本文嘗試以縱橫世紀之交二十五年的香港電影與流行音樂「巨星」(megastar)張國榮(Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, 1956-2003)的個案,論述他以性別越界著稱的「明星過程」(star process),探索世紀末的華語電影演員、專業評論、觀影大眾、大眾媒體、電影製片等,如何在辯論戲劇角色創造與明星形象扮演之餘,不斷探索辯證彼此的性別政治與身分認同的底線。本論文一方面將張國榮的個案放置於世紀末香港影藝事業文化語境脈絡中考察,援引既有香港電影文化研究與歐美明星研究方法以論析之。本論文另一方面更將嘗試從表演技巧與表演論述切入,分析張國榮的表演特色,在比較對照張國榮的明星過程裡不斷出現的「本色表演」言說的同時,剖析如是的表演言說,隱含承載了什麼樣複雜且多面貌的身份政治與性別論述。
This paper makes inter-textual readings of the acting methods, queer performance discourse, and star process in the case of Hong Kong film star Leslie Cheung Kowk-wing (張國榮, 1956-2003). The stardom of Cheung, which coincides with the peak of Hong Kong film industry in the mid 1980s and 1990s, involves the gay and lesbian issues that concern not a few Chinese filmmakers. To investigate Cheung's star process as a site of struggle of gender politics, I analyze how the marketing attraction of Cheung’s queer stardom had contested the actor's off-screen identities and his onscreen dramatic persona at the turn of the century. I also contextualize the queer stardom as the cultural spectacle of the contemporary Hong Kong when the city is in a transitional time. The ultimate goal is to probe into how the queer stardom as a product of mass culture ”retains theatrical concerns with acting and performance?” How does it function as ”a social sign that expresses the performers' personality, inviting desire and identifications.”