Translocal female subjectivity: Notes on Ann Hui’s The Golden Era

Many scholars of film studies have questioned the masculine notion of Euro-American auteurism for excluding women’s film practice. This article shows how Ann Hui, a female director from Hong Kong, explores the female subjectivity of Xiao Hong, a famous Chinese woman writer, in the film The Golden Era (2014). Based on feminist theories of authorship and narratology, the article discusses Hui’s identity as auteur by placing the production of this film in its specific political and cultural context; examines Hui’s shaping of Xiao’s translocal subjectivity by situating it within her embodied female experience; and elaborates on the narrative strategies used by Hui to provide an alternative mode of articulation that certifies her work as feminist cinema.