Asian big-names in Hollywood Blockbusters: a great movie under globalization

Asian big-names in Hollywood Blockbusters: a great movie under globalization

In the whole course, we talked much about globalization. As mentioned in the former lectures, the culture flow makes the taste of world audience become more similar. Actually, it affects also the filmmaking industry. The most significant influence is that the hybridization between Hollywood and Asian movies.

Since the last few decades, martial art movies of Hong Kong and China have been getting more popular worldwide. This makes many names become famous on the world stage, like Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Donnie Yen. These movies surely amazed the foreign people. And they introduce the Asian movies into the Hollywood market. Gradually, as mentioned by Klein (2004, p.364), the Hollywood filmmaking industry would like to invite many Asian stars, or even skilled craftspeople, especially the action directors, to participate in the movie production. A number of good examples could be found, like Rush Hour (1998), Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008). In Rush Hour (1998), audience can easily find many Chinese martial art skills. According to Klein (2004, p.372), much of this foreign-language film production is taking place in Asia. For example, Fast & Furious 6 (2013) and Pacific Rim (2013) are Hollywood blockbusters which have Hong Kong as one of their setting. Besides, some of the Hollywood movies would include different Asian elements, like history and culture. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) is an adventure story about the Chinese history. Moreover, upon globalization, more Hollywood movies would film in many cosmopolitan Asian cities, like Hong Kong and Shanghai.

(Photo sourced: http://www.impawards.com/2008/posters/mummy_tomb_of_the_dragon_emperor_ver4_xlg.jpg

(Photo sourced: http://www.geeksofdoom.com/GoD/img/2013/07/2013-07-03-pacific_rim_art_book_banner.png)

(Photo sourced: http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/BoBEJ-1.png)

Oppositely, the Hollywood movies also deeply influence the Asian movie production at the same time. Especially after the 2000s, the boundary between Hollywood blockbusters and Asian movies is blurred. In 2005, Perhaps Love (2005), directed by Peter Chan, gave a sparkling idea to the Hong Kong filmmaking industry. Musical is rather rare in the Asian movie market, when compared with the Hollywood movie market. This was a new try for the Hong Kong movies. And it gained a great reputation. Moreover, upon the hybridization, application of special effects in the Asian movies is becoming popular. Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle (2004) did a great job. The cartoon style of the movie and the gorgeous CGI technique made the movie a great success. In a recent Chinese movie, Finding Mr. Right (2013) is a story about a pregnant woman in Seattle, who is originally from Beijing. And the story is influenced by the movie Sleepless in Seattle (1993). It is easy to find shadow of Hollywood movies being cast on the Asian movies. As mentioned above, the setting for movies could be more various thanks to globalization. Many Asian movies would film parts of their stories in many western countries too.

(Photo sourced: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/KungFuHustleHKposter.jpg)

(Photo sourced: http://eafilmclub.sa.utoronto.ca/events/PerhapsLove1.jpg)

The movies are affecting each other from different aspects. The blurred boundary between the Hollywood blockbusters and the Asian movies introduces many sparkling chemical reactions to the filmmaking industry. This is absolutely great news for the world audience. And it is really a great reification of globalization.

Reference

-       Klein, C 2004, “Martial arts and the globalization of US and Asian film industries”, Comparative American Studies, vol. 2, no.3, pp. 360-384.

New power of making Stars

New power of making Stars

For the traditional media forms, they are regarded as representational mode of media. They are film, televisions and radio. However, nowadays, the presentational modes of social media sites, like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, are surely the rising power. In the following blog post, we are going to see the main differences between the two media forms.

In the past, audience is always relatively “passive”. People would just sit and watch the movies. We can see the stars and actors “on the screen”. They are celebrities that we cannot get in touch. They are really someone renowned. Instead of making someone a celebrity, the public would accept the person who is being molded as a famous star. Jodie Foster is a good example. She works extremely hard since she was a little girl, and finally becomes an international star.

