From Kung Fu to Hip Hop

Globalization, Revolution, and Popular Culture

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by M. T. Kato

Type

Studies

Subject

Genre > Martial Arts

Keywords

Bruce Lee, social aspects, globalization, Kung Fu

Publishing date

2007

Publisher

State University of New York Press

Collection

SUNY series, Explorations in Postcolonial Studies

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 281 pages
6 x 9 inches (15.5 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-0-7914-6992-7

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Book Presentation:
Explores the revolutionary potential of Bruce Lee and hip hop culture in the context of antiglobalization struggles and transnational capitalism.

From Kung Fu to Hip Hop looks at the revolutionary potential of popular culture in the sociohistorical context of globalization. Author M. T. Kato examines Bruce Lee's movies, the countercultural aesthetics of Jimi Hendrix, and the autonomy of the hip hop nation to reveal the emerging revolutionary paradigm in popular culture. The analysis is contextualized in a discussion of social movements from the popular struggle against neoimperialism in Asia, to the antiglobalization movements in the Third World, and to the global popular alliances for the reconstruction of an alternative world. Kato presents popular cultural revolution as a mirror image of decolonization struggles in an era of globalization, where progressive artistic expressions are aligned with new modes of subjectivity and collective identity.

About the Author:
M. T. Kato is an independent scholar and activist living in Hawaii.

Press Reviews:
"Kato's terrific book provides a rich analysis not only of Bruce Lee movies, but also of the political, economic, and cultural context in which they were produced. I learned a tremendous amount from this book—particularly the very innovative linkages made between the films and East Asian political economy." — Vijay Prashad, author of Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity

"The book is extremely timely in its focus on the political potential of popular culture for sustaining old social movements and for developing new ones that cross national boundaries in the way that film and hip hop culture have." — Nitasha Sharma, Northwestern University

See the publisher website: State University of New York Press