Changing manhood in post-97 Hong Kong cinema : perspectives of geopolitical and economic transformations = 地緣政治與經濟轉變下的陽剛建構 : 後九七香港電影的男性形像

Abstract

Regarding gender identity as a kind of social construction, geopolitical and economic transformation may affect the social imagination of local men in Hong Kong cinema. Previous studies indicated that Hong Kong people’s masculinities are mainly valued by their economic superiority based on Hong Kong’s financial success since 1970s. However, after the transfer of sovereignty in 1997, economic upheavals, such as the 1997 Asian financial crisis and outbreak of SARS in 2003, challenged the economic status of Hong Kong, and the construction of Hong Kong masculinities may change accordingly. Meanwhile, the rise of two major ideologies, namely localism and nationalism, also plays a crucial role in forming local people’s identity as well as masculinity. How does the post-97 Hong Kong cinema reflect and contribute to the gendered subjectivity of Hong Kong people in the post-handover society? This thesis aims to demonstrate how the images of Hong Kong men on screen are associated with some of the significant transformations after the handover, through how men without economic power are represented, especially in the context of Mainland-Hong Kong relations. The introductory chapter discusses the theoretical framework and major social transformations of Hong Kong after 1997 in terms of identity and economy. In addition, a literature review on works about masculinities studies and Hong Kong cinema is also included. Chapter 1 demonstrates how the economic failure of Hong Kong depletes local men of their masculinities, using Night and Fog (2009), a tragedy of Hong Kong-Mainland marriage directed by Ann Hui as an example, to explicate the interconnection between masculinities, economy, and identity in the local context. Chapter 2, with Pang Ho-cheung’s Love in the Puff (2012) as the primary text, illustrates how Hong Kong men facing the threat of rich men from the Mainland, may be re-masculinized again by returning to local culture even they are not economically powerful. Chapter 3 explains how Chinese nationalism could empower Hong Kong men by analyzing Herman Yau’s Love Lifting (2012), which tells the story of a Hong Kong man playing the role of house husband in order to fulfill his wife’s dream of representing Chinese national team in the Olympic Games. Through a textual and contextual analysis of above media texts, this thesis aims to examine the constructions of masculinities in the postcolonial era.