Session III Presentation 3

Zhang Yimou's Not One Less: The Fable of a
Migration
Rey Chow
Professor, Department of Modern Culture and Medi a/
Department of Comparative Literature, Brown Uni versity

In one of his more recent films, Happy Time (1999) , Zhang
Yimou has inserted a remarkable scene that may be cited as asummation of his consistently dialectical treatment of visuality. At thehome of the fat lady who just received a marriage proposal from her
suitor, Lao Zhao, we encounter the blind girl, left in her care by her
previous husband, who has moved to Shenzhen. In order to impress
her suitor, the fat lady, who normally treats this step-daughter rather
cruelly, serves the latter some ice cream. But this gesture of kindness
lasts only as long as the brief duration of the suitor 's visit. Once hehas left, the fat lady snatches the cup of ice cream from the blind girl
and, scolding her as someone not worthy of such a luxury item, puts
it back in the refrigerator.
Although it is possible to derive a moral lesson from this scene(for instance , by seeing it as yet another illustration of the lamentablecondition of human hypocrisy), what is much more interesting is thesuggestive reading it offers of the semiotics and politics of seeing indeed , of sight itself as a kind of material sign around which specificvalues are implicitly enacted and negotiated. The fat lady's
opportunistic manner of handling the ice cream indicates that sight,
as what renders the world accessible, is not a natural but an artificial
phenomenon, one that is, moreover, eminently manipulable. The fat
lady consciously performs to Lao Zhao's sight by making anappearance of her own generosity; yet once that sight is no longer
around, there is no need for this performance to continue . Sight, inother words, is not a medium of transparency or a means ofunderstanding, as we commonly think; rather, it is a surveillancemechanism installed on (other) human bodies, which means that one
must behave appropriately when someone else is watching, but that
otherwise there is no intrinsic reason to do so. What Lao Zhao "sees"is actually the opposite of what he thinks he has obviously seen or
understood. The fat lady's behaviour is disturbing because, contrary]66

Session Ill

Rey Chowto what most people believe, she has not internalized or naturalized
the function of sight in such a way as to make it her own conscience,
her automatized self surveillance.Sight remains for her something ofan arbitrary and external function , a device to be exploited for her
own benefit . As the film goes on to show, with the events that unfold
around the blind girl, sight can also be a disability, an elaborate
network of mendacity devised to fool oth ers that ends up, ironically,
T hese brief observatio ns abo ut

Happy Time are offered here as an
introduction to the film featured

trapping oneself more and more deeply. Having sight is notnecessarily the opposite of being blind but may under somein this chapter, Not One Less,but

circumstances become an extension of blindness , a kind of handicap

because of the wo rd limi t set bythat distorts or obstructs reality as much as the physical inability tothe publishers, a full analysis ofthem w ill have to await anoth er

see. 1

occasio n.

Thi s distinctiv e grasp of the materiality of a medium that has
traditionally been associated with clarity, wisdom, and transcendental

See, for instance, the discussio ns ofZ hang' s evolving wo rk in thespecial issue devoted to Not One

less entitled Yigedou bunengshao
yingpian geanftnxi, in Zhongguo
dianying meixue: 1999 [Aesthetics
of Chin ese Film: 1999] (published
Oc tober, 2 000 ), and vario us
discussio ns of the film in Dianying

yishu [Film Art], no. I Oanua ry 5,
2001 ), no. 3 (Ma y 5, 2000), no. 5(September 10, 1999).

vision continues to mark Zhang Yimou's films of the mid to late
1990s and early 2000s, despite the rather misleading criticalconsensus that his recent films depart sharply from the early ones -Red Sorghum (1988) , Judou (1990) , and Raisethe Red Lantern (1991)-

that made him internationally famous. 2 It is now often suggested

that Zhang has more or less abandoned the orientalist styles of theearly classics, which portray a mythified timeless China in order topander to the tastes of foreign devils, for a realist cinematic style that
depicts simple people 's lives in contemporary Chinese society. The

See Zhang Yiwu, 'Zaidu

xiangxiangzhongguo:quanqiuhua
de tiaozhanyu xin de 'neixianghua'[On ce Again Imagining China:

the Chall~nge of Globalizationand the New "Inward-Lookin gTend ency"]," Dianyingyishu, no.

1 Oanuary 5, 2001 ), pp. 16-2 1.
Acc ording to Zhang Yiwu, films
made by the Fifth Ge neratio ndirecto rs in the 198 0s represented

well-known cultural critic Zhang Yiwu, for instance , has argued that
this stylistic change, observed in films such as The Story of Qiuju(1993) , Keep Cool(1997) , and The Road Home (1999-2000), as well
as Not One Less(1999-2000) and Happy Time, may be traceable tothe changing trend s in the mainland Chinese film industry , which has
been compelled by the pressures of globalization to produce a more
inward-looking approach to the issues of China today. 3 Having

a brief period in which thedirectors reacted against che"inward-loo king" tradition inallegedly made such a change, Zhang has, it seems, finally been

