Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition
Stephen Teo
Abstract
The martial arts genre known as wuxia (literally ‘martial chivalry’) is one of the oldest in the Chinese cinema. Its antecedents are closely tied to the historical knights-errant known as xia who were said to have roamed ancient China over two thousand three hundred years ago, fighting injustices and righting wrongs. This book delves into the cinematic development of the genre from its beginnings in the Shanghai film industry in the late 1920s to its recent state of evolution in the Chinese, Taiwan, and Hong Kong cinemas, as represented by works such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) an ... More
The martial arts genre known as wuxia (literally ‘martial chivalry’) is one of the oldest in the Chinese cinema. Its antecedents are closely tied to the historical knights-errant known as xia who were said to have roamed ancient China over two thousand three hundred years ago, fighting injustices and righting wrongs. This book delves into the cinematic development of the genre from its beginnings in the Shanghai film industry in the late 1920s to its recent state of evolution in the Chinese, Taiwan, and Hong Kong cinemas, as represented by works such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Hero (2002). Essentially, this book is a history of the genre, covering the landmarks of its development, one of which is the banning of the genre in the 1930s due to the perception by educationists and intellectuals that it fostered feudal superstition and anti-social rebellion. It goes on to analyse the concepts and values of the heroic xia, or knights-errant, often considered controversial figures because they resorted to violence as a means to practice chivalry and achieve righteous ends. Chapters are devoted to discussing the female knight-errant, a unique figure in the tradition, and in cinema that has charmed and beguiled cinemagoers since the beginning of the genre. Themes that further explore the genre include nationalism, transnationalism, and the supernatural powers and characteristics of the heroic protagonists (as well as villains).
Keywords:
Chinese martial arts cinema,
wuxia,
kung fu,
genre film,
magic and superstition,
female knight-errant
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2009 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780748632855 |
| Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: September 2012 |
DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748632855.001.0001 |
