Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles: Redeeming the Father by Way of Japan?

Please share your stories about how Open Access to this chapter benefits you. INTRODUCTION transregional strategy since the 1980s'. 5 Pertinent to This essay examines Zhang Yimous recent film, current developments in the Chinese film industry, Riding Alonefor Thousands of Miles (hereafter Riding the transnational perspective can serve as a fresh and Alone). Compared to Zhang's previous father-son effective approach to studies of Chinese cinema, narratives, Riding Alone visualises a more democratic However, Lu s and Zhang's arguments about transna-and sensitive father figure, played by Japanese star tionalism have overlooked two key issues. First, they Takakura Ken. Here 'democratic* is used in the sense focus on the commercial and cultural transactions of Interpersonal democracy'practised through the between Chinese cinema(s) (including mainland bonding of intimate relationships in people's every-China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) and Hollywood, day life, which will be elaborated in the later parts of They barely touch upon the influences from and this essay. 1 While a remorseful Japanese father interactions with Japanese and Korean cinema as well embodies a new patriarchal ideal in this film, Tokyo as other forms of regional popular culture such as is depicted as the site where human relationships are soap opera. Second, theory about the increasing alienated and traumatised. Hence, the father-son global and regional interconnectedness in film pro-bond can only be materialised through the mediation duction and consumption does not fully examine the of reinvented 'traditional* Chinese culture. The con-escalating tensions between transnational capital tradictions, negotiations and competitions between flows and rising 'consumer nationalism', the narratives of'Japanescncss' and 'Chinescness* in For example, recent Sino-Japanese diplomatic this cross-cultural and inter-ethnic melodrama invite conflicts have affected the circulation and consump-two central questions. First, if Zhang's 'sentimental tion of popular cultural products. The former Japan-return' in his late-1990s 1 films indicates *a distiiKtively ese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's regular visits nationalist quality' associated with historical specifics, to the controversial Yasukuni shrine caused large-then how should we read the national, ethnic and scale protests in China. A call for boycotting Japan-historical ambivalences in Riding Alone? Second, ese products ensued at some of the largest Chinese how does this democratised father-son narrative Internet portals, such as sina.com, tianya.net and articulate its relation to an emerging 'Greater China' ebay.com.cn. 6 Under the great pressure of this discourse while simultaneously maintaining its appeal nationalist campaign online and offline, the release of to a transnational audience? To explore these issues, …