Shaw Brothers' bangpian: global Bondmania, cosmopolitan dreaming and cultural nationalism

Abstract

The focus of this essay are Shaw Brothers’ bangpian: Mandarin action movies largely inspired by James Bond (bang) movies (pian). I argue that it is better to think of bangpian not simply as passive and disengaged imitations of Bond movies but as Hong Kong films manifesting a cosmopolitan yet localized, active and interested participation in global Bondmania. Further to this ‘cosmo-localization’ thesis, the essay explores the social and cultural significance of bangpian in the context of the cosmopolitan dreaming and cultural nationalism of the Shaw Brothers’ studio-driven ‘go global’ push in the 1960s. It further posits that despite the Bond movies’ influences, bangpian, while rooted in the localized imaginaries of cultural China, aspires to a cosmopolitan mongrelization, creolization and hybridization, promising a cosmo-localized individual heroism and upward mobility to consumers of such films. Finally it suggests that this genre of crime thrillers represents a contemporary update of wuxiapian (martial chivalry films), holding a particular appeal for ‘third-culture kids’. ‘Third-culture kids’ marked a generational break in the erstwhile British colony of Hong Kong: they grew up away from their parent's birth culture, but were in contact with varied local and cosmopolitan cultures that flowed in, and through, that territory during the postwar era.