Download or read book Readings in Contemporary Chinese Cinema written by Chih-p'ing Chou and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-10 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most Chinese-language textbooks today cater to beginners and intermediate-level students, but virtually none address the unique needs of advanced students seeking to expand or reinforce their language skills in one semester. Readings in Contemporary Chinese Cinema fills this gap through the use of critically acclaimed Chinese films to teach students Chinese while also broadening their knowledge about China. The authors have carefully chosen ten movies produced in recent decades by filmmakers from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Set broadly within the twentieth century, these classic films are representative of both urban and rural life, and vividly depict the diversity of perspectives that comprise contemporary Chinese society. The authors provide an informative synopsis and critique of each movie, and include selections of movie dialogue that allow students to practice and build proficiency. The comprehensive lessons are supplemented with exercises, sentence-pattern examples, English-language glossaries, and extensive vocabulary lists. There are also discussion questions that can be used in conjunction with screenings of the films. Readings in Contemporary Chinese Cinema is designed for students with three or more years of college-level instruction in modern Chinese, and can be used alone or as a sequel to Anything Goes: An Advanced Reader of Modern Chinese. It has been proven effective at Princeton University and in the Princeton in Beijing program, and is ideal for those returning from study abroad in China.
Download or read book A Reflection of Reality written by Chih-p'ing Chou and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-08-24 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Reflection of Reality is an anthology of modern Chinese short stories designed as an advanced-level textbook for students who have completed at least three years of college-level Chinese. While many advanced-level Chinese language textbooks stress only practical communication, this textbook uses stories from well-known Chinese authors not only to enhance students' language proficiency, but also to expose students to the literature, history, and evolution of modern Chinese society. The twelve stories selected for this textbook are written by such contemporary authors as Yu Hua, Wang Anyi, and Gao Xingjian, and have appeared in various newspapers and magazines in China. Each story is filled with useful sentence structures, vocabulary, and cultural information, and is followed by an extensive vocabulary list, numerous sentence structure examples, grammar exercises, and discussion questions. The textbook also includes a comprehensive pinyin index. A Reflection of Reality will effectively improve students' Chinese language skills and their understanding of today's China. Advanced-level Chinese language textbook Selected short stories reflect contemporary Chinese society and culture Extensive vocabulary lists, sentence structure examples, grammar exercises, and discussion questions Comprehensive pinyin index
Download or read book Sinascape written by Gary G. Xu and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2007 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sinascape: Contemporary Chinese Cinema is a comprehensive study of Chinese-language films at the turn of the millennium. Emphasizing the transnational nature of contemporary Chinese cinema, it provides close readings of most of the important films of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and explores the interactions and transactions among these films and between Chinese cinema and Hollywood. General readers, film enthusiasts, and critics will all benefit from Gary Xu's discussion of popular films like Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Kung Fu Hustle, Devils on the Doorstep, Suzhou River, Beijing Bicycle, Millennium Mambo, Goodbye Dragon Inn, and Hollywood Hong Kong.
Download or read book Contemporary Chinese Cinema and Visual Culture written by Sheldon Lu and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sheldon Lu's wide-ranging new book investigates how filmmakers and visual artists from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan have envisioned China as it transitions from a socialist to a globalized capitalist state. It examines how the modern nation has been refashioned and re-imagined in order to keep pace with globalization and transnationalism. At the heart of Lu's analysis is a double movement in the relationship between nation and transnationalism in the Chinese post-socialist state. He considers the complexity of how the Chinese economy is integrated in the global capitalist system while also remaining a repressive body politic with mechanisms of control and surveillance. He explores the interrelations of the local, the national, the subnational, and the global as China repositions itself in the world. Lu considers examples from feature and documentary film, mainstream and marginal cinema, and a variety of visual arts: photography, painting, digital video, architecture, and installation. His close case studies include representations of class, masculinity and sexuality in contemporary Taiwanese and Chinese cinema; the figure of the sex worker as a symbol of modernity and mobility; and artists' representations of Beijing at the time of the 2008 Olympics.
