Loi, Ho Man. / "August 2011." / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / Abstract (English and Chinese) --- p.iv / Note on Transcription --- p.vi / Table of Contents --- p.vii / Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter One: --- National Allegory of Aesthetics? Narrative Cinema as a Standstill Image in Hong Kong Film Scholarship --- p.11-54 / Chapter ´ؤ --- Hong Kong Narrative Cinema as Allegory and Aesthetics --- p.15 / Chapter ´ؤ --- Ringo Lam and Crisis Cinema Revisited --- p.44 / Chapter Chapter Two: --- "Mobilization of Narrative and Spectacle in Hong Kong Cinema: The Image of the ""Depressive Hero"" in the Work of Ringo Lam" --- p.55-99 / Chapter ´ؤ --- Narrative and Spectacle in Hong Kong Film Studies --- p.56 / Chapter ´ؤ --- "Ringo Lam and the Screening of ""Depressive Heroes"" in Cinema" --- p.68 / Chapter Chapter Three: --- "Jerking Tear, Shedding Blood: The Genre of ""Heroic Bloodshed"" as Melodrama in Hong Kong Cinema" --- p.100-133 / Chapter ´ؤ --- Melodrama and Its Vicissitudes in Film Studies --- p.102 / Chapter ´ؤ --- "The Mystery of Yi: The Melodramatic Nature of the Genre of ""Heroic Bloodshed""" --- p.116 / Chapter Chapter Four: --- Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbour as Thy Son: Prison on Fire (1987) below the Lion Rock --- p.134-163 / Chapter ´ؤ --- Let There be Friendship as Light in Prison --- p.135 / Chapter ´ؤ --- "Visualities as Biopolitics in the Genre of ""Heroic Bloodshed""" --- p.148 / Chapter Chapter Five: --- No Bloodshed after Tiananmen: Full Alert (1997) and the Postmodern Dialectic of Stability and Prosperity --- p.164-198 / Chapter ´ؤ --- Melodramatic Pathos and Action Revisited in Full Alert --- p.166 / Chapter ´ؤ --- Full Alert as False Alarm: The Stable Prosperity of Postmodern Hong Kong --- p.180 / Chapter ´ؤ --- "Excursus/Excursion: Hong Kong Cinema after ""Heroic Bloodshed""" --- p.191 / Conclusion --- p.199 / Bibliography --- p.229 / Filmography --- p.247

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Dominic Yuk-Yu Yung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991. / Bibliography: leaves 105-6. / Chapter 1. --- Focus of The Study --- p.3 / Chapter 2. --- Theoretical Perspectives --- p.16 / Chapter 2.1 --- On Cultural Studies --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2 --- On Culture Indicators --- p.21 / Chapter 2.3 --- On Synbolic Interactionism --- p.22 / Chapter 2.4 --- Realism/Formalism in Film Studies --- p.24 / Chapter 3. --- Hypotheses --- p.30 / Chapter 4. --- Research Method And Its Operationization --- p.35 / Chapter 4.1 --- Target Films and Data-sheet --- p.38 / Chapter 4.2 --- Interviews --- p.43 / Chapter 5. --- Findings --- p.47 / Chapter 5.1 --- Describing Background and Storyline Data --- p.48 / Chapter 5.2 --- Testing Hypothesis --- p.55 / Chapter 5.21 --- Testing Hypothesis H[1] --- p.55 / Chapter 5.22 --- Testing Hypothesis H[2] --- p.57 / Chapter 5.3 --- Adaptation/Acceptance by Sex --- p.60 / Chapter 6. --- Discussions And Observations --- p.64 / Chapter 6.1 --- """From Rivalry to Accomodation"" - A Necessary Passage to Integration" --- p.65 / Chapter 6.2 --- Adaptation and Acceptance of Female Samples --- p.69 / Chapter 6.3 --- Overall Remarks For Each Character --- p.72 / Chapter 7. --- Conclusion --- p.75 / Chapter Appendix I --- Research Papers & Studies on New Immigrants in HK since1982 --- p.80 / Chapter Appendix II --- 53 Target Films on Mainlanders Between1980-1990 --- p.82 / Chapter Appendix III --- Data-Sheet --- p.85 / Chapter Appendix IV --- Coding Sheet (Answers to Data-Sheet) --- p.92 / Chapter Appendix V --- 40 Target Films as Sample Films for the Study --- p.95 / Chapter Appendix VI --- 32 Sample Films --- p.98 / Chapter Appendix VII --- Box-Office Records Comparison: Sample Films & Top5 --- p.100 / Bibliography --- p.105 / Acknowledgement --- p.107

