Ang Lees 'Chinese Authenticity' in his Transnational Films - Essay Example

?Ang Lee’s 'Chinese Authenti in his Transnational Films Using a translational approach, Ang Lee’s, the Chinese movie director, has produced Chinese martial arts films that have become successful in the movie theatres. These internationalized/hybridized films are appreciated for their aesthetic merits. Take for example his 2000 ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ film. The film was produced in collaboration with the US counterparts and has received a lot of attention and applauding among the American movie lovers. The movie has sold more in the American film market than the Chinese film market. ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ has received criticisms by Chinese audience and film scholars concerning its authenticity as a Chinese martial arts film. Looking at the film, its settings and the locations are all Chinese and its source of material is a famous series of Chinese pulp novels of the early 20th century. Yuen Wong-Ping’s martial arts chemotherapy use in the film is an excellent tradition of cinema in Hong Kong. In addition, all its actors are ethnically Chinese including major stars in East Asia. However, despite all these features, the Chinese audiences do not seem to connect to Ang Lee’s vision. They feel that the film does not reflect Chinese culture. Criticisms According to Wang and Yeh (175), Chinese audience claim that the film contains all that is Chinese as well as exotic identity. Elements of westernization are present in the film despite a total exclusion of West form in the film’s narrative. Chinese culture is a traditional culture and therefore it is designed to stability unlike the western culture designed for change and growth. However, Ang Lee has made a blending of Western psychological drama and Eastern fiction hence making the movie hybridized. Chinese culture is a fictional one yet Ang Lee’s ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ has some emotional attachment due to the styles employed in the film. Critics feel that the film should not have contained elements of westernization for it to qualify as a Chinese film. The film has failed to be a symbol of Chinese culture due to the intercultural viewpoint of Ang Lee. For example Ang Lee has also failed to bring out actual Chinese values in the film. Instead, he has made a mix up of the Chinese and western values in the film by allowing some of the characters to poses and capitalize on western cultural values. In the western culture, the pursuit of happiness and individualism are highly valued. On the contrary, Chinese culture values morality and collectivism over individuality, and condemns the pursuit of personal happiness at the expense of others. Taking Jen as an example, the western viewers are more likely to praise her because of her qualities of strong will, independence and strength. They are also likely to perceive her as being a free person. Coming to the Chinese audience, their perception of Jen definitely differs because of the way she brings out her characters of strong will, independence and strength contradicts the Chinese cultural expectations. Holding to a strong Confucian point of view, the Chinese have criticized her for being excessively cunning and morally corrupt. This is opposed to their views on Sulian whom they say she is noble and mature enough to control her feelings. According to them, this is proper of Chinese people (Wang and Yeh 177). Some audiences have complained that the use of special effects made the work too look fake and hence a misrepresentation of the actual situation in the Chinese culture and actual Chinese Kung Fu. The movie has been produced as a Chinese martial art film. This means that the language used by he actors, including the accent, should be clearly understandable to Chinese-speaking audience. However, the accent of the leading actors bothers some Chinese-speaking audience. All the four main actors used varied accents for example Chang Chen spoke using a Taiwanese accent. Ang Lee has also been criticized by insisting on the use of Mandarin yet some of the actors were not well versed with it for example Chow and Yeoh. Other critics say that the subject matter goes beyond the Chinese culture for example Ang Lee has crafted Taoist philosophy and Chinese mythology. Ang Lee has also crafted in some aspects that are more characteristic of western sensibilities and ideals. From this mix up, one is bound to ask, is Ang Lee’s ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ film a Chinese, Taiwanese, America, Chinese American or a Taiwanese American film? As a result of this, the film leaves the American audience in cheers while the Chinese martial art audience is left wondering if they should celebrate it as one of the Chinese martial art films (Yomi 552). According to Shao-Chun (3), Ang Lee has capitalized on his Diaspora identity in producing ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’. As a result of this, he has not been able to successfully manifest the Chinese culture through the actions of his actors. Instead, Ang Lee has used his “Chineseness’ to construct an imagined Chinese community. Despite the Diaspora identity of Ang Lee, this situation does not merit him to produce a film bearing a Chinese brand yet it does not actually reflect its culture in ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’, it is clear that Ang Lee has picked out the qualities and aspects of a traditional Chinese martial art cinema then he transformed them so as to cater for the international film market including the Chinese Diaspora communities. Replies In response to the above criticisms of his film 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', Ang Lee said that his reason for directing the film the way he did arose from a desire to create a classical China. Ang Lee also says that Kun fu’s greatest appeal usually lies in its abstraction. The ‘imagined China’ in this case is just a conceptual world which means that it does really exist. From this perception, Ang Lee says that the world of imagined China is therefore free from constrains. In this regard, he was free to construct anything basing on the ‘imagined China’ as a product of a personal conscious choice. Cheng Shao-Chun argues in support of Ang Lee. First, he says he film reflects the Diaspora identity of Ang Lee and that hybridisation was a good way of selling it to the international film market. Ang Lee claims that when he was producing ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’, he was also considering the Chinese Diaspora communities. He supports this point by saying that though in Diaspora, they remain Chinese and should therefore be linked to their culture. Ang Lee also continues to defend his view point by saying that some of the Diaspora communities have been detached from the traditional Chinese culture for a long time. This means for them, traditional Chinese culture has evolved to be an abstract for them. He also claims that what brings such people together or links them to Chinese matters is just an abstract idea of being a Chinese (Yomi 562). Ang Lee continues to defend his hybridized film by pointing out that the Chinese Diaspora communities are spread all over the world and therefore it is impossible to ignore the levels of westernization they have already acquired. In this case, purely traditional Chinese films may not really interest them. In reply to the use of special effects, Ang Lee responds be saying that he was trying to create the most incredible fighting sequence that film audience have ever seen. He also claims that he wanted to make the action scenes playing in a manner similar to choreographed dances. Because of this, the production of a vaulting wirework greater than what his choreographer Yueng Ping has ever done was inevitable (Yomi 563). Len Ang, a critic, defends Ang Lee conflict with the existing ‘obsession with China’. According to her, ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ by Ang Lee represents a great desire to maintain, redeem and revitalise the notion of Chineseness as an identity in a rapidly modernising world. Some other critics who defend Ang Lee’s hybridisation of ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ argue that this kind of work makes people to rethink of their nation because nations are just but historical and social human constructions. According to them, Ang Lee has set the pace by imagining classical China. Conclusion The American audience perceives Ang Lee’s hybridized ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ film is the best Chinese martial art film they have ever seen. On the contrary, the Chinese audience feel that Ang Lee has just used the ‘Chineseness’ of the film as a selling strategy yet in actual sense, he has not given room for he actual Chinese culture in it. But the question here will be, “is Chinese culture going to be static forever?” Obviously not. It is therefore ironical and unfair to some extend for the Chinese audience to over-criticize Ang Lee’s ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ film because eventually, adaptive revolution must have its way in every society. At some day to come, Ang Lee’s imagined classical China must come to existence. It is also time Chinese movies sought to compete globally in the movie market. Works cited Shao-Chun Cheng. “Chinese Diaspora and Orientalism in Globalized Cultural Production: Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” Global Media Journal (4) pp 2-5. 2004 Wang Georgette and Yeh Emilie (2005). “Globalization and hybridization in cultural products: The cases of Mulan and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” International Journal of Cultural Studies. (2) pp. 175-193. Yomi Braester. “Chinese Cinema in the Age of Advertisement: The Filmmaker as a Cultural Broker” The China Quarterly. (183) pp. 549-564. 2005. Read More