Overview

Exploring the stories, memories and experiences attached to places, Western China on Screen is the first monograph to explore the affinity between the cinema and cities of western China through a spatial perspective. Investigating how cinematic cities in western China appear as both spaces of national power and enclosed spaces of traditional cultural values, the book diversifies the glamourised image of the post-socialist, technocratic metropolises of Beijing and Shanghai, breaking the long-existing rural and ethnographical images of western China established by Chinese Fifth Generation directors. Through case studies of films such as Rainclouds Over Wushan (1996), Buddha Mountain (2010) and Weaving Girl (2010), the book establishes a new way of looking at western urban China on screen: from a space of production to a space of increasing consumption.

Full Product Details

Author:   Hongyan Zou (Lecturer at the Foreign Language School, Sichuan University, China)
Publisher:   Edinburgh University Press
Imprint:   Edinburgh University Press
ISBN:  

9781474477857

ISBN 10:   1474477852
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   16 June 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Chapter One: Introduction: Cinematic western China: the under-represented cinematic cities Chinese Western cinema Chinese cities and cinema: an imbalanced representation Organisation of the book Chapter Two: Cinematic Chongqing: History, Cityscape and Spatial Stratification Chongqing in films: a brief account The stratification of high and low spaces Chapter Three: National Projects and Disappearing Spaces: the Mundane Daily Practices Matter Rainclouds over Wushan—lived space matters Still Life—expectation becomes stillness from Wushan to Fengjie Chapter Four: Cinematic Chengdu: Erasing Socialist Utopia through Political Reorientation Chengdu in films 24 City: making way for a modern space Chapter Five: Natural disaster and trauma: dysfunctional families in urban space Buddha Mountain: nature, a railway station and religious redemption Chapter Six: Cinematic Xi’an: from an enclosed traditional space to a sprawling urban space Xi’an and adjacent area on screen Back to Back, Face to Face: the flâneur walking in an enclosed space Chapter Seven: Female space and bodies as the medium of social representations The Story of Ermei: female’s social status in rural and urban spaces Weaving Girl: state-owned enterprise and the female worker Chapter Eight: Cinematic Lanzhou: the rural victim of urban manipulative domination The cinematic city as an absent presence A Fool, the rural victim of urban manipulative domination Chapter Nine: Conclusion Bibliography Filmography

Reviews

Hongyan Zou’s skilful analysis rewrites the Chinese West and the Chinese Western genre we thought we knew as dry and dusty pioneer lands in 1980s films like Yellow Earth. Her lively writing reveals a regional cinema of many genres depicting historic cities with distinct identities and rich cultures undergoing explosive growth and ultra-rapid modernisation. * Chris Berry, King’s College London *

"Hongyan Zou's skilful analysis rewrites the Chinese West and the Chinese Western genre we thought we knew as dry and dusty pioneer lands in 1980s films like Yellow Earth. Her lively writing reveals a regional cinema of many genres depicting historic cities with distinct identities and rich cultures undergoing explosive growth and ultra-rapid modernisation.-- ""Chris Berry, King's College London"""

Author Information

Hongyan Zou is a lecturer at the Foreign Language School of Sichuan University, China. She is the co-author of the book Chapter “Chinese films and the sense of place: Beijing as ‘Thirdspace’ from In the Heat of the Sun to Mr. Six” in the edited book Making Publics, Making Places (University of Adelaide Press, 2016). Her research focuses on the dynamic relationship between cinema and cities, Chinese urban cinema, Chinese minority films and Chinese Westerns.

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