Investigation of the martial arts motif in Chinese literature and its cinematic descendants. Class materials include ancient stories about sage kings, assassin-retainers, lady knights-errant; recent blockbusters such as \"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,\" \"Hero,\" and \"Kung Fu Hustle;\" the careers and stardoms of Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and Jackie chan; and American animated films featuring martial arts themes, such as \"Mulan\" and the \"Kung Fu Panda\" series. While reflecting cultural transformations across history, these examples manifest a consistent poetics of emptiness, due to the genre's thematic preoccupation with resistance and transcendence, as well as its roots in Confucian-Daoist-Buddhist philosophies. In these regards, the martial arts genre, other than being a pop culture phenomenon, offers a meaningful gateway toward rediscovering the Chinese tradition's cosmopolitan potentials.
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