Chin ese cinema (a cinema that

hostile critics, who not only consent ed to having him serve as theco ncerns itself primarily withdirector of the unprecedented , internationall y collaborative

Chinese history and society) ro
create an "outward loo king" on e
intent on drawin g the attention of
the rest o f the world. W ith most of
the wo rld in eco no mic recessio n
and the ove rseas market for
Chin ese film dwindlin g in recent
years, howeve r, that o utward-

accepted and endor sed even by the Chin ese authorities , once his mostperformance of Puccini's opera Turandot in Beijing in September
1998 (with Zubin Mehta as the conductor) but also appointed Zhang
to film the official document ary showcasing Beijing in China's
competition for hosting the 2008 Olympics. While this saga of how anative son who was first accused of selling out to the West is

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367

subsequencly fully co-opted by his critics for purposes that are, strictly

looki ng mo ment, argues Z hang,speaking, no less orientalist, no less opportunistic, and no lesshas passed. Globalization, hewrites, has led paradoxically to acommodific ation-driven, has to be dealt with in detail elsewhere, myrenewa l of the traditio n ofpoint in bringing it up is simply to emphasize how the story ofce ntered o n Ch ina's inte rnal

alternating rebuke and embrace that has followed Zhang' s career, too ,problems and produced for a

may itself be taken as an example of the power struggle over seeing
and visualiry in postcolonial postmoderniry , a power struggle ofwhich Zhang's work to date has provided some of the mostprovocative demonstrations . 4
My aim, then, is to argue, in part through a reading of Not One
Less, that the warm reception ofZhang 's more realist films is perhaps

as problem atic as the hostile reactions to his early ones.
While the early films are consistently accused of orientalist
tendencies involving ungrounded fantasies, the realist ones are
generally considered as a return to more authentic subject matter anda faithful documentary style. But as one critic, Shi Wenhong, points
out in relation to Not One Less, the subject matter of present-day
poverty, too, can be exotic in the eyes of some (Western) audiences. 5
The valorization of realism as an ethnographically moreauthentic/faithful representation of a culture remains, strictly
speaking, part and parcel of an ideological legacy, in particular that
accompan ying the treatment of non-Western peoples. (One need
only think of National Geographic to see my point. 6 ) Indeed , thestud y of modern and contemporary China is so dominated by socalled realism that even the most imaginative writings and artworks,"inward- loo king" cinema,

predom inantly C hin ese audience .
H e w rites: "Globa lizatio n is notjust a background but a problem
internal to film" (p .19).

For a disc ussio n o f theimplications of orientalism raisedby Zhang's early work, see my
Primitive Passions:Visuafity,

Sexuality,Ethnography,andContemporaryChineseCinema(New York: Co lumbia UP, 1995),
part 2, chapter 4, and part 3. For
relateddiscussions, including
Zhang's responses to some of his
critics, see the interviews with
Zhang regarding the making of
Not One less in the following:

Zhongguodianying meixue: 1999,
pp.29-35;/iushi niandai d,diwudai [The Fifth Generation ofChinese Filmmakers in the
1990s], ed. Yang Yuanying et al.
(Beijing: Beijing guangbo xueyuanchub anshe, N ovember 2000),
12 1-27. For general interest, seealso Zhang Yimou: Interviews, ed.
Frances Gareward Qackson: U ofMississipp i P, 2001 )however avant-garde they might be, have tended to be read largely forfactographic value, for making contributions to the production of
empirical knowledge about China . This critical proclivity towardrealism in the institution of area studies is inseparable from thestrategic targeting of non-We stern political regimes during the Cold
War , and the representational politics surrounding China remaintightly in its grip. If the preference for realist depictions belongs to athoroughly politicized history of reading and viewing China (one inwhich the aesthetic qualities of works tend to be sidestepped or
dismissed in order to legitimate the dogged attempts at information
retrieval), then the critical, indeed laudatory, revaluation of a director
such as Zhang in the form of "Ah, he is finally becoming more
realist!" must itself be subjected to rethinking.

As I will argue in the following reading of Not One Less, what is]68

Session Ill

See Shi Wenhong, "Yegedou
bunengshao de aichou [TheSadness of Not One LessJ,"
Yingpingrenjikan [Film Critics
Q uarterly], no. 6 (2000), p.7.

6
For a susrajned critique of themagazine's politics of representing
non-Western cultures, see
Catherine A. Lun and Jane L.
Collins, Reading National
Geographic(Chicago: U of
Chicago P, I 993).

intriguing about Zhang's work is the possibility it offers for a critiqueof the historical import of the mediatized image, a critique that may
have lirrle to do with Zhang's personal intention per se bur thatnevertheless rakes shape through the semiotic movement discernible
in his handling of visuality. If Zhang has chosen more realist-looking
locales, characters, and happenings in comparison with the mythicalstories of his early films, 7 his recent work nevertheless continues ro
The cast of Not One Less, forinstance, was made up of amateurdeliver shrewd reflections on rhe politics of visuality and culturalactors, many of whom were actual
villagers from the film's location.
Some of these villagers' names

identity, and their imbrications with the massively uneven effects ofglobalization.

