Transnational Imagination Research Articles

Transnational imagination in action cinema: Hong Kong and the making of a global popular culture

Taking action cinema as an example, this paper outlines a historical approach to the transnational study of globally popular cultural forms. Action cinema has long had a complex economy in which Hollywood not only trades stars, styles and narratives with the hybrid culture of Hong Kong cinema itself, but draws on a vast ‘direct to tape’ industry significantly based in East Asia. The paper outlines a Hong Kong‐based approach to two earlier phases in the history of action: the ‘international co‐production’ as an industrially innovative form (1973–85), and the golden age of the ‘direct to tape’ industry enabled by the rapid spread of video technology (1985–93). Focusing on the latter, it suggests that the global uptake by filmmakers of a ‘contact’ narrative and an ethic of emulation taken from Hong Kong cinema allowed direct‐to‐video action to address issues of social class in emotionally complex ways.

Taiwanese Triads in the Transnational Imagination

Gina Marchetti argues that Edward Yang's Mahjong and Hou Hsiaohsien's Good-Bye South, Good-Bye plays off the Taiwanese gangster culture against the international youth subcultures in order to negotiate national identity.

Leaving China: Media, Migration, and Transnational Imagination. Wanning Sun

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsLeaving China: Media, Migration, and Transnational Imagination. Wanning Sun Louisa ScheinLouisa Schein Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The China Journal Volume 51Jan., 2004 Published on behalf of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/3182158 Views: 9Total views on this site Copyright 2004 The China JournalPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Book Review: Leaving China: Media, Migration and Transnational Imagination

Book Review: Leaving China: Media, Migration and Transnational Imagination

Review: Leaving China: Media, Migration, and Transnational Imagination

Review: Leaving China: Media, Migration, and Transnational Imagination

Spectacles of Modernity: Transnational Imagination and Local Hegemonies in Neoliberal Buenos Aires

For the first-time visitor, a walk around Buenos Aires can be a bit like entering a parallel universe. Argentina's capital is located deep within South America, far from most major cities11 hours by plane from Chicago, U.S.A., and 14.5 hours from London, England. But it feels much closer. The city's streets are filled with cell phone toting locals decked in the latest U.S. and European fashions. Gleaming skyscrapers tower over grand, Parisian-style boulevards, where sleek, expensive cars cruise through town.

Women in the city: Mobility, television and the choices of becoming modern

This paper looks at two films by Chinese directors from the last decade, Zhou Xiaowen's Ermo (1994) and Zhang Yimou's Not One Less (1998). The first film details the experience of a rural woman who makes a journey to the city and subsequently returns with the prize of a television set; the second tells of a village girl working as a relief teacher who turns to television in order to track down a missing student. The author believes that these films highlight a paradox in China's rush to embrace modernity, and a disjunction between mobility, modernity and transnational imagination.

Action and Transnational Cinema

A review of Meaghan Morris, Siu Leung and Stephen Chan Ching-kiu (eds), Hong Kong Connections: Transnational Imagination in Action Cinema (Duke University Press, Durham and London, 2005).