For my “pop”position, I chose to talk more about how Martial arts was a very integral part to Asiatic culture. It starts in China and spreads to Japan. The martial arts spreads in a way that is “iconic” to the second group.

Globalization was a huge part of this activity.

Globalization:“Globalization’ is a contemporary term used in academic and non-academic contexts to describe a late-twentieth-century condition of economic, social, and political interdependence across cultures, societies, nations, and regions precipitated by an unprecedented expansion of capitalism on a global scale.” (Lisa Lowe, in Keywords for American Cultural Studies, ed. Bruce Burgett and Glen Handler, New York: New York University Press, 207, p. 120) 

Kato discussed that Kung Fu originated in China and was the root for all other forms of martial arts, specifically in Japan’s Karate, martial arts originates in China, goes to Japan and becomes its own art form. Later Karate becomes very popular in America. The globalization component of martial arts, living in America Bruce Lee creates his own Jeet Kune Do “the way of the intersecting fist”. 

For the first film Shaolin Ulysses:Kung Fu Monks in America, it focused on Chinese monks that came from a real Shaolin Temple in China and them came to the states to spread the teachings of martial arts. The word shaolin translates to “little forrest” and that the style of Kung Fu is based off of 5 animals and their characteristics. Animals and earths elements, by the Chinese, are believed to be what embodies kung fu.

Tiger- becomes strong, quick, and direct: it strengthens bone marrow and build muscle.

Leopard-speed, energy, and has an angular attack.

Crane-becomes stable and trains with concentration, accuracy, and is evasive.

Snake-becomes very fast, sensitive and aware; it prolongs life and builds the chi body.

Dragon-becomes powerful, light, quick; and trains the spirit of the mind.

When you learn Kung Fu, you need to learn Buddhism, and for that you need to seek a master. Kung Fu is a fusion of the body and mind, they need to be clear, peaceful, and centered.

During the cultural revolution of china, a lot of Chinese people were feeling oppressed because their leader Mao was trying to go back to the “traditional ways”. Shortly after the cultural revolution a Jet Li film had come out and that’s when martial arts gradually became popular.

Martial arts is a very male dominated activity/study. Women can participate however they are not allowed to wear the Monks robes. To even join in the Shaolin Temple, you have to be endorsed by 3 masters if you want to do kung fu.

For the second film “The Black Kung Fu Experience” as the title described, it was about  african americans during the Kung Fu movement.  Back in the 1960′s, civil rights for african americans pride became a huge movement in the south. However, there was still an influx of racism from whites towards the blacks.

In this documentary, their stories illustrate how kung fu began and remain as a unique part of the black experience.  In particular, kung fu’s themes of the underdog triumphing against the odds resonated in black communities across the United States.

The Black Kung Fu Experience. I enjoyed this movie. I liked how they were able to share their gifts of loving Kung Fu to younger kids. I loved how the man give his kids accomplishment bands when they got B’s in school. It taught the kids that learning Kung Fu wasn’t enough but learning and getting good grades was. I think sometimes as athletes we assume that doing that sport is good enough, that it will get you somewhere. Its really good that these men taught them that it wasn’t good enough to just be an athlete.

I enjoyed this movie because the man was able to talk about his experience as a black man in the army during the segregation. Hearing his story was so crazy. He was nearly beaten to death for not seating at the end of the bus and was left to die in Vietnam.  We hear stories about black men going to the War overseas and in America (fighting for their rights) but never hear about how they got over the horrible things what happened when all the wars stopped. He was able to use Kung Fu as a stress reliever, or a coping mechanism.  I think that is great. Telling the story and being able to teach others.

From watching the two documentaries about Gung Fu, entitled “Shaolin Ullyesus”, and “The Black Kung Fu Experience”, I was fascinated by the discipline and the dedication these practitioners of the art of Gung Fu presented. However in regards to popular culture, Gung Fu has become global. People are fascinated by the beautiful and powerful movements in this martial arts and from the film I can see how it has really changed  and impacted peoples lives forever.

