| This dissertation interrogates film remaking in the Chinese context as a trans-visual practice. I argue that "Chinese cinema," as early as in the silent era, has rested on filmic interactions and translations between different geo-political spaces of China (Shanghai and Hong Kong), and between China and the West (America in this case). That is, "Chinese cinema" is a trans-regional and transnational composite ever since its inception. I propose that the process of image exchange and translation is over-determined by diverse factors, including ideological and aesthetic conditions under which a remaking is conducted, the available material conditions (especially film technology), as well as audience make-up in terms of gender, class and ethnicity and visual habits, and finally, film censorship. My agenda in is to elaborate a theory of what I call the "subaltern remake," and to investigate its ramifications for identity (re)construction in geo-political spaces rifted with forces as opposed as (semi-)/(neo-)/(post-)colonialism and cosmopolitanism, pre-industrial ethic and urbanization, nationalism and Westernization. My emphases on representation, mimesis, translation and trans-textuality contribute to cinema studies and literary-cultural studies in modern China and other similarly structured contexts.; The films I have selected for study are from the 1920s, 30s, 60s and 90s, each marking a specific technological and socio-historical moment in Hollywood, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Each of the three case study chapters deals with a genre (melodrama, musical or horror film) and its various forms of inflections and hybridizations. In accordance with the respective generic coordinates, I select three matching entry points, namely, gender, class and voice. The wide generic and historical ranges present an ideal opportunity for me to fully explore the cultural and political significance of the practice of film remaking, and to consider their implications for the notion of "national cinema".; To adequately understand the transregional and transnational dimension of Chinese cinema, I propose a "paradigm shift," namely, from the mono-centric "radiation" to the polycentric "corridor."; Finally, I gesture toward an "image of nostalgia," reemphasizing the connections between film remaking on the one hand, historical and identity construction on the other. |