by Grace Leung Lai-kuen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-124). / Preface --- p.ii / Abstract --- p.iii / Contents --- p.iv / Chapter Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2. --- Theoretical Review and Method of Study --- p.5 / Chapter i) --- An Anomaly to Media Imperialism / Chapter ii) --- Inadequacies of Non-Marxists Theories / Chapter iii) --- Analytical Framework / Chapter iv) --- Research Questions and Research Design / Chapter Chapter 3. --- Hong Kong as a Regional Movie Production & Export Centre -- a Statistical Review --- p.19 / Chapter i) --- Hong Kong as a Movie Production Centre / Chapter ii) --- Hong Kong as a Movie Export Centre / Chapter Chapter 4. --- Evolution of the Movie Industry in Hong Kong -- a socio-historical analysis --- p.44 / Chapter i) --- An Overview / Chapter ii) --- Stages of Development / Chapter 1) --- Initial Period / Chapter 2) --- Nascent Period / Chapter 3) --- Growing Period / Chapter 4) --- Developing Period / Chapter 5) --- Quiescent Period / Chapter 6) --- Reconstruction Period / Chapter 7) --- Prosperity Period / Chapter 8) --- Declining Period / Chapter 9) --- Revival Period / Chapter Chapter 5. --- In Search of an Explanatory Framework --- p.77 / Chapter Chapter 6. --- Conclusion --- p.111 / Appendices --- p.118 / Reference --- p.120

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

Ho Wing Ki. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-135). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- LITERATURE REVIEW / Convergence of Religion and Media --- p.4 / Three Conventional Approaches to the Media of Popular Piety / Current Trend of Religion --- p.7 / Characteristics of Film --- p.9 / Rich Resources --- p.10 / Liminoid Consciousness --- p.11 / Transcendence --- p.12 / Engaging the World Through Images --- p.13 / An Interdisciplinary Endeavor --- p.15 / Understanding Audiences --- p.20 / Applying Generic Film Analysis --- p.22 / Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- OBJECTIVE OF STUDY / Objective of Study --- p.23 / Background / Local Christian Visual Media Before / Evangelistic Films --- p.24 / Evangelistic Feature Films --- p.25 / Research Methods --- p.32 / Outline of The Miracle Box --- p.36 / Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- "THE G.P.A. OF EVANGELSITIC FILMS: THE GOAL, THE PERCEPTIONS, AND THE ADVANCE" / Establishing the Goal of Evangelistic Films --- p.44 / Conventional Perception about Evangelistic Films --- p.47 / Advance: Narrowing the Gap --- p.48 / Watching for Leisure --- p.53 / Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- THREE DEVICES FOR RELIGIOUS MEANING GENERATION / Device 1: Genre --- p.55 / Chapter (1) --- Genre Label and Sensitization --- p.58 / Chapter (2) --- Docudrama and Testification --- p.62 / Chapter (3) --- Melodrama and Toning --- p.65 / Summary --- p.69 / Device 2: Symbols --- p.70 / The Box and Hand Over --- p.71 / Suggested Meaning --- p.73 / Compatible Meaning --- p.75 / Ignorance or Opposite Meaning --- p.79 / Nature and God With Us --- p.81 / Summary --- p.84 / Device 3: Critical Moments --- p.86 / Christian Viewers --- p.90 / Non-Christian Viewers --- p.94 / Projection from a Distance --- p.98 / Summary --- p.99 / Chapter CHAPTER 6 --- CONCLUSION / Conclusion --- p.106 / Limitations and Further Research --- p.112 / APPENDIX I Informants Profile --- p.115 / "APPENDIX II Excerpts Where ""The Box"" is Featured in The Miracle Box" --- p.116 / "APPENDIX III Excerpts Where ""Nature"" is Featured in The Miracle Box" --- p.125 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.128

Shin, Kei-Wah Victor. / "November 2010." / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-198). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgments --- p.iv / Table of Contents --- p.vi / List of Tables --- p.ix / List of Figures --- p.xii / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Framing the Puzzles --- p.1 / "INTRODUCING: ""The Curious Case of... a Fallen 'Asian Hollywood'""" --- p.3 / METHOD AND DATA --- p.6 / STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS --- p.12 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- "“The Blind Side"" of Existing Explanations" --- p.15 / CONVENTIONAL EXPLANATIONS --- p.17 / Triad Intrusion and Piracy --- p.17 / Hasty and Unpolished Productions --- p.19 / EXPLANATIONS DERIVED FROM THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES --- p.21 / The Cultural Imperialism approach --- p.22 / The Cultural-flows/ Network approach --- p.27 / Suppositions related to the Cultural-flows/ Network approach --- p.32 / The Reception approach --- p.36 / The Cultural Policy and Strategies approach --- p.41 / What about the Receiving Countries? --- p.46 / THE POLITICAL-CULTURAL APPROACH --- p.48 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- The “Bloom´ح in the 1970s and the 1980s --- p.53 / "THE ""BLOOM""" --- p.53 / BRINGING IN THE POLITICAL-CULTURAL APPROACH --- p.57 / THE INDUSTRIAL SETTING OF THE HONG KONG FILM MARKET VIS-A-VIS HOLLYWOOD --- p.59 / THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE HONG KONG FILM