were used for characters' names in
the film. Howeve r, as Xiaoling

Such shrewd reflections have to do with Zhang's grasp of

Zhang points out, "the wholesuggestion of reality is entirely
artificial: the school was chosenfrom a few dozen schools in chatarea, the eighteen pupils wereselected from among thousands ofpupils, and the girl playing Wei
Minzhi was picked from rwenry
thousand girls, in an auditioning
process which lasted more thanhalf a month ." See Zhang , "A
Film Director's Criticism of
Reform Chi na: A Close Readingof Zhang Yimou 's Not One Less,"

China Information Vol. XV, 2(200 I), p. I 38.

visuality as a second-order labour -labour not in rhe physical sense

bur in the form of cinematic and mediatized signification. Hence,stricdy speaking, rhe early films displaying China's decrepitude were
nor only about poor peasants struggling against the injustice oflife in
the countryside bur also about a process in which such struggles aretransformed, through the film apparatus, into signs for a certain
encounter, signs that convey the cross-cultural imaginary,"Chineseness," to those watching it from the outside. Making thesesigns, building entertaining stories around them, and rendering themvisually appealing are for Zhang never a matter of realist reflectionism
but always a marrer of the specificities of filmmaking, ofexperimenting with colour, sound, time control, and narrative. His
critics, by contrast, have repeatedly ignored rhe materiality of thisfilmmaking process and insisted on the reality that is somehow always

As one critic, Zeng G uang, writes:"Under the current politicallying beyond ir. For the larrer, rhar reality is, of course, always China

system, he [Zhang Yimou] feelsthat the biggest difference between
himself and directo rs from foreign

and its people, a reality that 1) must, it is implied, direct and dictate

co untries, Hong Kong, andTaiwan lies in the fact that 'when I3) must nonetheless continue to be used as a criterion for judging afilm's merits .

receive a film script, the first thing
I chink about is nor whether cherewill be an investor for the film, bur

how I can make the kind of film I
want with the approval of che
authorities ." This passage is citedas the epigrap h in Sheldon H. Lu,"Understanding Chinese Film
Cu lture at the End of theTwentieth Centu ry: T he Case of
Not One less by Zhang Yimou,"journal of Modern Literature in
Chinese, vol. 4, no. 2 Oanuary2001), pp.123-142.

how films should be made; 2) will always escape such framing; yet

In light of the hegemony of realist reflecrionism in rhe field ofChina studies and of the obdurate moralism of his critics, it isinteresting to consider rhe tactical adaptations Zhang makes in his
evolving work. 8 As a way perhaps to distract and elude his critics'
sight, he has been, over the past several years, making films rhat
indeed seem more documentary-like in their contents and serrings.
Often, these films are about poor rural folk or xiaoshimin (ordinary
citizens) in big cities, whose lives are unglamorous but filled withhardships. Like Red Sorghum, ju Dou, and Raise the Red Lantern, these

SessionIll369

films are marked by Zhang's characteristic fascination with humanendurance: the female characters in Qiuju, The Road Home, andHappy Time, like those in the early films, stubbornly persist in theirpursuit of a specific goal. But whereas Jiu' er, J udou, Songlian, andYan' er (the servant girl in Raise the Red Lantern) pay for their strengthof character with their own lives or their sanity, the more
contemporary female characters tend to be successful in getting what
they want. Similarly, in Not One Less, we witness a young girl's
struggle against systemic indifference that ends happily. Whereas theearlier films seem to be exhibits of a bygone cultural system, sealed off
with an exotic allure, a film such as Not One Less seems to offer hope.
Is this indeed so?
The story of Not One Less is briefly as follows. At the primaryschool of an impoverished northern Chinese village (Shuiquan
Village), a group of pupils are learning under difficult conditions.
Their teacher, Mr. Gao, has to go home to tend to his sick mother,and a thirteen-year-old girl from a neighboring village, Wei Minzhi, ishired as his substitute for one month. Before leaving, Mr. Gao advises
Wei that quite a number of the pupils have been dropping out andinstructs her to make sure that the remaining twenty-eight stay until
he returns -"not one less." For her substitute teaching, Wei ispromised 50 yuan. As she starts teaching, the pupils are not exactly
cooperative, and Wei is confronted with various obstacles, including
the relative lack of chalk, which she must use sparingly. One day, aboy named Zhang Huike fails to show up: his mother is ill and in
debt, and can no longer afford his school fees, so the boy has been
sent off to the city to look for work. Wei is determined to bring thispupil back. Afrer a series of failed efforts at locating him, she succeeds
in getting the attention of the manager of the city's television station,
who arranges for her to make an appeal on a program called "Today
in China." Zhang Huike, who is washing dishes at a restaurant andsees Wei on TV, is moved to tears by Wei's appeal and turns himself
in. Teacher and pupil return to the village with a crowd of reporters
as well as a large supply of classroom materials and gift donations to
the village from audiences who have watched the program.

If stubbornness, persistence, and endurance are human qualities
that recur in Zhang's films, in Not One Less they take on the
additional significance of being constituents of a humanism vis-a-vis
an impersonal and inefficient official system, which is impotent in

370

SessionIl lremedying the disastrous conditions of the village school. But how
does this humanism express itself! Ironically, it does so through thevery spirit of productionism that is, arguably, left over from official
socialist propaganda, a producrionism most clearly evident in theform of quantifiable accumulation (we recall the slogans of the Great
Leap Forward period, for instance, during which the campaign for
national well-being was promoted in terms of measurable units - somany cons of steel, so many cons of iron, so many tons of agriculcural
produces, etc.). As critics have reminded us, Wei Minzhi has come co
Shuiquan Village to work for 50 yuan. Money, however, is only partof the issue. As the film progresses, we are made increasingly aware of
the ideological as well as economic problem of how resources(ofwhich money is an important though not the exclusive component)are (supposed) co be garnered and produced.
The clearest example of such produccionism is the elementary
method of counting and permuting adopted by Wei and her pupils cocollect her bus fare for the ciry. Moving one brick (in a nearby
factory), they discover, will earn chem 15 cents, so to make 15 yuan,
they should move 100 bricks. Although chis method of making
money is based on a basic exchange principle units of cash -X units of labour; Y

its anachronism is apparent precisely in themechanical correspondence established berween rwo different kinds ofvalues involved -concrete muscular/manual labour, on the one

hand, and the abstract, general equivalent of money, on the other.
Sustained by the belief char if they contribute their labour they will
indeed get the proper remuneration, the girl teacher and her pupils
put themselves to work. At Zhang's hands, chis simple event, what
appears at first co be a mere narrative detail, turns out to be the
manifestation of an entire economic rationale. As is demonstrated by
the numerical calculations Wei and her pupils perform on theblackboard, chis rationale is based not only on manual labour but also
on the mathematics of simple addition, mulciplicacion, and division.
At the heart of chis rationale is an attributed continuum, or balance,
berween the two sides of the equation -a continuum whereby effort

logically and proportionally translates into reward.
The tension and, ultimately, incompatibility between chisearnest, one-on-one method of accounting, on the one hand, and theincreasingly cechnologized, corporarized, and abstract (chat is, Enronesque) method of value generation, on the ocher, is staged in a series

Sessionlll371

of frustrations encountered by Wei, who is confronted each time withthe futility of her own calculations. First, having earned $15 formoving I 00 bricks, she and her pupils discover rhat the bus fare isactually $20.50 each way. She attempts co solve chis problem with her
physical body, first by crying to get on the bus illegally and then,reluctantly, by walking . She is finally able to get a ride with a truck
driver. On arriving in the city with $9 (having already spent $6 on
rwo cans of Coca-Cola for her pupils), she has to agree to pay $2.50
to the girl who was last with Zhang Huike before chis girl will cakeher to the train station to look for him. The rwo girls end up paging
him with a loudspeaker announcement around the station -to noavail. Wei spends the remainder of her money, $6.50, on ink , paper,and a brush in order co write out her notices one by one, only to becold by a passerby that such notices are useless and then to have rhem
blown all over by the wind and swept away by the morning street
cleaners. By chis time Wei has, at the passerby's suggestion, made her
way co the television station. After a long and stubborn wait, she
finally succeeds in getting the attention of the manager.
Unlike her counterparts in Zhang 's early films, women who havebecome immobilized in their rural positions or household status, Wei
is the heroine of a migration, the migration from the countryside to
the city. Even the countryside , however, is not the pure, original,
primitive locale it is often imagined co be: the bus fare and rhe priceof a can of Coke are but rwo examples of how a remote poor village,coo, is part of the global capitalist circuit premised on commodified
exchanges. If there is a residual primitivism here, it is, I'd contend,
the ideology of accounting chat Wei embodies, an ideology that has
her believe chat the expenditure of physical efforts will somehow bebalanced off by due compensation and chat, if she would try just alittle harder, an equivalence can somehow be found berween rhe rwo.
To chis extent, the film's tide, Yigedou bu neng shaoeven one can be allowed to be missing -literally, notforegrounds this ideology ofaccounting in an unexpected manner: the ostensible goal of bringing
back rhe missing child becomes simultaneously the epistemologicalframe over which a residual and familiar kind of passion unfurls one chat is organized around actual, countable bodies, in an economy
in which resources are still imagined as successive, iterative units chatcan be physically stockpiled, expended, or retrieved at will. 9 Wei's
migration co the city is thus really a migration to a drastically different]72

SessionIll

9
No te chat although the film wasadopted from Shi Xiangsheng's
sto ry "Tian shang you ge taiyang [ASun in the Sky]." Feitian, no. 6(1997), Zhang changed the tide to
one chat highlights the act of
co unting (bodies).

mode of value production, a mode in which, instead of the exertionsof the physical body , it is the mediacized image chat arbitrates, chatnot only achieves her goal for her but also has the ability to makeresources proliferate beyond her wildest imagination.
Despite her strenuous physical efforts (moving bricks, walking ,writing out notices longhand, sleeping on the street, starving, waitingfor hours) , it is when Wei transforms herself into an image on
metropolit an television chat she finally and effortlessly accomplishes
her mission . As Wang Yichuan comments, there are two stories in
Zhang's film: one is about "human struggle"; the other has to do with
the importance of money and television, and the emergence of themediacized sign:
Money has been playing a fundamental role throughout theentire film: it is closely linked to Wei Minzhi 's job as a substituteteacher, her attempt to save chalk, the collective moving ofbricks, her ride to the city, and her search [for the missing pupil]through television; what's more, money controls it all. On chisbasis, the film seems emphatically to be narrating or confirming afrequently forgotten "reality," namely, that television and money
are playing controlling functions in people's ordinary daily life
experiences. My sense is that the narrative structure of the entire
film contains two stories: underneath the story about a girl as a
substitute teacher lurks another story -the story about themagic of television or money ...
When the bumpkin-ish and flustered Wei Minzhi isbrought before the TV screen by the program anchor as theinterviewee making her appeal to the public , her bumpkin-nessand simplicity are no longer just bumpkin-ness and simplicity
10

but instead turned into a powerful and conquering sign. 10

Wang Yichuan, "Wenmingyu
wenming de yeman [Civilization
and Civilized Barbariry],"

The return to Shuiquan Village muse therefore be understood as

Zhongguo dianying meixue, 1999,

pp.67 •75; the cited passagesare on
pages 71 and 73; loose translationfrom the Chinese is mine. This is
the only reading I have co mea post-migration event, when the system of value making has been
fundamentall y altered , when the fatigued, confused, and powerlessfigure of the girl herself has been transformed into an image signifying

across char identifies mon ey and"the rural population. " Recall how Wei 's appeal is dramatized onrhe media as che decisive issues ofthe film.

television: she is featured on the program "Today in China, " aimed
explicicly at educating the metropolitan audiences about China's rural
areas. As the anchor introduces the objectives of the program , in the

Session 111

J 73

background appear s a bucolic , bright green lawn with pretty bluishhills in the distance and a clean white tricycle with flowers in front.
This fantastical landscape, in stark contrast to the landscape of
Shuiquan Village we have already seen, conjures the national
imaginary by drawing attention to rhe plight of rhe countryside as anurgent social problem. Anonymous and unrelated TV consumers arethus interpellared as "rhe Chinese people" and, although they havenever mer the villagers in the flesh -how materially deprived they

are, how hard they must work to keep surviving, and so forth -theeffect of Wei-the-image is such char it forges "meaningful links"
among this network of strangers at the speed of virtuality .
Once the rural population has been disseminated as a televised
image, charitable donations pour in, and the rerurn of Wei andII
Hu Ke w rites that Z hang's

narrative method is like an "ad forcharity." See his "jishiyu xugou[Do cum entary Record andFictional Co nstruct]," Zhongguo

dianying meixue: 1999, pp.4 1-49;
the po int abo ut "ad for charity" isZhang to the village is accompanied by a plenitude of supplies,o n page 42. Thi s view is shared byincluding especially color chalk of various kinds, which allow the

Wang Ailing, "Tinghua de haizi[Ob edient Children], " in I 999
Xianggang dianying huigu [A Look
Back at Hong Kong Cinema of1999] (Hong Kong: Xianggang
dianying pinglun xuehui, 2000),
pp .301-302; Valerie Wo ng, "Not
One less," Cinemaya 4 5 (1999),
pp.20-2 1. Thi s type of reading is

students to practice writing a character each on the blackboard. Aswell, chis return is accompanied by eager reporters wirli.cameras,
intent on "documenting " the village and its inhabitants with arelenrless, henceforth infinitely reproducible gaze. In a public spheremade up of electronically transmitted signals, virtuality transforms
exponentially into cash, in ways that would never have beeno cher critics: see, for instance,

nor incorrect, but the mainachievable by the earnest logic of calculating resources on which Wei

problem I have with it is char theseand her students had sought to rely. The closing credits offer aa compl eted realist messagerather

glimpse of the positive outcomes of chis migration toward the image:critics tend co read Zhang's film asthan as a process and a struccure in
w hich a dialec tical und erstandin g

Zhang Huike 's family debt is paid off; Wei is able to return to her(of the changes brought co

own village; the girl pupil who is a fast runner has gone on to join the

C hin ese soc iety by the new medi a)county's track meet, and the village is now renamed Shuiquan Villageof Hope. Finally, we read this important message: "One million
children drop our of school because of poverty in China every year.

is being actively produ ced. Wh ile
they are right about the ex plicit"propaganda" at the end of thefilm , then, they also tend co missthe signi ficance o f the presence ofWith financial assistance from various sourc es, about 15 percent ofother "propagan da" messages

them are able to return to school. " 11and hard wor k, and theIf what Zhang has provided with his early films is an imaginary
ethnographic treatment of China -as a decrepit primitive culture -(includin g che virtues of frugality
ratio nalistic logic, int ernalized bypoor peop le, of equa ti ng unit s o fphysical labour wi th uni ts ofwhat he accomplishes in Not One Less is, to my mind , a similar kindfinancial reward), a prese nce chatof ethnographic experim ent , albeit with in Chine se society itself. Wh atfilm. For an o ppos ite type of

is often criticized as the orientali st gaze in Zhang's early films, a gazethat produces China as exotic, erotic, corrupt , patriarchally repressive,and so forth for the pleasurable consumption of Western audienc es ishere given a thought-prov oking twist to become none other than the374

