Old Masters Repainted – Wu Zhen (1280–1354): Prime Objects and Accretions

Perry Lam was among the first to critically examine Hong Kong movies in English on a regular basis, with reviews in the early 1980s for South China Morning Post. Widely quoted by the international press including Reuters, The Associated Press, Asiaweek and Cahiers du Cin413ma, he has long been recognized as an authority on Hong Kong cinema. He was editorial director of Muse magazine and taught Asian cinema as adjunct professor of Syracuse University Hong Kong Center. He is now assistant editorial director of Oxford University Press and writes columns in Chinese for Hong Kong Economic Journal and Yazhou Zhoukan. Once A Hero: The Vanishing Hong Kong Cinema is his first English book.

• Part 1 Introduction - the problem of method: methodological considerations; traditional Chinese connoisseurship; Japanese contributions to studies in Chinese painting; Western traditions in Chinese painting studies; prime objects and image-change through processes of evolution, alternation and accretion. Part 2 The master perceived in texts and found in images: significant criteria for period style; personal style - focusing on the master; in search of prime objects - Yuan landscapes matching earliest sources; two anonymous Yuan paintings; systems check - identifying prime bamboo paintings by defined criteria; graphology in prime objects and recensions - new perspectives in calligraphy analysis. Part 3 Altered images of the Ming and Qing periods: altered images in landscape paintings; altered images in bamboo paintings. Part 4 Typological accretions - the master repainted in new themes and formats: accretions in landscape imagery; accretions in bamboo manuals. Appendices: stroke-based and washed-based modes in landscape painting; Wu Zhen and the Hanlin Chongting ascribed to Dong Yuan; proportions and silk-widths; measurement and condition of the Mozhupu leaves; copies after Wu Zhen in China and Japan; Wu Zhen seals; Xiang Yuanbian seals; catalogue.

The real story about Hong Kong films isn't the dramatic decline in their creativity. It is the surgical removal of their distinctiveness as movies of Hong Kong. In their eagerness to please the mainland audience, Hong Kong filmmakers now churn out movies with ready-made plots, powered by simple demographics. I smell more desperation than inspiration in the race to make the Hong Kong cinema mainland-friendly.