SONGS

Authenticity, Succession, Self-Actualization:
The Multiple Meanings of Training in Hong Kong Martial Arts Cinema

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard_Kung_Fu

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Webinar with Man-Fung Yip, Chair and Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

Moderator: Stephan Kory (LLC-Chinese)

March 23, 2022 at 7:00-8:30 pm.

Click here for the recording of this webinar:
https://youtu.be/1zS8-gXdZWo

Gong fu, the Cantonese term from which the kung fu film derives its name, has two different but related meanings: the (physical) effort required for completing a task; and the abilities and skills developed through effort and time. Central to the term, then, is a set of ideas—drill, practice, labor, empowerment—closely associated with the notion of training: to train is to acquire a skill or set of skills, and thus to empower one’s self through hard work and constant practice. In fact, training constitutes in many ways one of the most essential components in martial arts philosophy and practice: only those who train with patience and perseverance, who demonstrate dedication and great effort, can and will become a true martial arts master.

Considering its significance in the world of martial arts, it is hardly surprising that training has been a major motif in martial arts films. This is particularly true with the Shaolin kung fu films and action comedies that gained popularity in Hong Kong cinema of the mid- and late 1970s. Yet it is worth noting that the concept of training is pertinent not only at a textual level but also from an extra-textual perspective. Thus, even though training did not figure extensively within the films of Bruce Lee, it was actively invoked by critics and viewers alike and became an indispensable part in the mythologies surrounding the star’s powerful body/martial arts and his resolute drive to success.

Professor Yip’s goal in this presentation is to explore this training motif and shed light on the diverse meanings associated with it. Specifically, he focuses on the period of the late 1960s and 1970s—a period when a new crop of Hong Kong martial arts films pioneered by Shaw Brothers and later Golden Harvest came to prominence and dominated the local as well as regional market on its way to having a global-cultural cinematic presence—and frames his discussion around three broad concepts: authenticity, succession, and self-actualization. While the emphasis may vary, Professor Yip argues that these three aspects or dimensions of training have continued to shape recent martial arts and action films.

Man-Fung-Yip is Chair and Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He is author of Martial Arts Cinema and Hong Kong Modernity: Aesthetics, Representation, Circulation (HKU Press, 2017) and co-editor of American and Chinese-Language Cinemas: Examining Cultural Flows (Routledge, 2015) and The Cold War and Asian Cinemas (Routledge, 2019). His articles have been published in numerous edited volumes and in peer-reviewed journals such as Cinema Journal (now Journal of Cinema and Media Studies). His research and teaching interests focus on Chinese-language and East Asian film studies, theories of national and transnational cinema, the juncture of cinema, mass culture, and modernity, and the cinematic/cultural Cold War.

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