Teaching Film from the People’s Republic of China
- Editors: Zhuoyi Wang, Emily Wilcox, Hongmei Yu
- Pages: 340
- Published: 2024
- ISBN: 9781603296328 (Paperback)
- ISBN: 9781603296311 (Hardcover)
This volume brings a diverse range of voices—from anthropology, communication studies, ethnomusicology, film, history, literature, linguistics, sociology, theater, and urban geography—into the conversation about film from the People’s Republic of China. Essays seek to answer what films can reveal or obscure about Chinese history and society and demonstrate how studying films from the PRC can introduce students to larger issues of historical consciousness and media representation.
The volume addresses not only postsocialist fictional films but also a wide variety of other subjects including socialist period films, documentaries, films by or about people from ethnic minority groups, film music, the perspectives of female characters, martial arts cinema, and remakes of South Korean films. By exploring how films represent power, traditions, and ideologies, students learn about both the complexity of the PRC and the importance of cross-cultural and cross-ideological understanding.
Introduction (1)
Part I: Pedagogical Methods
A Rhizomatic Approach to Teaching China through Film (25)
Navigating Diverse Viewing Positions in the Film Classroom (39)
Teaching Ideology through a Controversial Chinese Film: The Case of The Wandering Earth (54)
Part II: Reexamining Revolutionary Narratives
Gender, Class, and Ethnicity in Li Shuangshuang, The White-Haired Girl, and Five Golden Flowers (71)
Cultural Revolution Films and Their Production History (84)
Chinese History and the Cinematic Trio (100)
Not Watching Jackie Chan: Historical Film and Marginal Women (112)
Part III: Image and Reality of a Changing China
Chinese Documentaries: A Series Approach (127)
Teaching Contemporary China through Documentary (143)
Teaching Asian Urbanization through Cinema (158)
Part IV: Recontextualizing National Culture
Yinpeixiang Films in the Theater Classroom (173)
A Reassessment of the Female Singing Voice in Yellow Earth (187)
Without a Sword: Zhang Yimou’s Hero in the Context of the Wuxia Tradition (199)
Part V: Intercultural and Comparative Approaches
A Comparative Approach to Lou Ye’s Suzhou River (215)
From Hainan to Grant Avenue: Teaching Gender Construction as Integration Propaganda in Two Films about Chinese Women (229)
Chinese Remakes of South Korean Films (241)
Part VI: Film in Chinese Language Courses
An Integrated Approach to Teaching Chinese Language and Culture through Film (255)
Developing Film-Based Teaching Materials for an Advanced Chinese Class (269)
Part VII: Multidisciplinary Approaches
Teaching Chinese Independent Cinema through the Cultural-Diamond Framework (287)
Phenomenological Approaches to Teaching Chinese Film (300)
Visualizing Ethnic Minorities in Multicultural China (312)
Notes on Contributors (327)