Download or read book A Companion to Chinese Cinema written by Yingjin Zhang and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-04-23 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to Chinese Cinema is a collection of original essays written by experts in a range of disciplines that provide a comprehensive overview of the evolution and current state of Chinese cinema. Represents the most comprehensive coverage of Chinese cinema to date Applies a multidisciplinary approach that maps the expanding field of Chinese cinema in bold and definitive ways Draws attention to previously neglected areas such as diasporic filmmaking, independent documentary, film styles and techniques, queer aesthetics, star studies, film and other arts or media Features several chapters that explore China’s new market economy, government policy, and industry practice, placing the intricate relationship between film and politics in a historical and international context Includes overviews of Chinese film studies in Chinese and English publications
Download or read book China Into Film written by Jerome Silbergeld and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 1999 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1984, Chinese cinema has been the most dramatic entry onto the international film scene. China into Film is the first book to look at contemporary Chinese cinema as a visual art and to illustrate the ways in which it has been shaped by centuries of Chinese tradition. Jerome Silbergeld looks at the significance of gender roles, the strategies of film-makers in coping with state censorship, the translation of novels into films, the continuing attachment of film-makers to melodrama, and cinematic critiques of Maoism and post-Maoist culture. Abundantly illustrated with Chinese paintings as well as scenes from such internationally acclaimed films as Yellow Earth, Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern and Farewell My Concubine, China into Film reveals a cinematic form at once excitingly new and deeply imbedded in traditional Chinese visual culture.
Download or read book Chinese Film Classics 1922 1949 written by Christopher G. Rea and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, 2023 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Chinese Film Classics, 1922–1949 is an essential guide to the first golden age of Chinese cinema. Offering detailed introductions to fourteen films, this study highlights the creative achievements of Chinese filmmakers in the decades leading up to 1949, when the Communists won the civil war and began nationalizing cultural industries. Christopher Rea reveals the uniqueness and complexity of Republican China’s cinematic masterworks, from the comedies and melodramas of the silent era to the talkies and musicals of the 1930s and 1940s. Each chapter appraises the artistry of a single film, highlighting its outstanding formal elements, from cinematography to editing to sound design. Examples include the slapstick gags of Laborer’s Love (1922), Ruan Lingyu’s star turn in Goddess (1934), Zhou Xuan’s mesmerizing performance in Street Angels (1937), Eileen Chang’s urbane comedy of manners Long Live the Missus! (1947), the wartime epic Spring River Flows East (1947), and Fei Mu’s acclaimed work of cinematic lyricism, Spring in a Small Town (1948). Rea shares new insights and archival discoveries about famous films, while explaining their significance in relation to politics, society, and global cinema. Lavishly illustrated and featuring extensive guides to further viewings and readings, Chinese Film Classics, 1922–1949 offers an accessible tour of China’s early contributions to the cinematic arts.
Download or read book Adapted for the Screen written by Hsiu-Chuang Deppman and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2010-04-30 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hsiu-Chang Deppman puts landmark contemporary Chinese films in the context of their literary origins & explores how the best Chinese directors adapt fictional narratives & styles for film.
Download or read book Cinema Space and Polylocality in a Globalizing China written by Yingjin Zhang and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2009-10-09 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this milestone work, prominent China film scholar Yingjin Zhang proposes "polylocality" as a new conceptual framework for investigating the shifting spaces of contemporary Chinese cinema in the age of globalization. Questioning the national cinema paradigm, Zhang calls for comparative studies of underdeveloped areas beyond the imperative of transnationalism. The book begins by addressing theories and practices related to space, place, and polylocality in contemporary China before focusing on the space of scholarship and urging scholars to move beyond the current paradigm and explore transnational and comparative film studies. This is followed by a chapter that concentrates on the space of production and surveys the changing landscape of postsocialist filmmaking and the transformation of China’s urban generation of directors. Next is an examination of the space of polylocality and the cinematic mappings of Beijing and a persistent "reel" contact with polylocality in hinterland China. In the fifth chapter Zhang explores the space of subjectivity in independent film and video and contextualizes experiments by young directors with various documentary styles. Chapter 6 calls attention to the space of performance and addresses issues of media and mediation by way of two kinds of playing: the first with documentary as troubling information, the second with piracy as creative intervention. The concluding chapter offers an overview of Chinese cinema in the new century and provides production and reception statistics. Combining inspired critical insights, original observations, and new information, Cinema, Space, and Polylocality in a Globalizing China is a significant work on current Chinese film and a must-read for film scholars and anyone seriously interested in cinema more generally or contemporary Chinese culture.
Download or read book Painting the City Red written by Yomi Braester and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2010-04-07 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Painting the City Red illuminates the dynamic relationship between the visual media, particularly film and theater, and the planning and development of cities in China and Taiwan, from the emergence of the People’s Republic in 1949 to the staging of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Yomi Braester argues that the transformation of Chinese cities in recent decades is a result not only of China’s abandonment of Maoist economic planning in favor of capitalist globalization but also of a shift in visual practices. Rather than simply reflect urban culture, movies and stage dramas have facilitated the development of new perceptions of space and time, representing the future city variously as an ideal socialist city, a metropolis integrated into the global economy, and a site for preserving cultural heritage. Drawing on extensive archival research, interviews with leading filmmakers and urban planners, and close readings of scripts and images, Braester describes how films and stage plays have promoted and opposed official urban plans and policies as they have addressed issues such as demolition-and-relocation plans, the preservation of vernacular architecture, and the global real estate market. He shows how the cinematic rewriting of historical narratives has accompanied the spatial reorganization of specific urban sites, including Nanjing Road in Shanghai; veterans’ villages in Taipei; and Tiananmen Square, centuries-old courtyards, and postmodern architectural landmarks in Beijing. In Painting the City Red, Braester reveals the role that film and theater have played in mediating state power, cultural norms, and the struggle for civil society in Chinese cities.
