Toward an aesthetic of weightlessness: Qinggong and Wire-fu
Book chapter
White, L. 2017. Toward an aesthetic of weightlessness: Qinggong and Wire-fu. in: lok, s. (ed.) RoCH Fans and Legends Derby / Manchester QUAD / Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art.
Chapter title | Toward an aesthetic of weightlessness: Qinggong and Wire-fu |
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Authors | White, L. |
Abstract | This essay examines the aesthetics of wirework in Hong Kong and Chinese swordplay (wuxia) cinema, primarily since the 1980s. This is read as entailing a fantasy image of freedom. It contrasts the lightness of the wuxia body, characteristically represented in flight, to the materiality and weight of the "kung fu" body, as depicted during the "classic" period of the "kung fu craze" in the 1970s. This is analysed in terms of different ideas of how gender might be negotiated through the body in cinematic martial arts performance, and as a metaphor of the weight or weightlessness of (postcolonial, diasporic and other) cultural experience of identity under globalisation. |
Keywords | action cinema, Chinese cinema, Hong Kong cinema, kung fu films, swordplay films, martial arts performance, wuxia, globalization, postcolonial, diaspora, identity, gender, masculinity, the body, fantasy, Jin Yong, Frantz Fanon, fandom, aesthetics of film, digital culture, immateriality and the image. |
Research Group | Diasporas |
Visual Culture and Curating cluster | |
Book title | RoCH Fans and Legends |
Editors | lok, s. |
Publisher | QUAD / Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art |
Place of publication | Derby / Manchester |
ISBN | |
Hardcover | 9780995461109 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 18 Dec 2017 |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 20 Jul 2018 |
Completed | 2016 |
Output status | Published |
Accepted author manuscript | |
Copyright Statement | As stated on its colophon, the ebook is published on Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike) license, with texts remaining (c) of the authors, 2016. |
Additional information | ISBN 978-0-9954611-0-9 |
Web address (URL) | https://spsl-projects.net/roch-fans/rochfansandlegendsfreeebook/ |
Language | English |
https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/87w3w
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