Hollywood Genre, Cultural Hybridity, and Musical Films in 1950s Hong Kong

Following the trauma of the Second World War, Hong Kong, under British governance, enjoyed considerable economic and political freedom to establish a local entertainment industry. Musical films became a major genre of Hong Kong’s film releases in the 1950s. Local melodramas, Hollywood musicals, cele...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inArts (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 6; p. 237
Main Author Lu, Xiao
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.11.2023
Subjects
20th century
Adaptations
Aesthetics
Case studies
Chinese cinema
Chinese literature
Collective memory
cultural hybridity
Cultural identity
Culture
Film musicals
Film studios
Genre
History
Hollywood musical
Hong Kong film
Localization
Motion picture directors & producers
Motion pictures
Motion pictures, American
Motion pictures, Chinese
Music
Musical films
Postcolonialism
Postwar reconstruction
Social aspects
The Kingdom and the Beauty
War
Hong Kong
Hong Kong China
Asia
China
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Summary:Following the trauma of the Second World War, Hong Kong, under British governance, enjoyed considerable economic and political freedom to establish a local entertainment industry. Musical films became a major genre of Hong Kong’s film releases in the 1950s. Local melodramas, Hollywood musicals, celebrities, and ideals of female beauty were all present in the growth of Hong Kong musical films, which culminated in a glorious display of cinematic art. This article aims to provide insight into the popularity of Chinese-speaking musical films by examining the social, economic, and political complexity of 1950s Hong Kong, including post-war migration and colonial censorship. An in-depth analysis of Li Han-Hsiang’s The Kingdom and the Beauty demonstrates how Hong Kong studios adapted the Hollywood musical to tell Chinese stories and how Hong Kong musical films incorporated Chinese literature and music to represent cultural memory, local identity, and modern aesthetics. This case study sheds light on the localization of a Hollywood genre and the hybridization of Chinese and Western entertainment forms to appeal to a Chinese audience, thereby broadening the definition of cultural hybridity and informing the practice of Hong Kong’s musical filmmaking.
ISSN:2076-0752
2076-0752
DOI:10.3390/arts12060237