The Right Road: The Han Han Phenomenon

This chapter discusses the work of author, filmmaker and rally car driver Han Han. It considers the provocative attitude that he strikes both as artist and as a celebrity, drawing attention to the road discourse that permeates the Han Han phenomenon. After a discussion of his advertising campaigns, fiction and film, this chapter focuses on Han Han’s 2010 work 1988: I Want to Talk with the World. In this road novel Han creates a form of masculinity that is part Kerouac, part Water Margins–style hero. ‘Real’ manhood in Han’s work is equated with oppositional agency, adventurous mobility, male bonding, and the ability to seduce and save women in distress. Han Han’s exploration of masculinity, which often takes a transgressive pose, ultimately returns to longstanding, conservative gender ideals that rely on the relative silence and passivity of women.