Mainland Chinese Cinema, Culture,and Identity, 1949-Present (ASIA 3059 J)
Term: 2021-2022 Academic Year Spring
Schedule
Tue, 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM (1/26/2022 - 5/10/2022) Location: SLC TITS LH
Wed, 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM (1/26/2022 - 5/10/2022) Location: SLC TITS LR
Description
This seminar course will examine both the historical and cultural context of Mainland Chinese cinema from 1949 to the present. The course will be focused on full-length feature films from the People’s Republic of China, providing an eclectic mix of movies covering socialist propaganda of the high Maoist period (1949-76), the critical stances of the “Fifth Generation” (of graduates from the Beijing Film Academy) in the 1980s and early 1990s, the more entertainment-focused films of postDeng (2000s) China, as well as contemporary art films that are largely seen outside of the commercial exhibition circuit. This wide variety of films will open up questions of cinematic representations of Chinese identity and culture in at least four major modes: socialist revolutionary (1949-76), critical reflections on China’s past and the revolution (1982-1989), what one might call neoliberal entertainment (1990-present), and the more underground art cinema that has emerged as mainstream Chinese cinema h