Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (was Empire...,still Empire ;-)

[Brad Mayer]

While the analysis is accurate, Yoshie is being more than generous in 
conclusion.  I found the treatment of Jade Fox stereotypical, offensive 
and, well, reactionary, as can be gathered.  Even though her antagonist got 
his in the end.  It certainly comes under Empire:

"..The imperial 'solution' will not be to negate or attenuate these 
differences, but rather to affirm them and arrange them in an effective 
apparatus of command.

'Divide and conquer' is thus not really the correct formulation of imperial 
strategy.  More often than not, the Empire does not create division but 
rather recognizes existing or potential differences, celebrates them, and 
manages them within a general economy of command.  The triple imperative of 
Empire is incorporate, differentiate, manage."  ("The Triple Imperative of 
Empire, Imperial Sovereignty, Empire", 200-01)

But a "celebration" of Jade Fox's difference?  I think not.  In the end, 
the eminently 'modernist' imperative of an "effective apparatus of command" 
comes lurching up, sharp and jaggedy-edged as ever, out of the 
free-floating swamp of difference.

-Brad Mayer


>_Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_ has an intriguing _but
>underdeveloped_ lesbian-feminist class-struggle subtext, mainly
>embodied in the character of Jade Fox, played by Pei-pei Cheng. Jade
>Fox killed Li Mu Bai's master because the sexist pig screwed her but
>refused to teach her the mystery of Wu Tan (a style of martial arts).
>She takes Jen under her wings, teaches her martial arts, &
>(symbolically speaking) proposes to her that together they destroy
>ruling-class patriarchs & build a new world of warrior women; Jen,
>however, refuses to become a class traitor -- she just wants to do a
>little slumming, first with an older proletarian woman (Jade Fox) &
>then a young proletarian boy (Lo). Jade Fox dies at the hand of Li
>Mu Bai. With her dying breaths, she reproaches Jen for denying her
>literacy (earlier, Jade fox stole the Book that contained the secret
>teachings of Wu Tan, which she, illiterate, couldn't read; Jen read
>it & surpassed her female mentor, without sharing her learning with
>her).
>The film should be read as an allegory of "power feminism" of the
>Empire, rising out of the ruins of radical & materialist lesbian
>feminism which was once popular during the heydays of second-wave
>women's movement. Its saving graces are the aforementioned
>lesbian-feminist class-struggle subtext, the appearance of the
>dashing Chang Chen (who played Chang in _Happy Together_ [1997], a
>gay romance & "national" allegory directed by Wong Kar-wai), &
>spectacular sceneries.
>Yoshie