A Companion to Hong Kong Cinema - (Wiley Blackwell Companions to National Cinemas) by Esther M K Cheung & Gina Marchetti & Esther C M Yau

Book Synopsis

A Companion to Hong Kong Cinema provides the first comprehensive scholarly exploration of this unique global cinema. By embracing the interdisciplinary approach of contemporary film and cultural studies, this collection navigates theoretical debates while charting a new course for future research in Hong Kong film.

• Examines Hong Kong cinema within an interdisciplinary context, drawing connections between media, gender, and Asian studies, Asian regional studies, Chinese language and cultural studies, global studies, and critical theory
• Highlights the often contentious debates that shape current thinking about film as a medium and its possible future
• Investigates how changing research on gender, the body, and sexual orientation alter the ways in which we analyze sexual difference in Hong Kong cinema
• Charts how developments in theories of colonialism, postcolonialism, globalization, neoliberalism, Orientalism, and nationalism transform our understanding of the economics and politics of the Hong Kong film industry
• Explores how the concepts of diaspora, nostalgia, exile, and trauma offer opportunities to rethink accepted ways of understanding Hong Kong's popular cinematic genres and stars

From the Back Cover

A Companion to Hong Kong Cinema represents the first comprehensive exploration of this unique global cinema. By embracing the interdisciplinary approach of contemporary film and cultural studies, this collection navigates theoretical debates while charting a new course for future research in Hong Kong film.

Featuring original contributions from both established and emerging film scholars, these essays offer cutting-edge theoretical perspectives on a broad range of established and emerging topics in the field and reveal how evolving approaches to historiography, sexuality, and colonialism have shaped our understanding of Hong Kong film history. The book also poses philosophical questions concerning how we understand what we see on screen in Hong Kong cinema and how we make sense of this knowledge. Building on this theoretical framework, the volume explores various aspects of Hong Kong film culture within geographic, aesthetic, institutional, cultural, and scholarly contexts. Innovative and thought-provoking, A Companion to Hong Kong Cinema is an essential resource on the state of contemporary scholarship relating to one of the most dynamic cinematic traditions in the history of international film.

About the Author

Esther M.K. Cheung is Department Chairperson, Department of Comparative Literature, School of Humanities, at the University of Hong Kong. She is the author of Fruit Chan's Made in Hong Kong (2009) and In Pursuit of Independent Visions in Hong Kong Cinema (2010).

Gina Marchetti is Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, School of Humanities, at the University of Hong Kong. Her books include Romance and the "Yellow Peril" Race, Sex and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction (1993) and Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's INFERNAL AFFAIRS--The Trilogy (2007).

Esther C.M. Yau is Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, School of Humanities, at the University of Hong Kong. Her books include At Full Speed: Hong Kong Cinema in a Borderless World (editor, 2001) and New Chinese Cinemas: Forms, Identities, Politics (co-editor, 1996).