Zhang Yimou and History

In my last post, I made a fleeting reference to Zhang Yimou being a sellout. This, as many things in China seem to, has to do with history. Most Americans are familiar with Zhang Yimou through Hero, a movie that would not have been released in the US without the help of Quentin Tarantino, an interesting, but less talented director than Zhang (I often wonder how Zhang Yimou feels about that).

After Tian Zhuangzhuang released Blue Kite overseas to critical acclaim, he was blacklisted. The government banned him from directing for nearly a decade. Blue Kite is one of the best movies made about the Cultural Revolution that I've seen (perhaps second only to Zhang Yimou's To Live). When Zhang Yimou's own picture on that subject was subsequently banned, he must have surely feared that what happened to Tian, his film school classmate, would also happen to him. He escaped the directing ban by shying away from politically-sensitive topics, but years later, he would address them head-on, only with a different bent.

Since Hero is the most watched of Zhang Yimou's movies in America, I'll assume you've seen it and I won't care if I spoil the ending (people who took Chinese History knew the ending anyway). The soon-to-be emperor whom Jet Li is planning on assassinating, Qin Shihuang, is credited with uniting China under one dynasty after centuries of petty squabbles between small, weaker kingdoms. (Qin China looked like this.) After conquering all the various local rulers, Qin Shihuang imposed a strict legalist code that overturned the Confucian system and resulted in the draconian suppression of his opponents. The Qin dynasty was so harsh and repressive that it only lasted 14 years. In Hero, Jet Li chooses not to assassinate Qin Shihuang (at this point he was not called Qin Shihuang yet) because he remembers those two characters， 天下 (everything under heaven), that took Tony Leung an absurdly long time to write (I'm pretty sure 天下 was only seven strokes even in 200 BC). Viewing the unification of China as more important than anything else, Jet Li leaves the blood thirsty tyrant alone. It is pointless to speculate about what history would be like if the assassin had succeeded (would the glorious Han have emerged and ushered in a golden age?).

You are probably wondering, so what? How does this make Zhang Yimou a sellout? Before he started considering himself made of the same stuff as Sun Wukong, the fabled Monkey King, a recent Chinese leader liked to imagine that he was the reincarnation of Qin Shihuang. His real name was Mao.

Note: Chen Kaige, another classmate of Zhang's and Tian's, directed a good version of the same assassination attempt starring Zhang's ex-girlfriend Gong Li. It's not a kung fu movie. The Emperor and the Assassin.

Chuck Norris sues, Gong Li kicks ass

When I saw this headline, I thought it must be from the Onion: "Chuck Norris Sues, Says Tears No Cancer Cure." The joke all American college students have heard has made its way into a book entitled The Truth About Chuck Norris.

"Chuck Norris's tears can cure cancer. Too bad he never cries."

Apparently, Chuck Norris thought this was believeable enough to harm his image and worthy of a lawsuit. When I was studying Chinese in Beijing a couple years ago, we had a lesson to remind us that America is the most litigious society in the world. The text talked about the McDonalds' coffee burning incident and gave other examples of how ridiculous Americans are when it comes to going to court. I, the neophyte that I was, wondered why Chinese people don't go to court and my teacher recommended Zhang Yimou's (pre-sellout) movie, the Story of Qiuju . Plot summary: An official kicks Qiuju's husband in the groin, possibly causing damage to his reproductive organs (one hell of a kick!), and then she spends the rest of the movie attempting to get payment for this barbarous act. The normally ravishingly beautiful Gong Li kicks ass as the stubborn, determined Qiuju.

My teacher's point was that going through the courts can be a long, convoluted process that sometimes leaves you worse off than you were before. This was a topic at the UN Human Rights hearing on China this year. When people seek redress for wrongs committed by government officials, they often end up in "black jails" that exist outside the law. They have no rights to have their cases heard and can be detained for an indefinite period of time.

So, for now, I'll gladly accept Chinese people's criticisms of American frivolity.

Note: Chinese law has indeed been getting better. Recently women won the right to sue their husbands' mistresses for damages. I don't know what this says about infidelity, but it sounds like progress. (Here for details)