On (not) speaking English^*: The ‘phonic’ personae of transnational Chinese stars in the global visual network

ABSTRACT

English-speaking flair becomes a rubric for the complex process of star construction of Chinese film performers in the shifting trajectories of the globalized media milieu. Shortly after her name was established on the world screens with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Zhang Ziyi's inability to speak fluent English in public events and meet-the-press occasions became a point of public notice. Also, the rise of Web-based culture has exposed her linguistic persona to a new and perpetual form of scrutiny as Web users impart the images about her ‘poor’ English incessantly and seamlessly. Then, what does her changing English-speaking image suggest to her ‘Chinese’ stardom? This essay will examine the importance and implication of speaking proficient English in the star-making of Zhang on YouTube. I will argue Zhang's intertextual, accented articulations in English become part of the network of new visualities and communities and, therefore, valorize her lingua-crossing star construction. Her linguistically transformed persona will prove she is flexible enough to contend her appeal at the fringe of the Anglophone and Sinophobe cultures. By investigating Zhang's ‘phonic’ presence, this essay will, hence, shed light on the dynamics between language and stardom in the landscape of global visual exchange.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The video is created and uploaded by user ‘yukinavevt’ in August 2008. Available at http:www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqk6NnnWhAQ.

2. I note that Zhang Ziyi's official website (www.helloziyi.com) is presented as bilingual (English and Chinese). This official website was launched on Zhang's birthday in 2004. It is the first personal website of a movie star that operates independently from China's popular online portal Sina (china.org.cn 2004). When I first conducted this research in 2013, this website was available on the Web. Yet it has been currently moved to http://ent.sina.com.cn/ziyi/.

3. Anglophone includes literary or cultural texts from all English-speaking countries, from both Great Britain and its former colonies like the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (Lu 2007).

4. Such casting spurs controversy in the territory (Schwartz and Kung 2005, 40). According to Wing-fai Leung (2014), in America, it is not a problem to cast Chinese actresses for quintessentially Japanese characters since the film follows the convention of depicting Asian as general, ‘arbitrary’ Other, without consciousness to the subtle disparity between Asian ethnicities (69). Nevertheless, it is not the case in China, with particular regard to the intricate history between Japan and China (Schwartz and Kung 2005, 40). The film was banned in China reportedly due to the government's fear of igniting the rage against Japan while the Japanese term, geisha, has been mistaken as a synonym of prostitute that may evoke the traumatic memory of the sexual abuses coerced by Japanese soldiers to numerous Chinese women during World War II. (China Bans Memoirs of a Geisha 2006).

5. Under the influence of the Cantonese activism happened in 2010 in Guangdong, a province in southern China (Tan 2014, 198–199), Hong Kong, a Cantonese-speaking region, shows a rise of consciousness to defend its own tongue. Hong Kong media, as part of the media landscape in southern China (Tan 2014, 200–202), is not unconscious about the role of language in shaping entertainment figures.

6. For example, on the fan site ‘ziyi forever’, fans uploaded panoply of Zhang's videos across regions such as TV commercials of ‘Dining Out’ and ‘Tuk Tuk’ from Visa Asia and ‘2% Bottled Water’ from Korea, as well as television appearances like America's ‘Entertainment Tonight’ interview. The fan site ‘fanpop: Zhang Ziyi’ also devotes a section to Zhang's videos of various types such as interviews from MSN and MSNBC on Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)(2016).

7. In January 2010, a netizen exposed that Zhang's donation to the relief of the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake was of a smaller amount than what she publicly announced. Zhang later apologized and made the increment to her donation to make up the difference (Zhang Ziyi shouci gongkai huiying ‘juankuan men’ 2010).

8. Under this logic, Juliette Binoche and Penelope Cruz, whose native tongue is not English, are more likely to be considered as ‘transnational’ than Nichole Kidman and Kate Winslet who come from the English-speaking countries of Australia and England, respectively.

9. Shu-mei Shih argues for the deconstructionist agenda of China-centrism, or Han-centrism, eliminating the focus of ethnicity and nationality but underscoring communities of Sinitic languages spoken and adopted outside China (2011, 716).

10. I am well aware of the fact that the Web has always been a suspect method for obtaining the ‘truth’ of any kind, especially celebrities. With respect to the salient feature of the Web of its ability to conceal identity markers like ethnic, cultural, and linguistic background, the users are ‘invisible’ and anonymous. Yet, this exactly serves to grant recognition to the new technology giving liberty to voice one's opinions regardless of social and cultural privileges, while acknowledging that not all comments are levelheaded or useful to the analysis.

