Transnational Vampires

Student Number: 08009874 1 Transnational Vampires: Hollywood Versus The Rest Of The World. In this essay I will explore the differences and similarities between Hollywood representations of vampires and how the rest of the world looks at them, focussing mainly on Chinese Hong Kong cinema. I will be exploring ideas surrounding cultural myths and how this affects vampire narratives, representations and origins of vampires and the receptio n they receive across the globe. Aihwa Ong suggests that the term µtrans¶ ³denotes both moving through space or across lines, as well as changing the nature of something´ (Ong 1999:4). Elizabeth Ezra and Terry Rowden state that the term transnational ³can be understood as the global forces that link people or institutions across nations´ (Ezra and Rowden 2006:1) Therefore, it could be said that transnational cinema consists of films that utilize international themes to allow easy movement across national and cultural borders, whilst still changing each film to fit national contexts and expectations. Cynthia Freeland talks about the rules of the vampire subgenre and how they allow an audience to interpret them no matter where the film is located as long as so me of the familiar iconography is present. ³We are all familiar with the rules that govern v ampires, so we may greet familiar scenes with relish... Even though a giv en film might violate a few of the standard rules, deviations are allowed onl y within certain parameters. Some things remain as staples ± blood, coffins, fangs and cruci fixes. The genre pla ys upon and rewards this sort of audience expectation and knowledge (Freeland 2000:125) Peter Hutchings describes the genre of Horror itself as being a transnational genre due to the fact that ³the operations of the horror genre are not restricted to any one country or culture but rather are spread across much of the film making world´ (Hutchings 2002:118). Hutchings describes the genre as having narratives that can be understood by many different cultures without having to be too culture specific. However, he then contradicts himself by going on to talk about how national context is very important within the genre as films could include certain social comments specific to one nationality, thus possibly rendering an outside sp ectator pe rplexed. Commenting on British film,

Transnational Vampires

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