Embracing glocalization and Hong Kong-made musical film

Siu Leung LI

Research output: Book Chapters | Papers in Conference ProceedingsBook ChapterResearchpeer-review

Abstract

The Chinese musical film, in a broad sense - in every which way it has manifested itself and been defined - first emerged in the semicolonial 1930s Shanghai enclave. The Chinese movie musical a la Hollywood came to maturity in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong some thirty years later. Together with the rise of numerous super singer-actresses and behind-thc-scene divas, the Chinese musical film prospered in the post-World War II decades and attracted various Chinese audiences in different overseas Chinese communities, especially in East and Southeast Asia. Somewhat ironic but figuratively as glamorous as the life cycle of the sakura blossom, the genres demise crept up on it during its heyday when the Shaw Brothers Studio churned out Hollywood-style musicals in the genres full-fledged form in the rapidly Westernizing and modernizing late-196os I long Kong. The masculine-macho sword fight and kung fu action genres gradually came on the scene to soon dominate the film industries in Hong Kong and Taiwan, subsequently establishing the Hong Kong action genre and kung fu action choreography as a globally popular form and style of action.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationChina forever : the Shaw Brothers and diasporic cinema
PublisherUniversity of Illinois Press
Pages74-94
Number of pages21
ISBN (Print)9780252032738
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2008

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