Spring 2015 Events

“The Politics of Entertainment: Cinematic Cold War in Hong Kong”
​- a lecture by Poshek Fu at Harvard University, March 4, 2015 

In his lecture on “The Politics of Entertainment: Cinematic Cold War in Hong Kong” at Harvard University on March 4, 2015, Professor Poshek Fu (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) began with the observation that recent scholarship on the Cold War has increasingly moved beyond elite politics, international diplomacy, and military interventions to study the cultural dynamics of global conflict. Professor Fu then addressed a key dimension of the Cold War in Asia that is overlooked in extant scholarship: the cinematic battle in colonial Hong Kong. Focusing on the “state-private” network of postwar Mandarin-language cinema, he discussed the role of popular entertainment in the battle between China, Taiwan, and the United States to win the “hearts and minds” of ethnic Chinese communities in the region. Professor Fu’s talk was well attended, with over 30 local faculty members, graduate students, and visiting scholars packing the seminar room. The energetic discussion that followed his talk drew out additional implications of his research project and suggested a number of avenues for further inquiry. 

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“Chinese Cultural Politics: Perspectives from Taiwan”
​– a seminar with Jiang Yi-huah at Harvard University, March 12, 2015 

​Following the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan and surrounding events in spring 2014, the nature of the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan has once again come to the fore of discussions on both sides of the Strait. In a seminar on “Chinese Cultural Politics: Perspectives from Taiwan” held on March 12, 2015, former R.O.C. Premier Jiang Yi-huah addressed this issue with a group of graduate students and visiting scholars at Harvard University. Former Premier Jiang drew on his academic background in political science and experience in politics to analyze the two most common positions on the issue: engagement and independence. According to former Premier Jiang, the moment for discussing the desirability of rapprochement has already passed; despite nearly a hundred years of effective separation, mainland China and Taiwan are now mutually influencing one another, and therefore Taiwan must find an active, official method to navigate its relationship with the mainland. During the seminar, former Premier Jiang fielded a number of incisive questions from his audience and delved further into the contrast between the perspectives of academics and politicians on this issue, comparisons of Taiwan to Hong Kong, and the cultural dimensions of political events. 
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“Chinese Martial Arts Cinema in the 21st Century: From Wong Fei-hung to Huang Fei-hong”
​– a lecture by Chia-chi Wu at Harvard University, April 23, 2015  

​From the first Wong Fei-hung film made in Hong Kong in 1949 to the release of Rise of Legend (Huang Fei-hong zhi yingxiong youmeng) last year, the renowned martial artist Wong Fei-hung has been established as an enduring yet ever-changing figure in Sinophone cinema. Examining the transformations of the cinematic Wong Fei-hung over time, a talk by Professor Chia-chi Wu (National Taiwan Normal University) on “Chinese Martial Arts Cinema in the 21st Century: From Wong Fei-hung to Huang Fei-hong” analyzed the relationship between the shifting allegories associated with Wong and the networks of star film actors who have played him. Professor Wu employed a comparison of Tsui Hark’s Once Upon a Time in China series to Chow Hin-Yeung’s more recent Rise of Legend to demonstrate that these martial arts films, even today, contribute to redefinitions of imperial power – be it political or cultural – as multifaceted and ultimately susceptible to transgression by liminal figures like Wong.