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The Transforming Cultural Identity of Hong Kong as Reflected in Jackie Chan’s Police Story Series

Received: 30 November 2020     Accepted: 11 December 2020     Published: 22 December 2020
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Abstract

Filmic texts embody the discussion of issues like identity and self-determination. Many films of Jackie Chan who is a well-known international film star, set the story in Hong Kong, thus inevitably presenting various cultural aspects of the city. Being an especially important historical event, the return of Hong Kong to China affects every aspect of people’s lives, which are consciously or unconsciously recorded in filmic texts. Seeking recourse to Stuart Hall’s concept of cultural identity and Wang Yuechuan’s theory of identity recognition, this paper analyzes Jackie Chan’s three filmic texts from the Police Story series, hoping to probe into the conflicts and changes of Hong Kong’s transforming cultural identity at three time periods before and after the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region upon the reunification with China, so as to prove both the complexity and importance of the identity issues. The paper will approach the three filmic texts from the following aspects: changed names of the main characters and their symbolic meanings, differences in plot and dialogue designs, and cultural meaning of urban space and architecture. Finally, the paper also invites the readers to reflect on the issues of representation on differences and identity recognition in general.

Published in English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 5, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.16
Page(s) 159-164
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Cultural Identity, Hong Kong, Jackie Chan, Police Story Series

References
[1] Wang, Yuechuan (1999). Literary Theory of Post Colonialism and New Historicism. Jinan: Shandong Education Press, 147, 140, 139, 54, 138, 148-149.
[2] Zhang, Jing (2006). Status Identity—Idea, Attitude, Justification. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 37, 45.
[3] http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2007-05-28/090013092021.shtml
[4] https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000329/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
[5] Barker, Chris (2008). Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, 3rd ed. Sage Publications: London, 255, 222.
[6] Hall, Stuart (2003). “Cultural identity and diaspora”, in Theorizing Diaspora: A Reader, Eds. Jana Evans Braziel and Anita Mannur. Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, pp. 222-237.
[7] Mao, Sihui & Guo Haixia (2000). “Patriarchy, racism and women existence: On Kingston's short Story ‘No Name Woman’”, in New Perspectives: Contemporary Literary & Cultural Studies, Eds. Mao Sihui & Fang Kairui. Guangzhou: South China University of Technology Press, pp. 83-96.
[8] Yuan, Shu (2005). “From Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan”, Xu Jiansheng Trans., in World Cinema, Vol 1, pp. 4-19.
[9] Wen, Jianjian & Liang Jianhua (2004). Biography of Jackie Chan. Wuhan: Hubei People’s Press, 259.
[10] Jones, Carol A. G. (2015). Lost in China? —Law, Culture and Identity in Post-1997 Hong Kong. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 232.
[11] Marchetti, Gina (2000). “Buying American, consuming Hong Kong: Cultural commerce, fantasies of identity, and the cinema”, in The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity, Eds. Poshek Fu and David Desser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 289-313.
[12] Foucault, Michel (2004). “Space, power and knowledge”, in The Cultural Studies Reader, 2nd ed. Ed. Simon During. London: Routledge, pp. 134-141.
[13] Leung, Ping-kwan (2000). “Urban cinema and the cultural identity of Hong Kong”, in The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity, Eds. Poshek Fu and David Desser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 227-251.
[14] Abbas, Ackbar (2004). “Building on disappearance: Hong Kong architecture and colonial space”, in The Cultural Studies Reader, 2nd ed. Ed. Simon During. London: Routledge, pp. 146-166.
[15] http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2007-07/06/content_675637.htm
[16] http://www.rthk.org.hk/mediadigest/20040915_76_120092.html.
[17] Chan, Jackie and Jeff Yang (1999). I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action. New York: Ballantine books.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Zhuang Qing, Li Yueming. (2020). The Transforming Cultural Identity of Hong Kong as Reflected in Jackie Chan’s Police Story Series. English Language, Literature & Culture, 5(4), 159-164. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.16

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    ACS Style

    Zhuang Qing; Li Yueming. The Transforming Cultural Identity of Hong Kong as Reflected in Jackie Chan’s Police Story Series. Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2020, 5(4), 159-164. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.16

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    AMA Style

    Zhuang Qing, Li Yueming. The Transforming Cultural Identity of Hong Kong as Reflected in Jackie Chan’s Police Story Series. Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2020;5(4):159-164. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.16

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.16,
      author = {Zhuang Qing and Li Yueming},
      title = {The Transforming Cultural Identity of Hong Kong as Reflected in Jackie Chan’s Police Story Series},
      journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
      volume = {5},
      number = {4},
      pages = {159-164},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.16},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200504.16},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20200504.16},
      abstract = {Filmic texts embody the discussion of issues like identity and self-determination. Many films of Jackie Chan who is a well-known international film star, set the story in Hong Kong, thus inevitably presenting various cultural aspects of the city. Being an especially important historical event, the return of Hong Kong to China affects every aspect of people’s lives, which are consciously or unconsciously recorded in filmic texts. Seeking recourse to Stuart Hall’s concept of cultural identity and Wang Yuechuan’s theory of identity recognition, this paper analyzes Jackie Chan’s three filmic texts from the Police Story series, hoping to probe into the conflicts and changes of Hong Kong’s transforming cultural identity at three time periods before and after the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region upon the reunification with China, so as to prove both the complexity and importance of the identity issues. The paper will approach the three filmic texts from the following aspects: changed names of the main characters and their symbolic meanings, differences in plot and dialogue designs, and cultural meaning of urban space and architecture. Finally, the paper also invites the readers to reflect on the issues of representation on differences and identity recognition in general.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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    AB  - Filmic texts embody the discussion of issues like identity and self-determination. Many films of Jackie Chan who is a well-known international film star, set the story in Hong Kong, thus inevitably presenting various cultural aspects of the city. Being an especially important historical event, the return of Hong Kong to China affects every aspect of people’s lives, which are consciously or unconsciously recorded in filmic texts. Seeking recourse to Stuart Hall’s concept of cultural identity and Wang Yuechuan’s theory of identity recognition, this paper analyzes Jackie Chan’s three filmic texts from the Police Story series, hoping to probe into the conflicts and changes of Hong Kong’s transforming cultural identity at three time periods before and after the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region upon the reunification with China, so as to prove both the complexity and importance of the identity issues. The paper will approach the three filmic texts from the following aspects: changed names of the main characters and their symbolic meanings, differences in plot and dialogue designs, and cultural meaning of urban space and architecture. Finally, the paper also invites the readers to reflect on the issues of representation on differences and identity recognition in general.
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Author Information
  • Faculty of English Language and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China

  • School of Foreign Languages, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, China

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