[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-detail-153893-en":59,"doc-seo-153893-105":82},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":60},{"doc_id":61,"user_id":62,"nickname":63,"user_avatar":64,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":66,"doc_content":67,"file_id":68,"file_url":69,"file_type":70,"file_size":71,"view_count":72,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":73,"language":74,"language_code":75,"site_id":76,"html_lang":75,"table_of_contents":77,"faqs":78,"seo_title":79,"seo_description":66,"update_tm":80,"read_time":81,"preview_page_count":4},153893,1099514068365,"Aurelia","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/10000253d8d9f28188e?_k=1776742907772140068","Mythic frontiers and nationalism - imagining Old Wests in American Westerns and wuxia films","This article examines how, since the late 1980s, Hong Kong directors have reimagined China’s western frontiers in the wuxia genre through collaborations with the mainland amid deepening crossborder integration. Using a comparative framework for English-language readers, it links the American Old West and China’s premodern western borderlands, then analyzes how mythic frontier portrayals become vehicles for nationalism in dialogue with Hollywood Westerns. It finds a shift from anti-authoritarian martial ambiguity toward state-centered nationalism and global outreach, echoing revisionist Western critiques and golden-age national mythmaking that reinforces U.S. exceptionalism.","International Journal of Asian Studies (2026), 1–21 doi:10.1017/S1479591426100734  \n[https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591426100734](https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591426100734 Published online by Cambridge University Press)[ Published online by Cambridge University Press](https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591426100734 Published online by Cambridge University Press)  \nRESEARCH ARTICLE  \nMythic frontiers and nationalism: imagining Old Westsin American Westerns and wuxia films  \nYining Zhou  \nGuangxi University; Asia-Pacific (Southeast Asia) Institute for Translation and Intercultural Studies, Nanning, China  \nEmail: [yiningz2025@outlook.com](yiningz2025@outlook.com)  \n(Received 17 February 2025; revised 12 December 2025; accepted 6 January 2026)  \nAbstract  \nThis article examines how, since the late 1980s, Hong Kong directors have reimagined China’s western frontiers in the wuxia genre through collaborations with the mainland amid a process of deepening crossborder integration. To contextualize these representations for English-language readers, this study employs a comparative lens. It first examines the cultural and historical significance of the American Old West and China’s premodern western borderlands and then analyzes how Hong Kong wuxia filmmakers construct particular forms of nationalism through mythic depictions of geopolitical peripheries in dialogue with Hollywood Westerns’ frontier portrayals. The analysis reveals that, as Hong Kong directors’ mainland coproduction has increasingly integrated into China’s film industry and cultural discourse, their depiction of frontier space has gradually shifted from an extralegal, anti-authoritarian martial world of cultural ambivalence and abstract nationalism – echoing the anti-establishment ethos characteristic of revisionist Hollywood Westerns – toward a symbol of state-centered nationalism and global cultural outreach, paralleling the golden-age Hollywood Western’s construction of the American frontier as a unified national myth reinforcing U.S. exceptionalism.  \nKeywords: Daniel Lee; Hong Kong-mainland coproduction; Hollywood Western; John Ford; Tsui Hark; Western Regions (Xiyu); Western-wuxia; Wong Kar-wai  \nThe Swordsman in Double-Flag Town (Shuangqi zhen daoke 双旗镇刀客, 1991, He Ping) is widely recognized in Chinese-language film criticism as the work that crystallized the label of the Westernwuxia film (西部武侠片) .1 In this discourse, “Western-wuxia” functions not as a formally codified subgenre but as a flexible critical shorthand for wuxia (武侠 martial chivalry) films set in China’s western and northwestern provinces. This wuxia subgenre’s development was significantly influenced by the rise of the Chinese Western (xibu pian西部片)– a primarily post-Cultural Revolution film wave characterized by thematic diversity, ideological introspection, and state-sponsored artistic experimentation – which popularized China’s West as a legible and culturally charged cinematic space readily available for cross-generic appropriation.2 Double-Flag Town exemplifies this constellation of influences. While retaining a wuxia-inflected moral and narrative logic, the film, as screenwriter  \n1For consistency, all Chinese-language film titles are rendered in simplified characters. Titles originally released in traditional script in Hong Kong and Taiwan are standardized accordingly without affecting their meaning.  \n2For the origin of the Chinese Western, see Fried (2007) .  \n© The Author(s), 2026 . Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the same Creative Commons licence is used to distribute the reused or adapted article and the original article is properly cited. The written permission o","cbCaihoEq81muTa0","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihoEq81muTa0","pdf",1028260,23,21,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n## Genre framework and comparative approach\n## Western-wuxia and cinematic frontier logic\n## Frontier space, coproduction, and nationalism shift","[{\"question\":\"How does the article connect Hong Kong wuxia to crossborder integration since the late 1980s?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that Hong Kong directors reimagined China’s western frontiers through mainland collaborations during a period of deepening crossborder integration, shaping the way genre and nationalism are represented.\"},{\"question\":\"What comparative lens does the study use for English-language readers?\",\"answer\":\"It compares the cultural and historical meanings of the American Old West and China’s premodern western borderlands, then evaluates how Hong Kong wuxia filmmakers construct nationalism in dialogue with Hollywood Western frontier portrayals.\"},{\"question\":\"What change in frontier depiction does the analysis identify over time?\",\"answer\":\"As mainland coproduction became more integrated into China’s film industry and cultural discourse, frontier space shifts from an extralegal, anti-authoritarian martial world with abstract nationalism toward a symbol of state-centered nationalism and global cultural outreach.\"}]","Mythic frontiers and nationalism - imagining Old Wests in American Westerns and wuxia films | PDF",1787883887,53,{"code":4,"msg":83,"data":84},"ok",{"site_id":76,"language":75,"slug":85,"title":65,"keywords":86,"description":66,"schema_data":87,"social_meta":141,"head_meta":143,"extra_data":145,"updated_unix":80},"mythic-frontiers-and-nationalism-imagining-old-wests-in-american-westerns-and-wuxia-films","",{"@graph":88,"@context":140},[89,103,123],{"@type":90,"itemListElement":91},"BreadcrumbList",[92,96,98,101],{"item":93,"name":94,"@type":95,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":97,"name":9,"@type":95,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":99,"name":40,"@type":95,"position":100},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":102,"name":65,"@type":95,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/mythic-frontiers-and-nationalism-imagining-old-wests-in-american-westerns-and-wuxia-films/153893/",{"url":102,"name":65,"@type":104,"image":105,"author":110,"headline":65,"publisher":112,"fileFormat":115,"inLanguage":75,"description":66,"dateModified":116,"datePublished":117,"encodingFormat":115,"isAccessibleForFree":118,"interactionStatistic":119},"DigitalDocument",{"url":106,"@type":107,"width":108,"height":109},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/mythic-frontiers-and-nationalism-imagining-old-wests-in-american-westerns-and-wuxia-films/153893.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":63,"@type":111},"Person",{"url":93,"name":113,"@type":114},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-04","2026-08-28",true,{"@type":120,"interactionType":121,"userInteractionCount":72},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":122},"ViewAction",{"@type":124,"mainEntity":125},"FAQPage",[126,132,136],{"name":127,"@type":128,"acceptedAnswer":129},"How does the article connect Hong Kong wuxia to crossborder integration since the late 1980s?","Question",{"text":130,"@type":131},"It argues that Hong Kong directors reimagined China’s western frontiers through mainland collaborations during a period of deepening crossborder integration, shaping the way genre and nationalism are represented.","Answer",{"name":133,"@type":128,"acceptedAnswer":134},"What comparative lens does the study use for English-language readers?",{"text":135,"@type":131},"It compares the cultural and historical meanings of the American Old West and China’s premodern western borderlands, then evaluates how Hong Kong wuxia filmmakers construct nationalism in dialogue with Hollywood Western frontier portrayals.",{"name":137,"@type":128,"acceptedAnswer":138},"What change in frontier depiction does the analysis identify over time?",{"text":139,"@type":131},"As mainland coproduction became more integrated into China’s film industry and cultural discourse, frontier space shifts from an extralegal, anti-authoritarian martial world with abstract nationalism toward a symbol of state-centered nationalism and global cultural outreach.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":102,"og:type":142,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":113,"og:description":66},"article",{"robots":144,"canonical":102},"index,follow",{"doc_id":61,"site_id":76}]