2012工作坊下午場摘要
2012年11月1日 星期四
亞洲流行文化中的多元元素與混搭
“Beyond Textual Boundaries: Diversity and Fusion in Asian Popular Culture”
Panelists/Presenters:
1. Yungchao Liao, Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
2. Chi-Shiou Lin, Assistant Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
3. Wen-Hsun Chang, Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
4. Tien-yi Chao, Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Abstract
The proposed panel, which consists of four presentations, explores various aspects of diversity and fusion in Asian popular culture. Liao Yungchao looks at Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, especially its mixture of Chinese and Japanese elements in the formation of Western female subjectivity, together with the cultural politics of this novel. Chi-Shiou Lin examines the “pleasures of transgression” in BL reading, from the perspectives of female fans and commercial publishers in Taiwan. Wen-Hsun Chang addresses the intertextuality of Japanese movies and Taiwanese novels, arguing that although Taiwanese novelists tend to regard Japanese movies as representations of popular culture, they simultaneously transform these “popular” movies into new materials for belle-lettres. Tien-yi Chao concentrates on the fusion of Western and Japanese cultures in Fullmetal Alchemist, an immensely popular Japanese comic series in the global market, by discussing its portrayal of alchemy and brotherhood. The four case studies demonstrate that diversity and fusion facilitate a new wave of creative power that breaks through stereotypes and categorizations. This panel also draws upon a wide range of critical approaches to explore the multiplicity of Asian popular culture and the possibility of boundary crossing in gender, genre, and culture.
When Muskets Join Forces with Katanas: Hollywoodization, Hybridity, and Female Subjectivity in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
廖勇超
Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures,
National Taiwan University
Abstract
Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has caused a great sensation around the globe ever since its publication in 2009. It has won its notoriety as the parodied version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with its incorporation of the cultural elements from contemporary popular culture, among which the element of “zombie” and a mixture of stereotyped Asian traits are perhaps the most intriguing. In contradistinction to the traditional model of Western female subjectivity which highlights female submissiveness, passivity, and feminine beauty, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies dramatizes the female consciousness in Austen’s original novel by Hollywoodizing the Bennett sisters, which not only pictures them as assertive females but also as combative warriors who can kill zombies/Others with their fighting skills acquired from China. This Hollywoodization of the Bennett sisters comes hand in hand with the spread of contemporary cultural globalization of Asian movies (mostly Hong Kong and Japanese martial arts movies) and its incorporation into the Hollywood system. In contrast to the holistic model of Western female subjectivity that delineates a clear boundary between Self and Other/West and East, this new type of female subjectivity actually combines the core values of Western feminism and Eastern martial arts and weaponry, the result of which is a conglomerate of boundary-crossing cultural elements and hybridized subjectivity. This paper aims to trace the process of this Hollywoodization of Western female subjectivity in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and evaluate the cultural politics it proposes, especially the cultural imperialism inherent in this incorporation of Other/Eastern elements. The paper argues that instead of celebrating this “liberal” incorporation of Asian cultural forms, we need to caution against this hybridized female subjectivity as it may point to a new way of cultural imperialism founded on the concept of “cultural hybridity” instead of “cultural purity.”
回到頂端
What Appeals to Boys’ Love Readers in Taiwan? An Exploratory Study From the Perspectives of Female Fandom and Commercial Publishing
林奇秀
Assistant Professor, Department of Library and Information Science,
National Taiwan University
Abstract
Boys’ Love (BL, or commonly known as “YAOI” in the Western world) has now gained global popularity. It has also emerged as a genre of promising business potentials for commercial publishers in Japan, Taiwan, and other countries. The author’s previous research employed grounded theory and phenomenology methods to study female BL readers’ pleasures from consuming texts (e.g., fiction, manga, images, ACG, radio drama) and from participating in fan activities. The analyses showed that female readers, while demonstrating highly diverse preferences and tastes, often experienced pleasures from the feelings of transgression, compassion, and comrade.
The current project continues to interview commercial publishers and authors to understand what in their opinions appeals to their customers constituted by and large by supposedly heterosexual women. This approach is methodologically and theoretically significant. First, while BL readers obtain texts from a wide range of sources including Internet, peers, and commercial publishers, the latter’s opinions may offer good indication of the reading tastes and preferences of the majority of BL readers, which is harder to study directly via large-scaled surveys because of the difficulty in defining, identifying, and reaching the reader populations. Second, commercial works as opposed to unmediated fandom works, represent gatekeeper logics and business strategies which are prone to introduce and reinforce mainstream values into female readers. In this presentation, the perspectives of readers and commercial authors and publishers will be juxtaposed and compared to arrive at a deeper understanding of BL reading and BL text production for women readership.
