Heroic Human Pixels: Mass Ornaments and Digital Multitudes in Zhang Yimou’s Spectacles

Abstract

This chapter considers how Zhang Yimou has reimagined traditional Chinese culture and history through the use of CGI in his blockbuster film Hero (Yingxiong, 2002) and his choreography in the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It examines but refutes the accusation that he has pursued a totalitarian or fascist aesthetic by looking closely at how the ‘digital multitude’ is represented in the film and the ‘mass ornament’ is manifested in the Olympics ceremonies. Ultimately, the mass spectacles organised by Zhang tell us more about the ‘harmony’ of contemporary China with globalised capitalism than about either totalitarian aesthetics or nationalist propaganda, and they demonstrate the logic of digital labour in a globalised economy.