Pop Standard: Film, Music, and the Making of the Hong Kong New Wave (66293)

Session Information: International Humanities
Session Chair: Aleksander Sedzielarz

Saturday, January 7, 2023 (16:15)
Session: Session 5
Room: 318A
Presentation Type:Oral Presentation

All presentation times are UTC-10 (Pacific/Honolulu)

In the 1988 film Flaming Brothers, triad action genre breaks into staged musical as Chow Yun-Fat struts in garish makeup that carries a suggestion of drag while lip-syncing the Anita Mui song "I’m a Bad Girl" — a cover of Sheena Easton’s hit "Strut". One of many instances of flamboyance and glam in the otherwise bleak world of triad crime films, the scene also exhibits how transnational musical production expanded the boundaries of creative expression in the Hong Kong film industry. This presentation explores how visual experimentation in Hong Kong films intertwined with acoustic experimentation as designers, producers, and stars shuttled between projects in film and recording. Revealing porous and highly flexible channels of transcontinental exchange of image and sound, rather than a unidirectional colonial metropole exporting to the colony, flows of international music energized the Hong Kong culture industries while Hong Kong film stars emerged as a unique kind of pop idol with global currency. This presentation locates the central place of pop music in Hong Kong’s interwoven film and recording industries and proposes that tracking music production in Hong Kong is key to a full understanding of New Wave films.

Authors:
Aleksander Sedzielarz, Kean University-Wenzhou, China


About the Presenter(s)
Dr Aleksander Sedzielarz is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at Kean University - Wenzhou in China

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Posted by Clive Staples Lewis

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00