MARKET --- p.62 / From Studio System to Independent Production System since the 1970s --- p.63 / The Revenue-sharing Structure --- p.68 / """CONCEPTIONS OF CONTROL"" IN THE HONG KONG FILM MARKET (1970s - 1980s)" --- p.70 / Distributor-driven Exhibition --- p.72 / Distributor-driven Production --- p.75 / HONG KONG FILM INDUSTRY AT ITS PEAK IN THE LATE 1980s --- p.81 / SUMMARY --- p.88 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- "The ""Twilight"" since the mid-1990s" --- p.91 / WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE 1990s? --- p.91 / The Plot in Brief --- p.92 / THE KEY TO SUCCESS TURNS INTO A SOURCE OF STRESS --- p.97 / "Conventional Practices inscribed in the ""Conceptions of Control""" --- p.99 / The Entwined Financial Practice --- p.99 / The Exclusive Exhibition Practice --- p.101 / What caused a Turn in the late 1980s? --- p.102 / "The ""Meteor Shower"" of Taiwan Capital" --- p.102 / China's Cinematic Reform --- p.104 / "The Resultant Cross-Strait “Industrial Complex""" --- p.106 / The Exogenous Shock Induced --- p.108 / Reduction of Theatres in each Theatre Chain and its Impact --- p.110 / The Consequence of Exclusive Exhibition Practice --- p.113 / The Consequence of Entwined Financial Practice --- p.114 / A REVERSAL OF FORTUNE IN 1993 --- p.117 / "The Short-lived ""Newcomers""" --- p.119 / The Rising Land Price --- p.122 / The Ebb Tide of the Taiwan Capital Flood --- p.128 / The Last Samurai and the Finale of the Distributor-led Production System --- p.134 / Summary --- p.138 / TRANSFORMATION IN THE HONG KONG FILM MARKET --- p.139 / The Return of the Challengers: Distributors of Foreign Movies --- p.143 / "The Emergence of New ""Conceptions of Control""" --- p.147 / The Impact on Film Companies producing Local Movies --- p.151 / Chapter Chapter 5: --- "A ""Revolutionary Road"" to the Peak and Drop" --- p.156 / A BRIEF REPRISE --- p.156 / "The ""Bloom"" in Retrospect" --- p.158 / "The ""Twilight"" in Retrospect" --- p.161 / IMPLICATIONS OF THIS STUDY FOR EXISTING APPROACHES --- p.168 / Implications for the Cultural Imperialism approach --- p.168 / Implications for the Cultural-flows/ Network approach --- p.169 / Implications for the Reception approach --- p.172 / AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH TO CURRENT THEORIES --- p.174 / LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE DIRECTIONS --- p.175 / REFERENCES --- p.177

by Chu Wing Ki. / Thesis submitted in: July 1997. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Filmography: leaves 216-219. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 204-215). / Chapter Chapter 1. --- Introduction: Contemporary Nostalgia Films Understood in the Colonial Context of Hong Kong / Chapter I. --- opular Culture as an Arena ofublicarticipation --- p.2 / Chapter II. --- opular Culture and Colonialism --- p.14 / The Ambivalence of Colonialism --- p.14 / """Status-quo Imaginary"" as the Manifestation of Colonial Ambivalence" --- p.17 / Chapter i. --- Hong Kong in the late 60s --- p.21 / Chapter ii. --- Hong Kong in the 70s --- p.24 / Chapter iii. --- Hong Kong in the 80s and 90s --- p.30 / Popular Culture Understood in the Colonial Context of Hong Kong --- p.35 / Chapter III --- The Contemporary Mode of Nostalgia as Mediation of Colonialrocess --- p.38 / Nostalgia Films Understood inost-Colonial Context -- The Ambivalence of History --- p.38 / Chapter i. --- Nostalgia Films not Targetted towards the Rediscovery of History --- p.40 / "The Appropriation of History as a ""Laughable"" Other" --- p.43 / "The Substitution of History by ""Style""" --- p.47 / Chapter ii. --- Nostalgia Films' Evocation of a Free-Floating Signifier of Hong Kong Historical Identity --- p.50 / Nostalgia Films as a Context-Specific Articulation --- p.56 / Nostalgia Films as a Form of Disavowal --- p.59 / Outline of the Coming Chapters --- p.61 / Chapter Chapter2. --- Nostalgia and History --- p.66 / Chapter I. --- Rouge --- p.66 / The Construction of Nostalgic Effects --- p.67 / "“Sense of Loss"" as Identity Formation" --- p.72 / "Theast as a ""Split Object"" of Identification" --- p.75 / Pessimism as a Collective Empowerment --- p.84 / Chapter II. --- Center Stage --- p.88 / Interrogation of History --- p.89 / Pessimism as Empowerment -- Reification of History --- p.93 / The Ambivalence of History --- p.100 / Chapter III. --- Days of Being Wild --- p.103 / Interrogation of History:History and Subject Formation --- p.103 / """Internal Colonization"" and