Fang, Chun-Yi;
(2025)
Self-Occidentalising/Self-Orientalising Myths in Post-1980 British and Chinese Films of Past-Visuality.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This thesis examines four test-cases of post-1980 British and Chinese films of past-visuality—British heritage films of the 1980s and 1990s, British post-heritage films produced since the 1990s, Chinese Fifth Generation films of the 1980s and 1990s, and post-2000 Chinese wuxia blockbusters. Due to their historical interpretations and appropriation of past-visuality, these genres have attracted the attention of critics as well as international and domestic audiences. Moreover, they have become crucial in cementing and disseminating specific versions of national identity. My thesis argues that these four test-cases illustrate and exemplify the four essentialising national myths of ‘Britain as the White Myth’, ‘deconstruction of Britain’s White Myth’, ‘China as a primitive land’ and ‘China as a powerful empire’. The thesis focuses on Said and Higson’s theories as a pivot point to inspect British and Chinese films of past-visuality. I devised an original theoretical framework of self-Occidentalism vs self-Orientalism to inspect how the four test-cases rely on colonialist logic in creating national myths. I also apply Higson’s theory of textual ambivalence to examine how British and Chinese films of past-visuality convey self-Occidentalism and self-Orientalism via the two levels of narrative and visuality. By comparing British and Chinese films of past-visuality, this thesis makes three original discoveries: Firstly, concerning national image construction, the essentialisation of the four national myths relates to colonialist logic, relies more on visual strategies than narrative strategies and depends on incorporating cultural and natural heritage. Britain and China also present opposite dynamics of myth construction/deconstruction. Secondly, my thesis reveals how using Saidean and Higson’s theories as a fulcrum can supplement the insufficiencies in previous research. Finally, my thesis discerns how different theoretical perspectives may complement as well as challenge the self-Occidentalism vs self-Orientalism framework via a process identified by Karen Barad as intra-action between theories.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Self-Occidentalising/Self-Orientalising Myths in Post-1980 British and Chinese Films of Past-Visuality |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > CMII |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10203985 |
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