ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how cultural, political and institutional discourses shape filmic stories of drug addiction, rehabilitation and recovery that are recounted in six contemporary film and television productions: two from mainland China, two from Taiwan and two from Hong Kong. It examines how cultural, political and institutional discourses shape temporality, subjectivity and language use in mainland Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong filmic stories of drug addiction, rehabilitation and recovery. The chapter analyses how these stories utilise the key narrative processes of temporality, subjectivity and language use, in order to achieve a greater marginalisation or palliation of the Chinese drug addict. Drug addiction is presented as morally transgressive and fearful behaviour in these filmic stories that originate from Chinese communities with disparate political systems and histories. The chapter discusses the key issues pertaining to morality, gender, exemplarity, institutional schema, disempowerment and stigma, which arise through the analysis of the life stories and filmic stories.
