Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A diasporic reading

Cinema Journal

Volumn 43, Issue 4, 2004, Pages 18-42

  Klein, Christina ^a,b  

^a MIT MEDIA LAB   (United States)

^b Comparative Media Studies Program ^*

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 28744432717     PISSN: 00097101     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/cj.2004.0035     Document Type: Review

References (97)

1. Variety, http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout= filmsearch_exact&dept=Film& movieID=1261)
2. "2001 Year-End Report, Market Research," Videobusiness, http://www.videobusiness.com/yer2001_top_sellers_overall.asp and http://www.videobusiness.com/yer2001_top_renters_overall.asp
3. Stephen Teo, "'We Kicked Jackie Chan's Ass!' An Interview with James Schamus," Senses of Cinema, www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/13/schamus. html
4. Crouching Tiger took home Oscars for best foreign-language film, cinematography, art direction, and original musical score. It was also nominated for best picture, director, costume, editing, song, and screenplay based on previously published material
5. On Crouching Tiger's effect on the American film market, see Ramin Zahed, "Foreign Lingo Pix: When It Rains, It Pours," Variety, December 16, 2001, http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=awardcentral2002&content= jumpo& nav=news&jump=article&articleid=VR1117857382&categoryid= 1174&cs= 1&query=ramin+and+zahed&display=ramin+zahed
6. See Stuart Hall, "Old and New Identities, Old and New Ethnicities," in Anthony D. King, ed., Culture, Globalization, and the World System (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 41-68
7. "A Conversation with Ang Lee and James Schamus," press release, Magic Lantern Group, www.magiclanternpr.com/films/crouching.html
8. James Schamus, "The Polyglot Task of Writing the Global Film," New York Times, November 5, 2000, 2A
9. and Reed Martin, "Studios Bank on Overseas Box Office," USA Today, December 13, 2000, D6
10. Henry Chu, "'Crouching Tiger' Can't Hide from Bad Reviews in China," Los Angeles Times, January 29, 2001, A1; "A Conversation with Ang Lee and James Schamus"
11. and Philip Kemp, "Stealth and Duty," Sight and Sound, December 2000, http://www.bfi.org.uk/siglitandsound/2000_12/stealth_duty.html
12. Salman Rushdie, "Can Hollywood See the Tiger?" New York Times, March 9, 2001, A19
13. Derek Elley, "Asia to 'Tiger': Kung-Fooey," Variety, February 7, 2001, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117793240?categoryid=1019&cs= l&query= kung%2Dfooey&display=kung%2Dfooey
14. Chu, "'Crouching Tiger' Can't Hide from Bad Reviews"; Jaime Ee, "Good on You, Ang Lee," Business Times of Singapore, February 16, 2001, EL2
15. Pauline Chen, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Cineaste 26, no. 4 (fall 2001 ): 71
16. and Stephen Teo, "Love and Swords: The Dialectics of Martial Arts Romance," Senses of Cinema, www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/00/ll/ crouching.html. Historians debated the historical accuracy of the film on the H-World electronic discussion list, http://www.h-net.org/world/, during February 2001 ("I shudder to think of it used as historical teaching material," Ralph Crozier, University of Victoria, February 23, 2001; "It's great fun to watch, even if it isn't 'authentic,'" Peter Perdue, MIT, February 15, 2001)
17. Aihwa Ong, Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999), 4
18. For an example of the domination-resistance model, see Benjamin Barber, Jihad vs. McWorld (New York: Times Books, 1995)
19. for a rebuttal of the cultural imperialism thesis, see John Tomlinson, Cultural Imperialism: A Critical Introduction (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991)
20. On globalization as a series of transnational flows, see the essay "Disjuncture and Difference," in Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 27-47
