Book Review: Women in Chinese Martial Arts Films of the New Millennium: Narrative Analyses and Gender Politics

According to Chen, in the world of martial arts, women enjoy freedom in "literary, education, critical thinking, talent, ambition, job market, career, and the right to choose their spouses and decide their fate" (p. viii). [...]the dilemma experienced by female artists and actresses is what Ann Hui tackles in The Stunt Woman (1996), starring the internationally acclaimed martial arts actress Michelle Yeoh (later in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as a stuntwoman struggling to survive in Hong Kong's notoriously merciless martial arts and action film industry. Because the author has already discussed in previous chapters the contradictory feminism in male directors' films, it would have been interesting to examine more fully the very act of making-visible and the possible feminist agency in Hui's works. [...]Judith Butler's gender performativity has offered various ways to move beyond the theories of gaze and sexual fetishism.