Reorienting Chinese Stars in Global Polyphonic Networks

Dorothy Wai Sim Lau is Assistant Professor at the Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research interests include stardom, fandom, film theory, Asian cinema, transnational cinema, cyberculture, and digital culture. Her first monograph, Chinese Stardom in Participatory Cyberculture, was published in 2019. Other publications have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as positions: asia media critique, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Journal of Asian Cinema, and Continuum as well as a number of edited volumes. She is the Principal Investigator of the project entitled “Renegotiating Film Authorship in Cyberspace: Chinese Filmmakers, Global Fans, Politics of Participation” granted by “UGC RGC Early Career Scheme,” Hong Kong (HKD 405,000).

Introduction: Laying out a Terrain of the Phone-based Star Discourse in Chinese Cinemas.- Part I: Anglophone Media Space.- Mediating Action and Speech: Michelle Yeoh’s Inter-phonic Star Appeal in Pan-Pacific Connections.- The Exotic “Sound” of New China: Fan Bingbing and Liu Yifei in Hollywood Star Vehicles.- From “King of Mandopop” to the New Kato: Vocal Eccentricities, “Coolness,” and the Crossover Image of Jay Chou.- Part II: Sinophone Cinematic Space.- Tang Wei: Lingual Versatility, On-/Off-screen Existence, and the Chinese-Korean Popular Imagination.- Modern Women, “Old” Shanghai: Maggie Cheung, Sammi Cheng, and Female Vocality in Two Stanley Kwan’s Sinophone Films.- Bi-ethnicity, Multi-dialecticality: Takeshi Kaneshiro’s Lingua-Crossing Public Persona.- Part III: Participatory Web Space.- “Mute Fighters”: Dialectics of Corporeal Presence and Vocal Absence in Digital Fan Videos Featuring Bruce Lee and Donnie Yen.- When GeishaMeets Mulan: User-generated Revoicing, (Dis)embodiment and Cyber Star Discourse of Zhang Ziyi.- Conclusion: Reconsidering Chinese Film Stars -- Toward a Polyphonic Presence.