Download or read book Young Rebels in Contemporary Chinese Cinema written by Zhou Xuelin and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2007-09-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1980s, a new type of central character emerged in contemporary Chinese films - angry and alienated youth. Filmmakers treated youth as a separate category and showed them in urban situations behaving in unconventional and socially rebellious ways. Young Rebels in Contemporary Chinese Cinema looks for evidence in films that exemplify this trend.
Download or read book Sentimental Fabulations Contemporary Chinese Films written by Rey Chow and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the sentimental and how can we understand it through the cinema of a particular culture in an age of globalisation? Chow explores these questions by examining nine contemporary Chinese directors whose accomplishments have become historic events in world cinema.
Download or read book Globalization and Contemporary Chinese Cinema written by Xuelin Zhou and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-06-21 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pivot considers key transformations within the Chinese film industry since the country opened its doors to the outside world in the late 1970s, and moved from an ideologically-centred censorship system to one of contestation and cooperation between politics, art and market. Focusing on Zhang Yimou, arguably one of China’s most innovative and controversial filmmakers and directors, the author addresses the challenges faced by contemporary Chinese cinema in the face of Hollywood dominance, notably making genre films in an increasingly globalized context, and the necessary compromises between the local and global, the national and the international. Through a combination of textual analysis and context study, it examines action-oriented films Zhang made as responses to a rapidly changing film market and industry.
Download or read book Chinese Modernism in the Era of Reforms written by Xudong Zhang and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Book on Chinese cinema and literature
Download or read book From Underground to Independent written by Paul G. Pickowicz and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2006-08-11 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking book presents a critical introduction to the cultural and political dimensions of contemporary Chinese cinema. Leading Western and Chinese scholars trace the changing dynamics of Chinese film culture since the early 1990s as it moves away from underground and toward independence in the new century. Yet as the rich case studies illustrate, the sheer variety of alternative film culture itself provides sufficient opportunities for different—at times contradictory—configurations of cinematic products. Drawing on vigorous interdisciplinary scholarship, the book investigates the objects of its study from various methodological perspectives, ranging from historical and literary to sociological and ethnographic. In addition to offering critical readings of specific texts, this book explores alternative film culture through personal interviews, on-site observations, and media interrogations, from traditional print media to the visual media of film, television, and video, including the new digital media of the Internet. The contributors also consider the flourishing independent documentary filmmaking scene, highlighting a crucial part of alternative film that has been previously obscured by an almost exclusive attention on the fifth- and sixth-generation directors of fictional movies. With its fresh and knowledgeable analysis of Chinese underground and independent filmmaking, this book will be essential reading for all those interested in a society caught between socialism and global currents. Contributions by: Chris Berry, Jim Cheng, Valerie Jaffee, Matthew David Johnson, Tonglin Lu, Chen Mo, Seio Nakajima, Paul G. Pickowicz, Zhiwei Xiao, and Yingjin Zhang.
Download or read book Speaking in Images written by Michael Berry and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interviews with Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and other Chinese directors about their work & the ways it has impacted both on the film industry in China as well as on the world scene.
Download or read book Building a New China in Cinema written by Laikwan Pang and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2002 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building a New China in Cinema introduces English readers for the first time to one of the most exciting left-wing cinema traditions in the world. This unique book explores the history, ideology, and aesthetics of China's left-wing cinema movement, a quixotic film culture that was as political as commercial, as militant as sensationalist. Originating in the 1930s, it marked the first systematic intellectual involvement in Chinese cinema. In this era of turmoil and idealism, the movement's films were characterized by fantasies of heroism intertwined with the inescapable spell of impotency, thus exposing the contradictions of the filmmakers' underlying ideology as their political and artistic agendas alternately fought against or catered to the taste and viewing habits of a popular audience. Political cinema became a commercially successful industry, resulting in a film culture that has never been replicated. Drawing on detailed archival research, Pang demonstrates that this cinema movement was a product of the era's social, economic, and political discourses. The author offers a close analysis of many rarely seen films, richly illustrated with over eighty stills collected from the Beijing Film Archive. With its original conceptual approach and rich use of primary sources, this book will be of interest not only to scholars and fans of Chinese cinema but to those who study the relationship between cinema and modernity.