Wang Baoqiang: the Man-Child Bumpkin in Chinese Comedy Films

Wang Baoqiang is a Chinese comedian well known for his bumpkin man-child characters. Whereas critics worry that the return of the man-child in Hollywood comedy signals a retreat from responsibility, I will argue that Wang’s man-child roles in the films Lost on Journey (2010) and Lost in Thailand (20...

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Dans:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ges,
Auteur principal: Lai, Yung-Hang
Format: Article ou chapitre numérique
Langue:Anglais
Publié: Genre en séries 2022
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Accès en ligne:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Description
Résumé:Wang Baoqiang is a Chinese comedian well known for his bumpkin man-child characters. Whereas critics worry that the return of the man-child in Hollywood comedy signals a retreat from responsibility, I will argue that Wang’s man-child roles in the films Lost on Journey (2010) and Lost in Thailand (2012) not only bring about laughter but also challenge the neoliberal entrepreneurial subjectivity which informs the norms of masculinity in China. Such subjectivity is embodied by the contrasting anxious middle-class roles played by Xu Zheng in these films.