Critical Connections: Forum on Cultural Studies in Asia and Beyond
16 March 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

CONFERENCE KEYNOTE SCHOLAR AND GUEST SPEAKER

Mr. Jonathan A. VALDEZ                          (San Diego State University) 
email: <jonathvaldez@gmail.com>

"Rising in the East: Fleshing out the Great Ten in DC Comics"

This paper examines acts visual representation by focusing on the 2010 DC Comics miniseries the Great Ten (Shi Hao Xia 十豪侠) and its portrayals of an all-Chinese superhero team in the midst of an international crisis.  This paper assumes a “racial formation” perspective and examines how DC Comics writers and artists impart an American connotation of China through the portrayal of the Great Ten members and the ensuing political conflict.  The first section of the paper examines the fictional biographies and representations such as the costume and powers of each member of the Great Ten and how the American ideal of the superhero functions in communist China.  The second section focuses on the Chinese-Taiwanese conflict that occurs within the miniseries and the political and military tension caused by a superhuman arms race.  The paper argues that such created representations of China constitutes America’s stagnant and evolving view of China as a superpower.