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Since its inception more than a century ago, Hong Kong cinema has been a pre-eminent form of local entertainment and a site of ideological contentions propelled by colonial, national and international politics at different historical junctures.
The Other Side of Glamour is a study of the historical development of the left-wing film establishment in Hong Kong. The interplay between the macro-politics of the Cold War and the micro-politics of a regionalised/localised ideological warfare lends itself to a critical mapping of the general contours of the 'cultural Cold War' between the KMT and the CCP as it materialised in the so-called 'left-right divide' in the filmmaking world. Using the major studios as the main axis of analysis, this study traces the footprints of the other collaborating cultural agents which made up the left-wing film network in Hong Kong. It argues that the left-wing's institutional character and corporate strategies in the making of a 'popular left-wing cinema' are indispensable to an understanding of their nuanced legacy in Hong Kong cinema today. Vivian P. Y. Lee teaches Hong Kong cinema and heritage studies at the City University of Hong Kong.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Timeline
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Left-wing Film Network in Post-war Hong Kong
Chapter 2 Left in the Right Way: Corporate Strategy and the Making of a Popular Left-wing
Chapter 3 Remaking Cantonese Film Culture: Union and Sun Luen
Chapter 4 Class, Gender, and Modern Womanhood: Feng Huang and Great Wall
Chapter 5 Corporate Repositioning, Transnational Cultural Brokerage and Soft Power: Sil-Metropole
Chapter 6 Critical Transitions on the Non-left: Patrick Lung and Cecile Tang
Chapter 7 From Political Alibis to Creative Incubators: the Left-wing Film Network since the 1980s
Epilogue
Endnotes
Bibliography
Filmography
About the author
Vivian Lee is Associate Professor in the Department of Chinese and History at City University of Hong Kong. She is the author of 'Hong Kong Cinema since 1997: the Post-nostalgic Imagination' and editor of 'East Asian Cinemas: Global Flows and Regional Transformations'. Her work has been published in academic journals and edited volumes including the Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Hong Kong Horror Cinema, A Companion to Wong Kar-wai, and the Chinese Cinema Book.
Summary
Studies the historical origins and transformation in styles and production modes of Hong Kong's left-wing studios