21. On theories of diaspora and diasporic culture, see Kachig Tololyan, "The Nation-State and Its Others," Diaspora 1, no. 1 (spring 1991): 3-7
22. William Safran, "Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return," Diaspora, 1, no. 1 (spring 1991): 83-99
23. Kachig Tololyan, "Rethinking Diaspora(s): Stateless Power in the Transnational Moment," Diaspora 5, no. 1 (spring 1996): 3-36
24. William Safran, "Comparing Diasporas: A Review Essay," Diaspora 8, no. 3 (winter 1999): 255-91
25. James Clifford, "Diasporas," in Routes: Travel and Transculturation in the Late Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), 244-77
26. Robin Cohen, Global Diasporas: An Introduction (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997)
27. Vijay Mishra, "The Diasporic Imaginary," Textual Practice 10, no. 1 (spring 1996): 421-47
28. Gerard Chaliand and Jean-Pierre Rageau, The Penguin Atlas of Diasporas (New York: Penguin, 1995)
29. and John Durham Peters, "Exile, Nomadism, and Diaspora: The Stakes of Mobility in the Western Canon," in Hamid Naficy, ed., Home, Exile, Homeland: Film, Media, and the Politics of Place (New York: Routledge, 1999), 17-41
30. For a different model of diasporic cinema than the one I propose here, see Naficy, "Between Rocks and Hard Places: The Interstitial Mode of Production in Exilic Cinema," in Home, Exile, Homeland, 125-47
31. and Naficy, An Accented Cinema: Diasporic and Exilic Filmmaking (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001)
32. Ang Lee, "Foreword," in James Schamus, Ride with the Devil (New York: Faber and Faber, 1999), ix
33. Quoted in Brook Larmer, "A Director's China Dream," Newsweek, Pacific ed., July 17, 2000, 60
34. Quoted in Rick Lyman, "Crouching Memory, Hidden Heart," New York Times, March 9, 2001, B27
35. Quoted in Winnie Chung, "A Roots Trip with a Kick," Asiaweek, July 21, 2000, 36
36. Clifford, "Diasporas," 269
37. Tololyan, "Rethinking Diaspora(s)," 15
38. On the Chinese diaspora, see Lynn Pan, Sons of the Yellow Emperor: A History of the Chinese Diaspora (New York: Kodansha International, 1990)
39. Aihwa Ong and Donald M. Nomini, eds., Ungrounded Empires: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Transnationalism (New York: Routledge, 1997)
40. Ong, Flexible Citizenship
41. Stuart Cunningham and John Sinclair, eds., Floating Lives: The Media and Asian Diasporas (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001)
42. Wang Gungwu, China and the Chinese Overseas (Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1991)
43. and Ien Ang, "Can One Say No to Chineseness? Pushing the Limits of the Diasporic Paradigm," in Rey Chow, ed., Modern Chinese Literary and Cultural Studies in the Age of Theory (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2000), 281-300
44. Oren Moverman, "The Angle on Ang Lee," Interview, September 1997, 64-68
45. Chris Berry, "Taiwanese Melodrama Returns with a Twist in The Wedding Banquet," Cinemaya 21 (autumn 1993): 52-54
46. and Murray A. Rubinstein, ed., Taiwan: A New History (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1999)
47. Jennifer Chiu, "Ang Lee," Free China Journal, February 26, 1993, www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/7-av/anglee/al_1.htm
48. Richard Natale, "Helmer Adds Eastern Touch to Western World," Variety, August 26, 1999, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117755085? categoryid=13&cs=l&query= helmer+and+adds+and+eastern&display= helmer+adds+eastern
49. Ann Hornaday, "A Directors Trip from Salad Days to Banquet," New York Times, August 1, 1993, sec. 2
50. Jim Henry, "Ang Lee," in Helen Zia and Susan B. Gall, eds., Notable Asian Americans (New York: Gale Research, 1995), 180-81
