. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lung Kong’s Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow : the 1967 riots and the politics of cultural production in the Hong Kong film industry TOM CUNLIFFE Commercial Hong Kong films produced between the 1960s to early 1970s were generally politically neutral, or politically neutered, in thematic content. This muting of overt political ideologies in Hong Kong cinema was encouraged by the colonial authorities to decrease the dangers brought by the Cold War to the colonial government’s precarious grasp on power in the colony. The ideological war between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Hong Kong during this period, which began in the late 1940s, reflected intense Cold War ideologies that pitted the ‘free world’ against the communist bloc. 1 The organizational structures of Hong Kong film studios were politicized in this environment, with most holding allegiance to either the KMT or CCP. 2 Filmmakers in Hong Kong, however, were induced to ensure their film content was apolitical by the strict censorship systems, operating not only in Hong Kong but also in the essential foreign markets of Taiwan and various Southeast Asian countries. There was a consequent dilution of any strong political stance in relation to the nation-state. Support or condemnation of neighbouring political ideologies or governments was prohibited, resulting in the disappearance of direct references to political entities in Hong Kong films of this period. 3 1 The 1956 Double Ten riots, ignited by KMT supporters, erupted due to contesting ideologies about what constituted ‘China’, and were a climax to the struggles taking place between the left- and right-wing unions and organizations in 1950s Hong Kong. The ability of the KMT and the CCP to mobilize posed a great threat to the stability of the colonial government’s regime, and the ideological opposition between the two political factions continued throughout the 1960s in Hong Kong. 2 On the politicized nature of film studios, see Hector Rodriguez, ‘Organizational hegemony in the Hong Kong cinema’, Post Script, vol. 19, no. 1 (1999), pp. 107–19. 3 On the ways in which colonial film censorship depoliticized film culture, see Kenny K. K. Ng, ‘Inhibition vs. exhibition: political censorship of Chinese and foreign cinemas in postwar Hong Kong’, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 2, no. 1 (2008), pp. 23–35. 47 Screen 61:1 Spring 2020 © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Screen. All rights reserved doi:10.1093/screen/hjaa005 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/screen/article-abstract/61/1/47/5825677 by School of Oriental and African Studies user on 28 April 2020