Session Ill

is staged througho ut che entire
reading char sees Z hang's film no cas propagand a but as a laudable
piece of soc ial criticism , see

Xiaoling Zhang, "A Film
D irecto r's C riticism of Refo rm
C hin a."national gaze. Whereas the object of the otientalist gaze in the earlyfilms is arguably an ahistorical "China," in Not One Less that object ismore specifically China's "rural population " living in wretched
conditions, especially children deprived of education. In the latter
case, the similarly fetishizing and exploitative tendency of the media isunderwritten not by the discourse of orientalism (read: depraved
Western imperialist practice) but instead by the oft-repeated andcliched discourse of national self-strengthening and concern for future
12

For the latter point, as well as an
informative discussion ofZhang 's

generations ("Save the children!"). 12 These two seemingly opposed
discour ses are affined paradoxically through the magic of the image,film in relationro recent

which not only supersedes older notions of the exchange value ofco ndition s of film produc tion andreception in mainland China, seelabour bur eradicates the validity of manual labour and production

Lu, "'UnderstandingChinese Filmaltogether. The image asserts itself now as the indomitable way of

Cu lture at the End of theTwentieth Century."creating resources, displacing an obsolete method such as moving one
brick= 15 cents to the abject peripheries of contemporary Chinesesociety.
This migration toward the dominance of the image, which
Zhang explores through an appare ntly more realist contemporary
story is, therefore, in tandem with the experimental attitude expressed
toward visuality in his early films. The humani stic impulses that guidethe narrative , leading it toward the telos of collective good, are at thesame time punctured by a firm refusal on Zhang's part to idealize or
eulogize the image, including especially that of Wei making her
sentimental plea. Instead , the latter is consciously presented as amedia event in the new information economy. The image works, as it
were, by deflating the currency of (human) work. Seen in this light,
Not One Less rejoins the explorations of the non-urban others in the

Chinese films of the 1980s (Yellow Earth [Chen Kaige, 1984), On the
Hunting Ground [Tian Zhuangzhuang, 1985], Sacrificed Youth[Zhang Nuanxin, 1985], Horse Thief[Tian Zhuangzhuang, 1986], A
Good Woman [Huang Jianzhong, 1986], King of the Children [Chen

Kaige, 1987], just to mention a handful), albeit with a different
emphasis. In the 1980s, when cultural introspection took shape in theaftermath of the Cultural Revolution, film offered the Fifth
Generation directors and their contemporaries the exciting possibilityof experimenting with technological reproducibility and artful
defamiliarization. As China becomes globalized at the turn of the 21st
century, the anthropological impulses of the 1980s films have given
way to a sociological one . From an investment in, or a fascination

SessionIll375

with, China's otherness, filmmaking at the hands of Zhang has
shifted to a seasoned and cautionary approach co visuality as social
regimentation, discipline, and surveillance, but above all as benevolent
coercion.

In dramatizing this trans-valuation of the labour performed overquantifiable, slowly cumulative time (bricks, hours, days, dollars,
written notices) into an instantaneous spectacle, Not One Less stages aschism between two irreconcilable kinds of philosophical trajectories.
There is, on the one hand, the trajectory opened in accordance with apro-Enlightenment telos of a better and brighter future, coward whichhuman will power and media capability inadvertently join forces. On
the other hand, as is demonstrated by the usurpacory nature of themediatized image and its tendency to cannibalize human labour, weare confronted with an aggressive radicalization of the terms ofcommunication, communal relations, and, increasingly in the case of
the People's Republic of China, communism's own political agenda.
The image's limitless potential, in this regard, cannot be seen naively
as an ally co human will power or simply as its latest instrument.
Rather, its smooth and speedy superficialiry announces a newcollective reality to which human will power is likely co find itself
increasingly subordinated, and co which human beings, especiallythose struggling against any kind of social inequity, will need to resort
just co be recognized. AI-, the ending of the film shows, it is co theimage that people will give their concern and compassion, and it is
the image, rather than the actual suffering human body, that now
generates capital and, with it, social influence and political power.
!nstead of propelling us toward the telos of an improved future, then,this other philosophical trajectory lays bare the expanse and intensityof a new kind of oppression.
This dialectical narrative method, which is as astute in its
cynicism (in the etymological sense of skepticism) coward the
mediatized image as it is skilled in conveying a warm, sentimental
story, remains Zhang 's unique contribution. His work is about therelationship between labour and the image, about the transit from an
economy in which humans can still make the world with their
physical bodies co one in which the image has taken over thatfunction, leaving those bodies in an exotic but also superfluous
condition (a condition in which being "real" simply means being
stuck, that is, unable to trans-valuate into cash).

