Chinese film study

This is Chapter 7 of Lingzheng Wang ed. Chinese Women's Cinema: Transnational Contexts, published by Columbia University Press in 2012. This chapter focuses on four female directors of China's "Fifth Generation": Peng Xiaolian, Li Shaohong, Hu Mei and Liu Miaomiao. It has two parts--(Re)wrting Women's Histories/Stories, and, (Re)mapping Women's Spaces/Place--that respectively discusses these female writer's contribution in writing about women and the unique ways they used in exploring cinematic spaces.

Prvi film u Kini predstavljen je 1896. godine. Kineski filmski radnici nisu imali na šta da se ugledaju jer je film svuda bio novitet. Tokom XX veka, Kinezi su uspeli savladati veštinu stvaranja filma. Do 2002. godine kineski filmovi su dobili 600 međunarodnih nagrada. Kineski filmovi uglavnom predstavljaju interakciju između kulture i politike XX veka. Istorijski događaji mnogo utiču na film. Jedna od najupečatljivijih odlika kineskog filma može se ogledati i u odgvoru na pitanje na koji način je kineski film odgovorio na političke događaje u Kini. Istorija kineskog filma može se podeliti na nekoliko faza. Neki istoričari kineskog filma smatraju da tih faza ima osam. Faze:

For the Chinese, Hamlet is identified and has been widely associated with a peculiar voice and name: Sun Daolin who interpreted, dubbed, and recreated the celebrated character with subtlety, depth, and personal charisma. When Laurence Olivier’s masterpiece, Hamlet (1948), was imported and translated in China in 1958, it became instantly a big hit across the nation and an unparalleled apotheosis of translation of and into Chinese accomplished through Bian Zhilin’s masterful translation, Chen Shuyi’s seasoned directing, and Sun Daolin’s virtuoso dubbing and performance. The three of them were prominent artists, scholars, stars, celebrities, and cultural officials in mid-late twentieth century China. My article explores and traces the reception, reinterpretation, and recontextualization of Hamlet in China across different epochs from its huge success in early PRC (People’s Republic of China), through the censure of the work during the Cultural Revolution, to its resurrection and even a broader appeal during the post-socialist, reform era.

Central to this historiography is my attention to the critical, (pro)active, and fluid roles the translators, performers, and creative personnel have played in the process. By highlighting the dynamic, multifaceted screen-sound-public personae these cultural agents have built and their complex negotiations between the variety of texts, cultures, languages, and sociopolitical settings, I show that the search for a Chinese Hamlet is not only a translation, but also a meta-translation (translation-in-translation), an intro-translation (self-reflection) of the very position and dilemma of intellectuals and individual subjectivities in socialist China, and an inter-translation between literature, theater, film, popular culture, and social life.  Moreover, the translation and the translated provide another vibrant angle to investigate Chinese film and cultural production as well as a comparative frame key to understanding China’s sociopolitical change and international relations during the second half of the twentieth century.

Available in this download: Table of Contents, forward by Linda Nochlin, and Introduction by Elizabeth Otto and Vanessa Rocco.

Published in hardback and paper, this book is also available for free in its entirety online at: http://www.digitalculture.org/books/the-new-woman-international/

The book contains essays by Jan Bardsley, Matthew Biro, Gianna Carotenuto, Melody Davis, Kristine Harris, Karla Huebner, Kristen Lubben, Maria Makela, Elizabeth Otto, Martha H. Patterson, Vanessa Rocco, Clare I. Rogan, Despina Stratigakos, Brett M. Van Hoesen, Kathleen M. Vernon, and Lisa Jaye Young.

Images of flappers, garçonnes, Modern Girls, neue Frauen, and trampky—all embodiments of the dashing New Woman—symbolized an expanded public role for women from the suffragist era through the dawn of 1960s feminism. Chronicling nearly a century of global challenges to gender norms, The New Woman International: Representations in Photography and Film from the 1870s through the 1960s is the first book to examine modern femininity's ongoing relationship with the nineteenth and twentieth centuries' most influential new media: photography and film. This volume examines the ways in which novel ideas about women's roles in society and politics were disseminated through these technological media, and it probes the significance of radical changes in female fashion, appearance, and sexual identity. Additionally, these original essays explore the manner in which New Women artists used photography and film to respond creatively to gendered stereotypes and to reconceive of ways of being a woman in a rapidly modernizing world.

