Xiaoping Lin
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833367
- eISBN:
- 9780824870607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833367.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter examines Jia Zhangke’s “home” trilogy: Xiao Shan Going Home (1995), Xiao Wu (1997), and Platform (2000), which take a symbolic man’s journey across a ruined post-Mao China. The first ...
More
This chapter examines Jia Zhangke’s “home” trilogy: Xiao Shan Going Home (1995), Xiao Wu (1997), and Platform (2000), which take a symbolic man’s journey across a ruined post-Mao China. The first shot of Xiao Shan Going Home is a wood block print that depicts a young man facing Mao’s portrait on Tiananmen, and in this print, the late chairman appears like a ghostly father figure to the bewildered youth. In an introductory sequence of Xiao Wu, however, the wandering protagonist’s theft on a bus is intercut with Mao’s portrait hanging at the driver’s seat. Here the irony is quite clear: without Mao’s guidance, the country has turned pathetically “lawless,” especially for the lost young generation that concerns the Sixth Generation directors. In a similar fashion, Platform begins with a stage performance titled A Train Traveling toward Shaoshan, meaning a pilgrimage to Mao’s birthplace.Less
This chapter examines Jia Zhangke’s “home” trilogy: Xiao Shan Going Home (1995), Xiao Wu (1997), and Platform (2000), which take a symbolic man’s journey across a ruined post-Mao China. The first shot of Xiao Shan Going Home is a wood block print that depicts a young man facing Mao’s portrait on Tiananmen, and in this print, the late chairman appears like a ghostly father figure to the bewildered youth. In an introductory sequence of Xiao Wu, however, the wandering protagonist’s theft on a bus is intercut with Mao’s portrait hanging at the driver’s seat. Here the irony is quite clear: without Mao’s guidance, the country has turned pathetically “lawless,” especially for the lost young generation that concerns the Sixth Generation directors. In a similar fashion, Platform begins with a stage performance titled A Train Traveling toward Shaoshan, meaning a pilgrimage to Mao’s birthplace.
Yingjin Zhang
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833374
- eISBN:
- 9780824870584
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833374.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter examines the claims of independent Chinese filmmakers to truth and reality as well as their experiments with various documentary modes and styles. Focusing on the issues of truth, ...
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This chapter examines the claims of independent Chinese filmmakers to truth and reality as well as their experiments with various documentary modes and styles. Focusing on the issues of truth, subjectivity, and audience, it explores truth claims as well as the dilemma of self-positioning and audience interaction in Chinese independent filmmaking and videomaking. It also discusses the extent to which independent production and overseas investment and distribution affect the reception of independent films and videos as documents of truth, and how to reconcile the politics of such unusual circulation of the truths and poetics of independent film- and videomaking in contemporary China. Using the film Xiao Wu as example, the chapter describes a pattern of drastic difference in the reception of “truth” inside and outside China. Finally, it considers the origins, styles, problems, solutions, and directions of the Chinese independent documentary.Less
This chapter examines the claims of independent Chinese filmmakers to truth and reality as well as their experiments with various documentary modes and styles. Focusing on the issues of truth, subjectivity, and audience, it explores truth claims as well as the dilemma of self-positioning and audience interaction in Chinese independent filmmaking and videomaking. It also discusses the extent to which independent production and overseas investment and distribution affect the reception of independent films and videos as documents of truth, and how to reconcile the politics of such unusual circulation of the truths and poetics of independent film- and videomaking in contemporary China. Using the film Xiao Wu as example, the chapter describes a pattern of drastic difference in the reception of “truth” inside and outside China. Finally, it considers the origins, styles, problems, solutions, and directions of the Chinese independent documentary.
