Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 1971. / Typescript. Vita. Includes abstract. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 301-307).

Thesis-- Northwestern University. / Vita. Photocopy of typescript. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms, 1977. Bibliography: leaves 366-371.

This thesis examines the changing nature of Hollywood stardom and how this is informed by an emergent celebrity culture. Through several case studies this study augments older forms of analysis with Bourdieu’s concept of capital to create a new model of stardom that can accommodate recent cultural developments. In chapter one four key forms of capital are identified. After contextualising this new model within the history of classic Hollywood and older academic approaches to stardom in chapter two, the analysis of Nicole Kidman’s star text in chapter three shows how her image has evolved to combine all forms of cultural capital and as such exemplifies an entirely new formulation of the Hollywood film star. Chapter four applies this analysis to the small screen, with the case studies of Michael J. Fox and Sarah Jessica Parker showing how some performers are able to accrue cultural capital by simultaneously working in film and television, establishing television as a legitimate site for Hollywood stardom and its associated capital. In chapter five a case study of Brand Beckham shows how the capital of contemporary celebrity can be effectively deployed in order to generate a similar allure to that of the classic Hollywood star and with it a similar level of Hollywood power. The final chapter examines the simultaneous unravelling of one brand and the creation of another in light of the increasing power of the fan within celebrity culture. A detailed study of Britney Spears’s presence on perezhilton.com highlights the involvement of the audience as producers of her image and demonstrates how new technologies can be used to create an entirely new form of fame for the gossip columnist, which in turn has been appropriated by the Hollywood system as the next site for legitimate fame.

published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 282-294). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-40).

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Glasgow, 2002. / Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, University of Glasgow, 2002. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-40). Also available in print.

The participatory cyberspace, epitomized by the concept of Web 2.0, has become a key venue of Chinese stardom in the post-cinema era.Web 2.0 invites its users to contribute to the content through an architecture of participation. Fans can search, poach, edit, and post filmic and publicity materials about stars, formulating seamless, collaborative reworkings of the star image and generating a new star-fan dynamic. At the crossroads of participatory cyberspace and cinema, transnational Chinese movie stars call our attention to the critical concern of Chineseness. In recent years, a number of Chinese movie stars have attained prominent presence in the global cinematic arena. These acting talents, who are either identified as martial arts performers or known for their performances in martial arts films, won global acclaim as a result of the worldwide reception and esteem for Hong Kong action films and Fifth Generation directors’ films from mainland China. As these stars begin to engineer personae stretching beyond their ethnic identities for the global setting, their stardom engenders discourses of ethnicity and cosmopolitanism.What does it mean to call these stars “Chinese” in the global cyber setting? How do their fans interact to reshape their star personae on the Web? How can one approach and understand “Chineseness” within cyber fan discourse? All these questions point to a central problem of how to conceptualize Chineseness in participatory cyberspace. My agenda in this study is to investigate Chinese movie stardom as a web-based phenomenon by establishing a new theoretical framework for considering Chineseness in participatory cyberspace. I have created a set of four analytical matrixes, each examining a particular Chinese star through a specific fan-based practice on a specific participatory site: vidding Donnie Yen and critiquing Zhang Ziyi on YouTube; photo-sharing about Jackie Chan on Flickr; “friending” Jet Li on Facebook; and discussing Takeshi Kaneshiro on fan forums. Through close investigation of these five Chinese stars, I demonstrate that the cyber setting enables collaborative fan reworkings of star texts and multiple directionality of approaching Chineseness. Cyber fans produce intertextual, multi-faceted star personae, different from traditional film personae whose meanings are anchored in a rigid established representational framework. Through the relentless scrutiny, quotation, manipulation self-affiliation by fans enabled by cyber technology, Chineseness becomes an utterly illusive and indefinable entity, a new form of signification whose meaning is always changing. This unstable, hybrid Chineseness challenges the notion of a star’s given ethnicity, redefining the archetypal martial arts body in unpredictable, manifold and provocative terms for the cyber era. With the aim of advancing the critical theorization of Chineseness, this study unfolds and analyzes the dynamics of the vital relationship between Chinese stardom, web technologies, and fan discourse. It also serves as a timely response to the challenges posed by cyber culture for the disciplines of cinema and cultural studies, in light of the proliferating yet inadequate current efforts in this field. / published_or_final_version / Comparative Literature / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts