Week 14, Blog Discussion, Enter the Dragon

Question 1: Begin a perceptive discussion of the Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris fight scene from Return of the Dragon (1972) that we watched in class. Try to make unique observations. You might consider: what’s going on with the body and body types, how performance plays a role here, and the recoding of Chinese men (and their bodies) as masculine in this context–especially as he battles a white American man in Norris.  Finally, what on earth is going on with the shots of the kitten?

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/TbIwQMBeC2c" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Question 2: Beyond constructions of Chinese American masculinity that we see getting formed in a film like Enter the Dragon, what else can you say about American identity and race in this film? Refer to a specific scene/moment in the film to support your argument about the film’s ideological perspective on this question of race and nationality.