Main Melody Films

Chu’s work brings a major development in Chinese cinema to broader attention and is exemplary in its reference to an impressive range of sources, which testify to a near encyclopaedic knowledge of China’s and especially Hong Kong’s cinematic output, as well as the rapidly increasing scholarship on these topics. -- Kristof Van den Troost * China Perspectives *
This book, the third of the author’s trilogy on Hong Kong popular culture after 1997, is a timely intervention to delve into the mainland-Hong Kong cooperation in making main melody blockbuster films. The in-depth analysis of "north-bound" film directors such as Tsui Hark and Ann Hui brings to light their creative and at times ambiguous roles in bringing state propaganda to young audiences. This is an important book for understanding the developments of the former British colony’s film industry in the era of cross-border integration. -- Po-Shek Fu, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
In a cultural realm where nationalist fervor　and market incentives are intertwined, Chu spotlights the imprints of a versatile Hong Kong left by some of the city’s directors on Chinese main(land) melody films. Packed with lively details and narrated with zest, this book is an impressive record of these directors’ creative ventures in a vast new entertainment network. -- Rey Chow, Duke University
Main Melody Films is a valuable and insightful addition to the scholarly literature on cultural studies related to China and Hong Kong, and on Chinese-language cinemas. Established scholars as well as students in various arts and humanities disciplines with special research interests in the culture and cinema of China and Hong Kong will very likely include this monograph in their list of must read books. -- Ruby Cheung * The China Quarterly *