The most careful arrangements for a careful fiction: a short history of Asia pictures
2012; Routledge; Volume: 13; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/14649373.2012.717601
ISSN1469-8447
Autores Tópico(s)Japanese History and Culture
ResumoAbstract Throughout the Eisenhower administration, the United States National Security Council habitually advised the American President of the ‘careful fiction’ of Hong Kong's neutrality in the Cold War. This careful fiction, maintained by the British colonial government, prevented overt propaganda efforts by both the US and China in the struggle over the spread of Communist ideology. Various covert propaganda efforts were being organized by the Central Intelligence Agency across the world in the battle against Communism, including the indirect funding of the Committee for Free Asia, later renamed as The Asia Foundation, based in San Francisco. In 1952, the Committee for Free Asia accepted a proposal from a journalist named Chang Kuo-sin to begin funding a diverse enterprise in Hong Kong to be made up of the Asia Press, the Asia Pictorial, and Asia Pictures. Asia Pictures would make nine feature-length films throughout its brief history in the 1950s, winning a number of festival awards and featuring major established stars and directors as well as emerging stars in the Hong Kong film industry. This essay details the relationship between The Asia Foundation and Asia Pictures as they attempt to carefully produce and distribute a popular screen fiction in the Cold War struggle for the hearts and minds of filmgoers in East and Southeast Asia. Keywords: Hong Kong CinemaCold WarAsia Pictures Notes Although the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai recognized the strategic advantages of maintaining the status quo in Hong Kong, Zhou also, for example, warned the colonial government in the wake of the 1956 riots in Kowloon that the PRC had ‘a duty to protect the Chinese residents of Hong Kong’ (Mark 2004 Mark, Chi-Kwan. 2004. Hong Kong and the Cold War: Anglo-American Relations, 1949-1957, Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Chang Kuo-sin assured The Committee for Free Asia of the safety of their investment, ‘The security of Hongkong should not be a worry, because the projects do not envisage acquisition of large immovable property. If the Communists come, we can bag out with only little losses’ (Chang 1951 Chang, Kuo-sin. 1951. “Battle for the people's minds against the Chinese Communists”. unpublished manuscript retrieved from Asia Foundation records, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, US [Google Scholar]). For further discussion of the precarious position Hong Kong found itself between the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang, particularly after the onset of the Korean War, see Tsang (1997) Tsang, Steve. 1997. Strategy for survival: The cold war and Hong Kong's policy towards Kuomintang and Chinese communist activities in the 1950s. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 25: 2 (doi:10.1080/03086539708583002)[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. For example, some films from the library of the United States Information Service were prohibited from being shown in Hong Kong by the colonial government due to sensitive political content. For a more detailed account of the publishing branch of Chang Kuo-sin's operation, see Yung (2009) Yung, Sai-shing 容世誠. 2009. “Antagonistic containment and horizontal integration: Asia Press/Asia Pictures’ ‘圍堵頡頏，整合連橫——亞洲出版社／亞洲影業公司初探”. In The Cold War and Hong Kong Film 冷戰與香港電影, Edited by: Ain-Ling, Wong and Pui-tak 黃愛玲 李培德, Lee. 125–141. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Film Archive. [Google Scholar]. Far Eastern Economic Review 12.4, 24 January 1952: 100. Quoted in Mark (2004 Mark, Chi-Kwan. 2004. Hong Kong and the Cold War: Anglo-American Relations, 1949-1957, Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 19). The Third Force Movement consisted of Hong Kong refugees including ex-Kuomintang soldiers and warlords, and for a time received covert support from the American government Truman administration (Mark 2004 Mark, Chi-Kwan. 2004. Hong Kong and the Cold War: Anglo-American Relations, 1949-1957, Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 188–193). For more on the Left–Right divide in Hong Kong film culture, see Law (1997) Law, Kar. 1997. “The shadow of tradition and the left-right struggle: some observations on the Yonghua and Asia film companies”. In The China Factor in Hong Kong Cinema Edited by: Li, Cheuk- to. revised edition, Hong Kong: Urban Council, 15–20 [Google Scholar], Wong (2001) Wong, Ain-Ling. 2001. An Age of Idealism: Great Wall and Feng Huang Days, Edited by: Wong, Ain-Ling. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Film Archive. [Google Scholar], and Wong and Lee (2009). His acting debut was in Golden Phoenix (Jin feng) (1956), produced by Li Zuyong for Yung Hwa studios. Chiang Jr. is Chiang Ching-kuo, son of Chiang Kai-shek. It should be noted that no suspected leftist-leaning film production companies were invited to participate in this festival, the proceedings of which consistently considered the project of a cinema to promote a ‘free’ Asia. That being said, the festival did achieve a certain prestige through the 1960s, recognizing many films now considered classics of the Chinese-language cinema, later amending its name from ‘Southeast Asia’ to ‘Asia.’ Additional informationNotes on contributorsCharles LearyContact address: Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
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