Date of Award

1-1-2010

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences

First Advisor

Darrin Hicks, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Bernadette Calafell

Third Advisor

Kate Willink

Keywords

Ambivalence, Ang Lee, Audience reception, Globalization, Postcolonial theory, Transnational cinema

Abstract

Using ambivalence as a theoretical framework, this study examines Ang Lee's cinematic discourse of Chinese identity, which is co-constructed with the audiences from different cultural communities. I focus on Ang Lee's transnational films Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Lust, Caution as my two case studies. By analyzing the audience discourse from Taiwan, Mainland China, and overseas Chinese communities, I am able to conceptualize their reactions as communicative moments that co-construct the meaning of the film text. I suggest that ambivalence is a self-representational strategy for the ethnic "Other," who is historically denied access to representation, to contest and subvert the conventional stereotyping and simplification of one's subjectivity. Additionally, this research provides a good example of the familiar cycle of ambivalent emotion toward the West, in the aftermath of postcolonialism. China and Taiwan's long history of engaging in a subordinate relationship with the West enhances the resurgence of ambivalence. Representations become a significant and predominant way to mediate one's bodily experiences, to connect and collaborate with one another, and to form and inform one's cultural identity. My research furthers the theorization of the ways in which new media technologies impact and alter the human interactions between peoples from various cultural, social, and political contexts.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Chih-Yun Chiang

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

208 p.

Discipline

Communication, Film studies, Asian studies

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