Pub Date : 2021-06-30DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0009
Hongyan Zou
This chapter concludes that city films set in urban centres of western China engage with, respond to and reimagine China’s complex and heterogeneous urbanisation and modernisation in an increasingly globalised world. The four cinematic urban centres examined in this book configure a space of the subaltern, the marginalised and the dominated. This configuration defies the glamorised success stories of China’s economic boost, questions the dominance of political and capital power imposed on the designation and transformation of cityscape and urban life, and asserts the value of cultural and social pluralism and hybridity. However, limitations on the book’s length mean it cannot fully cover all urban centres in western China such as Kunming, Lasa, Ürümchi, Xining and Hohhot, etc, the capital city of Yunnan, Tibet, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia, etc. These cities are inhabited by many minorities and often represented in minority films with their cultural uniqueness and religion foregrounded. Given the complicated relationship between minority groups and the Han, and the role of minority films in cultural diversity in central government’s neoliberal policies, minority films set in western China are indicated as a new area for future studies.
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Pub Date : 2021-06-30DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0005
Hongyan Zou
This chapter discusses how natural disaster (the 2018 Wenchuan earthquake) and the consequent traumatised memories have influenced cinematic representations of Chengdu and its adjacent areas. Feature films and documentaries proliferated after the earthquake, and ruins, heavy loss of life and local survivors’ troubled situations wrought by the disaster have dominated cinematic modern Chengdu. Moreover, with the catastrophic disaster’s ability of erasing physical spaces and producing traumatised experiences and memories, post-earthquake cinematic Chengdu becomes an optimal space for emotional remedy and contemplation on existence. In urban feature Buddha Mountain [Guanyin shan] (Li Yu, 2011), the ruins wrought by the earthquake symbolise the interior wasteland inhabited by film characters, and mirror the disintegration of traditional family units and the consequent psychological vacuum in modern families. Characters in the film are shown as drifters, driven from place to place because of the trend of demolition and construction, and impacted by accidents, mobility and imposed spatial oppression associated with urban spaces.
{"title":"Natural Disaster and Trauma","authors":"Hongyan Zou","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses how natural disaster (the 2018 Wenchuan earthquake) and the consequent traumatised memories have influenced cinematic representations of Chengdu and its adjacent areas. Feature films and documentaries proliferated after the earthquake, and ruins, heavy loss of life and local survivors’ troubled situations wrought by the disaster have dominated cinematic modern Chengdu. Moreover, with the catastrophic disaster’s ability of erasing physical spaces and producing traumatised experiences and memories, post-earthquake cinematic Chengdu becomes an optimal space for emotional remedy and contemplation on existence. In urban feature Buddha Mountain [Guanyin shan] (Li Yu, 2011), the ruins wrought by the earthquake symbolise the interior wasteland inhabited by film characters, and mirror the disintegration of traditional family units and the consequent psychological vacuum in modern families. Characters in the film are shown as drifters, driven from place to place because of the trend of demolition and construction, and impacted by accidents, mobility and imposed spatial oppression associated with urban spaces.","PeriodicalId":228321,"journal":{"name":"Western China on Screen","volume":"118 16","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113961465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-30DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0008
Hongyan Zou
This chapter examines cinematic Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu province, which makes an “absent presence” in films, as it often appears as the reference to modernity and a future destination for film characters from the adjacent areas. The geographical conditions of the area nurture a nomadic way of production, making sheep, horse, camel or cattle herding become one of the overt images of the area, and film characters invariably accompanied or symbolised by these animals. Chen Jianbin’s directorial debut A Fool [Yige shaozi] (2015) is one example. This chapter analyses how the protagonist, travelling between a village and a nearby town, suffers from urban manipulative domination due to his low social status, inadequate knowledge about urban conduct and weak social connections. It demonstrates that the sprawling urban spaces and the power of capital restricts the rural living space, a theme that is further extended in River Road [Jia zai shuicao fengmao de difang] (Li Ruijun, 2015), a film featuring a disappearing ethnic minority in Hexi Corridor. This chapter shows that the transforming power of urbanisation appears even more dramatic in an ecologically fragile environment, with the inhabitants deprived of health, traditional ways of production and home.
