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Ann Hui’s Allegorical Cinema

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Abstract

Yeung argues that Ann Hui’s co-produced films in her post-CEPA oeuvre embody a framework of “allegorical cinema.” Yeung theorizes this framework with reference to Walter Benjamin’s “baroque allegory,” Ackbar Abbas’s “cinema of the fragment as a nation,” and Yau Ka-Fai’s “cinema of the political.” The chapter first identifies the features of allegory in Hong Kong new cinema. It then explicates the necessity of allegory in the context of CEPA, state censorship, and self-censorship. After illustrating Hui’s mode of allegorical storytelling in The Golden Era (2014) and Our Time Will Come (2017), Yeung concludes with the uses of allegorical cinema in regard to investigating the future possibility of Hong Kong cinema under the influence of mainland China.

The original version of this chapter was revised plus a similar explanatory text of the problem as in erratum followed by An erratum to this chapter can be found at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7766-1_17

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I follow Abbas’s use of “Hong Kong new cinema” (2007). See 113, which refers to a “successful international cinema” emerging around 1984 alongside Hong Kong’s increasing “ambiguous position vis-à-vis nationalism and self-determination,” such as films by “auteurs like Wong Kar-wai, Ann Hui, Stanley Kwan, and Fruit Chan.”

  2. 2.

    CEPA was signed in 2003, but its implementation on the Hong Kong film industry started on 1 Jan 2004.

  3. 3.

    Tsui Hark is a First Wave filmmaker. Wong and Chan come later as Second Wave filmmakers.

  4. 4.

    For a concise summary of “baroque allegory” in Benjamin’s study, see Tambling (2010), 110–22.

  5. 5.

    Abbas argues that the “fragment as nation allows us to define, tentatively, in what sense it is possible to think about the Hong Kong cinema as a “national” cinema: in the sense that it is a cinema that perceives the nation from the point of view of the fragment.”

  6. 6.

    My idea of “allegorical cinema” differs from Rey Chow’s. She is more interested in its interpretation. I am more drawn to its geo-historical relevance. See Chow (2004), 123–42.

  7. 7.

    Also see Paul de Man’s discussion on the debate between symbol and allegory: “a configuration of symbols ultimately leading to a single, total, and universal meaning. This appeal to the infinity of a totality constitutes the main attraction of the symbol as opposed to allegory […]” (1983, 188).

  8. 8.

    See Yau (2015, 33): “Scholars have noted that CEPA as a free-trade agreement is not a mere economic instrument; rather, its impact on the Hong Kong film industry’s major economic restructuring has ramifications for film content, labor, and identity.” Also see Chu (2013), and Szeto and Chen (2012).

  9. 9.

    According to Cheung, “Many Hong Kong actors and actresses are recognized by the mainland audience in the 1980s and 1990s because of pirated Hong Kong films and TV dramas. Both Hong Kong and the mainland investors agreed that Hong Kong actors and actresses had an advantage in the Hong Kong, mainland, and overseas markets.”

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Jason S. Polley, Vinton Poon, Lian-Hee Wee, my anonymous reviewers, Jeremy Tambling, Michael Cheuk, Tom Cunliffe, Po-Wai Kwong, and Louis Lo for their help in enabling the writing of this essay. This essay commemorates Yau Ka-Fai, who inspires me with his passion for Hong Kong cinema and comparative literature.

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  1. SOAS, University of London, London, UK

    Jessica Siu-Yin Yeung

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  1. Jessica Siu-Yin Yeung
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  1. Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Jason S. Polley

  2. Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Vinton W.K. Poon

  3. Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Lian-Hee Wee

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Yeung, J.SY. (2018). Ann Hui’s Allegorical Cinema. In: Polley, J., Poon, V., Wee, LH. (eds) Cultural Conflict in Hong Kong. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7766-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7766-1_6

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