Tradition: Gone in a Flash

Josh Tatum

10-13-13

Tradition: Gone in a Flash

Since the first great cog in the clock of history started spinning it has devoured many and mangled even more. Only those with the foresight to stay just ahead of the grinding teeth come out on top. Every nation, every great power has been worn away or transformed by time. No man can stop it. No man can escape time, but those who change with it change the world. In his film, Once Upon A Time In China, Tsui Hark makes this very claim. He even goes so far to say that those who refuse to change with time will not survive. Through his masterful story telling Tsui crafts a beautiful landscape in which we see a clever allegory of change.

The very first scene of Once Upon A Time In China may seem a bit odd without close examination. There is a lion dance taking place on a Chinese ship in the Hong Kong bay. A set of firecrackers ignites, spooking some foreign soldiers who fire on the ship, hitting one of the men, halting the lion dance. At first glance, this seems to be simply a commentary on foreign invasion and influence in Hong Kong. However, upon closer examination this scene offers Tsui’s first comment on technology and progress. It is well known that the Lion Dance is a very traditional dance in China. It holds great significance, especially in Hong Kong where it was started. This scene, therefore, makes a very bold statement about Chinese tradition. The foreign soldier—or more specifically the gun—shooting the Lion represents the dying of Chinese tradition, or rather the inability of tradition to compete with new technology. The gun as a theme will be revisited later on. The film, however, does not wait to continue making its point.

            In the first scene after the opening credits we see Hong Kong in a state that is perhaps not too shocking to the modern eye. Cultures from every corner of the globe push and shove their way through the streets.       

            This picture shows a band of Chinese musicians competing with the sounds of “hallelujahs” rising from the Jesuit ministers in the streets. The musicians begin playing louder and in turn the priests sing louder creating a cacophony so uncomfortably loud that the patrons of the restaurant cannot maintain a conversation. Then, suddenly, in a moment of eerie peace, a foghorn from a not so distant ships sounds, silencing everyone. In this scene Tsui Hark manages to make an even more bold statement. Perhaps Kwai Cheung Lo says it best in his essay: “No one can hear anything. But suddenly the siren of a foreign battleship in port pierces through the tumult. Every voice is subdued by the deafening sound of the siren. The uproar of technology has overwhelmed the traditional, the spiritual, the everyday aspects of life” (85). The mis-en-scene is not Tsui’s only method of driving his point home, however.

            

            In this scene we see two characters depicting very different attitudes towards the ever-increasing influence of foreign technology.  The first is Aunt 13. She wears Western clothing and in this scene she even uses a Western Camera to take pictures. The second character is Wong Fei Hung himself, dressed in traditional clothes and hair in a queue (a Qing dynasty staple). As the scene unfolds Aunt 13 takes a picture of Wong and the shop owner. In a literal flash, the camera malfunctions and kills one of the shop owner’s prized birds. At first it might seem as though this would suggest that new technology is fickle and not to be trusted. The truth of the matter is, however, that the scene symbolizes tradition sitting like a bird in a cage, helpless against fast-approaching future. Shortly after this scene we see another character that represents yet another crucial idea.

            Tsui introduces the character of Yim not long into the movie. Yim is a kung fu master who, in a way, represents the conscience and traditional ideals of Wong Fei Hung. Yim wants to fight Wong in order to prove that he (or the traditional way of things) is superior to the rising technological advances. Yim uses his body to break spear and sword, but in the end he is unable to stop the bullets that ultimately kill him, laying to rest Wong’s resolve to stick to the old ways. In a way it is as though Tsui Hark is saying adapt or die.

            As the movie approaches its end there is a scene that simply shocks the viewer.

Wong Fei Hung holding a gun. The almost perfect picture of tradition transformed into a gunslinger. Progress has even overcome even the most rigid. The image could almost prove offensive, but the characters run out of ammo anyways, so they eventually revert to their fists once more. The scene just further adds to Tsui Hark’s point that you either adapt to the changing times and technology or you fall by the wayside (much like master Yim and the bird in the cage from the start of the movie).

         Tsui Hark is a master storyteller. He uses seemingly simple metaphors to get big complex ideas across. Craig Reid says of him, “Tsui Hark is one of the most famous and prolific of Hong Kong's post-1979 generation of New Wave film-makers. On the basis of the very successful domestic release of titles he has directed for his own Film Workshop production company in Kowloon” (34). Once Upon A Time In China vividly portraits Tusi’s idea that progress in an unstoppable force. No man can stop it. No man can escape its clutches alive, but those who change with it change the world.

Works Cited

Lo, Kwai . Once Upon a Time in China:Technology comes to presence in China. Web. <https://elearning.uky.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2696097-dt-content-rid-

Reid, Craig. "Interview with Tsui Hark." University of California Press. n. page. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1213294>.