Fatalism" --- p.113 / "The Image of “Innocence""" --- p.116 / Conclusion --- p.121 / Chapter Chapter 3. --- Nostalgia and Urban Space --- p.124 / Chapter I. --- Nostalgia as a Critique of Urban Space --- p.124 / Chapter II --- Chungking Express --- p.131 / "Old Chinese Apartment as Site of “Re-enchantment""" --- p.133 / "The “Urban Spectacle"" -- Old Chinese Apartment as Reified Spatial Construct" --- p.140 / Chapter i. --- "The Traversed Space of ""Contemporariness"" and ""Pastness""" --- p.140 / Chapter ii. --- "The ""Openness"" of Old Chinese Apartment" --- p.147 / Old Chinese Apartment -- An Expression of Nostalgia? --- p.155 / Chapter III. --- "He ´ةs a Woman and She ´ةs a Man, C'est La Vie Mon Cheri，He and She" --- p.158 / "The “ Urban Spectacle""" --- p.158 / Chapter i. --- ositive Human Qualities --- p.158 / Chapter ii. --- A Historical Sense oflace --- p.163 / Chapter iii. --- Interior Design -- The Assertion of Urban Spirit of Change --- p.165 / Chapter iv. --- "Socially and Culturally ""Marginal"" Characters" --- p.167 / Urban Status-quo Imaginary and Cultural Identificationin Hong Kong --- p.170 / Old Chinese Apartment as Reified Spatial Construct --- p.174 / Chapter i. --- Thearadox of Attraction and Anxiety A Discourse ofrogress --- p.174 / Chapter ii. --- The Inscription of the Imperative of Advancement intohysical Surrounding --- p.179 / Chapter iii. --- "The “Urban Spectacle"" of Social Differences ""Cloaked"" Gestures of ´ب´بSubversion""" --- p.181 / Conclusion --- p.191 / Chapter Chapter 4. --- Conclusion: Nostalgia -- The Ambivalence of History --- p.194 / Chapter I. --- Optimism andessimism as Identity Formation --- p.194 / Chapter II --- The Commercialization of Nostalgia --- p.197 / Bibliography --- p.208 / Filmography --- p.220 / Appendix I-IX

Cinema, as a complex social and cultural phenomenon, has been recently challenged by digital media cultures and aesthetics since the 1990s. In this study, Hong Kong cinematic productions, blending the West and the East, and flexibly manoeuvring production and post-production with limited resources, are used to demonstrate the advent of new digital cinematic aesthetics and productions in the era of globalization and digitalization. The production culture and aesthetics of local cinema has been, to a great extent, internally modified by the impacts of digital media cultures and technologies, especially digital effects and computer animation of unprecedented imaginary spaces and perspectives for creative productions. The increasing complexity of digital cinematic productions and the rapidly changing cultural production systems bring in newcomers of alternative modes/choices of thoughts and interpretations, thus facilitating production/product differentiation and de-differentiation to cater for the increasing and changing demands of active audiences. The vigorous struggle for cultural representations in digital cinematic aesthetics by producers and consumers of disparate repertoires is the focus of analysis in this research. Empirical evidences suggest a new paradigmatic model to study cultural representations of digital cinematic aesthetics within contemporary creative systems of production and consumption. / The findings generally support the advent of the ten new aesthetics of digital cinema as a global trend as well as a new glocalism in the Hong Kong cases. While most interviewed producers and audiences articulate the new characteristics of digital cinematic aesthetics, many audiences show disjunctive judgments toward those local filmmakers' treatments to cross-fertilize video game with their cinematic productions. This reveals the inevitability of internal modifications of organization cultures and representational practices to create new digital cinematic aesthetics and productions within new dynamics of digital media cultures and technologies in the fast changing media ecology. Hong Kong filmmakers and computer animators show their strength and flexibility to glocalize digital cinematic aesthetics and productions by integrating digital visual effects with local film and production cultures, especially in comedic and martial arts cinematic productions. However, it seems that there are larger discrepancies concerning the tastes and aesthetic judgments toward cultural representations in digital cinematic aesthetics by cross-fertilization with video game between general audiences and professionals. This study reflects that the rigid, director-oriented Hong