The Contribution of Digital Media Technologies to Cultural Representations in Digital Cinematic Productions

Digital media technologies have tremendously affected the trend in digital
cinematic productions globally, and so many previously unimaginable
blockbuster movies like Jurassic Park, The Lord of the Rings and X-men rely
on the contributions of digital effects and computer animation for their
innovative, cultural representation. In Hong Kong – a highly Westernized
capitalist consumer society putting more emphasis on entertainment rather
than art and cultural representation - the film industry has continuously
followed the traditions of the global capitalist organisational culture and
digital media technologies from Hollywood. But, according to the concept of
‘glocalisation’, different aesthetic and cultural inputs by the local creative
managers and symbol creators play critical roles in the process of cultural
representations by means of Luhmann’s de-paradoxification. By adapting
digital effects and computer animation, a new type of symbolic creativity that
contributes to the sustainable development of creative and cultural industries
[in terms of the manipulation of creative symbols like images and jokes for
entertainment, information and perhaps even enlightenment] has, to a great
extent, reinvigorated the kung fu and comedy movies in Hong Kong. This
study aims to reveal the contributions of local cultural producers to some
innovative digital cinematic productions like Stephen Chow’s Shaolin
Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle and CJ7 by means of the ‘glocalised’ digital effects
and computer animation productions. The resulting multiple layers of cultural
representations in the ‘spectrum of cultural representations’ should not be
viewed and analysed separately according to the concept of the ‘aesthetics of
seamlessness’.