All Under Heaven CHINESE TRADITION AND GLOBALISATION IN HERO

Zhang Yimou’s Hero (2002) heralded a new era of Chinese commercial blockbusters that were characterised by a desire to appeal to both a local and a global audience.¹ Demonstrating a superlative handle of place-based mise en scène, Zhang transports the viewer back to a time and location that is distinctly Chinese. With its blockbuster elements, somewhat unconventional take on the wuxia genre and complex narrative structure, the film confronts the audience through its symbolic tension between political power and culture. Media theorist Graeme Turner suggests that screen narratives can be understood by placing ‘film communication within a wider system for generating meaning – that of the culture itself’;² adopting this approach, we are able to interpret Hero as Zhang’s solution to the challenge of navigating China’s participatory role in globalisation.

The commercial and aesthetic dimensions of were indisputably influenced by the director’s desire to ensure international market success. One clear indicator of this was the nationalist impetus to propel Chinese films onto the new globalised cultural stage. During the 1990s, China experienced a significant decrease in domestic moviegoers and, correspondingly, a decline in film production. Film scholar Jenny Kwok Wah Lau attributes this partly To counter the global dominance of Hollywood blockbusters, the government pushed for the production of ‘new mainstream’ entertainment, which stylistically mimicked Hollywood blockbusters. Academic Ping Zhu argues that, after the late nineteenth century, traditional Chinese culture was relegated to a peripheral position in relation to international ideological discourses, concepts and practices. With , therefore, Zhang ambitiously adopted the responsibility of asserting China’s positive influence on the global film industry and unsettling the asymmetrical production and distribution of ideas and systems brought about by neoliberal globalisation’s concentration of wealth and political power. In an attempt to allegorically narrate China’s emerging sense of internationality, Zhang presented his audience with the virtual framework of (‘all under heaven’), which embodies geographical, political and cultural elements. With its roots in ancient Chinese philosophy, is best understood as a new world order that strives for the ‘common happiness of all peoples’ within the context of a sovereign homeland. The challenge Zhang faced was to balance the film’s blockbuster elements and technical sophistication with expressions of Chinese tradition and culture. Thus, panders synchronously to local and global interests while negotiating culture and politics.