The political economy and culture of Chinese cinema during the era of China's prolonged economic reform has not until now been examined in detail. Ying Zhu's new and comprehensive study examines the institutional as well as the stylistic transitions of Chinese cinema from pedagogy to art to commerce, focusing on the key film reform measures as well as the metamorphosis of Chinese Fifth Generation films from art film narration-as in Chen Kaige's 1984 Yellow Earth-to post-New-Wave classical film narration-as in the same director's 1993 Farewell, My Concubine. Zhu also considers the films of a younger generation, the so-called "underground generation," which has been making both critical and commercial waves in recent years. Of use to Asian Studies scholars and film scholars alike, her work reconciles the stylistic, cultural, and economic dimensions of the nation's cinematic output, also providing the first systematic institutional analysis of an industry in a state of constant flux.
The political economy and culture of Chinese cinema during the era of China's prolonged economic reform has not until now been examined in detail. Ying Zhu's new and comprehensive study examines the institutional as well as the stylistic transitions of Chinese cinema from pedagogy to art to commerce, focusing on the key film reform measures as well as the metamorphosis of Chinese Fifth Generation films from art film narration-as in Chen Kaige's 1984 Yellow Earth-to post-New-Wave classical film narration-as in the same director's 1993 Farewell, My Concubine. Zhu also considers the films of a younger generation, the so-called "underground generation," which has been making both critical and commercial waves in recent years. Of use to Asian Studies scholars and film scholars alike, her work reconciles the stylistic, cultural, and economic dimensions of the nation's cinematic output, also providing the first systematic institutional analysis of an industry in a state of constant flux.
Offers an insider's account of the rise and fall of Chinese cinema's art and entertainment industry, including its transition to commercialization.
Foreword
Preface
Chinese Cinema: A Culture and and Economy in Disarray
Cinematic Modernization and Chinese Cinems"s Firt Art Wave
Economic Reform and Populist Cinematic Revival
From New Wave to Post-New Wave
Post-Wave: "It's the Economy, Stupid"
Shadowplay: Early Chinese Cinema in the Shadow of Hollywood
Chinese Cinema: A Cultural or and Economic Issue?
Index
YING ZHU is Assistant Professor of Media Culture at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York.
"A necessary book that is certain to provoke controversy. Sweeping
in its understanding of the Chinese film industry and its
transformation."-Zhang Junzhao director of One and Eight
"A timely book addressing pressing issues facing the Chinese film
industry. Worth a close look."-Zhang Yimou Director, Raise the Red
Lantern
"Brings the Chinese film industry to life. A virtuoso
interpretation of the struggles of Chinese filmmakers to find their
voice as State subsidies collapsed and market demands emerged.
Deserves the attention not just of academic specialists but all who
have an interest in film and where the global film community is
going."-Zhao Baohua Editor-in-chief of the Chinese trade magazine
Film
?[P]rovides ample evidence for a reperiodization of post-1976
Chinese film production according to changes in the institutional
and political economic structure of filmmaking. As such, it
emphasizes market-oriented reforms within China's domestic
industries as the overarching "generative mechanism" responsible
for the undeniable status of most contemporary Chinese cinema as a
form of commercial entertainment....[p]rovides a solid foundation
for further inquiry into the relations between social and cultural
form, revising several cherished assumptions concerning China's
best-known filmmakers in the process.?-Journal of Third World
Studies
?Well informed by current cultural theories in the West, Zhu is
able to share her insights into China's film industry during the
past two decades in a way that is interesting not only to film
scholars and specialists but also those generalists looking for
ways to engage modern Chinese culture of the last century....Having
been aquainted with the interlocking relationships among film
economy, film production, film art, film criticism, and film
history, the reader is left to marvel at the bewildering mosaic of
postmodernismm in its truest and most dynamic forms.?-The Journal
of Asian Studies
"ÝP¨rovides ample evidence for a reperiodization of post-1976
Chinese film production according to changes in the institutional
and political economic structure of filmmaking. As such, it
emphasizes market-oriented reforms within China's domestic
industries as the overarching "generative mechanism" responsible
for the undeniable status of most contemporary Chinese cinema as a
form of commercial entertainment....Ýp¨rovides a solid foundation
for further inquiry into the relations between social and cultural
form, revising several cherished assumptions concerning China's
best-known filmmakers in the process."-Journal of Third World
Studies
"[P]rovides ample evidence for a reperiodization of post-1976
Chinese film production according to changes in the institutional
and political economic structure of filmmaking. As such, it
emphasizes market-oriented reforms within China's domestic
industries as the overarching "generative mechanism" responsible
for the undeniable status of most contemporary Chinese cinema as a
form of commercial entertainment....[p]rovides a solid foundation
for further inquiry into the relations between social and cultural
form, revising several cherished assumptions concerning China's
best-known filmmakers in the process."-Journal of Third World
Studies
"Well informed by current cultural theories in the West, Zhu is
able to share her insights into China's film industry during the
past two decades in a way that is interesting not only to film
scholars and specialists but also those generalists looking for
ways to engage modern Chinese culture of the last century....Having
been aquainted with the interlocking relationships among film
economy, film production, film art, film criticism, and film
history, the reader is left to marvel at the bewildering mosaic of
postmodernismm in its truest and most dynamic forms."-The Journal
of Asian Studies
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