The book brings together generations of scholars to analyze the New Woman from her inception in the later nineteenth century through her full development in the interwar period, and the expansion of her forms in subsequent decades. These essays show how controversial female ideals figured in discourses including those on gender norms, race, technology, sexuality, female agency, science, media representation, modernism, commercial culture, internationalism, colonialism, and transnational modernity. Inaugurating a new chapter in the scholarship of representation and New Womanhood and spanning North America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, and the colonial contexts of Africa and the Pacific, this volume reveals the ways in which a feminine ideal circled the globe to be translated into numerous visual languages.

Homosexuality has been a controversial topic globally for the last decade. Many countries have slowly accepted the emergence of homosexual relationships, some more than others, but in some countries it remains a sensitive subject. For mainland China, it is generally believed that the Chinese government adopts a ‘3-no’ policy – no approval, no disapproval, and no promotion. Homosexuality has mainly
been developing as an underground phenomena. Homosexuality in Hong Kong on the other hand is much more visible and relatively more accepted than in mainland China. Taiwan has been the most progressive region, developing a visible homosexual subculture and literary movement. In this thesis I look at the historical development and the cinematic development of homosexuality in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan and specifically at the portrayal of homosexuality in two Chinese-language films, Stanley Kwan's Lan Yu and Zero Chou's Ci Qing.

This paper has its goal in presenting an overall history of the Chinese science fiction movie genre but also to give an in-depth analysis of the thematic elements that is being presented in eight selected movies. Chinese films during the 21st century, which are being distributed outside of its domestic borders, have a tendency to be historical films, wuxia films or a mixture of these two genres. How come then, foreign science fiction film is so popular in the domestic market? My aim with this paper is to gain some perspective on why foreign, mostly American, science fiction film is so immensely popular in China. Furthermore, to get a better understanding of science fiction films I will take a closer look on the development of the genre in relation to how it has been written about in the Chinese media.

It was at the historical juncture when foreign gunboats shattered the Qing regime’s belief in China as the world’s center that the Peking Opera was picked and named as the quintessential representative of Chinese Culture. The same moment landed China also in the era of modernity. In its wake, Farewell My Concubine, a Republican-era repertoire number, soon substituted itself as an unbending “ego-ideal” for the nation, as seen in various modern literary adaptations up to the late 20th century. In the process, Farewell My Concubine has pitted the nationalist discourse against the non-official ones, with the former often to overwhelm the latter as a result.  LiBihua’s and ChenKaige’s adaptations bring in a new round of negotiations and ruse games, in which the nationalist-masculine narcissism and attachment mechanism exert a subtle but significant pull. Still the “feminine narcissism” of Li Bihua’s original novel and the “male attachment” of Chen Kaige’s film manage to play a balancing act. This essay delves into the similarities and differences between Li’s original novel (in three different versions) and the adapted film, and points out, meanwhile, how the two texts have both sharply under-historicized and over-historicized their subject matter by appropriating the “the same-sex love” for their narrative purpose that ends up glossing over the predicaments actual same-sex lovers face in their daily existence.
京劇被命名和建構成“國粹”，肇始於大清帝國自詡的天下中心在洋槍火炮中被炸毀的歷史性時刻，也是現代性在中國發生的時期。《霸王別姬》原先只是作為一部遲至民國以後才出現的京劇“國粹”劇碼，但其主題承載的國族“自我理想”的“從一而終”，卻深深影響了以“霸王別姬”為歷史母題的現代文學作品在20世紀的不斷改編和傳播。《霸王別姬》參與了百年以來國族話語和個人話語的交鋒和協商，而且大多數的改編作品往往到最後都是前者的話語霸權壓倒了後者的聲音。但發展到20世紀末李碧華和陳凱歌的《霸王別姬》，這兩者之間的話語建構有了重新的博弈和頡頏的可能。國族男性建構轉向中的自戀和殘餘的依戀機制，在這裡微妙發揮了不可小覷的作用。而且這種博弈還多了一層李碧華原著小說的“女性自戀”和陳凱歌電影“男性依戀”的此消彼長。本文細辨原著小說（三個不同版本）和電影的異同，並指出這兩種文本固守在“去歷史化”和“過度歷史化”的兩個極端姿態之餘，如何借“同性愛”說事，最後反而遮蔽了同志四面楚歌的生存窘態。

Artícuo publicado en el libro de memorias de un congreso 10-25-2014
Universidad de Zhejinag facultad de Medios Masivos de comunicación



不向梦想喊“CUT” ——年轻非专业导演伍姣的电影之路
乔西 Jossalberto Briceno Saenz 复旦大学
2014.10月.25日

惨白的脸颊，血泪，惊叫，逃离......这些重口味的恐怖情节，却是出自一位清新女孩的摄像机下。伍姣，一位24岁法语专业的女生，从来没有任何电影制作拍摄方面的专业训练，制作出的独立电影，品质却不在电影公司制作之下，一个可爱女孩，立志拍出真正的恐怖电影，如此反差，是否能成为国内电影界的一支新力量？

