Chinese Stars Research Articles

Caught between China and Hollywood: the transnational journey of Jing Tian in The Great Wall (2016)

ABSTRACT This article explores the transnational Chinese female stardom in the wake of the changing Sino-Hollywood relations in the 2010s, taking Jing Tian, the Chinese star who plays the female lead in the Sino-Hollywood coproduction The Great Wall (2016), as an illustrative case. It rejects the popular narrative which presents Jing’s failure to attain stardom in Hollywood as her own lack and an individual incident. Rather, it investigates the ways in which the systemic forces in Hollywood and the negotiations between the Chinese film industry and Hollywood in relation to gender, race, and (trans)nationalism may hold at bay her attempt to establish stardom in Hollywood. It examines Jing’s character and her industrial positioning through the lens of postfeminism and intersectionality. It argues that first, her persona as a ‘sinicised’ postfeminist girl hero suggests a failed negotiation between China and Hollywood, and second, her intersectional identities in the Hollywood industry place her at a disadvantage in this Sino-Hollywood collaboration. By deconstructing Jing’s failure, this article also unravels how Chinese stars were used in a disposable way by Hollywood when the box office performance of the Chinese market remained strong in the 2010s.

On the Reconstruction of Stars in High-quality Films and TV Dramas

As China has entered a rapid period, people s demand for spiritual culture has also increased, film and television industry as the main representative of spiritual culture, the output of its works has also seen a blowout growth. Behind the double growth of film and television works, the flow star can not guarantee the quality of the work, the role performance pattern, the problem of characterisation has become increasingly prominent. The success of high-quality TV dramas has promoted the improvement of the star system in China s film and television industry, so that the film and television production process has abandoned the data fetishism under the only traffic star theory, pushing the development of stars in China into the right track. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the perfection of Chinese stars in recent years from three aspects: understanding the symbolic meaning behind stars, the problems existing in flow stars and the reshaping of actors by high-quality movies and TV dramas.

Emotional complexity of fan-controlled comments: Affective labor of fans of high-popularity Chinese stars

In China, fan participation in media production is becoming more mainstream and diverse, and fan groups themselves are developing perceptible emotional attributes; thus, studies on affective labor involving fans are gradually increasing in number. Fan-controlled comments are a feature of fan culture that has received much attention due to their rapid growth and influence. This study uses sentiment analysis and keyword analysis to examine the main types of “emotions” felt by today's fans of highly popular stars and classifies them into four categories: idols, fan communities, the self, and the outside world. Both positive and negative emotions coexist. The study found that fans engage in this kind of obligatory affective labor, creating second-hand exchanges for personal spiritual enrichment, and focusing more on building and expressing emotions. In addition, as affective laborers, they gain a sense of belonging to a fan community and form group symbols because of their shared emotions and concerns. Throughout the process of controlling comments, the time and energy of the fan groups are consumed, their emotions are controlled, and their behavior is restrained; however, the immediate purpose they want to achieve is not achieved. What seems to be an active choice is a trap of alienated labor, bound, and controlled by forces.

Crossover stardom on small screens: the case of Zhang Ziyi

ABSTRACT Arguably no Chinese stars have sparked as much domestic controversy as Zhang Ziyi, nor have any achieved the same level of international recognition. Amid a growing interest in the study of East Asian stars, existing scholarship has addressed, at length, the major controversies that have surrounded Zhang Ziyi. However, little attention has been paid to the changing construction of Zhang’s star persona in recent years, during which time she has begun to assume a more active role in television and on social media platforms. This article addresses this gap in literature and explores the ways in which Zhang Ziyi has reinvented her image using emerging media practices, including making use of television genres, Weibo entries, and WeChat public accounts. Zhang’s foray into small screen entertainment is not only useful for understanding the role that television and digital media play in reconstructing film stardom, but it also showcases the drastic changes in media ecologies that have occurred over the past decade in China.

On (not) speaking English: The ‘phonic’ personae of transnational Chinese stars in the global visual network

ABSTRACTEnglish-speaking flair becomes a rubric for the complex process of star construction of Chinese film performers in the shifting trajectories of the globalized media milieu. Shortly after her name was established on the world screens with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Zhang Ziyi's inability to speak fluent English in public events and meet-the-press occasions became a point of public notice. Also, the rise of Web-based culture has exposed her linguistic persona to a new and perpetual form of scrutiny as Web users impart the images about her ‘poor’ English incessantly and seamlessly. Then, what does her changing English-speaking image suggest to her ‘Chinese’ stardom? This essay will examine the importance and implication of speaking proficient English in the star-making of Zhang on YouTube. I will argue Zhang's intertextual, accented articulations in English become part of the network of new visualities and communities and, therefore, valorize her lingua-crossing star construction. Her linguistically transformed persona will prove she is flexible enough to contend her appeal at the fringe of the Anglophone and Sinophobe cultures. By investigating Zhang's ‘phonic’ presence, this essay will, hence, shed light on the dynamics between language and stardom in the landscape of global visual exchange.

