The Confucius Institute at Portland State hosted From Killers to Love Hunks: Shifting Visions of Mainlanders in Hong Kong Film on Oct. 24. Dr. Mary Erbaugh conducted the presentation, which explored the various stereotypes of Chinese mainlanders as depicted in the Hong Kong film industry over the past century.
The event was part of a free, public series of talks on topics regarding Chinese language and culture, hosted by CIPSU every Friday evening.
Meiru Liu, director of the Confucius Institute, said the weekly talks, sponsored and hosted by PSU, cover many aspects of China. Both students and the general public are encouraged to attend the lecture series.
Liu said Erbaugh’s talk helped to give the American general public a better understating of China and Hong Kong’s film industry.
“Especially Hong Kong’s film industry in comparison to that of the world, and of how people in Hong Kong [lived] their lives before and after Hong Kong returned back to China in 1997 from Britain,” Liu said.
CIPSU has been in service for nearly seven years, with the goal of promoting educational interactions between the United States and China.
Erbaugh, a long time Chinese film enthusiast, developed her fascination for the nation as a young adult.
“I got interested in China because when I was growing up it was the Cold War, and it was forbidden to travel there,” Erbaugh said. “I figured that any country that had managed to stay independent despite all that invasion and pressure had something going for it.”
Erbaugh said the Hong Kong film industry has played with a lot of stereotypes and angles over the years. The differences between Hong Kong and China can be seen in Hong Kong’s vastly different cultural, economic and legal history under their original British colonization.
Hong Kong residents usually do not view themselves as only Chinese, identifying more with their regional identity.
Historically, Chinese have faced terrible discrimination in the media. Not only were they dehumanized in American film, but Asian film as well. Earlier Hong Kong films taking place in the ’20s depicted mainlanders as dumb, clueless animals that wore ugly clothes.
More recently, mainlanders have been the subject of gangster films, playing killers. For a time there was a rule that forbade killers and villains to succeed in film, putting down the mainland Chinese even more.
The Chinese were also depicted as more naïve about topics such as sex. Erbaugh recalled a film that depicted a Chinese man watching a porn film, not certain about what was going on.
Erbaugh said Hong Kong film has changed significantly over the years.
“Suddenly you started to see mainlanders that were not so stupid, and could even be physically attractive and interesting. It was easier to do this with really beautiful women,” Erbaugh said.
Erbaugh said films now depict Hong Kong women going to the mainland and falling in love with sexy, interesting native men. While the image of Chinese men may have improved, women have not seen the same success.
It remains a stereotype that Chinese women are subordinate, eager to please and holders of high sex drives. Much like America’s fascination with the manic pixie dream girl, women in Hong Kong film are always secondary characters with a sole purpose of helping a man on his way in life without any storyline of their own.
The rules for censorship are very different in Hong Kong. While Hollywood is more attuned to hiding controversy, Hong Kong focuses on financial success at any cost. The Hong Kong film industry makes a considerable amount of money on films that only take about $5 million to produce. This is due to the high population and regular movie-going culture.
Mainland stereotypes have improved since the ’80s, but offer little on the human condition. Erbaugh said the sexualization of young women is still very present in Hong Kong film culture, and until that ceases there is no real hope for universally stronger female characters.
