The British Official Film in South-East Asia: Malaya/Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong

✍ Scribed by Ian Aitken (auth.)

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK
• Year: 2016
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 257
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book explores the ways in which the British official film was used in Malaya/Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong from 1945 to the 1970s. Aitken uncovers how the British official film, and British official information agencies, adapted to the epochal contexts of the Cold War and end of empire. In addition to an extensive introduction, which touches on a number of critical issues related to the post-war British official film, the book provides an account of how the tradition of film-making associated with the British documentary film movement spread into the region during the post-war period, and how that tradition was contested by a ‘Colonial Office’ tradition of film-making. The volume concludes by covering the rise of television in the region within the context of developing post-colonial authoritarian states in Singapore and Malaysia, and the continuation of colonial authoritarianism in Hong Kong.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xii
The Forms of the British Official/Sponsored Documentary Film....Pages 1-44
Diverging Jurisdictions: The Influence of ‘Griersonian’ and ‘Civil Service’ Traditions of Official Film-making on the Malayan Film Unit (1946–57) and Hong Kong Film Unit (1959–73)....Pages 45-85
Delusions of Regional Superintendence at the End of Empire and the Case of the Singapore Regional Information Office, 1947–61....Pages 87-115
The Use of the Official Film in Malaya/Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, 1957–1973, and the Role of the United Kingdom Information Services, British Information Services, British Council and Hong Kong Government Information Services (with Ka Yee Teresa Ho)....Pages 117-156
Berita Singapura (1963–9) and Hong Kong Today (1967–73)....Pages 157-192
The Rise of Television, Persistence of Authoritarianism, and Decline of the Official Film in Singapore, Malaya/Malaysia and Hong Kong, 1955–75....Pages 193-233
Back Matter....Pages 235-248

✦ Subjects

British Cinema;Asian Culture;Film History;Imperialism and Colonialism