51. Chiu, "Ang Lee"; and "President Chen Meets with Ang Lee and Lee's Father," press release, Office of the President of the Republic of China, April 24, 2001, www.president.gov.tw/php-bin/docset/showenews
52. Quoted in Larmer, "A Director's China Dream."
53. Quoted in Lyman, "Crouching Memory; Hidden Heart."
54. James Schamus, interview with the author, November 16, 2001
55. Lau Shing-Hon, "Introduction," The Fourth Hong Kong International Film Festival: A Study of the Hong Kong Martial Arts Film (Hong Kong: Urban Council, 1980), 3
56. This capsule history of the martial arts film is drawn from David Bordwell, "Hong Kong Martial Arts Cinema," in Ang Lee et al., eds., Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A Portrait of the Ang Lee Film (New York: Newmarket Press, 2000), 14-17
57. More complete histories can be found in The Fourth Hong Kong International Film Festival; The Fifth Hong Kong International Film Festival: A Study of the Hong Kong Swordplay Film (1945-1980) (Hong Kong: Urban Council, 1981)
58. Stephen Teo, Hong Kong Cinema: The Extra Dimension (London: BFI Publishing, 1997)
59. David Bordwell, Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000)
60. and James J. Y. Liu, The Chinese Knight-Errant (London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1967)
61. Teo, Hong Kong Cinema, 14-15, 26-27, 49, 88
62. For instance, Chang Cheh's One-Armed Swordsman (1967), which is one of the landmark "new-style" wu xia films, appropriated elements from the British James Bond films, the Zatoichi series of Japanese samurai movies, Chuck Connors's American TV series Broken Sabre (1965), and perhaps even John Sturges's Bad Day at Black Rock, the 1955 Hollywood western featuring Spencer Tracy as a one-armed World War II veteran who is implausibly adept at judo. "Interview with Qiu Gangjian," in The Fifth Hong Kong International Film Festival, 207-10
63. Teo, Hong Kong Cinema, 59, 98-99. These are the American titles for Bruce Lee's movies; outside the United States, the films were released in English as Fist of Fury, The Big Boss, and The Way of the Dragon
64. Quoted in Chung, "A Roots Trip with a Kick."
65. Quoted in "Getting a Tiger to Pounce," Asiaweek, June 2, 2000, 43
66. Quoted in Moverman, "The Angle on Ang Lee," 68
67. quoted in Henry, "Ang Lee," 180; quoted in Dave McNary, "Lee's 'Hidden' Talents," Variety, December 7, 2000, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117790181?categoryid=13&cs=1&query= lee%27s+and+hidden+and+talents&display=lee%27s+liidden+talents
68. "Peter Pau, HKSC," International Cinematographer's Guild, www.cameraguild.com/awards/pau/html
69. "Tim Yip," Internet Movie Database, http://us.imdb.com
70. James R. Oestreich, "The Sound of New Music Is Often Chinese: A New Contingent of American Composers," New York Times, April 1, 2001, 30
71. "Yo-Yo Ma," http://www.yo-yoma.com
72. "Coco Lee," www.cocolee.org
73. "Ma Xiao Hui" www.culture.sh.cn/scibchtm/whrs/music_dancing/ EMXH.html
74. Cohen, Global Diasporas, 175
75. Wade Major, "Hollywood's Asian Strategy," Transpacific, March 1997, 24-35
76. Rana Foroohar, "Hurray for Globowood," Newsweek, Atlantic ed., May 27, 2002, 51
77. Richard Corliss, "Yuen Wo-ping: Martial Master," Time Asia, February 19, 2001, http://www.time.com/time/asia/arts/magazine/0,9754,99024,00. html
78. Lee, quoted in Kemp, "Stealth and Duty."
79. The discussion of these two scenes is meant to suggest rather than exhaust Yuen's repertoire and the ways that Crouching Tiger draws on it; there are many other types of fight scenes that are typical of Yuen Wo-ping's style
80. Ma's Silk Road Project - a program of concerts, exhibitions, festivals, and educational initiatives - explores the traffic in ideas and music that took place along the ancient trade route that connected East Asia and Europe across the deserts of Central Asia and the Middle East. See Michael Church, "From Africa to the Steppes of Asia," London Independent, January 19, 2002, 16