]76

Session Ill

As in Happy Time, the ability to see, the availability of sight, andthe possibility of becoming a spectacle that are made such palpable
events in contemporary Chinese life are turned by Zhang into theingredients of a fable with a certain moral. Bur the notion of fable isrooted in the process of fabulation, and the moral at stake in Zhang' s
work is often els.ewherefrom the place at which his critics try to see it.
However artificial, being and becoming imaged is, his recent worksays, something no one can afford not to desire; yet the everexpanding capacities for seeing and, with chem, the infinite
transmigrations of cultures -national, ethnic, rural -intocommodified electronic images are part and parcel of an emergent
regime of value making chat is as utterly ruthless as it is utterly
creative. With the harsh and flexible materiality of this regime, critics
of contemporary Chinese cinema have yet, seriously, to come to13

terms. 13

Thanks to Chris Berry,Yomi
Braescer, and Yvonne Leung fortheir assistance with this essay.

SessionIll]77

Discussion

Moderator[5. Yoshimij: In this morning's discussion, Session II,
we talked about exhibiting the art and culture of Asia within thesystem of art museums, biennials, and other art events and how
these exhibitions are related co che trend of globalization. This
afternoon, I would like co expand che category of arc co include
film, cheater, and che performing arcs as well as the visual arcs andcake up questions of che representations and systems ofcontemporary Asian culture and issues of globalization andpower.
After chis morning's discussion, I believe chat all of us havebecome more aware of che issues involved. Particularly withreference co chis afternoon's presentation, what exaccly isrepresented, or what is excluded, when Asia is represented?
We are not approaching chis issue simply at the level of aconventional view of the East, che stereotypical representation ofAsia, or of China or India. Of course, stereotypes of Asia, onesided definitions of Asia as the "ocher," still have a strong hold, as
can be seen in events following September 11th. Under suchcircumstances, as Professor Tacehaca pointed out chis morning,
multicultural representation can play a limited but critical role.
We need co understand this as we look at che issues presented
by our speakers this afternoon, Professor Chow, Mr. Elliott, andMr. Vellani: representations oflndia, China, and Japan incontemporary art; representations oflndia in contemporary
Indian cheater; representations of China in films; representationof contemporaneity in Asia. While looking at Asia represented byits poverty, contradictions, and hybrid or mixed cultures, we needco chink about che questions of what is represented or not

represented in these cases, why chis is so and what can be done
about it.

]78

SessionIll

Having called attention to some of the issues, I would like toopen the discussion to the floor. We would also like to hear thecomments of our three panelists. Could you cake questions fromthe floor, and also comment on each ocher's presentations?
Question: I would like co pose a question to arc professionals inJapan. I live here. In chis conference, we have been discussing
political issues and ideological frameworks. le does not seem tome chat there has been much discussion of arc as such eventhough ic is supposed co be a symposium about representations ofAsian arc or about Asian arc that is not represented. In chatcontext, I would like co ask the following question: "Is it possible
to bridge the gap, which was formed in the Meiji Era, between
the traditional and modern, which I chink are two sides of thesame coin?" I think chat both were established through che same
movement.
While living in Japan, I have noticed two things. First, arc
professionals form circles that never make contact with eachocher. Curators are bound by feudalism. le is thought traditionalarc is wrong, tainted by ideology, and indicative of an
unprogressive attitude chat cannot be incorporated in a modern,progressive presentation of Japan. That is a pity. I chink chat mostforeigners also feel chis way too. We are also interested in the oldand traditional Japan. That is not because we are Oriencaliscs but
because there are aesthetic ideas and activities left in Japan thathave been lose in che West. Traditional values have been lose in
the West because of che philosophical change since Kane. In theWest, arc is considered a liberating force. Therefore ic muse beunderstood philosophically. le muse serve to liberate theindividual. That is why the arts in the imperial era were only
Western . Everything else was considered decoration.
le seems a pity chat Asia and Japan would accept these ideas
and recognized such a narrow definition of arc. I chink ic would
be better if Asia would reexamine the positive aspects of traditionand promote chem in che world. I chink chis is something chatshould also be discussed. le may not seem relevant, but I chink
you can understand what I am crying co say.

SessionJII

379

Question: There was a presentation on the film, Not One Less.

Film is considered arc, but it is also a medium chat mirrors social
problems. I am confused about che "arc" chat is discussed here at
the symposium. Are you referring co arc as a form of high culcure,or are you referring co arc as something chat mirrors social issues?
Moderator IS.Yoshimi): So the question is about che concept ofarc?
Question: My question regards the issue of gender. The film chatwe saw reminded me of Fukuda Kazuko, a female murderer
whose images were sensationally aired on television screen when_she got arrested right before the ten-year statute of limitations ran
out. I felt chat che media was driven ro portray her as an evil
woman. In contrast, che young girl in today's film appeared on
television with a committed, wholesome, and innocent image.
I understood chat che direcror of chis film always features aheroine in his films, but I wonder if you could comment on why
he prefers a female protagonist.
Question: I have a question for Professor Chow. For me, thescene in which the two female characters interacted on the
television screen was a dialog between urban and rural people.

