This book is an interdisciplinary study of the commerce-art-politics nexus of Hong Kong cinema from 2000 to 2020, investigating the current nascent generation of film workers who joined the industry as it gradually entered an era marked by the domination of Hong Kong/mainland co-productions. Fangyu Chen explores the filmmaking ideologies of the emerging filmmakers from both within and beyond their film texts and uncovers the artistic and ideological discrepancies between this generation and their predecessors-the established generation who contributed to the glory days of Hong Kong cinema during its economic boom. By tracing the studies of national cinema and transnational cinema, Chen debunks the national/transnational antagonism with the case of post-2000 Hong Kong cinema and argues that it has split into two: a transnational cinema represented by the established generation of filmmakers and a national cinema that is driven by the nascent generation who are struggling for better preservation of Hong Kong local culture and their own cultural identities. Employing a Hong Kong/mainland film dynamics perspective, this study addresses a gap in the academic study of Hong Kong cinema, drawing attention to the material conditions and artistic visions of the craft labour in the industry. Scholars of communication, film studies, and labor economics will find this book of particular interest.
Fangyu Chen is lecturer at the College of Professional and Continuing Education, Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Table of Contents Preface: The Genesis of the Book Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: The Post-2000 Nascent Generation of Filmmakers in Hong Kong Chapter 1 - Framework and Research Scope Elucidated Chapter 2 - Getting to Know Them: Nascent Filmmakers and Their Works Chapter 3 - Two Generations of Filmmakers: A Generational Tug-of-War Chapter 4 - Causes, Questionings, and Speaking of Hong Kong Cinemas in the Plural Part II: Nascent Film Workers and Their Work in Post-2000 Hong Kong Chapter 5 - Creative Labour and Hong Kong Film Labour Market after 2000 Chapter 6 - Unions, Film Education and Female Filmmakers in the Post-2000 Hong Kong Chapter 7 - Under the shade of China: Hong Kong Cinema's Extra Dimensions of Precarity Part III: Post-Handover Film Policy in Hong Kong Chapter 8 - Cultural Policy Revisited and Four Contradictions in Film Policy Making Chapter 9 - Film Policy Here and There: Filmic Dynamics Between Hong Kong and Mainland China Conclusion: Hong Kong Cinema Facing Increasing Integration Appendix Bibliography About the Author
"Fangyu Chen provides a carefully researched and candid take on the generational divide that ruptured the territory's film industry in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Rather than focusing exclusively on acclaimed directors and popular stars, this book digs deep into the lives and working conditions of the "below-the-line" craft workers essential to the movie business. A critical take on Hong Kong film policy in the post-CEPA (Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement) world in which cross-border connections become fiscally more crucial and politically more fraught rounds out this fascinating study of Hong Kong's contemporary cinema scene." -- Gina Marchetti, Pratt Institute
