................ 363 APPENDIX A: LIST OF PRIMARY SOURCES OF DOCUMENTS ....................... 379 APPENDIX B: LIST OF INTERVIEW SUBJECTS ....................................................