Screening Post-1989 China [electronic resource] : Critical Analysis of Chinese Film and Television /
Ho, W.author.
This unique book investigates the tug-of-war between the free market economy and authoritative state regulation in Chinese culture after 1989. Contextualizing close textual readings of cinematic and television texts, both officially sanctioned and independently made, Wing Shan Ho illuminates the complex process in which cultural producers and consumers negotiate with both the state and the market in articulating new forms of subjectivity. Ho examines the types of Chinese subjects that the state applauds and aggrandizes in contrast to those that it condemns and attempts to eliminate. Her focus on the socialist spirit exposes inherent contradictions in the current Chinese project of nation-building. This comparative study shines a harsh light on these cultural products and on much more: the confluence between commerce and politics and popular culture, the interaction between state and individuals in popular culture, and the complexity of governmentality in an era of globalization.
Description based upon print version of record.
Part I Screening the Economic Subject in Films1 Selfless Party Officials and the Socialist Legacy; Ren Changxia-Reinvigorating Selflessness in Officialdom; Screening a Self-Sacrificing Economic Subject in Ren Changxia; Gendered Workers and Genderless Performance; Conclusion: The State as Savior from Evils of Capitalism; 2 Insulting Portrayals of the Present Era?: Selling One's Son, Murder, and Human Trafficking; Two Versions of Lost in Beijing and the Limits of the State's Tolerance; The Disposable and (Re-)Productive Body as a Source of Income; Conclusion
Part II Screening the Sexual Subject on the Television3 Golden Marriage: An Exemplary Marriage and a Harmonious Society; Golden Marriage: Zhuxuanlü TV Drama Portraying Model Sexual Subjects; Familial Harmony and Social Harmony; Conclusion: Zhuxuanlü TV Drama and Social Harmony; 4 Narrow Dwelling: Extra-marital Sex and the City; Narrow Dwelling and Excessive Sexual Desire; Reconfigurations of Sex, Gender, and Marriage; Reacting to Narrow Dwelling; From Sex to Politics; Conclusion; Part III Screening the Political Subject in Films
5 Selling Party Patriotism to Intellectuals in the Chinese Blockbuster HeroHero: A Zhuxuanlü Blockbuster; Staging Political Subjectivity; Confucian Ideas and the Socialist Spirit; From a Local Hero to a Global Hero; Reactions to a Sacrificing Political Subjectivity; 6 (Dis)Associating Political Dissent and Non-heteronormative Sexual Desire; Lan Yu: Integration of Nonconforming Sexual and Political Subjectivity; Reminiscence as Political Protest; Butterfly: Affirming a Regional Identity; Confirming Lesbian Identity: From Self-Repression to Self-Acceptance; Conclusion: From Allegory to Identity
Includes bibliographical references and index.
This unique book investigates the tug-of-war between the free market economy and authoritative state regulation in Chinese culture after 1989. Contextualizing close textual readings of cinematic and television texts, both officially sanctioned and independently made, Wing Shan Ho illuminates the complex process in which cultural producers and consumers negotiate with both the state and the market in articulating new forms of subjectivity. Ho examines the types of Chinese subjects that the state applauds and aggrandizes in contrast to those that it condemns and attempts to eliminate. Her focus on the socialist spirit exposes inherent contradictions in the current Chinese project of nation-building. This comparative study shines a harsh light on these cultural products and on much more: the confluence between commerce and politics and popular culture, the interaction between state and individuals in popular culture, and the complexity of governmentality in an era of globalization.
Ethnology—Asia.
Motion pictures—Asia.
Arts.
Motion pictures—History.
Motion pictures and television.
Communication.
Asian Culture.
Asian Cinema and TV.
Arts.
Film History.
Screen Studies.
Media Studies.