Kung fu master Chow Yun-Fat to bring Confucius to the silver screen
Chow Yun-Fat is better known as a flying kung fu master in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as the king in the latest movie ofThe King and Ior as a Hong Kong gangster in any number of films. Now he faces a cinematic challenge of a very different order: to bring Confucius to the silver screen.
China’s decision to make a film of the life of its greatest philosopher is the latest step in the rehabilitation of the thinker vilified during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. For that decade, and for years afterwards, his name was associated with all that was feudal and opposed to the revolution, and his descendants were ostracised.
Now Confucius is back in fashion. The ancient words of the philosopher who tried – and generally failed – to convince the country’s rulers of the soundness of his ideas are very much in favour with the 21st-century communist regime. His espousal of the concept of harmony has supplied the leadership with its favourite slogan: the phrase “harmonious society” is everywhere, as part of a campaign to paper over differences created by a yawning gap between rich and poor.
The Confucian classics now enjoy a higher status at universities in China, and even prisons are teaching his philosophy to inmates. Since 2004 the Government has started setting up Confucius Institutes abroad to promote Chinese language and culture. A professor’s book of reflections on the classic Confucian text Analects became the most-read volume in China. Some communist officials are evaluated based on the Confucian virtues of filial piety and family responsibility.
The decision to ask the Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-Fat to swap his famed long trenchcoat and pistols for scholarly robes and scrolls is something of a surprise, but it makes perfect box office sense for the Beijing-based Dadi Cinema and state-run China Film Group to pick one of China’s most adored stars for the lead in the £10 million biopic...
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China’s decision to make a film of the life of its greatest philosopher is the latest step in the rehabilitation of the thinker vilified during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. For that decade, and for years afterwards, his name was associated with all that was feudal and opposed to the revolution, and his descendants were ostracised.
Now Confucius is back in fashion. The ancient words of the philosopher who tried – and generally failed – to convince the country’s rulers of the soundness of his ideas are very much in favour with the 21st-century communist regime. His espousal of the concept of harmony has supplied the leadership with its favourite slogan: the phrase “harmonious society” is everywhere, as part of a campaign to paper over differences created by a yawning gap between rich and poor.
The Confucian classics now enjoy a higher status at universities in China, and even prisons are teaching his philosophy to inmates. Since 2004 the Government has started setting up Confucius Institutes abroad to promote Chinese language and culture. A professor’s book of reflections on the classic Confucian text Analects became the most-read volume in China. Some communist officials are evaluated based on the Confucian virtues of filial piety and family responsibility.
The decision to ask the Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-Fat to swap his famed long trenchcoat and pistols for scholarly robes and scrolls is something of a surprise, but it makes perfect box office sense for the Beijing-based Dadi Cinema and state-run China Film Group to pick one of China’s most adored stars for the lead in the £10 million biopic...