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rfmcdonaldEarlier this week, thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lemurbuoy's generosity, I had the chance to watch Zhang Yimou's 2002 film Hero. The film's quite impressive, between its gorgeous colour scheme, its hyper-cinematic fighting styes, its actors and the plot that they all share, but it's this plot that has caused a certain amount of controversy because of its interestingly conflicted treatment of Qin Dynasty, responsible for the (bloody) unification of the Chinese states in the 3rd century BC. The possible vcontemporary political inclinations of Hero could be treated as something unique to China, as indeed I did, until I remembered the American civil war and how it was viewed (potentially problematically) in American popular culture as a positive thing, something that created the modern American nation if at great cost. We needn't talk about the War of American Independence so close to the 4th, right?
I can't say that the same applies to Canada. Growing up in Charlottetown PE ("The Birthplace of Confederation!") I learned that Confederation was initially a Maritime conference that the Canadas eventually invited themselves to, and later, about the Fenian raids conducted from the United States against Canada. I don't believe that I learned of the extent of the Province of Canada's instability even in high school, never mind the soft sympathy for the Confederacy that let things like the 1864 St. Albans Raid by Confederates based in Lower Canada on Vermont happen. The Red River and North-West Rebellions were treated relatively briefly. I do think that, at one time or another, these different episodes did appear on CBC as episodes in a series or maybe, just maybe, stand-alone TV movies. The world wars do feature prominently in the popular imagination and might have fit this pattern if they hadn't been as much divisive events (Québec's opposition to conscription, say) as unifying ones.
What trend prevails in your countries? Does war, portrayed as a positive uniting force, feature prominently in your popular culture? Or, as in Canada, is it more-or-less absent? Or do you think I'm missing something here?
Please feel free to comment. As always be polite, and if you want to post anonymously, go ahead.
lemurbuoy's generosity, I had the chance to watch Zhang Yimou's 2002 film Hero. The film's quite impressive, between its gorgeous colour scheme, its hyper-cinematic fighting styes, its actors and the plot that they all share, but it's this plot that has caused a certain amount of controversy because of its interestingly conflicted treatment of Qin Dynasty, responsible for the (bloody) unification of the Chinese states in the 3rd century BC. The possible vcontemporary political inclinations of Hero could be treated as something unique to China, as indeed I did, until I remembered the American civil war and how it was viewed (potentially problematically) in American popular culture as a positive thing, something that created the modern American nation if at great cost. We needn't talk about the War of American Independence so close to the 4th, right?I can't say that the same applies to Canada. Growing up in Charlottetown PE ("The Birthplace of Confederation!") I learned that Confederation was initially a Maritime conference that the Canadas eventually invited themselves to, and later, about the Fenian raids conducted from the United States against Canada. I don't believe that I learned of the extent of the Province of Canada's instability even in high school, never mind the soft sympathy for the Confederacy that let things like the 1864 St. Albans Raid by Confederates based in Lower Canada on Vermont happen. The Red River and North-West Rebellions were treated relatively briefly. I do think that, at one time or another, these different episodes did appear on CBC as episodes in a series or maybe, just maybe, stand-alone TV movies. The world wars do feature prominently in the popular imagination and might have fit this pattern if they hadn't been as much divisive events (Québec's opposition to conscription, say) as unifying ones.
What trend prevails in your countries? Does war, portrayed as a positive uniting force, feature prominently in your popular culture? Or, as in Canada, is it more-or-less absent? Or do you think I'm missing something here?
Please feel free to comment. As always be polite, and if you want to post anonymously, go ahead.