In the film, “The Black Kung Fu Experience” many of the African practitioners of Kung Fu such as Ron Van Clief, Dennis Brown, and Donald Hamby, were influenced by popular culture in the form of Kung Fu films which caused them to take up martial arts and to learn Gung Fu. Also with the popularity from the movie industry we see that the Shaolin temple in China has become a tourist site, and the monks their have even sent representatives to tour the world to demonstrate the skills of these warrior monks. It is interesting to see the historic path of Gung Fu and how it has spread throughout the world. With it originally being spread through the persecution of the monks after the fall of the Ming dynasty or more recently through films and media, it is amazing to see the effect it has had on the world. It also was interesting to see how to the African Americans in the United States saw Gung Fu as a symbol of pride and hope for the black community. With such racism and prejiduce towards their community in our nations history, Bruce Lee’s films and other Kung Fu movies, depicted the underdog, rising up and defeating or atleast opposing their opponents who in most cases had greater strength and power, which I feel gave the African American youth this sense of being able to rise up against the prejudices they faced and to be proud of who they are. I also find it fascinating how through this form of martial arts, we see a link between East and west. Furthermore through the interest in Kung Fu films, and with Gung Fu schools being available for Americans to learn the art of Gung Fu, we see a gap being bridged between two cultures, which shows the effect popular culture can have on the world.

Going off of our last seminar on Friday I have attempted to make connections from the assigned reading in Kato. What I noticed was that when you look at the chapter a few key names constantly pop out from the reading and follow a vital theme within the chapter.

First off you must look at the time period. The 1960′s and 70′s was a point in time where we see a rise of counter culture, both in the form of the Hippie and psychadelics, and from the rise and populartity of Kung Fu films. What we see from this is Hollywood’s attempt to market of the popularity of counterculture, but at the same time to contain it. Warner Brothers can be seen as the biggest player in Hollywood for their strategy of taking the popularity of both the Hippie and psychedelic scene, and the Kung Fu phenomenom and trying to capitalize of its success but at the same time trap it and mold it into what they want it to be. We see this first through the great musician Jimi Hendrix and his performance at Woodstock with his band “Gypsy Suns and Rainbows”. Hendrix’s band as Kato describes, “attempts to forge a link between the counterculture, and the social context. And it also asserts not only continuation, but evolution the counterculture beyond the confinement of the 1960′s…(85)” Kato also describes the band on page 84 as ” a statement transcending the corporate-manufactured image epitomized by the image package of the ‘Jimi Hendrix Experience’” The band “Gypsy Suns and Rainbows” therefore represents the change and evolution of the counterculture and goes against the marketable image of the counterculture being sold by Warner Bros through their record label. We see how they contained this idea to preserve the marketable image of the counterculture and attempt to forever plant the Hippie and psychedelic culture in the 60′s through their film Woodstock. In the film they show Hendrix in one dimension while he plays the “Star Spangled Banner” and the band is seemingly unrepresented in the performance. They also do not show how the crowd embraced the band and the music being played. Furthermore when the song Purple Haze is played the image of the Hendrix and the bands performance disappears and is replaced by that of clean-up crews, representing the end of the concert and of the counterculture. Containment is the main theme that I have noticed from Hollywood and more specifically Warner Brothers throughout the assigned reading for Kato.

We see it also in the rise of popularity in the Kung Fu motion picture. As Kato writes on page 95, ” In Kung Fu, one could see the strategy of containment similar the one deployed in Woodstock.” This is reference to the 1970′s t.v. show Kung Fu starring David Carradine (a white man) playing the role of a blind Chinese monk. Though the show did consult highly prolific Asian figures in the Kung Fu genre such as Bruce Lee and David Chow it took what was offered by those who truly had knowledge of Kung Fu and the martial arts and Hollywoodized it, processed it, so that it became unrecognizable in the show therefore allowing, ” the hegemonic power of Hollywood,” to be retained.(95)”

From this I see how much power the media and those who control the media have, and how it can impact society. Also due to the reading I feel I myself will strive to delve deeper into the messages and symbolism that movies depict and perhaps will become more enlightened on the issues going on behind the veil projected by Hollywood.

BRUCE LEE REPRESENTED A CHARACTER AGAINST IMPERIALISM AND REPRESENTING CHINESE CITIZENS, INCITING OTHERS TO TAKE ACTION

We can see from the reading of Kato how Bruce Lee embodied and represented through his film roles a character who opposed imperialism and provided a symbol for others who were being oppressed to rise up and take action against their oppressors. In Lee’s case it was a fight against Japanese Imperialism which as a child he subjected to Japanese military occupation of Hong Kong.

In the film “Fist of Fury” starring Lee as Chen Zhen we see a single figure rise up against the powers oppressing him and taking a stand. The film links both the fantasy world of film as well as the actual history of Japanese imperialism and the atrocities that took place during this time in China. Lee’s use of expression in the film which strongly conveys national pride and sentiment, can be seen as symbol of rising against colonization.  We also see in Lee’s film “The Way of the Dragon” Lee playing a role where he is fighting a much greater and more powerful opponent. Lee’s character Tang Lung is able to overcome his opponent by being fluid and not trying to meet power with power and therefore “leaving the strategic plain intact” By using ones strength and turning it into his weekness Lee’s character is able to defeat his advosary.