{"title":"Contrast between the Urban and the Rural Regarding Mental and Social Space","authors":"Hongyan Zou","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines cinematic Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu province, which makes an “absent presence” in films, as it often appears as the reference to modernity and a future destination for film characters from the adjacent areas. The geographical conditions of the area nurture a nomadic way of production, making sheep, horse, camel or cattle herding become one of the overt images of the area, and film characters invariably accompanied or symbolised by these animals. Chen Jianbin’s directorial debut A Fool [Yige shaozi] (2015) is one example. This chapter analyses how the protagonist, travelling between a village and a nearby town, suffers from urban manipulative domination due to his low social status, inadequate knowledge about urban conduct and weak social connections. It demonstrates that the sprawling urban spaces and the power of capital restricts the rural living space, a theme that is further extended in River Road [Jia zai shuicao fengmao de difang] (Li Ruijun, 2015), a film featuring a disappearing ethnic minority in Hexi Corridor. This chapter shows that the transforming power of urbanisation appears even more dramatic in an ecologically fragile environment, with the inhabitants deprived of health, traditional ways of production and home.","PeriodicalId":228321,"journal":{"name":"Western China on Screen","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126590036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-30DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0002
Hongyan Zou
This chapter presents cinematic Chongqing as a space of literal stratification of high and low spaces, with characters appropriating distinct urban spaces that correspond to their stratified social classes. Providing the geographical, historical and social background of changing cinematic images of the city over half a century, this chapter explains the reasons why the city has been continuously captured and represented as a mundane and vernacular place. This is explicitly shown in the black comedy Crazy Stone [Feng kuang de shitou] (Ning Hao, 2006), which displays Chongqing as a melting pot characterised by immigrants, dialects and the lack of cultural originality and moral values. This chapter then argues that cinematic Chongqing reflects the city’s power to create disorientation, anxiety and social discontent owing to an increasingly complicated and unevenly developed technocratic society where great changes of identity, subjectivity and social class are underway. The second analysis is of the psychological horror Curiosity Kills the Cat [Haoqi haisi mao] (Zhang Yibai, 2006), and it explores urban spaces pervaded by desire, infidelity and class stratification. In addition, tragic consequences ensue when film characters transgress such stratified spaces, which sheds light on the wide disparity between social classes in reality.
{"title":"History, Cityscape and Spatial Stratification","authors":"Hongyan Zou","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter presents cinematic Chongqing as a space of literal stratification of high and low spaces, with characters appropriating distinct urban spaces that correspond to their stratified social classes. Providing the geographical, historical and social background of changing cinematic images of the city over half a century, this chapter explains the reasons why the city has been continuously captured and represented as a mundane and vernacular place. This is explicitly shown in the black comedy Crazy Stone [Feng kuang de shitou] (Ning Hao, 2006), which displays Chongqing as a melting pot characterised by immigrants, dialects and the lack of cultural originality and moral values. This chapter then argues that cinematic Chongqing reflects the city’s power to create disorientation, anxiety and social discontent owing to an increasingly complicated and unevenly developed technocratic society where great changes of identity, subjectivity and social class are underway. The second analysis is of the psychological horror Curiosity Kills the Cat [Haoqi haisi mao] (Zhang Yibai, 2006), and it explores urban spaces pervaded by desire, infidelity and class stratification. In addition, tragic consequences ensue when film characters transgress such stratified spaces, which sheds light on the wide disparity between social classes in reality.","PeriodicalId":228321,"journal":{"name":"Western China on Screen","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122368034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-30DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0001
Hongyan Zou
This chapter provides an overview of the affinity between cinema and cities, and shows that cinematic cities located in western China have reflected, responded to and reimagined China’s multi-layered realities in the grand progress of urbanisation and modernisation since the 1980s. It presents a comparison between China’s Westerns and Hollywood Westerns in terms of theme, genre, geographical setting and cultural significance, demonstrating that China’s Westerns configured a rural and ethnographical image of the area from the 1980s to the 1990s, which therefore become stereotypes of the region, casting a stark contrast to the dynamic modern images of cinematic Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Delineating China’s eastern coastal-region dominated “urban cinema” that resonates with the uneven urbanisation and modernisation in mainland China in the reform era, this chapter helps situate the discussion on Chinese western urban film within a larger historical and social context. Drawing on space theories of scholars such as Henri Lefebvre, Edward Soja and Michel de Certeau, it shows how national projects and economic policies carried out in western China at different periods shape and reshape the “real and imagined” spaces of four capital cities in the area.