很少的人真正在做自己爱好的事情，但是你的梦想是什么？有一个家庭，有一份工作？那爱好是否重要呢？很多人认为现实的东西就是工作和家庭。爱好和爱情有时候被认为是不现实的东西。但是人之所以区别于人的特点，就在于有不同的想法。这就是伍姣的想法，她把自己的爱好置于想法之中，并致力于实现。也可以说，这个爱好其实是深入骨血的梦想。她并不是一个电影专业的学生，但是爱好让她在电影中变得专业。没有足够的钱（每个月收入不超过两千），没有足够的时间（要学习自己的专业），但是在这样的条件下，她仍然坚持攒钱买了电影拍摄需要的装备，并学习电影拍摄知识用于实践。她还没有一份好的工作，没有一个家庭，这在很多人的眼里都认为她不现实。但是她一直在想除了工作和家庭，还有什么能让她的人生变得有意义，有价值呢？她热爱电影，希望成为电影导演，因为电影是她的梦想，她不会向梦想叫停。

As a vivid and influential media for recording human experiences and communicating with a wide and random audience, film is inevitably followed by auto-censorship of the author and censorship of the state or society. In the history of censorship, different cultures have imposed different levels of control based on the existing codes of decency in order to assure that all elements of the film have a certain function within the storyline. Since the 1960s, Western cinema has been expanding the allowed boundaries for depicting sexually explicit content because changes in the society made it necessary to include such methods in the depiction of love, intimacy and other complex aspects of romantic relationships. On the other hand, in societies that were not affected by the sexual revolution in such a way, romantic relationships are represented using other means, and sexually graphic films are either censored or not distributed because the explicitness does not lead to a better understanding of the portrayed characters and their relationships. In this paper we argue that the difference in the depiction of abstract concepts, such as love and intimacy, can be used to estimate the scope, i.e. the constituting elements of the concepts’ meaning in a certain culture.
We examined the film adaptation of the novella “Lust, Caution” (Se jie), which was officially distributed in two differently edited versions – one for China and one for the West, in addition to unofficial or pirated versions for both markets. Differences in the versions were isolated and transcribed. The romantic relationship between the two main characters was treated as a signified element and appropriate signifiers were isolated from the transcribed material. The different signifiers, as well as additional elements from the identical parts of the film, were analyzed as constituents of the meaning of intimacy and love. It was found that the modes of representation significantly differ, and these differences were then used to estimate the scope and characteristics of the concepts of intimacy and love in China and the West. The concept or meaning was observed as a uniform social convention on the content of an abstract term, without considering the variations in individual views. We argue that sexual explicitness functions as a mean for representing the Western concepts of intimacy and love which are formed in a sexually open society, whereas the same images presented to the Chinese public translate into exploitation and sexual licentiousness as they have no narrative function. Conversely, Chinese concepts of intimacy and love are presented through methods that build on the characteristics of the Chinese society, tradition and culture. The topic of this paper is put into the context of enhancing cross-cultural communication and exchange through the exploration of codes of decency.

In order to put the theory of "Third Pole Film Culture" into practice, and to strengthen cross-cultural communication between China, the United States and Europe in the area of film production, the Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture has established an interesting and creative film making project entitled "Looking China Youth Film Project". The present article describes and evaluates the intercultural implications of this project, which connects young people from different parts of the world creating thereby global relations that can be seen as a new hope for innovative intercultural syntheses that can offer us a solid common foundation of a new global ethics, which is more needed now than ever before. The paper concludes that the Third Pole Looking China Young Film project offers a lot of new opportunities to explore and experience the vast arena of intercultural and global human learning.

This article studies 6 films with Bruce Lee as the principal actor and Santo's 53 films. The first part of this study comes from individual and separate analysis of the films. After getting the characteristics of Bruce Lee's films and Santo's films, the second part of this analysis is the comparison of both films in order to find the similarities and differences and finally draws the conclusion of what is positive and what is negative. The purpose is to understand what historical factors take Mexican filmography into the Mexi-wrestler style films which includes Santo's films. The first chapter, through the introduction of the chronological order of development of Mexican cinema, makes the

