Competing Narratives: Choosing the Tiger in Ang Lee’s Life of Pi Jason Coe* ABSTRACT Life of Pi’s global resonance, international production team, and cos- mopolitan director are mainstream Hollywood’s answer to the de- mands of a “world cinema” marketplace. Having grossed over $600 million at the box office, with $482 million coming from theaters outside North America, Life of Pi earned more in mainland China than the United States and was Hollywood’s highest earning release in India for 2012. Ignoring these notable facts, reviewers often focus upon the film’s spiritual themes and impressive visual effects, but Lee’s interpretation clearly resonates in the global political climate. Though his films speak to an international audience, for whom does Ang Lee speak? Scholars such as Rey Chow, Emilie Yeh, Darrell Da- vis, Shu-mei Shih, and Gina Marchetti examine Lee’s work through a transnational lens, though much of this work remains framed within a regional discourse. By reviewing this scholarship, this paper dis- cusses the critical connections between these interpretations and my own reading of Life of Pi as a cosmopolitan allegory of migration and survival. Key words: Ang Lee, Life of Pi, world cinema, migration, Tiger Mother No director embraces the idea of “world cinema” quite like Ang Lee. His latest film, Life of Pi (2012), grossed over $600 million at the box office, with $482 million coming from theaters outside North America. The film grossed more in mainland China than the United States and was Hollywood’s highest earning release in India that year. Life of Pi’s global resonance, international production team, and cosmopolitan director are mainstream Hollywood’s an- swer to the demands of a “world cinema” marketplace. Lee himself is the most successful Asian director in terms of box office receipts and Oscar statu- ettes. Ignoring these notable facts, reviewers often focus upon the film’s spiri- tual themes and impressive visual effects, but Lee’s interpretation clearly resonates in the global political climate. Robert Stam and Ella Shohat argue that contemporary film spectatorship in a global economy allows for an “analogical structure of feeling,” in which spectators might associate or identify with a protagonist or narrative, despite * Jason Coe is a graduate student in the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong. He specializes in cinema studies, Taiwanese and Asian American cin- ema, postcolonial literature, and critical theory. His dissertation project, to be completed in 2016, focuses on the cinema of Ang Lee. Jason.Coe@hku.hk 21