Author: Jing Yang, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China
Email: publications@iafor.org
Published: December 9, 2019
https://doi.org/10.22492/ijcs.4.2.04
Citation: Yang, J. (2019). Historicizing Martial Arts Cinema in Postcolonial Hong Kong: The Ip Man Narratives. IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.22492/ijcs.4.2.04
Abstract
The surge of Hong Kong martial arts films in the new millennium transformed the classic genre with a keen consciousness of history. Based loosely on the life experiences of the Cantonese master Ip Man (1893–1972), Ip Man (Yip, 2008) and The Grandmaster (Wong, 2013) utilize the genre to examine the dynamics between Hong Kong and mainland China by integrating the personal with the national. Against the shifting industrial and cultural orientations of Hong Kong cinema and society, the paper argues that the multifarious discourses in both films exemplify the effort to construct a post-colonial identity in negotiation with mainland China.
Keywords
Hong Kong martial arts cinema, history, national discourse, postcolonial identity