回到頂端
“SAYONARA, Zai-Jian!”:
The Cultural Translation between Japanese Film and Taiwanese Novel
張文薰
Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature,
National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Abstract
“SAYONARA, Zai-Jian!” was written by Taiwanese novelist Huang, Chun-Ming in 1973. The title of this novel uses the word “goodbye” in both Japanese and Chinese, which arguably shows the historical and cultural displacement among Japan, China, and Taiwan caused by China-Japan war and the consequent colonial sovereignty of Japan in Taiwan. It also, to a large extent, reveals the complexity of translation. In particular, the narratives of this novel demonstrate the problems of citation and translation between the different texts of film adaptation and original novel. The original novel is composed of chapters entitled with several Japanese films, such as Human Condition, The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and The Longest Day of Japan, etc.
Japanese films, such as Rashoman and The Seven Samurai, were granted big prizes in Western film festivals during the 1950s and 1960s. Interestingly, it was also the time when Japan eagerly restored its long-lost national confidence since World War II, and started to make enormous profit in the Asian region with capital investment. Choosing “SAYONARA, Zai-Jian!” as a case of inquiry, this paper applies cultural translation theories to conduct an empirical study on the communication process of Japanese films in East Asia during the post-war era. The main focus of this paper is to analysis how the imagination toward Japan’s SAMURAI belief became the essential basis for criticizing Japanese imperialism in post-colonial Taiwanese novels.
回到頂端
《鋼之鍊金術士》當中交融的西方與亞洲美學
Fusion of Western and Asian Aesthetics in Fullmetal Alchemist
趙恬儀
Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures,
National Taiwan University, Taiwan
工作坊投影片
Abstract
Fullmetal Alchemist, a Japanese comic series by Hiromu Arakawa, has achieved global success since its debut in 2001. In this paper, I argue that a key reason for the work’s popularity lies in its weaving together the conventions and artistic styles of both Western and Japanese fantasy literature, especially those addressing magic, personal development, and brotherhood. In Practices of Looking, Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright describe the much-discussed concept of “hybridization” as a phenomenon in which “media images are infused with a mix of conventions and meanings that derive from various origins” (2002: 327). Many Japanese animations, comics, and game products with fans in both Asia and the West feature this hybridization. Building on the above discourses, my reading of Fullmetal Alchemist focuses on the cross-cultural elements of its plot and characterization. This paper suggests that Fullmetal Alchemist draws extensively from both Western and Asian aesthetics in popular culture, particularly in the portrayal of alchemical practices and the brotherhood between Edward and Alphonse Elric. Such a fusion creates a certain degree of cultural ambiguity in the visual narrative, enabling Fullmetal Alchemist to attract readers worldwide.
In addition to textual study, I will also briefly comment on differences between Taiwanese and Western scholars in their approaches to animation and comic studies. I argue that such differences help us to reconsider the issue of hybridisation and globalization in the recent development of cultural studies.
回到頂端
“Beyond Textual Boundaries: Diversity and Fusion in Asian Popular Culture”
Panelists/Presenters:
1. Yungchao Liao, Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
2. Chi-Shiou Lin, Assistant Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
3. Wen-Hsun Chang, Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
4. Tien-yi Chao, Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Abstract
The proposed panel, which consists of four presentations, explores various aspects of diversity and fusion in Asian popular culture. Liao Yungchao looks at Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, especially its mixture of Chinese and Japanese elements in the formation of Western female subjectivity, together with the cultural politics of this novel. Chi-Shiou Lin examines the “pleasures of transgression” in BL reading, from the perspectives of female fans and commercial publishers in Taiwan. Wen-Hsun Chang addresses the intertextuality of Japanese movies and Taiwanese novels, arguing that although Taiwanese novelists tend to regard Japanese movies as representations of popular culture, they simultaneously transform these “popular” movies into new materials for belle-lettres. Tien-yi Chao concentrates on the fusion of Western and Japanese cultures in Fullmetal Alchemist, an immensely popular Japanese comic series in the global market, by discussing its portrayal of alchemy and brotherhood. The four case studies demonstrate that diversity and fusion facilitate a new wave of creative power that breaks through stereotypes and categorizations. This panel also draws upon a wide range of critical approaches to explore the multiplicity of Asian popular culture and the possibility of boundary crossing in gender, genre, and culture.
When Muskets Join Forces with Katanas: Hollywoodization, Hybridity, and Female Subjectivity in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
廖勇超
Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures,
National Taiwan University
Abstract
Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has caused a great sensation around the globe ever since its publication in 2009. It has won its notoriety as the parodied version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with its incorporation of the cultural elements from contemporary popular culture, among which the element of “zombie” and a mixture of stereotyped Asian traits are perhaps the most intriguing. In contradistinction to the traditional model of Western female subjectivity which highlights female submissiveness, passivity, and feminine beauty, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies dramatizes the female consciousness in Austen’s original novel by Hollywoodizing the Bennett sisters, which not only pictures them as assertive females but also as combative warriors who can kill zombies/Others with their fighting skills acquired from China. This Hollywoodization of the Bennett sisters comes hand in hand with the spread of contemporary cultural globalization of Asian movies (mostly Hong Kong and Japanese martial arts movies) and its incorporation into the Hollywood system. In contrast to the holistic model of Western female subjectivity that delineates a clear boundary between Self and Other/West and East, this new type of female subjectivity actually combines the core values of Western feminism and Eastern martial arts and weaponry, the result of which is a conglomerate of boundary-crossing cultural elements and hybridized subjectivity. This paper aims to trace the process of this Hollywoodization of Western female subjectivity in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and evaluate the cultural politics it proposes, especially the cultural imperialism inherent in this incorporation of Other/Eastern elements. The paper argues that instead of celebrating this “liberal” incorporation of Asian cultural forms, we need to caution against this hybridized female subjectivity as it may point to a new way of cultural imperialism founded on the concept of “cultural hybridity” instead of “cultural purity.”
