Jackie Chan’s Chinese name is 陳港生 (Chan Kong-sang in Cantonese, Chen Gangsheng in Mandarin), which translates as “Chan, Hong Kong-born.” However, Chan was not only born to mainland Chinese refugee parents sojourning in the colony on their way to eventual resettlement in Australia, he made his career in Hong Kong with a distinct masculine identity crafted from the linguistic and cultural mixture that makes Hong Kong unique. In the years leading up to and following Hong Kong’s change in sovereignty in 1997, scholars remarked on Chan’s ability to embody polylingual multiculturalism and adapt to very different presentations of his gender, ethnic, and racial identity. Looking at Chan’s career to the present moment, what it means to be both “born” as well as “made” a Hong Kong man surfaces as a crucial component of his lasting star power.

Gina Marchetti serves as Chair of the Department of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Her books include “Romance and the "Yellow Peril": Race, Sex and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction” (California, 1993), “From Tian’anmen to Times Square: Transnational China and the Chinese Diaspora on Global Screens” (Temple, 2006), “The Chinese Diaspora on American Screens: Race, Sex, and Cinema” (Temple, 2012), “Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs—The Trilogy” (HKUP, 2007), “Citing China: Politics, Postmodernism, and World Cinema” (Hawai’i, 2018), and “Women Filmmakers and the Visual Politics of Transnational China in the #MeToo Era” (Amsterdam, 2024).

Moderator: Staci Ford (History, HKU)
Respondents: Jason Coe (Comparative Literature, HKU)

Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Time: 5:00 pm Hong Kong Time
Venue: Room 436, 4/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, The University of Hong Kong

All are welcome. Registration is required.