Thank the British for kung fu movies

[GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG]

Without the British and their 99 year lease of Hong Kong 1841 to 1997 there may well have not been the full blown kung fu movie era of the 60's and 70's.

Taiwan is another conversation.

Think about it, had the Ching Dynasty maintained control of Hong Kong the city would have eventually been under communist rule. The kung fu movie realm as we know it would surely have not come to be. Mao put a stop to martial arts training no doubt Hong Kong cinema would have come under their control. As you may know the first movies of the communist era were all propaganda films.  

 

We would have never seen posters like these:

 

 

 

 

 

GD Y-Y

[DragonClaws]

On 24/05/2017 at 4:27 PM, GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG said:

Without the British and their 99 year lease of Hong Kong 1841 to 1997 there may well have not been the full blown kung fu movie era of the 60's and 70's.

Never even considered this until reading your post @GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG, sure it has played a part.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

21 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

Never even considered this until reading your post @GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG, sure it has played a part.

Many Mainlanders who were in cinema (or about to be in cinema and would make their mark in HK) went to Hong Kong because of the totalitarian regime at the time like Chang Cheh (he went to Taiwan first though), King Hu, Lo Wei, Li Han-hsiang, Hsu Tseng-Hu.  Really this is one of (there are several total) the big reasons Mandarin became of prominence in a mainly Cantonese area.  It became dangerous to stick in cinema in the Mainland unless you were willing to compromise a lot.  But combine these talents with the Shaw Brothers (who also had interference from the Communist government of course) and HK cinema was going to change.

This is not unique though.  Think about the mass movement of German and German/Jewish directors that left Germany because of the rising Nazi party like Fritz Lang. 

[One Armed Boxer]

On 5/25/2017 at 1:27 AM, GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG said:

Without the British and their 99 year lease of Hong Kong 1841 to 1997 there may well have not been the full blown kung fu movie era of the 60's and 70's.

Just to be clear on that, the 99 year lease ran from 1898 - 1997.  The previous British ownership was governed by the Treaty of Nanking from 1842, and then the Covention of Peking in 1860.  The lease signed in 1898 was called The Convention of the Extension of Hong Kong Territory.

On 5/25/2017 at 1:27 AM, GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG said:

Think about it, had the Ching Dynasty maintained control of Hong Kong the city would have eventually been under communist rule. The kung fu movie realm as we know it would surely have not come to be. Mao put a stop to martial arts training no doubt Hong Kong cinema would have come under their control.

Very interesting thoughts GD Y-Y, I'd certainly never looked at it from that perspective, but the points you raise make a lot of sense.

& just to add fuel to the fire, don't forget that Bruce Lee himself was a quarter British.