Watching Hong Kong martial arts film under apartheid

Abstract

Since its initial popularization in Africa during the 1970s, Hong Kong martial arts cinema has enjoyed remarkably consistent popularity. This paper analyses some of the causes for this phenomenon by focusing on the consumption of Hong Kong martial arts cinema in South Africa during apartheid. It argues that film-watching under apartheid was jointly structured by state censorship and state-aligned monopolies controlling film distribution and exhibition. These factors facilitated the flow of Hollywood film into South Africa yet at the same time constrained black audiences. Due to a confluence of historical factors, Hong Kong martial arts film arrived in the country just as this dual system of state control via censorship and exhibition was weakening. In addition, the spectacular action and anti-hegemonic narrative in these films, can explain their popularity among black audiences who were familiar with the targeted censorship regimes, and versed in subverting the white supremacist...