Lee, Adele (2010) 'Chop-socky Shakespeare'?!: The Bard onscreen in Hong Kong. Shakespeare Bulletin, 28 (4). pp. 459-480. ISSN 0748-2558 (Print), 1931-1427 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1353/shb.2010.0031)

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Abstract

This article discusses the fascinating, but largely neglected phenomenon of Shakespeare on film in Hong Kong. First exploring some of the reasons for this neglect, it offers an analysis of two filmic adaptations of Romeo and Juliet: Lo Wei’s Crocodile River (Ngoh Yu Ho, 1965) and Michihko Obimori’s Young Lovers (Ching Chuen Chi Luen, 1978). Through radical reworking, these films accommodate the original plays to the beliefs, interests and concerns of the host culture. Using the conflict between parent and child as an analogy of the relationship between Mainland China, often referred to as the “Motherland,” and Hong Kong–the Mainland’s “fat baby”–they address politically sensitive issues under the guise of the domestic (perhaps as a means of avoiding government censorship). And, since both films were produced in the decades not only prior to, but pivotal to Hong Kong’s reunification with the People’s Republic of China in 1997, these versions of Romeo and Juliet reflect the hopes and fears of the Chinese in the run up to the so-called “handover.” What is particularly interesting about these films, however, is the ways in which they use Shakespeare, once an important ideological tool in establishing the authority of the colonial administration in Hong Kong, as the medium through which to interrogate and challenge British cultural imperialism, while simultaneously expressing a residual reverence for the playwright and the culture he represents. Thus, these films could be said to reveal a Franz Fanon/Homi Bhabha-style ambivalence towards the colonial other, which, given the politically, economically, and socially hybrid nature of Hong Kong, is not surprising.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	[1] Published in Shakespeare Bulletin, Volume 28, Number 4, Winter 2010.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	William Shakespeare, film adaptations, appropriation, film, postcolonialism, China, Asia, Hong Kong
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion Pictures P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater
Pre-2014 Departments:	School of Humanities & Social Sciences School of Humanities & Social Sciences > English Research Group
Related URLs:	Publisher Organisation
Last Modified:	14 Oct 2016 09:10
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/4023

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