回到頂端
What Appeals to Boys’ Love Readers in Taiwan? An Exploratory Study From the Perspectives of Female Fandom and Commercial Publishing
林奇秀
Assistant Professor, Department of Library and Information Science,
National Taiwan University
Abstract
Boys’ Love (BL, or commonly known as “YAOI” in the Western world) has now gained global popularity. It has also emerged as a genre of promising business potentials for commercial publishers in Japan, Taiwan, and other countries. The author’s previous research employed grounded theory and phenomenology methods to study female BL readers’ pleasures from consuming texts (e.g., fiction, manga, images, ACG, radio drama) and from participating in fan activities. The analyses showed that female readers, while demonstrating highly diverse preferences and tastes, often experienced pleasures from the feelings of transgression, compassion, and comrade.
The current project continues to interview commercial publishers and authors to understand what in their opinions appeals to their customers constituted by and large by supposedly heterosexual women. This approach is methodologically and theoretically significant. First, while BL readers obtain texts from a wide range of sources including Internet, peers, and commercial publishers, the latter’s opinions may offer good indication of the reading tastes and preferences of the majority of BL readers, which is harder to study directly via large-scaled surveys because of the difficulty in defining, identifying, and reaching the reader populations. Second, commercial works as opposed to unmediated fandom works, represent gatekeeper logics and business strategies which are prone to introduce and reinforce mainstream values into female readers. In this presentation, the perspectives of readers and commercial authors and publishers will be juxtaposed and compared to arrive at a deeper understanding of BL reading and BL text production for women readership.
回到頂端
“SAYONARA, Zai-Jian!”:
The Cultural Translation between Japanese Film and Taiwanese Novel
張文薰
Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature,
National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Abstract
“SAYONARA, Zai-Jian!” was written by Taiwanese novelist Huang, Chun-Ming in 1973. The title of this novel uses the word “goodbye” in both Japanese and Chinese, which arguably shows the historical and cultural displacement among Japan, China, and Taiwan caused by China-Japan war and the consequent colonial sovereignty of Japan in Taiwan. It also, to a large extent, reveals the complexity of translation. In particular, the narratives of this novel demonstrate the problems of citation and translation between the different texts of film adaptation and original novel. The original novel is composed of chapters entitled with several Japanese films, such as Human Condition, The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and The Longest Day of Japan, etc.
Japanese films, such as Rashoman and The Seven Samurai, were granted big prizes in Western film festivals during the 1950s and 1960s. Interestingly, it was also the time when Japan eagerly restored its long-lost national confidence since World War II, and started to make enormous profit in the Asian region with capital investment. Choosing “SAYONARA, Zai-Jian!” as a case of inquiry, this paper applies cultural translation theories to conduct an empirical study on the communication process of Japanese films in East Asia during the post-war era. The main focus of this paper is to analysis how the imagination toward Japan’s SAMURAI belief became the essential basis for criticizing Japanese imperialism in post-colonial Taiwanese novels.
回到頂端
《鋼之鍊金術士》當中交融的西方與亞洲美學
Fusion of Western and Asian Aesthetics in Fullmetal Alchemist
趙恬儀
Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures,
National Taiwan University, Taiwan
工作坊投影片
Abstract
Fullmetal Alchemist, a Japanese comic series by Hiromu Arakawa, has achieved global success since its debut in 2001. In this paper, I argue that a key reason for the work’s popularity lies in its weaving together the conventions and artistic styles of both Western and Japanese fantasy literature, especially those addressing magic, personal development, and brotherhood. In Practices of Looking, Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright describe the much-discussed concept of “hybridization” as a phenomenon in which “media images are infused with a mix of conventions and meanings that derive from various origins” (2002: 327). Many Japanese animations, comics, and game products with fans in both Asia and the West feature this hybridization. Building on the above discourses, my reading of Fullmetal Alchemist focuses on the cross-cultural elements of its plot and characterization. This paper suggests that Fullmetal Alchemist draws extensively from both Western and Asian aesthetics in popular culture, particularly in the portrayal of alchemical practices and the brotherhood between Edward and Alphonse Elric. Such a fusion creates a certain degree of cultural ambiguity in the visual narrative, enabling Fullmetal Alchemist to attract readers worldwide.
In addition to textual study, I will also briefly comment on differences between Taiwanese and Western scholars in their approaches to animation and comic studies. I argue that such differences help us to reconsider the issue of hybridisation and globalization in the recent development of cultural studies.
回到頂端
發表文章
