Representing Gender, Power and Body in The Wedding Banquet

Ang Lee's film The Wedding Banquet is a work that explores the interplay of power relations in the dynamics of gender, ethnic and sexual identities among Chinese, Taiwanese and American interactants. Its storyline involves a triad relationship that develops into a marriage of convenience between a heterosexual woman and a homosexual man. In the course of conflict development, the film turns symbolic representations into spheres of contrasted power dynamics. By employing iconographical and textual analysis as its major approach, this article explores how the discourse of power is constructed through negotiation, conflict and reconciliation in the film. The representation of power, identity and sexuality in cinematic expression constitutes a contested space through which to reinvestigate homolegitimacy and hetero-normativity. This article argues that the representation of power relations between heterosexuality and homosexuality in the fi lm illustrates the extent to which sexuality may be utilized as a politicalized tool in the expression of identity.