{"title":"Cinematic Western China: The Under-represented Cinematic Cities","authors":"Hongyan Zou","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0001","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter provides an overview of the affinity between cinema and cities, and shows that cinematic cities located in western China have reflected, responded to and reimagined China’s multi-layered realities in the grand progress of urbanisation and modernisation since the 1980s. It presents a comparison between China’s Westerns and Hollywood Westerns in terms of theme, genre, geographical setting and cultural significance, demonstrating that China’s Westerns configured a rural and ethnographical image of the area from the 1980s to the 1990s, which therefore become stereotypes of the region, casting a stark contrast to the dynamic modern images of cinematic Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Delineating China’s eastern coastal-region dominated “urban cinema” that resonates with the uneven urbanisation and modernisation in mainland China in the reform era, this chapter helps situate the discussion on Chinese western urban film within a larger historical and social context. Drawing on space theories of scholars such as Henri Lefebvre, Edward Soja and Michel de Certeau, it shows how national projects and economic policies carried out in western China at different periods shape and reshape the “real and imagined” spaces of four capital cities in the area.","PeriodicalId":228321,"journal":{"name":"Western China on Screen","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121084053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-30DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0003
Hongyan Zou
This chapter displays how material and cognitive spaces are shaped and demolished due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam by examining Zhang Ming’s 1996 Rainclouds over Wushan [Wushan yunyu] and Jia Zhangke’s 2006 Still Life [Sanxia haoren]. The enormous national project represents the macro spatial view of rationalising and modernising the urban space, yet Zhang Ming chooses a micro perspective to examine the inertia and subjective dimension of the city. He creates a Thirdspace by showing the street view of the urban space and everyday life related to emerging commercialism and oppressed desire in a claustrophobic space, which opposes the grand discourse of building the Three Gorges Dam to national resurrection and modernisation. Still Life adopts the style of magical realism to convey the dramatic changes underway in the physical space and the consequent traumatic experiences in the mental space of characters. It works as a space of resistance by focusing on those marginalised people who make ruins, live in ruins, are exiled and even buried by ruins. Ruins, therefore, bear clear and indivisible class marks. The cinematic representations of the city resonate with the immensity and complexity of the trend toward urbanisation and modernisation.
{"title":"National Project and Disappearing Space","authors":"Hongyan Zou","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter displays how material and cognitive spaces are shaped and demolished due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam by examining Zhang Ming’s 1996 Rainclouds over Wushan [Wushan yunyu] and Jia Zhangke’s 2006 Still Life [Sanxia haoren]. The enormous national project represents the macro spatial view of rationalising and modernising the urban space, yet Zhang Ming chooses a micro perspective to examine the inertia and subjective dimension of the city. He creates a Thirdspace by showing the street view of the urban space and everyday life related to emerging commercialism and oppressed desire in a claustrophobic space, which opposes the grand discourse of building the Three Gorges Dam to national resurrection and modernisation. Still Life adopts the style of magical realism to convey the dramatic changes underway in the physical space and the consequent traumatic experiences in the mental space of characters. It works as a space of resistance by focusing on those marginalised people who make ruins, live in ruins, are exiled and even buried by ruins. Ruins, therefore, bear clear and indivisible class marks. The cinematic representations of the city resonate with the immensity and complexity of the trend toward urbanisation and modernisation.","PeriodicalId":228321,"journal":{"name":"Western China on Screen","volume":"212 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122656007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-30DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0004
Hongyang Zou
This chapter outlines two competing styles of cinematic Chengdu and its adjacent cities: primitive and modern. The primitiveness of Chengdu results from its geographical isolation and underdeveloped economy before the 1980s, while the modern facet of Chengdu started to take shape under the Third Front Project between the 1960s and the 1980s when mainland China was confronted with the Cold War. The cityscape of Chengdu, accordingly, was featured by an array of state-owned socialist “units” involving in the production of military and heavy industry. Focusing on these socialist spaces and relevant policies (household registration), this chapter shows that the unit, represented in Jia Zhangke’s 24 City [Ershisi chengji] (2008), functioned as centripetal spaces attracting talent, resources and capital with their promises of decent payment, city household registration and life-long career. Moreover, it argues that the spatial transition of Chengdu from a space of production into a space of consumption is characterised by generational gaps in characters’ consuming and appropriating urban spaces. It finally concludes that the 1980s becomes a watershed that breaks the centripetal space under the socialist economic system and witnesses the formation of a centrifugal space created by a socialist market and facilitated by interprovincial highways and railways.
{"title":"Spaces of Consumption Replace Spaces of Production","authors":"Hongyang Zou","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474477857.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter outlines two competing styles of cinematic Chengdu and its adjacent cities: primitive and modern. The primitiveness of Chengdu results from its geographical isolation and underdeveloped economy before the 1980s, while the modern facet of Chengdu started to take shape under the Third Front Project between the 1960s and the 1980s when mainland China was confronted with the Cold War. The cityscape of Chengdu, accordingly, was featured by an array of state-owned socialist “units” involving in the production of military and heavy industry. Focusing on these socialist spaces and relevant policies (household registration), this chapter shows that the unit, represented in Jia Zhangke’s 24 City [Ershisi chengji] (2008), functioned as centripetal spaces attracting talent, resources and capital with their promises of decent payment, city household registration and life-long career. Moreover, it argues that the spatial transition of Chengdu from a space of production into a space of consumption is characterised by generational gaps in characters’ consuming and appropriating urban spaces. It finally concludes that the 1980s becomes a watershed that breaks the centripetal space under the socialist economic system and witnesses the formation of a centrifugal space created by a socialist market and facilitated by interprovincial highways and railways.","PeriodicalId":228321,"journal":{"name":"Western China on Screen","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130331921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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