(photo sourced: http://www.childstarlets.com/lobby/bios/portraits/jodie_foster12.jpg)

Nevertheless, nowadays, new mode of media leads to expansion of celebrity discourse. According to Marshall (2013, p.4), due to the 20th century’s social and cultural movement, the celebrity discourse is expanded quickly. The presentation modes of social media sites allow fans to communicate with their idols closely. The celebrities can share their ideas through the social network. They are not only people we can see on the screen. According to Marshall (2010, p.43), The interactivity of on-line social networking identifies the new need for celebrities to stay connected in some way to this shifted relationship to an audience and a public. The new trend really interests the celebrities since they can communicate interactively via the Internet with their fans. The US President Obama is also one of the trendy celebrities who join the social network.

(Photo sourced: http://images.politico.com/global/politico44/040511_obama_facebook_courtesy_283_regular.jpg)

Besides, the presentation modes of social media sites make everyone a star to their families and friends. For instance, in Facebook, your family and friends are just like your “fans”. They can read, “like” and “comment” on your posts. They are developing their own circles. Meanwhile, the new modes of media also helps make some new “stars”. Normal people could be a celebrity overnight. Everything could happen on the Internet within a short period of time, including making someone famous. They are different talented netizens, like bloggers. They gain publicity when they are posting or tweeting something on the social network. For example, we got a term “Youtuber”. It is for describing person who often makes and posts some videos on YouTube. YouTube is really a good platform for making someone a celebrity. Justin Biber has also started his road to the world stage at YouTube. Through the Internet, the video blogs can be watched worldwide. Now, we are not as “passive” as in the past. We are joining the process of making people famous, or even being the famous ones. Many Internet celebrities are developed upon the support of the other Internet users, who are you and me.

(Photo sourced: https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/801311124/myworld2.jpg)

All in all, due to the change of media platform, the modes of media also changes. People now focus on the Internet rather than the television and radio. Therefore, the presentation mode of media of social network becomes dominant now. It is hard to determine if the presentation mode of media would defeat the representation mode of media. At this moment, we just know that the former is really a powerful one.

Reference

-             Marshall, P.D. 2013, “Persona studies: Mapping the proliferation of the public self”, Journalism, vol.0, no.0, pp. 1-18.

-             Marshall, P. D. 2010, “The promotion and presentation of the self: celebrity as marker of presentational media”, Celebrity studies, vol.1, no.1, pp. 35–48.

Mobile phone is...

Mobile phone is...

In this information explosion era, everyone would like to keep track of what is happening in the whole world. Especially upon the development of the smart phone, people can update themselves even on the streets. The little devices make the whole world change. As the mobile phone market is getting larger, more companies are willing to invest money in the smart phone development of OS and apps. Well-developed interface and platforms makes these mobile phones a really useful gadget. According to Raessens (2005, p.373), computer games are characterized as a form of participatory media culture due to three domains: interpretation, reconfiguration, and construction. Participatory media culture is not limited to cultural forms such as computer games or to the digital so-called "new" media. Computer games are remediating the participatory culture that has formed around media such as film and television. However, Raessens (2005, p.374) also mentioned that remediation should not be the only focus, but also the distinguishing, specific characteristics or principles of computer games as a form of digital media: multimediality, virtuality, interactivity, and connectivity. Actually, the mobile phone is also a non-game participatory culture and can be examined in terms of the characteristics of computer games.

(Photo sourced: http://www.babysmiles.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/cell-phone-plans-for-kids-21.jpg)

In terms of multimediality, mobile phones are at the average level. According to Metz (cited in Raessens 2005, p.384), multimediality refers to the multitude of means of expression. The mobile phones share some operation systems (OS), like IOS and Android. Most of the apps are supported by both IOS and Android, which are the more popular OS of phones in the market. Unlike computer games, mobile phones do not “share one common digital code” (Raessens 2005, p.374).

(Photo sourced: http://images.getprice.com.au/products/Bimgnokia-lumia-520-mobile-phone.jpg)

In terms of virtuality, mobile phones have a low level. Certainly, the virtuality of mobile phones depends on the apps installed. For some apps, they are virtual-reality games; users can just build houses or do different tasks with the little device. However, few online games can be played with mobile phones. One of the possible reasons is that users may find it hard to explore the virtual world with the small gadgets.

