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International Film Stars

Michelle YeohEverything and Everywhere on Global Screens

Edited by Lisa Funnell, Wayne Wong and Dorothy Wai Sim Lau

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Published 28 February 2027

About this book

The first academic book exploring the transnational performances and star persona of action icon, Michelle Yeoh

  • Examines the performance and representation of Michelle Yeoh in action films and beyond
  • Considers the impact of Michelle Yeoh on martial arts cinema and global audiences
  • Expands beyond cinematic performances to include advocacy and humanitarian work to provide a multifaceted consideration of the stardom of Michelle Yeoh
  • Features chapters from leading scholars around the world in the fields of Chinese martial arts cinema, Asian/Asian American studies, and transnational cinemas

Michelle Yeoh is a global pop culture icon whose career spans eras, genres and media industries. From performing her own stunts during the golden era of Hong Kong action cinema to starring in major Hollywood blockbusters, Yeoh’s career has been marked by passion, resilience and ground-breaking achievements. She has overcome social, political and cultural barriers that have historically limited Asian women on international screens. Her dedication and craft culminated in her historic Oscar win for Best Actress in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), making her the first Asian woman to receive the honour. Now in her early 60s, Yeoh continues to headline major projects while championing greater representation for Asian women in film.

With a career spanning over 60 films and TV shows, this anthology provides the first comprehensive, critical exploration of her body of work, examining both her popular and lesser-known performances.

Table of contents

List of Figures

Foreword
Gina Marchetti

Acknowledgements

About the Contributors

Introduction: Michelle Yeoh is Everything, Everywhere
Lisa Funnell, Wayne Wong, Dorothy Wai Sim Lau


Part I. Rise to Transnational Superstardom

1. Inspector Madam’ and Supercop: The Early Action Films of ‘Michelle Khan’
Leon Hunt

2. Co-Starring Michelle Yeoh: Character, Genre, and the Non-Love Story
Kyle Barrowman

3. Female Face of Hong Kong Cinema: The Early Hollywood/American Crossover Films of Michelle Yeoh
Lisa Funnell

Part II. Impact on Martial Arts Cinema

4. Michelle Yeoh and the Kung Fu Comedy: Gendering the Carnival Body
Luke White

5. Michelle Yeoh at the Ends of Action: The Crisis of Action-Image in Star Trek Discover (2017-20) and Star Trek: Section 31
David John Boyd

6. Beyond the Spectacle: Rethinking Cinematic Action through Michelle Yeoh
Wayne Wong

7. The ‘Affect’ of Michelle Yeoh’s Iconic Presence: Movement, Gesture and Martial Arts
Kim-mui E. Elaine Chan

Part 3. Global Stardom and Reception

8. Playing Asian and Asian American Roles: Ageing, Motherhood, and Female Transgression
Jessica Ka Yee Chan

9. Michelle Yeoh as Intersectional Rhetor: Stardom, Resistance, and the Politics of Representation in Hollywood
Heshen Xie

10. Performing and Mediating Celebrity Diplomacy: Michelle Yeoh as a Goodwill Ambassador
Dorothy Wai Sim Lau

Index

About the contributors

Lisa Funnell

Lisa Funnell is an award-winning author, media educator, and consultant specializing in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and media representation. She has published 11 books on such topics as gender and geopolitics in James Bond, Chinese warrior women, transnational cinema, and the sexual violence on screen. Her first monograph Warrior Women: Gender, Race, and the Transnational Chinese Action Star (2014) won the Emily Toth Award for Best Single Work in Women’s Studies. Her second monograph Geographies Genders, and Geopolitics of James Bond (2017) co-written with Klaus DoddsUS won a 2025 International Impact Book Award. Finally, her anthology Screening #MeToo: Rape Culture in Hollywood (2022), co-edited with Ralph Beliveau, was awarded the 2023 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title.

Wayne Wong

Wayne Wong is a lecturer in East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield. His research focuses on the politics, aesthetics and philosophy of global martial arts and action cinema. He has published in peer-reviewed journals, such as Asian Cinema, Global Media and China, Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Archiv Orientální, and Martial Arts Studies. He has also contributed chapters in edited volumes such as Fighting Stars: Stardom and Reception in Hong Kong Martial Arts Cinema, The Cinema of Stephen Chow, Afro-Futurism in Black Panther, and The Worlds of John Wick. His monograph titled Martial Arts Ecology: Aesthetics, Philosophy and Cinematic Mediation published in 2026. He is currently an editor of the Martial Arts Studies journal.

Dorothy Wai Sim Lau

Dorothy Wai Sim Lau is an Associate Professor at the Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research interests include stardom, celebrities, fandom, Asian cinema, Hong Kong cinema, digital culture and screen culture. She is the author of Chinese Stardom in Participatory Cyberculture (2019), Reorienting Chinese Stars in Global Polyphonic Networks: Voice, Ethnicity, Power (2021), Celebrity Activism and Philanthropy in Asia: Toward a Cosmopolitical Imaginary (2024), and East Asian Auteurs, Cinephilia and the Media Platform Era (2025). Lau was the visiting scholar at the School of East Asian Studies, The University of Sheffield in 2022.

More in this series

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