It snowed for days before Christmas. The snow, together with the Christmas trees and Santa Clauses in front of the city's shops and hotels, made for a traditional Christmas scene, the only difference being that this is Beijing.
In the meantime, Hero -- Chinese film director Zhang Yimou's
The Hero craze and Santa Claus do not appear to be connected to one another in any way. But, in light of the tug-of-war between the forces of globalization and localization, they provide us with a Chinese cultural phenomenon worth reflecting upon.
In the past, many China watchers have tried to explain how capitalist merchandise has changed consumers' tastes and behavior following China's reforms and open-door policies. They did so by reviewing the popularity of Coca Cola, McDonald's and Hollywood movies in China.
To a certain extent, this approach appears to presume that China will ultimately follow international fashions in its pursuit of a market economy. But this approach seems to have ignored China's ambitions to dominate cultural industries, especially with regard to the right to interpret ethnic Chinese culture. Indeed, China is unhappy about being forced to accept popular Western products and is trying to cultivate a popular culture that can take the stage in both the ethnic Chinese and Western worlds.
The artistic achievements of Hero are not greater than those of, say, Taiwanese director Ang Lee's (李安) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai's (王家衛) Ashes of Time. But neither of these can compare with Hero when it comes to sheer cinematic magnificence on the one hand and saturation publicity on the other.
In fact, the magnitude of Hero is built upon Zhang's personal fame and the close cooperation between the Chinese authorities, media and capital. In terms of the management of cultural industries, the most important message that Hero sends out is that the Chinese authorities and filmmakers are trying to enter the international market and, at the same time, that both local and foreign investors are willing to pool huge amounts of money to support its efforts to do so.
The real significance of this is that China is trying to take over the prerogative to interpret Chinese culture, a prerogative currently in the hands of Taiwan and Hong Kong. Such ambitions are not without a support base or a development plan.
China intends to present a new image in the international film market. Even though Chinese films have gained much recognition at Western film festivals, the films which have done so have mostly been politically incorrect and therefore disliked by the Chinese authorities.
Despite the numerous awards he won at international film festivals in the early days, Zhang has long been criticized for "exposing China's poverty in front of the Western world." Xiao-wu and Beijing Bicycle, two of the films well-received at Western film festivals in recent years, deal not with China's economic growth, which the Chinese authorities would like to emphasize, but with the gap that has developed between the cities and the countryside in the course of economic growth.
So why are martial arts films becoming a new option? Although Chinese TV soap operas depicting urban lifestyles are gradually becoming part of the mainstream, they still lack the well-defined target audience and market that soaps enjoy in Japan and South Korea.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon appeared to offer new possibilities for Chinese-language films. Having no bearing on real life and possessing a cultural uniqueness, this type of film has potential for development.
In addition, China has unique and abundant resources for making martial arts films -- such as the historic sites, spectacular views and the ability to mobilize vast human resources that created the breathtaking scenes in Hero. This superiority of resources has made the historical dramas made in Taiwan and Hong Kong look embarrassing.
Given this overwhelming superiority of resources in China, the warning signal that Hero sends to Taiwan is that China is not only pursuing economic development, but also trying to take a leading role in the popular cultures of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The fact that high-paid actors from Taiwan and Hong Kong have performed in movies and TV series funded by Chinese investors is telling.
In fact, a number of outstanding Taiwanese directors have made their presence felt in recent years. Indeed, the themes they have adopted in their films have carved out a path from which Taiwan could take the world stage through film making.
But, at a time when movie-goers, in the hope of clawing back the audience for home-made films, had to pass the word around by e-mail on the eve of the screening of Cheng Wen-tang's (鄭文堂) Somewhere over the Dreamland, it appears impossible to avoid the harsh reality of cultural competition. How can Taiwan maintain its cultural vitality in the face of these challenges?
Hsu Tung-ming is a freelance writer based in Beijing.
Translated by Wu Pei-shih
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