Repatriation of overseas Chinese stars in post-1997 Hong Kong cinema: Daniel Wu, a case study

ABSTRACTThis article studies Asian actors from North America and their response to the recent repatriation of overseas Chinese in post-1997 Hong Kong. The focus is on the casting, characterization and shifting star persona of the Asian American action star Daniel Wu. Although Wu is an American of mainland Chinese descent, he was initially marketed as an overseas Chinese actor and return migrant to Hong Kong. Over the course of his career, he became increasingly localized and subsequently integrated into ge-ying-shi (music-film-TV)—the intermedial star system of Hong Kong—through his increased proficiency in Cantonese, award-winning performances in high-profile action films and transnational promotion of the local (popular) culture of Hong Kong. This paper argues that there is a shift in Wu's star persona from an ideal returnee—i.e. a young overseas Chinese actor and sex symbol—to a mature, local(ized) and marquee star of the action cinema. The changes in Wu's representation arguably serve as a model for the return migration of overseas Chinese and their incorporation into post-1997 Hong Kong.

Chinese film stars

Chinese film stars

Glocalizing stardom: Internet publicity and the construction of Chow Yun-fat's transnational stardom

ABSTRACTAlong with the rising position of Asian film markets in Hollywood's global marketing strategy and the development of Chinese commercial cinema, an increasing number of Chinese actors have been recognized as ‘global’, ‘international’ or ‘transnational’ stars whose names are intended to appeal to audiences across different sections of the global film market. The rise of Chinese stars in the global film market accordingly raises the question of how the presence of these stars are used to sell films across different markets, and how their cross-border stardom should be understood in local contexts. In this article, I use Chow Yun-fat as a case study to explore these two questions. Rather than seeing such cross-border stardom as homogeneously applied to the star's public status across different film markets, I argue that in many cases the perception of a star's global status is often restricted to a certain regional and cultural space, and that the recognition of a star's global value is fragmented and plural across different market sectors.

The Past Orbit of Halley's Comet

Perturbations of the orbit of Halley's Comet over the last 28 revolutions are calculated and a parallel re-examination of Chinese records on this object made. For the calculation, the method used by Cowell and Crommelin in 1907/8 is refined in several respects. Perturbing forces in three dimensions are considered and the average perturbation in Ω is found to be very nearly + 1°·0 per revolution, much larger than the value of +0°·15 adopted previously. The contributions by Mercury and Mars are found to be by no means negligible. The perturbations by Jupiter are calculated to the second order with respect to its mass. Secular changes in the planetary orbits, and the more important periodic ones in those of Jupiter and Saturn are taken into account. The calculated perturbations are given in Table A, and the orbital elements in Table V. The time of perihelion passage, T, at each return is generally determined from observations; this redundancy of data not only provides a gauge as to how well the various returns are linked by the calculation, but also leads to an assessment of the effect on the mean motion of non-gravitational forces over the last II periods. This effect amounts to an average lengthening of the period by 4·1 days after each return. All available records, mainly Chinese ones, are re-examined with the aim of improving on the catalogue values of T. The results are in Table IV. A synopsis of traditional Chinese astronomy is given in order that Chinese records may be discussed intelligibly. Some new identifications of Chinese stars are made, and the conversion of chĭ (‘foot’) to degrees is found to be |$1\,ch\breve{i}\,=\,{1}^{^{\circ} }\cdot50\pm{0}^{^{\circ} }\cdot24$| A set of remarkably precise data for the Return of + 837 are made use of for the first time, and the three recorded novae in the same year are shown to be not connected with Halley's Comet. Agreements between recorded positions and calculated ephemerides in different returns confirm that the so-called lunar mansions are nothing less than well-defined ranges in right ascension, and that, in particular, this coordinate was observed with an accuracy of 0°·5 in the + 9th century in China. In several instances the recorded position should be understood to refer to the tail of the comet. The apparent paths during Returns of the years + 1301, + 1222, + 1066, + 837, + 295, + 218 and – 11 are shown in Fig. 2 over a background of Chinese constellations.