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The Grandmaster of Snow: Martial Arts, Particle Systems and the Animist Cinema

Journal of Chinese Cinemas

Volume 12, 2018 – Issue 1

Pao-Chen Tang

Pages 92-110 | Published online: 11 Jan 2018

Abstract

By looking at selected sequences from Wong Kar-wai’s 2013 The Grandmaster in which characters, especially Gong Er (played by Zhang Ziyi), interact with the ubiquitous falling snow created by particle systems, this essay argues that the film’s effects work visualizes the invisible flow of energy in traditions of Chinese visual culture, medicine and martial arts – all prominent or related motifs in the film’s narrative. Moreover, such energy gets to be envisaged because of the very medium of the particle system, with its ideology closely related to a worldview based on animism and animation. Growing out of Wong’s use of visual effects – specific to the cultural-historical context of the film – and the animist concept behind its technology, I offer a relational perspective for contemporary studies of visual effects to conceptualize the interactions between martial arts actions performed in front of the camera and digital work in the postproduction stage.

About the Author

Pao-chen Tang studies in the joint doctoral program of Cinema and Media Studies and East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. His research revolves around nonhuman entities in the cinema, especially landscapes and animals. His essay on dogs (and hot dogs) in early cinema received the 2015 Domitor Student Award and was published in Early Popular Visual Culture.

 

Chinese New Year Celebration at Western Sydney University

February 24 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Bring your family and friends and join Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture (ACIAC) to celebrate the
2018 Chinese New Year!

Enjoy fascinating stories of the Australia-China experience from
our cultural ambassadors; 

Have lots of fun with Sydney’s Lion Dancers;

Win a prize in the Chinese Riddles Competition;

Try Chinese brushwork and take home your own happy calligraphy.

Please RSVP HERE by 22 February 2018.

Chinese New Year Festival in Chatswood

Willoughby City Council invites everyone to the annual Chinese New Year Festival, one of the largest Chinese New Year celebrations in Sydney.

The Festival, hosted by Willoughby City Council and the Chinese Cultural Centre NSW, starts at 10.00 am on Saturday 24 February and  will include a Welcome Ceremony at 11:00 am, followed by spectacular Dragon and Lion Dances in Chatswood Mall.

This year’s entertainment program includes a Chinese Kung Fu, magic show, acrobatics, folk dances and much more. A variety of market stalls selling arts, craft and delicious Chinese food will line Chatswood Mall from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm, against the backdrop of colourful New Year decorations.

For more details: https://www.willoughby.nsw.gov.au/EventDetails.aspx?PageID=1892&eventid=5098

Kung Fu X-Files

The documents regarding the transfer of the status of National Sporting Organisation for the sport of Wushu from AKWF (Australian Kung Fu Wushu Federation Inc) to KWA (Kung Fu Wushu Australia Limited) are to be publicly released following the decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), Canberra, on 7 February 2018.

In 2015, following enquiries from members of its State associations, the Wushu Council Australia lodged a Freedom of Information (FOI) request with the Australian Sports Commission (ASC). The purpose of the request was to access documents that could clarify how the status of the NSO (National Sporting Organisation) for the sport of Wushu was transferred from AKWF (Australian Kung Fu Wushu Federation) to KWA, a separate legal entity.

In response to the request, the ASC released some related documents but declined access to others. The Wushu Council then applied for a review by the Information Commissioner, who in March 2017 had set aside the decision of the ASC, and held that the ASC must provide documents with some necessary redactions

(see: http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/AICmr/2017/26.html ).

The KWA appealed this decision to the AAT arguing that release of the documents would place KWA at a commercial disadvantage against “an acknowledged competitor – and openly antagonistic – organisation”.

On 19 January 2018, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) in Canberra heard the KWA’s appeal.

The AAT was not satisfied with KWA’s reasoning and arguments. The Tribunal found that no documents in question were entitled to exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act. Moreover, the AAT commented, despite objections of the KWA, that granting access to the documents is indeed in the public interest.

The Tribunal noted the following submissions from Wushu Council:

“Another factor in favour of disclosure is promoting effective oversight of public expenditure: s 11B(3)(c). NSOs are eligible for funding from the ASC, as well as a range of other benefits. The Recognition Agreement …describes some of the benefits to which [KWA] became entitled. However, the ASC only recognises one NSO for each sport. The selection of an NSO excludes other organisations from eligibility for that exclusive funding and benefits regime for that particular sport. As such, access to documents relating to the circumstances of recognition of NSOs has the quality of enhancing scrutiny of public expenditure. It enables the public and other organisations which do not have NSO status to see the circumstances in which entities are selected to be eligible for public funding.

