Contested Identities: Exploring the Cultural, Historical and Political Complexities of the "Three Chinas"

Li, Joe; Jennings, Ros

Abstract

When facing the political, historical and cultural complexities of Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, problematic issues arise in relation to understanding the sorts of national/cultural identities that might be projected by them. With regard to these three Chinese language cinemas, a traditional national cinema approach focussing predominantly upon nation-state as a source of meaning would provide only a limited understanding of the meanings generated. This article, however, draws on what Benedict Anderson (1991) put forward as the theory of ‘Imagined Communities’ which assumes a large body of people regard themselves as members of a ‘nation’ (and here we interpret this term broadly and beyond understandings of geographical borders and political systems) through a variety of historical legacies, cultural memories and acts of consumption. In this article we hold the assumption that there is a shared cultural meaning (namely ‘Chineseness’) that extends across the three Chinese language cinemas and consider cultural affinity as greater than national and political boundaries.

Citation

Li, J., & Jennings, R. (2016). Contested Identities: Exploring the Cultural, Historical and Political Complexities of the "Three Chinas". IAFOR Journal of Asian Studies, 2(1), 25-40. https://doi.org/10.22492/ijas.2.1.02

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 2016-01
• Deposit Date: Mar 9, 2022
• Journal: IAFOR Journal of Asian Studies
• Electronic ISSN: 2187-6037
• Publisher: IAFOR
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 25-40
• Series ISSN: 2187-6037
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22492/ijas.2.1.02
• Keywords: National cinema, Three Chinas, Chineseness, cultural affinity
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2852492
• Publisher URL: https://iafor.org/journal/iafor-journal-of-asian-studies/volume-2-issue-1/article-2/