Da bismo mogli da pricamo o Sestoj generaciji reditelja, pre svega treba objasniti problematiku vezanu za ovaj naziv koji se najcesce koristi a zatim logicku dilemu vezanu za nedostatak, zabranu, kao I cenzuru velikog broja radova na ovu temu.Nа površini, "generаcijа" se odnosi nа određenu grupu direktorа i to je uglаvnom definisаnа po hronološkom redu. Međutim, postoji problem sа oznаkom "Generаcijа" аko se sаmo nаglаšаvа vremenski period kаdа su dati reziseri počeli proizvodnju njihovih filmova. Reziseri koji su zаpočeli proizvodnju filmovа u istom vremenskom periodu mogu imаti rаzličite kаrаkteristike i rаzličite generаcije mogu proizvesti filmove u istom periodu , stogа, reč "generаcijа" ne može dа se koristi zа sve direktore аktivne tokom istog vremenskog perioda, trebа se odnositi sаmo nа direktore koji dele slične osobine nаčinа produkcije, temа, filmskog jezikа i tаko dаlje koje se može nаzvаti njihov "stil". Drugim rečimа, pored pozivаnja na hronološki red, "Generаcijа" tаkođe ukаzuje nа specifičаn stil koji je zаjednički posebnim rediteljima istog perioda. Guo Yue, " Zhongguo dianyingshi yanjiu zhong daoyan daiji huafenfa de zhiyi " (Questioning the Idea of " The Generations " of Chinese Filmmakers), Dangdai dianying (Contemporary Film), no.11(2006), 121-123. Kako znamo da je istorija kineskog filma podeljena na pet generacija po ovoj definiciji I da je prethodnik takozvane Seste generacije, Peta generacija se odnosi na grupu rezisera koja je diplomirala na Pekinskoj filmskoj akademiji 1982 godine I pocela sa snimanjem filmova sredinom 80-ih godina. Sesta genetacija podrazumeva rezisere koji su diplomirali 1985 I 1987 godine I nastavili sa snimanjem filmova 9o-ih godina proslog veka(bitno je napomenuti da se I odredjeni broj filmova snimljen I posle 2000te godine svrtavava u ovu grupu.) Sesta generacija rezisera, poznata I kao Nova generacija ((xinshengdai), generacija posle pete (houwudai) I Urbana generacija su sve termini da se oznaci rad ovih reditelja. Kako je stvaranje Pete generacije reditelja bilo okupirano temom tadasnjeg politickog I drustvenog stanja u Kini(kao svedoci I zrtve Kulturne revolucije), tako se njihovi naslednici , tj. njihovo stvaralastvo , pre svega vezuje za nastavak haoticnog stanja u Kini, naglog ekonomskog rasta I njegovih posledica, kulturnih trauma, politickih I drustvenih malverzacija. Oni ne alegorizuju vec predtavljaju svoje frustracije, osecaj gubitka I strahove zbog neverovatno brzog menjanja panorama kineskih gradova.Stoga se kako kaze Lu Xiaoming, (4 Lü Xiaoming, " Jiushi niandai zhongguo dianying jingguan zhiyi :diliudai daoyan jiqi zhiyi " (One Part of the Chinese Film Landscape in 1990s: the Sixth Generation and the Doubt about the Term), Dianying yishu (Film Art), no.3 (1999), 28.)jasno moze uociti veza izmedju Seste generacije I Tiananmenskog protesta 1989godine (studentske demonstraije u Pekingu u prolece 1989, podrzane od strane velokog broja gradjana, zbog velikih politickih podela u tadasnjoj vlasti.Protesti su surovo uguseni vojnim snagama, I zavrsili su se onim sto se danas zove Tiananmenski masakr, gde je veliki broj ljudi ubijen I povredjen nakon blockade od sedam nedelja.) Ovakvi I brojni drugi dogadjaji uveli su Kinu u novu fazu drustvenog stanja, a samim tim I stvaralastvo razlicitih umetnika, u ovom slucaju clanova Seste generacije. Ponovo za razliku od svojih prethodnika, autori filmova urbane generacije pre svega su se orjentisali na likove sa granice drustvenih slojeva, siromasnih ljudi, prostitutki, narkomana, dilera I njihovog suocavanja sa onim sto je Kina tada predstavljala. Polu underground I underground atmosfera, glumci amateri, vrlo mali budzet I kvalitet snimanja kao I improvizovani scenariji postale su glavne karakteristike urbanog filma 90-ih. Vecina autora I kriticara koja se bavi ovim periodom kao sto je npr. Kristijan Linder, stil filmova uporedjuje sa raznim evropskim pokretima, kao sto je italijanski neorealizam, fransuski novi talas (new wave) I Cinema veriteTeme kao sto su homoseksualnost, zloupotreba supstanci,alkoholzima, mentalnih bolesti, mladih buntovnika, malih lopova I razvoda su teske prolazile kroz cenzuru, pa vecina ovih filmova nikada nije ugledala svetlost dana u Kini. Tako su filmovi bili zabranjeni, ili bi reditelju bilo zabranjeno snimanje na odredjeno vreme ili bi samim filmovima bilo dozvoljeno organiceno prikazivanje. Nasuprot tome, njihovi autori nalazili su nacine, pa su ova dela prikazivana na mnogim evropskim I stranim festivalima I naisla na pozitivnu kritiku a I nagrade. Boemski nacin zivota, vecita rupa izmedju bogatih I siromasnih, uzviseni osecaj za stvarnosti I neprestano zamagljivanje granica realnosti ucinile su da ovi filmovi navedu samog gledalaca na unutrasnje preispitivanje a I samo shvatanje pojma filma. Uvid u svet svakodnevnog gradskog zivota u