[KWA] claims it does not currently receive funds from the ASC. Whether or not it actually does so at the moment is not the point. As an NSO, it is eligible to apply for funding from the ASC (as well as State government bodies) under an exclusive regime. And, by holding NSO status, [KWA] excludes other Kung Fu Wushu sporting organisations from occupying the seat of eligibility for such funding.

Even if the benefits conferrable on NSOs are not classified as public expenditure, there is a clear public interest in enhancing scrutiny of which bodies receive limited public goods which the government allocates to only one organisation per sport.”

The AAT noted that “It is tolerably clear that, whether or not it receives grants from the ASC, KWA is the beneficiary of public expenditure directed towards sport. The public interest is served by a high level of openness and disclosure regarding organisations in the privileged position of being an NSO“.

The outcome is that the decision of the Information Commissioner of 22 March 2017, to order the ASC to release the corresponding documents, has been affirmed. For the full decision by the AAT see:

https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/AATA/2018/157.html

 

 

 

 

Qigong-induced mental disorders: A review

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 

Volume 33, 1999 – Issue 2

Beng-Yeong Ng

Pages 197-206 | Received 29 Apr 1998, Accepted 09 Nov 1998, Published online: 03 May 2010

Abstract

Objective: This review article aims to explore current opinions on Qigong-induced mental disorders, an entity which is unfamiliar to Western psychiatrists.

Method: Relevant literature published in Chinese and English is reviewed. Results: The review is divided into three sections: first, there is brief consideration of the historical development of Qigong in traditional Chinese medicine and its role in psychiatry; second, there is a review of the literature published on Qigong deviations and Qigong-induced mental disorders; and third, there is a discussion on the aetiological role ofQigong in these conditions.

Conclusions: Qigong remained veiled in secrecy and available only to the elite until the early 1980s. Despite the widespread use of Qigong, there is a conspicuous lack of controlled data regarding its effects on mental health. Qigong, when practised inappropriately, may induce abnormal psychosomatic responses and even mental disorders. However, the ties between Qigong and mental disorders are manifold, and a causal relationship is difficult to establish. Many so-called ‘Qigong-induced psychoses’ may be more appropriately labelled ‘Qigong-precipitated psychoses’, where the practice of Qigong acts as a stressor in vulnerable individuals.

 

About the author:          

Ng Beng-Yeong obtained his medical qualification from the National University of Singapore in 1988. Ever since his stint in military service in 1990 he has been actively involved in psychiatric work. He underwent further psychiatric training at Woodbridge Hospital and the National University Hospital. In 1994 he obtained the Masters of Medicine (Psychiatry) degree and became the first recipient of the prestigious Singapore Psychiatric Association Book Prize. For his extensive research on dissociative disorder in Singapore, he was awarded the Institute of Mental Health Best Free Paper award in 1996 and the Singapore Psychiatric Association Research Prize in 1997. From February 1999 to February 2000 he was attached to the Institute of Psychiatry and Maudsley Hospital, London, where he gained training in neuropsychiatry and psychiatric aspects of HIV. He is the author of “Till The Break of Day”, a well-known historical account of mental health services in Singapore in the period from 1841 to 1993. He is currently working at Singapore General Hospital.

 

Breathing Spaces: Qigong, Psychiatry and Healing in China

By Nancy N. Chen

Columbia University Press, 2003

“Shortly after the meteoric rise of qigong practice, individuals began to trickle into traditional medical clinics and biomedical hospitals reporting unusual sensations. Ironically, during the height of the fever some individuals practicing qigong began to experience worrisome bouts of vertigo, uncontrollable qi energy, or disturbing visions. As the popularity of qigong spread in urban centres and rural townships through the media and traveling masters, a related phenomenon began to take place in the psychiatric clinics…

Beng-Yeong Ng summarised the way in which a TCM doctor might classify qigong deviation: sensory disturbances related to perceptions of abnormal qi flow, motor disturbances exhibited by uncontrollable or spasmodic movement stemming from qi blockages, or psychic disturbances such as altered consciousness, spirit possession, distracting thoughts, and mental derangement (1999, 2000).”