Celluloid China : cinematic encounters with culture and society / Harry H. Kuoshu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kuoshu, Harry H., 1955-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Film criticism--China.

Film criticism.

Motion pictures--China.

Motion pictures.

China.

Physical Description:

xvi, 374 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, [2002]

Summary:

Celluloid China: Cinematic Encounters with Culture and Society by Harry H. Kuoshu is an introduction to the cinema of mainland China from the early 1930s to the early 1990s. Emphasizing both film contexts and film texts, this study invites Chinese film scholars and students to a broad cinematic analysis that includes investigations of cultural, cross-cultural, intellectual, social, ethnic, and political issues. This unique text also illustrates how a film can provide distinctive insights into artistic fashion, social taste, ideological tension, cultural geography, and historical moments. Such a holistic evaluation allows for a better understanding of both the genesis of a special kind of film art from the People's Republic of China and the culture and society exemplified in those films. Discussions of each film have an introduction, passages from the director's own notes whenever available, and a scholarly article. Discussion questions are found in an appendix. Within its complete bibliography, the book also features a suggested reading list for Chinese film classes. Celluloid China: Cinematic Encounters with Culture and Society is the first book to provide such an exhaustive study of the art and cultural context of Chinese cinema. The book contains five illustrations.

Contents:

Overview: The Filmmaking Generations 1

Part 1 History in and out of Melodrama: Glory, Guilt, and Fantasy 21

1. Two Stage Sisters (Wutai jiemei, dir. Xie Jin, 1965) 29

Director's Notes "Two Stage Sisters: The Blossoming of a Revolutionary Aesthetic" / Gina Marchetti

2. Hibiscus Town (Furong zhen, dir. Xie Jin, 1986) 52

Director's Notes "Society and Subjectivity: On the Political Economy of Chinese Melodrama" / Nick Browne

3. Farewell My Concubine (Bawang bie ji, dir. Chen Kaige, 1993) 69

Director's Notes "The Concubine and the Figure of History: Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine" / Wendy Larson

Part 2 Speaking for the Other: Changing Allegorical Roles for Women 87

4. Street Angel (Malu tianshi, dir. Yuan Muzhi, 1937) 93

An Outline for Viewing Street Angel "The Textual and Critical Difference of Being Radical: Reconstructing Chinese Leftist Films of the 1930s" / Ma Ning

5. Three Women a.k.a. Women Side by Side (Liren xing, dir. Chen Liting, 1949) 110

From "Xin nuxing to Liren xing: Changing Conceptions of the 'New Woman' in Republican Era Chinese Films" / Vivian Shen

6. Woman, Demon, Human a.k.a. Human, Woman, Demon (Ren gui qing, dir. Huang Shuqin, 1988) 129

Director's Notes "Human, Woman, Demon: A Woman's Predicament" / Dai Jinhua, Translated by Kirk Denton

7. Ju Dou (dir. Zhang Yimou, 1990) 151

Director's Notes "Ju Dou

A Hermeneutical Reading of Cross-Cultural Cinema" / Jenny Kwok Wah Lau

Part 3 Cinema Exotica: Ethnic Minorities as the PRC's "Internal Other" 165

8. Girl from Hunan (Xiangnu Xiaoxiao, dir. Xie Fei, Wu Lan, 1986) 171

Director's Notes "'Hsiao-hsiao' and Girl from Hunan: Teaching Chinese Narrative, Not Just Chinese Fiction" / Stephanie Hoare

9. Sacrificed Youth (Qingchun ji, dir. Zhang Nuanxin, 1985) 181

Director's Notes "Is China the End of Hermeneutics?; or, Political and Cultural Usage of Non-Han Women in Mainland Chinese Films" / Esther C. M. Yau

10. Horse Thief (Daoma zei, dir. Tian Zhuangzhuang, 1986) 197

Director's Notes "Tian Zhuangzhuang, the Fifth Generation, and Minorities Film in China" / Dru C. Gladney

Part 4 The Chinese Western: Roots Hidden in the Yellow Earth 213

11. Yellow Earth (Huang tudi, dir. Chen Kaige, 1984) 219

Director's Notes "The 'Hidden' Gender in Yellow Earth" / Mary Ann Farquhar

12. Old Well (Lao jing, dir. Wu Tianming, 1987) 233

Director's Notes From "Digging an Old Well: The Labor of Social Fantasy" / Rey Chow

13. Red Sorghum (Hong gaoliang, dir. Zhang Yimou, 1987) 248

Director's Notes "Red Sorghum: Mixing Memory and Desire" / Eugene Yuejin Wang

Part 5 New City Films: Beyond-Yellow-Earth Experiences of Postsocialism 277

14. Black Cannon Incident (Heipao shijian, dir. Huang Jianxin, 1985) 283

Director's Notes From "Post-Socialist Strategies: An Analysis of Yellow Earth and Black Cannon Incident" / Chris Berry, Mary Ann Farquhar

15. Good Morning, Beijing (Beijing, nizao, dir. Zhang Nuanxin, 1990) 302

Director's Notes "In Search of the Real City: Cinematic Representations of Beijing and the Politics of Vision" / Xiaobing Tang.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-366) and index.

ISBN:

0809324563

OCLC:

48851402