Hong Kong Connections
Transnational Imagination in Action Cinema
Edited by Meaghan Morris, Siu Leung Li and Stephen Chan Ching-Kiu
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Book Presentation:
Since the 1960s, Hong Kong cinema has helped to shape one of the world’s most popular cultural genres: action cinema. Hong Kong action films have proved popular over the decades with audiences worldwide, and they have seized the imaginations of filmmakers working in many different cultural traditions and styles. How do we account for this appeal, which changes as it crosses national borders?Hong Kong Connections brings leading film scholars together to explore the circulation of Hong Kong cinema in Japan, Korea, India, Australia, France, and the United States, as well as its links with Taiwan, Singapore, and the Chinese mainland. In the process, this collection examines diverse cultural contexts for action cinema’s popularity and the problems involved in the transnational study of globally popular forms, suggesting that in order to grasp the history of Hong Kong action cinema’s influence we need to bring out the differences as well as the links that constitute popularity.
Contributors. Nicole Brenez, Stephen Chan Ching-kiu, Dai Jinhua, David Desser, Laleen Jayamanne, Kim Soyoung, Siu Leung Li, Adrian Martin, S. V. Srinivas, Stephen Teo, Valentina Vitali, Paul Willemen, Rob Wilson, Wong Kin-yuen, Kinnia Yau Shuk-ting, Yung Sai-shing
About the authors:
Meaghan Morris is Chair Professor of Cultural Studies and Coordinator of the Kwan Fong Cultural Research and Development Programme at Lingnan University in Hong Kong.Siu Leung Li is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong.Stephen Chan Ching-kiu is a Professor and Director of the Master of Cultural Studies Programme at Lingnan University in Hong Kong.
Press Reviews:
"[I]nsightful and well written. . . . [T]he best essays offer unique insights. . . . The volume is remarkable not only for its excellent analysis and theorizing of Hong Kong cinema, but also as a model of how to understand global cinema from local and intercultural contexts that do not exclude or disavow the influence of Hollywood yet are not centered by it. Fans will enjoy this book, but scholars will value it even more. Essential." - K. J. Wetmore Jr., Choice
"[T]his volume of essays offers something for everyone: from the fanboy to the scholar and even to those who have ever swooned while watching Chow Yun-Fat or Michelle Yeo kick some butt." - Raquel Laneri, PopMatters
"Given its timely contents and its self-awareness as a space-clearing gesture, Hong Kong Connections stands as a challenge and an inspiration to students and teachers alike." - Robert Chi, Journal of Asian Studies
"The primary strengths of this volume are its forward-looking, transnational outlook and its adoption of an interdisciplinary, non-Hollywood perspective to reconsider the nature and direction of international cultural currents. . . . Surpassing the ‘imagination’ referenced in its title, this volume successfully establishes a ‘cosmopolitan model’ (p. 13) for exploring global cinema rooted in local contexts." - Ruby Cheung, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
"As electrifying as the action cinema it illuminates, Hong Kong Connections delivers an elegantly choreographed and deadly volley of blows against the myth that global popular cinema begins and ends with Hollywood. These essays by a glittering array of leading scholars from around the world reveal Hong Kong cinema’s role in shaping other action cinemas, pioneering transnational filmmaking, and invigorating Chinese cultures. In the process, Hong Kong’s cinema becomes as firmly established as a global meeting as Hong Kong itself." - Chris Berry, coeditor of Mobile Cultures: New Media in Queer Asia
"This book examines the historical evolution of Hong Kong action cinema as well as its emergence as a transnational film genre in the era of globalization. It is the most well-organized, theoretically sophisticated, and critically engaging study of the subject that we have seen. It is a pleasure to read each of the essays, which are both erudite and interesting." - Sheldon Lu, coeditor of Chinese-language Film: Historiography, Poetics, Politics
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Action Cinema Since 2000 (2024)
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