81. James Oestreich, "A Multicultural Project Takes a High Road, the Silk Road," New York Times, October 25, 2000, E1
82. and David Wright, "Next Stop along the Old Silk Road: Persia," New York Times, March 11, 2001, sec. 2. Tan Dun's "Marco Polo" fuses elements of Peking opera, European classical music, Gregorian chants, Tibetan harmonics, and Italian opera in an evocation of the Silk Road's most legendary traveler. See www.schirmer.com/composers/tan_marco_polo.html. The ethnoscape of the Chinese diaspora is not the only way to explain Crouching Tiger's particular collection of talent, however. One must also consider the " financescape" constituted by the Japanese entertainment conglomerate Sony, various branches of which financed and distributed the film. Not coincidentally, a number of the musicians who worked on the film are under contract with Sony. Yo-Yo Ma and Tan Dun record exclusively with Sony Classical, which has also recorded work by erhu player Ma Xiao Hui, while CoCo Lee has released eight of her twelve albums through Sony Music's pop division. As much as the inclusion of these artists makes sense in terms of the lateral axes of diasporic affiliation, it also makes sense in terms of corporate synergy; in which one branch of a media conglomerate promotes the artists from other divisions
83. Clifford, "Diasporas," 251, 255. Robin Cohen emphasizes the positive and creative aspects of diaspora. Cohen, Global Diasporas, 4
84. James Clifford, "Traveling Cultures," in Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, and Paula A. Treichler, eds., Cultural Studies (New York: Routledge, 1992), 96-112
85. Robin Cohen makes this point about diasporas and cultural sensitivity in Global Diasporas, 170
86. Quoted in Devin Gordon, "It's the Year of the Dragon," Newsweek, December 4, 2000, 60, and "A Conversation with Ang Lee and James Schamus."
87. Teo, "'We Kicked Jackie Chan's Ass!'" and Bordwell, Planet Hong Kong, 115-29
88. Lee and Schamus thought consciously about the musical as a model for what they wanted to do. Lee, in describing the generic combination of the film, said: "It seems to me that martial arts didn't want to get along with drama very well.... It's more like a musical." Quoted in K. D. Shirkani, "'Tiger' Burn Bright," Variety, October 12, 2000, http://www.variety. com/vstory/VR1117787642?categoryid=38&cs=1&query= k%2E+and+d%2E+and+shirkani&display=k%2E+d%2E+shirkani. Schamus, in an interview with the author, said that they had the musical consciously in their minds as they were making the film. Their interest in the musical extends to potential future projects, as well; they have considered developing a romantic musical comedy based loosely on Alain Resnais's Same Old Story (1997) and inspired by Li Hanxiang's The Love Eterne (1963). See also Teo, ""We Kicked Jackie Chan's Ass!"
89. The structural model of the musical that is used here and in the following paragraphs is based on Rick Altaman, The American Film Musical (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987)
90. Quoted in Gordon, "It's the Year of the Dragon."
91. Teo, Hong Kong Cinema, 29-39
92. "Zheng Peipei," in The Fifth Hong Kong International Film Festival, 238
93. and Cheng Pei-pei, "From the Shaw Brothers Films to My Role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," presentation at conference, "Constructing Pan-Chinese Cultures: Globalism and the Shaw Brothers Cinema," University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, October 2-4, 2003
94. Chu, "'Crouching Tiger' Can't Hide from Bad Reviews in China."
95. Quoted in Mark Landler, "Lee's 'Tiger' Celebrated Everywhere but Home," New York Times, February 27, 2000, E1
96. Schamus, quoted in Teo, "'We Kicked Jackie Chan's Ass!'"
97. Steve Rose, "'The Film Is So Slow - It's Like Grandma Telling Stories," The Guardian, February 13, 2001