In terms of interactivity, the mobile phones could be highly interactive. Especially for the smart phones, upon using different apps and the Internet, users can simply interact with the others whenever they want. Many social networks have developed their own apps, like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. There are even some tailor-made social network apps for the mobile phones.

In terms of connectivity, the mobile phones are highly connective. Mobile phones are originally developed for connecting people. With mobile phones, people can call and text each other. And now, people can access the Internet and different social networks with the mobile phones. It helps link up people regardless of the time and places.

(Photo sourced: http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2011/01/19/1225991/174160-mobile-phone.jpg)

The participatory media culture can be applied to different media forms that we use nowadays. In the other words, the media forms that we used these days are sharing the similar characteristics. They all mutually support the development of each other and interact with each other. These should be the main direction of future development.

Reference

Raessens, J 2005, 'Computer games as participatory media culture' in Raessen, J & Goldstein, J, Handbook of computer game studies, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, pp. 373-388.

Blogging in Higher Education--Blogging can help "learn how to learn"

Blogging in Higher Education--Blogging can help "learn how to learn"

Upon the technology development, computer and the Internet are being widely applied in different fields. And education is surely one of the important fields. Especially for the higher education, it emphasizes self-learning. Thus, blogging becomes a very useful tool for the tertiary educators and students. Learning is exchanging ideas with the others. And blogging could surely enhance the idea-exchange. Through blogging, students can write their reflections about their learning and review their peers’ thinking when reading their blogs. Also the group can communicate through commenting on each other blogs. This is applicable to the educators too. The group can then exchange their ideas towards the specific topics or subjects. Blogs certainly help link up students and the world. And actually, it is actually describing what I am doing now. However, with blogging, what else can be done?

Nowadays, blogging is a common practice for worldwide tertiary education. Yet, besides simply express ideas towards specific topics, it provides chances for students to learn through different contexts. In 2001, Judy Robertson published a paper named “The educational affordances of blogs for self-directed learning”. It is mainly about investigating the functional properties of blogging software and studying how it can enable groups of users to read, write and comment on others’ writing. According to Robertson (2011, p. 1629), reflection is important for self-directed learning, but self-directed learning encompasses other high level skills which can also be developed through blogging. For example, students may design diaries in engineering education instead of just writing journals for responding to critical incidents in the domain of teacher education. Learning through design is a rich and complex task. As described by Puntambekar & Kolodner (cited in Robertson 2001, p.1629), it “provides opportunities for students to incrementally construct, evaluate, discuss and revise both the models they are designing and their conceptions, thus encouraging students to engage in meta-cognitive activities such as planning and monitoring”. Thus, blogging does not mean something only about texts, but far beyond this.

(Photo sourced: http://cdn.dejanseo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/blog-ideas-resized-600.png)

Blogging seems to be a very good learning tool. Being an Education Major student, I would say that learning how to learn would be the most important. According to Higgins (cited in Robertson 2001, p.1628),“learning how to learn” is a broad and sometimes nebulous concept which encompasses independence, meta-cognition, thinking skills, self-regulation, self esteem and self-efficacy. Does blogging also help? I would say “yes”. Writing a blog is originally a chance for training one’s learning independence. One of my concerns is that students have to write a blog proactively. Through the whole process of blogging, students can train their structuring, developing and analysing skills. The bloggers are going to “write out” their thinking and ideas, which is a king of meta-cognition training.

(Photo sourced: http://edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/blog-3.jpg)

All in all, when making good use of blogging, blogs could be a tool for expressing emotion; it can be a good tool for learning. Students of different professionals can also make use of blogs to communicate with their peers and the world. And they can surely learn through the process.

Reference

Robertson, J. 2011 ‘The educational affordances of blog for self-directed learning’, Computers and Education, vol. 57, pp. 1628 – 1644.