Bobrowska, O., Na własną rękę. Recenzja książki Alicji Helman Nawiedzony przez obrazy. Twórczość filmowa Tiana Zhuangzhuanga [On His Own. Review of Alicja Helman's Haunted by Images. Films of Tian Zhuangzhuang], “EKRANy” [“SCREENs”] 2017, no. 3-4, p. 118.

Levičarski film se odnosi na jedan broj filmova koji su nastali '30-ih godina i u kojima je kritikovana vlada KMT. U njima se obično opisuje tamna strana društva, socijalna nepravda, moralni pad bogatih i moćnih, i zalaže se za radikalne društvene reforme. Nisu sve levičarske filmove pravili levičari, već i producenti različitog kulturnog i političkog opredeljenja (npr. Zheng Zhengqiu i Zhang Shichuan), čija je kritika socijalnih nepravdi bila utemeljena u humanističkom pogledu na život. S druge strane, scenaristi i reditelji koji su bili levičari jer su bili u KP (npr. Tian Han, Xia Yan) bili su posvećeni komunistički ilegalci čiji je cilj bio da diskredituju vladu KMT. Bilo je i ljudi koji nisu bili komunisti, ali su bili zagovornici levičarskih ideja (npr. Cai Chusheng, Wu Yonggang). Smatra se da levičarski film počinje da se snima tek 1931. nakon osnivanja Lige levog krila scenskih umetnosti. Pošto su se filmovi bavili socijalnim temama, što je bila i tema KMT, komunisti su se lako infiltrirali. KMT je imao probleme u svojim redovima, pa su mnogi cenzori bili simpatizeri gledišta koja su bila zastupljena u levičarskim filmovima. Zahvaljujući tome, bila je često dozvoljena distribucija filmova koji kritikuju vlast, npr. " Ulični anđeo " , " Metropola " , " Boginja " i dr. U okviru KMT bilo je mnogo radikalnih članova kojima se nije sviđalo prikazivanje klasne borbe u filmovima, niti su bili zadovoljni radom Komiteta za cenzuru, pa su stvar preuzeli u svoje ruke i nedugo nakon toga, filmovi su se vratili na zabavu. Šesta generacija Šesta genetacija poznata je i kao Nova generacija, Generacija posle pete i Urbana generacija. Ona podrazumeva režisere koji su diplomirali u periodu od 1985. do 1987. godine i nastavili sa snimanjem filmova '90-ih godina prošlog veka. Određeni broj filmova snimljen i posle 2000. godine takođe se svrstava u ovu grupu. Najpoznatiji reditelji Šeste genetacije su Zhang Yuan (" Pekinške bitange "), Jia Zhangke (" Bez ograničenja " , " Platforma " , " Svet "), Wang Xiaoshuai (" Dani " , " Pekinški bicikl ") He Jianjun (" Poštar ") i Lou Ye (" Reka Sudžou "). Njihovo stvaralaštvo se pre svega vezuje za nastavak haotičnog stanja u Kini. Oni ne alegorizuju, već predstavljaju svoje frustracije, osećaj gubitka i strahove zbog neverovatno brzog menjanja kineskih gradova. Prvenstveno su bili orijentisani na likove iz najnižih društvenih slojeva i sa margina društva. Film Šeste generacije predstavljao je ne samo vrstu bunta i otpora, nego i način za novo obrazovanje Kine. Teme kao što su razvod, homoseksualnost, zloupotreba supstanci, mentalne bolesti, mladi buntovnici i lopovi teško su prolazile kroz cenzuru, pa je prikazivanje većine ovih filmova bilo zabranjeno ili ograničeno, ili bi reditelju bilo zabranjeno snimanje na određeno vreme. Međutim, ovi filmovi su bili prikazivani na mnogim stranim festivalima, gde su naišli na pozitivnu kritiku i osvojili mnoge nagrade.