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The geopolitics of kung fu movies
By Paul Foster

Regardless of whether it had won four Oscars, none, or all 10 for which it was nominated, Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon broke down the door to the US market several years ago and ushered in a host of great Chinese kung fu movies featuring swordsmanship, hand-to-hand combat, gymnastics, mystical energy forces, and fantastical battles in flight over rooftops, over lakes and atop bamboo groves.

The arrival of high-production-value kung fu movies was overdue. Western audiences had long been ready for this style of Chinese,



Hong Kong, and Taiwanese film, even if that critical mass was not apparent to Hollywood.

The international success of Crouching Tiger and its superstars fuels the popular image of an ascendant Chinese nation and enhances China's sense of cultural worth. In this digital age, a world-class power produces world-class movies. The kind of movies China has successfully sold to the world also reflects a certain set of Chinese values.

Through these new kung fu movies, China emerges as dynamic, fast-paced and disciplined, as well as Confucian in its devotion to a strict moral order. The movies also suggest a China that is not subservient to the West but somehow superior, capable of being a strong nation, a multi-ethnic empire, and an internationally dominant player.

In short, Charlie Chan is no more. On the big screen, China not only speaks in its own voice, it kicks butt as well.

Hunger for the exotic
The West's willing suspension of disbelief and hunger for an exotic China has been predicated on a long period of cultural conditioning. In the 1970s, David Carradine introduced television audiences to the martial magic of the Shaolin Temple, and Bruce Lee mesmerized moviegoers with unexcelled kung fu prowess.

In the 1980s, the "force" of Star Wars spirituality was grounded in Chinese qi, the very energy of the universe. Two decades of director Zhang Yimou's epic cinematography introduced audiences to grandiose Chinese geography, sans kung fu. Meanwhile, Jackie Chan pounced from Hong Kong to Hollywood with his hyper-energized kung fu, including his highly successful Rush Hour series with Chris Rock.

In 1997, when Chinese female kung fu movie great Michelle Yeoh, Crouching Tiger's protagonist, teamed up with Pierce Brosnan in the 007 adventure Tomorrow Never Dies, the kung fu stars themselves achieved global appeal. Riding the wave of kung fu action to challenge Hollywood at the box office have been not only China's movies and stars but also Chinese kung fu itself.

The Hollywood action genre has assimilated the fighting and sword styles so popular with Chinese audiences. For instance, the first 10-minute chase scene of 007's recent blockbuster Casino Royale directly imitates Jackie Chan's kung fu fighting and chase style in punches, kicks, and assorted chase-related jumps and gymnastics. Thus has Hollywood been sinified.

Once freed from a strict Western sensibility of realism, North American audiences can now enjoy the flight and fight of warriors who cling to walls and race over rooftops and lake surfaces. Chinese audiences immediately recognize these techniques as qinggong (light-body kung fu) or neigong (internal kung fu power) and take for granted the rules regarding such kung fu training and use.

North American audiences might require some tutorials to recognize the deeper levels of such martial techniques. Digital imaging, however, has helped to redefine the surface-level reality and thus bring Hollywood that much closer to Hong Kong.

It remains to be seen whether the more esoteric and fantastical elements of Chinese kung fu film, such as shooting qi energy beams from a fighter's palm, fingertips or sword, will be equally well received by North American audiences. This barrier to cultural sharing of kung fu has been challenged with some mild success by Stephan Chow's Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.

Crouching Tiger showed the obvious potential of this genre of Chinese films in the Mandarin language, and the rush to capitalize on this revelation produced other films such as Zhang Yimou's Hero and House of Flying Daggers.

Behind the force of the kung fu is the force of the industry itself. The writers, directors, producers, technical experts, and stars form a "kung fu industrial complex" that is multi-layered as well as horizontally and vertically integrated. This loosely knit organization capitalizes on the trajectory of individual works as they move from literary serial to television series to movies and post-production commercial items such as computer games.

It is somewhat analogous to the Disney empire. TV and movie adaptations commonly serve as the springboard to stardom for young actors and actresses, such as House of Flying Daggers star Andy Lau, who thereupon ride the wave of popularity with other endorsement, movie, and even musical careers.

The kung fu industrial complex has finally gone global as demand for its production techniques, stars, directors and fighting styles has reached Hollywood over the past decade. A prime example is the opening chase scene of The Matrix in which Trinity runs horizontally on vertical walls. It is no coincidence that such signature "light-body kung fu" action appears in The Matrix and its sequels, because these films employed Crouching Tiger's renowned action director, Yuen Wo-ping.

Chinese cultural values are further legitimized by the blockbuster earnings these films have garnered in the past half-decade, in both Asia and the West. This new success in the international marketplace - Crouching Tiger earned US$128 million in the United States alone, and Hero earned $177 million at the box office worldwide - reinforces and reconfirms the Chinese national sense of cultural self-worth. Chinese kung fu really does finally "earn" its reputation as a cultural "treasure" through which the global market begins to appreciate the essence of Chineseness.

Construction of identity
Chinese consumption of popular martial-arts literature accelerated in the latter half of the 20th century with the serialization of Jin Yong's (and other writers') novels, which were immediately adapted for television series and movies. Their popular success was so great as to generate subsequent and multiple re-adaptations and spinoffs into comics, digital games, and other movie genres.

Jin Yong's works transcend entertainment by performing the unconscious social function of constructing the nation. They map 

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