An Alternative Discourse Of Modernity:Body Study In The Two Martial Arts Films Hero And The Grandmaster

Since the new century,Chinese society has embarked on the process of rapid modernization.In a similar vein,Chinese film industry has been in the trajectory of modernization.The new millennium witnessed a surge of martial arts films under“blockbuster” mechanism,which are endowed with functions of providing commercial entertainment and promoting mainstream social values.Cultural meanings of martial arts have been denied by the previous excess of virile bodies and physical violence.Grounded in the contemplation of the cultural elements in martial arts,Hero(2002)and The Grandmaster(2013)narrate a story of how an individual navigates in the changing circumstance.In light of body theories,this thesis attempts to probe into the reconfiguration of the martial body so as to explore the complex nexus between the two films and a cluster of sensory and ideological-cultural constellations emerging out of Chinese society’s processes of modernization since the late 1980 s.This thesis is divided into three parts.Part one probes into two kinds of body representation of the martial arts hero,which serve as a social symbolic construct—the regenerative body emerges out in the progress of the social regeneration ushered by the systemic reform and globalization;the stoic body provides a template for a modern subject in modern society in the flux of changes.Shifting the focus to the lived body of the spectator as a site of affect and sensation,part two analyses the audience reception towards the fast and slow tempo shown in the spectacle body and the inanimate body and situates these modes of aesthetics within the context of a burgeoning consumer society shaped by cross-cultural exchanges.Part three explores the sociological meaning of the star body in terms of gender dynamics within a thriving urban culture;a sort of polysemic masculinity embodied in the metrosexual male star is shown,which destabilizes the traditional prototype of martial arts heroes under the Confucian protocols,and a feminine body is manifested by recognizing the body of desire and derailing the ambivalent position of traditional women warriors as a sexless symbol.