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Stanley Kwan’s Center Stage: A feminist film in a postmodern frame
- Source: Asian Cinema, Volume 33, Issue 1, Apr 2022, p. 21 - 36
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- 24 Feb 2021
- 02 Oct 2021
- 01 Apr 2022
Abstract
Chinese-language film studies have paid scant attention to the intersection of feminism and postmodernism. This article argues that Stanley Kwan’s Center Stage (1991), a film with a female protagonist and a postmodern narrative format, is demonstrably a feminist film. The parodic representation of protagonist Ruan Lingyu and the film’s scripted re-enactments of scenes from Hong Kong cinema are revealed as postmodern aesthetic processes, through which traditional gender norms can be explored and questioned. Finally, the article examines Kwan’s unique, self-reflexive narrative practice, which constructs an alternative female celebrity biopic and situates the film firmly as feminist historiographic metafiction.
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