Ang Lee's 'chinese authenticity' in his transnational films Essay

Ang Lee's 'chinese authenticity' in his transnational films - Essay Example ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ has received criticisms by Chinese audience and film scholars concerning its authenticity as a Chinese martial arts film. Looking at the film, its settings and the locations are all Chinese and its source of material is a famous series of Chinese pulp novels of the early 20th century. Yuen Wong-Ping’s martial arts chemotherapy use in the film is an excellent tradition of cinema in Hong Kong. In addition, all its actors are ethnically Chinese including major stars in East Asia. However, despite all these features, the Chinese audiences do not seem to connect to Ang Lee’s vision. They feel that the film does not reflect Chinese culture. Criticisms According to Wang and Yeh (175), Chinese audience claim that the film contains all that is Chinese as well as exotic identity. Elements of westernization are present in the film despite a total exclusion of West form in the film’s narrative. Chinese culture is a traditional cu lture and therefore it is designed to stability unlike the western culture designed for change and growth. However, Ang Lee has made a blending of Western psychological drama and Eastern fiction hence making the movie hybridized. Chinese culture is a fictional one yet Ang Lee’s ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ has some emotional attachment due to the styles employed in the film. Critics feel that the film should not have contained elements of westernization for it to qualify as a Chinese film. The film has failed to be a symbol of Chinese culture due to the intercultural viewpoint of Ang Lee. For example Ang Lee has also failed to bring out actual Chinese values in the film. Instead, he has made a mix up of the Chinese and western values in the film by allowing some of the characters to poses and capitalize on western cultural values. In the western culture, the pursuit of happiness and individualism are highly valued. On the contrary, Chinese culture values mora lity and collectivism over individuality, and condemns the pursuit of personal happiness at the expense of others. Taking Jen as an example, the western viewers are more likely to praise her because of her qualities of strong will, independence and strength. They are also likely to perceive her as being a free person. Coming to the Chinese audience, their perception of Jen definitely differs because of the way she brings out her characters of strong will, independence and strength contradicts the Chinese cultural expectations. Holding to a strong Confucian point of view, the Chinese have criticized her for being excessively cunning and morally corrupt. This is opposed to their views on Sulian whom they say she is noble and mature enough to control her feelings. According to them, this is proper of Chinese people (Wang and Yeh 177). Some audiences have complained that the use of special effects made the work too look fake and hence a misrepresentation of the actual situation in the C hinese culture and actual Chinese Kung Fu. The movie has been produced as a Chinese martial art film. This means that the language used by he actors, including the accent, should be clearly understandable to Chinese-speaking audience. However, the accent of the leading actors bothers some Chinese-speaking audience. All the four main actors used varied accents for example Chang Chen spoke using a Taiwanese accent. Ang Lee has also been criticized by insisting on the use of Mandarin yet some of the actors were