Description
A. PLEASE WATCH “Swordsman 2” [also known as “The Legend of the
Swordsman: Asia the Invincible”] before class For background information, see
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swordsman_II
Answer the following questions: In “Swordsman 2,” do you think the main
villain’s transgender identity is represented as part of her power? Is this a negative
portrayal, a positive portrayal, or neither?
B. READ Helen Hok-Sze Leung, “Trans on Screen,” in Transgender China, ed. Chiang,
Howard, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012: 183-198.
Answer the following questions: According to Leung, what is the difference
between Jin Yong’s portrayal of Dongfang Bubai’s transgendered body in the
original novel and the portrayal of her body in the film? What difference does it
make, according to Leung and some of the critics she quotes, that Dongfang Bubai
in the film is played by a female actress, Brigitte Lin? Elaborate.
C. Read one of the following and summarize it in your own words:
- Tze-lan Sang, “The Transgender Body in Wang Dulu’s Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon,” in Martin, Fran and Larissa Heinrich, eds., Embodied
Modernities: Corporeality, Representation, and Chinese Cultures, ed. Martin, Fran
and Larissa Heinrich, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006: 98-114.]
[show clips]
Berry, Chris. “Stellar Transit: Bruce Lee’s Body or Chinese Masculinity
in a Transnational Frame,” in Embodied Modernities: Corporeality,
Representation, and Chinese Cultures, ed. Martin, Fran and Larissa Heinrich,
Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006: 218-234.