The Hero's Journey
The Hero’s Journey
In recent centuries, China has been subject to many foreign powers even on its own soil. In times of low national pride, martial art masters such as Ye Wen and Huo Yuanjia became national heroes, inspiring the Chinese people to prove their worth to visiting foreigners and preserve their sovereignty. Through a comparative study of heroic martial artists in the recent Chinese films Ip Man（叶问) and Jet Li’s Fearless (霍元甲), this paper will explore how the stories that they tell relate to and critically reflect the “Hero’s Journey” narrative pattern identified by American Scholar Joseph Campbell. Campbell’s 2008 book The Hero With a Thousand Faces provides a theoretical frame for this paper. We will study how these martial artists’ personal stories inspire their community and the nation to overcome great hardship and how the filmic representation of their images represents the self-image of China as a nation. Drawing a parallel between these heroic images and China’s own journey toward self-reliance and national regeneration, this paper will argue that the narrative pattern of “A Hero’s Journey” could also project a meaningful reading of China’s own trajectory of social and economic growth as a nation.
The first film that this paper studies, Jet Li’s Fearless takes place in the early 1900’s, half a century after the Opium Wars have resulted in China giving up territory to Western powers as well as diminished their rule over foreigners in Chinese cities. In this historical period, Western powers look down on the Chinese as the weak men of Asia. Likewise, despite his father being a martial arts master, Huo Yuanjia is not permitted by his father to practice wushu because of his asthma. After his father’s death, Yuanjia is able to practice wushu openly and begins to build his reputation as the “best of Tianjin.”
Huo Yuanjia’s call to adventure comes after tragedy strikes his family. Yuanjia is led by one of his disciples to believe that another martial
In recent centuries, China has been subject to many foreign powers even on its own soil. In times of low national pride, martial art masters such as Ye Wen and Huo Yuanjia became national heroes, inspiring the Chinese people to prove their worth to visiting foreigners and preserve their sovereignty. Through a comparative study of heroic martial artists in the recent Chinese films Ip Man（叶问) and Jet Li’s Fearless (霍元甲), this paper will explore how the stories that they tell relate to and critically reflect the “Hero’s Journey” narrative pattern identified by American Scholar Joseph Campbell. Campbell’s 2008 book The Hero With a Thousand Faces provides a theoretical frame for this paper. We will study how these martial artists’ personal stories inspire their community and the nation to overcome great hardship and how the filmic representation of their images represents the self-image of China as a nation. Drawing a parallel between these heroic images and China’s own journey toward self-reliance and national regeneration, this paper will argue that the narrative pattern of “A Hero’s Journey” could also project a meaningful reading of China’s own trajectory of social and economic growth as a nation.
The first film that this paper studies, Jet Li’s Fearless takes place in the early 1900’s, half a century after the Opium Wars have resulted in China giving up territory to Western powers as well as diminished their rule over foreigners in Chinese cities. In this historical period, Western powers look down on the Chinese as the weak men of Asia. Likewise, despite his father being a martial arts master, Huo Yuanjia is not permitted by his father to practice wushu because of his asthma. After his father’s death, Yuanjia is able to practice wushu openly and begins to build his reputation as the “best of Tianjin.”
Huo Yuanjia’s call to adventure comes after tragedy strikes his family. Yuanjia is led by one of his disciples to believe that another martial