Partially-shaved hairstyles are pretty cool right now, especially in queer scenes. Secret Asian Man in one webcomic retorts to a hairdresser who says Asian hair is so easy to style, “Did you just call my hair submissive and obedient?” It actually says a lot about racially specific stereotypes. For East Asian women, “natural” hair is usually understood as long, black, straight and flowing – pretty and politically powerless. įor African-Americans, natural hair has been associated with Black Pride and Black Power. I marked myself accordingly.īut whatever we mean for our style choices to signify politically, none of it means that we’ll necessarily be read that way by “illiterate” audiences. For the next four years, my bright green locks were an “excuse” for some whites (male and female) to continue to eroticize my difference without indulging the “obvious” orientalist signifiers. In some circles a shorn skull is a sure sign of dyke-ness. I will be scary, I will be other than the stereotype of the model minority, the passive Asian female.” I said to myself, “Now I will be what they least expected. I thought to embrace my difference, to expound upon it, to expand its breadth.
I wanted to be an aggressive spectacle, a bodily denial of the “passive” stereotype, the anti-lotus blossom, because when I was young it was always just a simple matter of “fighting” stereotypes by becoming its opposite. Having “unnatural” hair was supposed to be an oppositional aesthetic tactic, a “fuck you” to the White Man, not an attempt to be the White Woman. I cut off all my hair and damaged it with all kinds of fucked-up chemicals because I was sick of the orientalist gaze being directed at/on me. I am not sure exactly what message he is trying to convey with this film, other than an endorsement of Chinese nationalism and perhaps Daoism as well.Every time I think about my hair I turn to Mimi Thi Nguyen’s essay, “Hair Trauma”. I was the one who requested that Mimi repost this essay because apparently I need to read it at least every six months – the frequency of my own hair crises. Overall, this seems like a break from the usual genre one would expect from Zhang Yimou. While his quick mind (or his advisor's) might have figured out Nameless's plot, he would never have hesitated in executing him. He was known for a Confucian philosophy spin-off known as Legalism, which is very similar to Western Machiavellianism. Remember, this is the emperor who built an entire terracotta army to protect him from his enemies in death and spent a lot of money and effort looking for the secret to reach immortality. When his character states that he no longer fears death because of Broken Sword's words and invites Nameless to kill him, he is entirely breaking with the true historical figure of the emperor. The Qin Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, was legendary for his fear of death and his Machiavellian rule. Third, historically, Hero lacked in a few very obvious places. Hero eerily reminded me of another film, Yellow Earth (Huang Tudi), which Zhang Yimou did not direct but for which he did the cinematography. Although I would have not guessed this film was by Zhang Yimou from the plot or message, the cinematography was unmistakable.
CHINESE QUEUE JET LI MOVIE
The use of the word "Tianxia" (literally "all under heaven," translated in the movie was "Our Land") seems Confucian and nationalistic at the same time. Lately in China, the communist government has promoted nationalism (instead of populist Communist values as they did pre-1976) with a great degree of success. Hero, on the other hand, seemed to be intensely nationalistic. His films are often critical of the Chinese Communist Party and sometimes have deep allegorical meaning. Second, I did not know before watching the film that it was Zhang Yimou's. On the other hand, if you can go with the Dao (think: Use the force, Luke), you will succeed. A message in the film seemed to show the Daoist idea that the harder you try, the worse you do, as Moon did in her fights.
The five elements were used - one per fight - fire, wind, water, wood, and metal. First of all, I noticed heavy use of Daoist symbols. This was all done in undergrad so I am by no means the last word on the subject. My background coming into it is as an East Asian Studies major - I studied the language, culture, literature, film, history, religion, and politics of China.
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