11. The uploader's title for the YouTube entry discussed in this section.

12. The video has been removed from YouTube when I research again the site in August 2015. However, the same clip has appeared in the fan site, ‘Ziyi Forever’ (http:ziyiforever.primenova.com/multimedia/index2.html). Also, another user called ‘Channel Xu’ has posted the same interview in April 2008 on YouTube, retitling it as ‘Ziyi Zhang House of Flying Daggers interview’. This shows the ease of duplicating as well as eliminating online videos, validating to the impermanence of existence of Web-based texts.

13. In Chinese ‘因為這個電影…’.

14. In talking about her preparation for the film, Zhang reveals that she lived with a blind girl for two months before shooting to prepare herself for the role of a blind character. This is what she utters to describe her close observation of the girl.

15. This is her reply to a question about maintain her figure, Zhang describing herself as a big eater.

16. About a third of the way into it, the hostess asks Zhang about the most difficult part of her performance, and Zhang recalls her experience of playing the role of a blind girl in the film. She attempts answering in broken English: ‘For me, I think, the most part was … when I play blind, I know I can see; I can see Andy's knife just next me, you know, but I… I… I need to pretend I didn't see it. I just… y[ou]… sometime… I ju…ust, you know, the… the… the feeling I can see it, but I… I try to pretend. But that's hard. And sometimes, you know, um…., you have to act and… but you should be a blind. I think that's hard’. Zhang Ziyi has to expose her limited English capacity once again. The reiteration of the words ‘I’, ‘just’ and ‘the’ shows a non-native speaker's hesitation turning into the impression of a lack of eloquence. The expressions ‘sometimes’ and ‘you know’ help fill the elocutionary gaps, allowing Zhang to search for words to express herself. Repetition of words and phrases such as ‘pretend’ and ‘that's hard’ can expose her limited vocabulary.

17. In the sub-page of ‘Video’ (http:www.helloziyi.us/Videos.htm).

18. After its publication, the book was a sensational hit and became the best-seller in the United States (Allison 2001, 381).

19. The Cinderella-like story claims to bring its readers to the ‘secret world of the geisha’ (a phrase used by the readers who commented on Memoir website at amazon.com) and presents a subject which is an exotic, mysterious figure even in her native country.

20. Literally ‘three flavor strings’, ‘shamisen’ is a common musical instrument played by geishas.

21. The word ‘unfamiliar’ used by the translator cannot communicate the genuine meaning. What Gong Li says, in fact, is that the experience of such intensive training is ‘first and foremost’. This illustrates not only the limitations of translation, but also the manner in which not speaking English may hinder the star–audience communication.

22. My transcription.

23. Ibid.

24. The sub-head of this article reads, ‘Actress Gong Li is one of the few stars to have made a successful move into English speaking roles’, framing Gong Li's Hollywood career in terms of her linguistic and ethnic identities (Bristow 2001).

25. As a pioneer in Asian American filmmaking, Wayne Wong is well known for his films that are made in English and cast actors of various ethnicities as Chinese Americans (Marchetti 2012, 8). He moves between ethnic America and the Chinese diaspora and his career is built on the transnational, multi-ethnic connections.

26. According to Fischer (2005), Zhang herself also admits that the toughest challenge for her is the language.

27. The four cornerstones of myth of success are: (1) the ordinariness as the trademark of the star; (2) the talents and ‘specialness’ approved by the star system; (3) the luck that seems to work at random but can characterize one's career; and (4) the hard work and expertise compulsory for stardom (Dyer 1979, 48).

28. The progress of her English was ‘rapid’; she was able to speak proficient English after only one year. ‘World Film Report's’ Shen Jian expressed astonishment at the degree of Zhang's English improvement when they met again. Shen writes, ‘In 2001, Zhang Ziyi's English was still poor. Out of my expectation, in 2002 she can speak fluent English’ (Xinhua Net 2005). He opines that such rapid English acquisition usually comes at the cost of vast quantities of time and energy.

29. Zhang withdrew from the project due to busy schedule, as she claimed. But a mainland Chinese newspaper revealed it is suspicious that her withdrawal is caused by the hearsay about Zhang's affair with a married man (Xie 2010).

30. For example, an article of Korea Joongang Daily entitled ‘Language no barrier to Jang's appeal’ discusses Jang Dong-gun's challenge of memorizing and speaking the lines in Chinese language (2012).

31. The exact caption of the photograph writes, ‘Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi listens to a reporter's question during a press conference promoting her latest film “Dangerous Liaisons” at Centum City Shinsegae in Busan, Friday’ (Lee 2012).

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Dorothy W. S. Lau

Dorothy W.S. Lau obtains her PhD from The University of Hong Kong. She is currently teaching at Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research interests include transnational cinema, Hong Kong cinema, stardom, fandom, and cyberculture.