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Article: Nothingness in motion: Theorizing Bruce Lee’s action aesthetics

TitleNothingness in motion: Theorizing Bruce Lee’s action aesthetics
Authors
KeywordsAction aesthetics
Bruce Lee
Daoism
Jeet Kune Do
kung fu cinema
Issue Date2019
PublisherSAGE Publications (UK and US): Open Access Titles. The Journal's web site is located at https://journals.sagepub.com/home/gch
Citation
Global Media and China, 2019, v. 4 n. 3, p. 362-380 How to Cite?
AbstractThis article argues that Bruce Lee revolutionized kung fu cinema not only by increasing its authenticity and combativity but also by revealing its inherent connection to wuyi (武意), or martial ideation. Martial ideation refers to a specific negotiation of action and stasis in martial arts performance which contains a powerful overflow of emotion in tranquility. Since the early 1970s, Bruce Lee’s kung fu films have been labeled “chop-socky,” offering only fleeting visual and visceral pleasures. Subsequently, several studies explored the cultural significance and political implications of Lee’s films. However, not much attention has been paid to their aesthetic composition—in particular, how cinematic kung fu manifests Chinese aesthetics and philosophy on choreographic, cinematographic, and narrative levels. In Lee’s films, the concept of martial ideation is embodied in the Daoist notion of wu (nothingness), a metaphysical void that is invisible, nameless, and formless. Through a close reading of Laozi’s Daodejing (道德經), it is possible to discover two traits of nothingness—namely, reversal and return—which are characteristics of Lee’s representation of martial ideation. The former refers to a paradigmatic shift from concreteness to emptiness, while the latter makes such a shift reversible and perennial via the motif of circularity. The discussion focuses on films in which Lee’s creative influence is clearly discernible, such as Fist of Fury (1972), The Way of the Dragon (1972), and the surviving footage intended for The Game of Death featured in Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey (2000). These films shed light on the complicated relationship between the cinematic (action and stasis), the martial (Jeet Kune Do), the aesthetic (ideation), and the philosophical (Daoism). The goal is to stimulate a more balanced discussion of Lee’s films both from the perspective of global action cinema and Chinese culture.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/278844
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 3.2
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 0.833
ISI Accession Number ID

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorWONG, W-
dc.date.accessioned2019-10-21T02:15:05Z-
dc.date.available2019-10-21T02:15:05Z-
dc.date.issued2019-
dc.identifier.citationGlobal Media and China, 2019, v. 4 n. 3, p. 362-380-
dc.identifier.issn2059-4372-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/278844-
dc.description.abstractThis article argues that Bruce Lee revolutionized kung fu cinema not only by increasing its authenticity and combativity but also by revealing its inherent connection to wuyi (武意), or martial ideation. Martial ideation refers to a specific negotiation of action and stasis in martial arts performance which contains a powerful overflow of emotion in tranquility. Since the early 1970s, Bruce Lee’s kung fu films have been labeled “chop-socky,” offering only fleeting visual and visceral pleasures. Subsequently, several studies explored the cultural significance and political implications of Lee’s films. However, not much attention has been paid to their aesthetic composition—in particular, how cinematic kung fu manifests Chinese aesthetics and philosophy on choreographic, cinematographic, and narrative levels. In Lee’s films, the concept of martial ideation is embodied in the Daoist notion of wu (nothingness), a metaphysical void that is invisible, nameless, and formless. Through a close reading of Laozi’s Daodejing (道德經), it is possible to discover two traits of nothingness—namely, reversal and return—which are characteristics of Lee’s representation of martial ideation. The former refers to a paradigmatic shift from concreteness to emptiness, while the latter makes such a shift reversible and perennial via the motif of circularity. The discussion focuses on films in which Lee’s creative influence is clearly discernible, such as Fist of Fury (1972), The Way of the Dragon (1972), and the surviving footage intended for The Game of Death featured in Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey (2000). These films shed light on the complicated relationship between the cinematic (action and stasis), the martial (Jeet Kune Do), the aesthetic (ideation), and the philosophical (Daoism). The goal is to stimulate a more balanced discussion of Lee’s films both from the perspective of global action cinema and Chinese culture.-
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherSAGE Publications (UK and US): Open Access Titles. The Journal's web site is located at https://journals.sagepub.com/home/gch-
dc.relation.ispartofGlobal Media and China-
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.-
dc.subjectAction aesthetics-
dc.subjectBruce Lee-
dc.subjectDaoism-
dc.subjectJeet Kune Do-
dc.subjectkung fu cinema-
dc.titleNothingness in motion: Theorizing Bruce Lee’s action aesthetics-
dc.typeArticle-
dc.description.naturepublished_or_final_version-
dc.identifier.doi10.1177/2059436419871386-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-85086865248-
dc.identifier.hkuros307799-
dc.identifier.volume4-
dc.identifier.issue3-
dc.identifier.spage362-
dc.identifier.epage380-
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000508269300006-
dc.publisher.placeUnited Kingdom-
dc.identifier.issnl2059-4372-

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