What is the first word that come to your head when you are prompted with topic "Chinese films"? Kung Fu? I guess most people would give me this answer. I was also surprised at the consensus of the titles Americans gave me as examples of films that are good exemplars of Chinese culture and Chinese people: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Shaolin Soccer; Kung Fu panda, just to name a few. It is easily observed that these titles all fell into the same genre -- Kung Fu, aka martial arts. A Chinese Kung Fu master would always save the world using his/its adept martial art skills. Apart from this, there seems to be no other virtue in those Kung Fu heroes.
The image above is a still of the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which tells the story of "Two warriors in pursuit of a stolen sword and a notorious fugitive are led to an impetuous, physically-skilled, teenage nobleman's daughter, who is at a crossroads in her life." As I read the movie entry in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), I found several interesting things. The movie, which was released in 2000 received an average rating of 8.0, which is quite a high score. The top 250 list movies have a rating range of 9.2 - 8.0, so this kung fu movie was ranked pretty high among all the other different genres and classics. On the contrary, a movie that tells authentic Chinese culture in the 19th century -- with absolutely no kung fu element in it -- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, received a mere 5.4. It is possible that this movie was only played in a small number of cinemas, so that not many Americans have seen it. But 5.4 is still considered a bad score, even with a low number or rates. I then proceeded to search the ratings of other kung fu movies. Shaolin Soccer got a rating of 7.3, Fearless a 7.6, Hero a 8.0 and Kung Fu Panda a 7.6. Surprisingly, kung fu movies all did quite well in terms of ratings. This phenomenon kind of agrees with my little survey results that most Americans think that Kung Fu movies are the only "Chinese" genre. And only Kung Fu movies are worth seeing among all the movies in which Chinese actors/actresses/characters play the leading role. This is a prevalent stereotype the Western people placed on the Chinese "bodies". Kung Fu is widely recognized as a cultural symbol of the Chinese "bodies".
I think this is very interesting and very true. When i tried to think of as many chinese actors as i could the only ones i came up with were from kung fu movies but they were in other movies but i have never even heard of those ones. I think america likes to think of the chinese as being kung fu masters. Thats what the movie goers expect and like to see because of the stereotype.
ReplyDeleteI really like this post. It is true that films with Kung Fu attract poeple a lot because of its unmatched charm. As a Chinese people, I also feel that Kung Fu is a good representation of China and all the elements in Kung Fu are related to culture.
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