Kong film production system is too demanding on the film director's independent ability of coordination and greatly influences the development of cultural representations in digital cinema by collective imaginative inputs of increasing complexity and flexibility. Producers and consumers of disparate repertoires of cultural practices contribute to the meaning construction of multiple layers of digital effects and computer animation by systematic coordination and collaboration. In other words, the "spectrum of cultural representations", as a framework, helps us understand the complexity and creativity of the new digital cinematic aesthetics from production to consumption practices. / This study is a multidimensional investigation of the moments of creativity and struggles over organization cultures and representational practices by both cultural producers and audiences. There are case studies of the general trend of digital cinematic productions in Hollywood and the specific development of digital cinema in Hong Kong, as well as in China. From these empirical analyses, ten new characteristics of digital cinematic aesthetics are generalized. They include (l) amplification, (2) free referencing, (3) seamlessness and believability, (4) multiple-layered composition, (5) patterning, (6) imaginary perspectives, (7) collective imaginative inputs, (8) cross-fertilization with comic, (9) cross-fertilization with video game, and (10) cross-cultural, cross-historical, cross-genre production. Such inductive findings are also deployed to study the social functions of both producers and audiences in the meaning construction of digital cinematic aesthetics and productions within the dynamics of digitalization and globalization. Eighteen in-depth interviews of production insiders, five focus groups of disparate generations of movie audiences and amateurs, and eleven case studies of Hong Kong digital cinematic productions have been examined. The empirical validity about the ten new forms of digital cinematic aesthetics and their production and consumption is investigated, and also achieved by intensive and interactive case studies, production studies and audience studies, combining textual and discourse analyses and production and reception analyses. / Lam, Sui Kwong Sunny. / Advisers: Anthony Y. H. Fung; Eric K. W. Ma. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 536-562). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

This thesis seeks to interpret the cinematic representations of Hong Kongers’ identity quest during a transitional state/stage related to the sovereignty transfer. The Handover transition considered is an ideological one, rather than the overnight polity change on the Handover day. This research approaches contemporary Hong Kong cinema on two fronts and the thesis is structured accordingly: Upon an initial review of the existing Hong Kong film scholarship in the Introduction, and its 1997-related allegorical readings, Part I sees new angles (previously undeveloped or underdeveloped) for researching Hong Kong films made during 1982-2002. Arguments are built along the ideas of Hong Kongers’ situational, diasporic consciousness, and transformed ‘Chineseness’ because Hong Kong has lacked a cultural/national centrality. This part of research is informed by the ideas of Jacques Derrida, Homi Bhabha and Stuart Hall, and the diasporic experiences of Ien Ang, Rey Chow and Ackbar Abbas. With these new research angles and references to the circumstances, Part II reads critically the text of eight Hong Kong films made during the Handover transition. In chronological order, they are Boat People (Hui, 1982), Song of the Exile (Hui, 1990), Days of Being Wild (Wong, 1990), Happy Together (Wong, 1997), Made in Hong Kong (Chan, 1997), Ordinary Heroes (Hui, 1999), Durian Durian (Chan, 2000), and Hollywood Hong Kong (Chan, 2002). They meet several criteria related to the undeveloped / underdeveloped areas in the existing Hong Kong film scholarship. Hamid Naficy’s ‘accented cinema’ paradigm gives the guidelines to the film analysis in Part II. This part shows that Hong Kongers’ self-transformation during transition is alterable, indeterminate, and interminable, due to the people’s situational, diasporic consciousness, and transformed ‘Chineseness’. This thesis thus contributes to Hong Kong cinema scholarship in interpreting films with new research angles, and generating new insights into this cinematic tradition and its wider context.