Shakespeare in Chinese Cinema

General Problems in Chinese Translations of Shakespeare

Shakespeare was not known to the Chinese until Lin Zexu’s (1785-1850) translation of Hugh Murray’s (1789-1845) Cyclopedia of Geography (1836). Since then, the Chinese perception of Shakespeare has changed several times, from his being regarded as a story-teller to being fully received as a seasoned playwright and poet, through to his plays being rendered into the Chinese language and performed ...

Theatricality and Cultural Critique in Chinese Cinema

Tracing Chinese Gay Cinema 1993-2002

Lan Dong explores in her paper, "Tracing Chinese Gay Cinema 1993-2002" the recent landscape of Chinese gay cinema through discussing the following three feature films: Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine (1993), Zhang Yuan's East Palace, West Palace (1996), and Stanley Kwan's Lan Yu (2001). The grouping derives from the concern that they all set their stories in Beijing. Using the capital city a...

Rescuing “Damsels in Distress”: Chinese Women in Contemporary Italian Cinema

After the “Year of Italy in China” in 2006, Italian films with Chinese themes witnessed a boom in popularity. This article focuses on three films produced during the period: The Missing Star (2006), Two Tigers (2007), and Shun Li and the Poet (2011). The article analyzes the roles assigned to Chinese women and their western costars, reveals the common patterns with which images of Chinese “dams...

Courtroom Drama With Chinese Characteristics: A Comparative Approach to Legal Process in Chinese Cinema

Like Hollywood cinema, gong’an drama seizes upon the dramatic and narrative potential of legal trials. Yet, while Hollywood trial films turn viewers into jurors, pushing them back and forth between the competing stories that emerge from the adversarial process, gong’an drama eschews any recognition of opposing narratives, instead centering on the punishment of decidedly guilty criminals. The mo...