From these films we see how Lee’s characters and expression give hope and pride to those who are being controlled and oppressed by greater forces. Also we see how trying to meet power with power, or hate with hate, is not the solution. However what I see as the most significant aspect of Lee’s characters are the symbolism exuded by these characters and the films overall. We see how the films correlate with actual history, and the films characters can be the representation of the state in which oppressed cultures and societies are subjected too due to colonization and imperialism. Characters such as Chen Zhen show to the world the importance of  taking pride in who you are and where you come from. Also from Lee’s character Tang Lung in “The Way of the Dragon” we see how those oppressed can overcome the power of colonization and bring down the system. Overall Lee’s films and the Kung Fu film movement symbolize revolution and the opposition of colonization.

Furthermore I noticed the effect of Lee’s films even more after watching the film entitled “The Black Kung Fu Experience” where it was discussed how the African American Kung Fu practitioners highlighted in the documentary saw Bruce Lee’s films as a symbol to have pride in their own African American culture and showing them that they can overcome the powers oppressing them due to segregation and racism taking place in the United States at the time.

On Friday the class created a “master list” of terms regarding to who, what, where, and when for the Kato reading. Instead of summarizing the chapter, I’ll just talk about a few things that I remember the most from the reading that we put on the list.

First off, what the force was THX 3800? Did the author actually mean THX 1138 instead? That’s kind of strange they let that error pass onto print. I had to double check just to make sure, and I knew it sounded fishy when I read over that. It could possibly just be my book. 1138 is one of the numbers George Lucas likes to use in his media works. Anyways, the chapter mentions that,

“the appeal of the image of virtual power apparatus does not rest on its futuristic promises. Rather, it is the representation of the inevitability of technological development and its implicit autonomy from the sweat, blood, and tears of living labor that gives the image of the power apparatus’s strong sense of stability and permanence…the image of a technologically saturated power apparatus concurs with the ideological effect that mystifies the fact that the creation of values takes place in multitudinous sites of indentured servitude.” (Kato 79)

So how is the movie THX 1138 related to those statements. Well, the movie takes place in a distant future where everyone dresses the same and takes drugs to “improve” their performance at their jobs, but also acts as a inhibitor for emotions. The city is overseen by a artificial “deity” called OMM and androids created by the denizens function as the society’s police force. The “indentured servitude” can be seen in all the people living in this dystopia, who work long hours to support the city and engage in activities that will make them “perfectly happy”. They have all the services they could want, but one thing cannot exist in this city: love. The “autonomy” here is the machines that run this society and see fit to put human workers in dangerous conditions, while all the “sweat, blood, and tears” are prevented through drugs to increase production. This relates to the other science fiction films Blade Runner and the Matrix by having the machines either being a threat or using humanity as a means to further production.

Second is Hong Kong, probably one of the memorable places in China. Here the company Golden Harvest did some shoots for the movie Enter the Dragon starring Bruce Lee. What’s interesting here is Hollywood’s presence causes some tension between the American set workers and the “natives”, especially the “fantasy factory” workers. Lee and fellow workers and stuntmen worked under directors the movie did not adhere too much to stereotypes generated by American media. Unfortunately, some of the workers, like director Lo Wei, did not take the shoots seriously enough and led to conflicts between Lee and the higher ups. Another questionable move was the inclusion of real prostitutes in the movie. Golden Harvest couldn’t use actors for those roles and had to use real ones because in Hong Kong it’d be considered “disgraceful” and the inclusion of prostitutes in a movie “had to cast a prostitute for the part,” (Kato 105). I’m not sure if that’s a good move, but on the reverse side they had to respect the culture and setting they were in.

Finally there’s Hollywood, the organization that is head of most of the film media. It’s because of them that stereotypes for Asians were developed and commonly showed to the public. Hollywood and its branches, according to this chapter, had a hand in developing the films Bruce Lee starred in, such as Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon. Hollywood relied on labor in other areas to work on sets as either set staff, extras, and stuntmen. Unfortunately these other labor sources were not treated fairly, which Lee took as offense. For example, some of the American set workers believed the Chinese set workers knew little to no English and used this to insult the Chinese; however, unbeknownst to the American staff, the Chinese understood them well enough that eventually they started rebelling and fighting back.