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The Other Side of Glamour
The Left-Wing Studio Network in Hong Kong Cinema in the Cold War Era and Beyond
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Book Presentation:
Studies the historical origins and transformation in styles and production modes of Hong Kong’s left-wing studios
• What does it mean to be on the “left” of the Hong Kong film industry during the Cold War era?
• How did the left-wing studios balance their artistic, ideological, and commercial agendas in their production and exhibition strategies?
• What makes a film “left-wing” or “right-wing”?
• How did national, colonial, and international politics intervene in the ‘making of’ the popular left-wing cinema in Hong Kong?
• How did the left-wing film establishment in Hong Kong reinvent itself in the post-Cold War, post-Cultural Revolution era?
• What are the nuanced legacies of the classical left-wing in Hong Kong cinema today?
Since its inception more than a century ago, Hong Kong cinema has been a pre-eminent form of local entertainment and a site of ideological contentions propelled by colonial, national and international politics at different historical junctures. The Other Side of Glamour is a study of the historical development of the left-wing film establishment in Hong Kong.
The interplay between the macro-politics of the Cold War and the micro-politics of a regionalised/localised ideological warfare lends itself to a critical mapping of the general contours of the ‘cultural Cold War’ between the KMT and the CCP as it materialised in the so-called ‘left–right divide’ in the filmmaking world. Using the major studios as the main axis of analysis, this study traces the footprints of other collaborating cultural agents which made up the left-wing film network in Hong Kong. It argues that the left-wing’s institutional character and corporate strategies in the making of a ‘popular left-wing cinema’ are indispensable to an understanding of their nuanced legacy in Hong Kong cinema today.
About the Author:
Vivian Lee is Associate Professor in the Department of Chinese and History at City University of Hong Kong. She is the author of 'Hong Kong Cinema since 1997: the Post-nostalgic Imagination' and editor of 'East Asian Cinemas: Global Flows and Regional Transformations'. Her work has been published in academic journals and edited volumes including the Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Hong Kong Horror Cinema, A Companion to Wong Kar-wai, and the Chinese Cinema Book.
Press Reviews:
If you thought Hong Kong only cared about commerce until its sudden recent political confrontations, think again. This deeply researched and nuanced study of left-wing cinema in post-war Hong Kong reveals a fascinating 4-way chess game between Communists, Nationalists, British, and filmmakers that resonates through to today.– Professor Chris Berry, King's College London
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
> From the same author:
The Cinema of Stephen Chow (2024)
Dir. Gary Bettinson and Vivian P. Y. Lee
Subject: Director > Stephen Chow
> On a related topic:
Hong Kong Crime Films (2023)
Criminal Realism, Censorship and Society, 1947-1986
Experts in Action (2021)
Transnational Hong Kong-Style Stunt Work and Performance
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