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Topic: Martial Arts and Governmentality: From Chinese Opera to Film
Guest speaker: Professor Siu Leung Li（李小良教授）
Date & Time: 2pm-4pm, 24th November 2017
Venue: T29-105
Abstract
A significant social meaning and political function of martial arts as a structural device in Chinese opera and film is to serve as a pathway to the fulfillment of selfhood and good governance of the state, a thematic legacy from the imperial past in today’s performance cultural forms. Granted that some action stars in martial arts cinema were martial artists originally, the significant flight of acro-batic fighting and performers from Chinese opera to martial arts cinema from the inception of the kung fu film genre since the post-WW2 years has been evident. Chinese opera as an integral part of the enabling condition for martial arts cinema is also manifested in the common recurring theme of—to cite the Chinese classic of “The Great Learning” from the Book of Ritual—“to cultivate one’s self, to govern one’s family, to rule a kingdom, to unify the empire”; or, in Foucault’s terms of “‘governing’” a household, souls, children, a province, a convent, a religious order, a family.” Taking the Peking opera Jiepaiguan/The Gate of Boundary Tablet that is the origin of Chang Cheh’s stubborn motif of “the big fight with wrapped up bowels” as a starting point, I shall explore this theme of governmentality in martial arts film with reference to traditional Chinese values and precepts related to literacy (the civil/wen), martial arts (the military/wu), self, family, empire (tian-xia). At the end of the day, be it the bone-crushing warrior, the poetic scholar, or the illiterate beg-gar, he who can read the invisible words on the page of the “precious secret manual” for good gov-ernance in a complex interplay between physical power and intellectual knowledge will become king. Related films include The Heavenly Book with No Words (1965), Drunken Master (1978), Drunken Master 2 (1994), King of Beggars (1992), Ip Man: The Last Fight (2013), The Grandmas-ter (2013).
Guest Speaker information:
Professor Siu Leung Li is Professor and Dean of the School of Chinese Opera at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Currently he leads a research project on the compilation of Annals of Chinese Opera: The Hong Kong Volume and Anthology of Chinese Opera Music: The Hong Kong Volume, part of a PRC national project funded by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of the Hong Kong SAR Government. Serving on the Cantonese Opera Advisory Committee, the Cantonese Opera Development Fund Advisory Committee, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Advisory Board (HAB, HKSAR); the Art Form Panel on Chinese Traditional Performing Arts, the Ko Shan Theatre Cantonese Opera Education and Information Centre Planning and Commissioning Work Group, and as museum expert adviser for the Hong Kong Heritage Museum (LCSD, HKSAR), Li was granted the “Award for Special Contributions to Kunqu Opera” in 2011 by the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Beijing municipal government.