380

SessionIll

What is your comment on the three types of female characters
who are portrayed in the film -an urban woman, a woman intransition, and a woman who is absent, who cells her son co comehome but is not there when he does? What do you chink of theirrelationships? When we chink of what they portray as images, chewoman who has been a teacher seems co be che final image. Why
is chis? I am interested in knowing why chis is important.
Question: I am a student from Beijing, China, studying in Japan.

le has been very interesting co listen co che discussion today.
I have two questions. One refers co an account of Cai
Guoqiang who won the Internacional Award at the Venice
Biennale, bur was criticized by a group in China. His casesymbolizes the discrimination, division, or conflict between an
elite international Chinese artist who has studied overseas andnative Chinese artists, who cannot speak English and do not haveany chance of being invited co a biennial. How should chis issue
be seen in the context of globalization?
The second question refers co a work by an artist from
Bangladesh who was showing at che Fukuoka Asian Arc Museum
two years ago. His work involved cloth and photographs chatwere dyed in blood, as his concept was visual pain. In relation co
Mr. Mohamad's presentation on pain and today's discussion on
exhibitions, I would like co have your comment on how chis pain
could be rendered so chat it could be revealed in an exhibit.
Question: There was a comment about "beyond the borders"referring co activities chat reach beyond art and interact withsociology and ocher disciplines. I chink today's globalization isbased on information and media, which are influencing che arcs aswell. The art chat has been discussed so far has been limited cocontemporary arc. Bue today's artworld consists of scientists andengineers, coo. I chink without these professionals, today's art
would not exist. Yee, science or engineering are still considered cobe anti-art disciplines.
The broadband era has arrived and we need co talk about thekind of art chat will flourish with che help of broadband media

Session Ill381

technology, and new museums will need to accommodate it. I
wonder how you would like to deal with chis issue in creating a
new museum.
Moderator[S. Yoshimi]: Thank you. Several questions were raised,

so I would like to invite our panelists to respond to chem. I would
also like to invite chem to comment on the issues raised chat wererelevant to all three areas - visual arts, performing arts, and film.
Could I ask Mr. Elliott to respond first?
D. ElIiott: I would like to respond to che first question, although
you know I am not Japanese, regarding traditional discourse andwhy chis is avoided within che dialog about modernity. I chink
the position chat tradition has is strong in the culture, and, until
quite recently, chis has been a binary system where there is a
traditional discourse and a modern or a contemporary discourse.
People decide which they are going to be. Sometimes they may bein one, and some times in the ocher camp. What is very
interesting in Japan now is chat che boundaries berween these rwo
separate camps are eroding. One can even talk about chis in amuseological context.
For example, an excellent exhibition at the National Museumof Modern Arc, Tokyo, "The Unfinished Century: Legacies of
20th Century Arc" Qanuary 16-March 10, 2002) chis year whichlooked at che development of modernity in Japan from the 1880s
to the 1970s. le showed a few Western influence s and it went
through several movements, starting with Realism, yoga, Cubism,
Futurism, and included nihonga,photography, and war paintings(which Germans still find difficulc to integrate in theirexhibitions). I thought it was very strong show because it was
confronting both art and history. You made a comment chatthings were quite political. Bue the subject is representation, andrepresentation is political. le is both an ideological a_nda politicalissue. For us to have been talking from any ocher point of view,"just from an artistic standpoint" for example, would have beendifficulc if not impossible.
Arc is intimately involved with representation, but I would

JBI

Session!IInot want reduce art to politics or to ideologies. It is much greaterthan that, but it is involved with both and is also part of a system
which has been formed by ideology. An cannot be wholly
innocent of either ideology or politics.
Ifl understood the question about Cai Guoqiang correctly,
the question was why does Cai Guoqiang get all the credit when
there are many other artists in China who do not get represented
outside. You are right. There is an arc circuit which is selfreinforcing. One reason he gets represented is he is a very good
artist. There is no doubt about it. But there may be artists who do
not get represented, and if you consider only the issue of who isrepresented, I think that you are in danger of tokenism. You getyour token Mexican, Chinese, and other artists, because people
know -or pronounce -their names, and if they have a trackrecord, they will appear again. That is something about thesystem, and we who work in the system may have a position
towards it as to whether it is a good or a bad thing. Our ultimate
duty is not ro be fair. Our duty is to make good exhibitions. I
think our duty is to look for as many good artists as possible.
To jump to the question about blood, pain, andpresentation, I think self-mutilation has been a real subject in art,
certainly in literature, and in the arts from the 1970s, within
performance works in Europe and North America and it is now
very much part of the current discourse within performance inAsia. One can think of Chandrasekaran, from Singapore , whoholds live performances with tensioned fish hooks impaling his
body. He does not suffer much, but they are quite shocking. Aie
they any good? The shock is not the issue. We have to think
about the meaning. How is he making his statement? What dothese actions, which are strongly gendered, mean? How is it
different when a woman uses or shows her own blood in a
performance as when a man does the same thing? We need toreflect on what that adds up to.
Lastly, about the idea of art and anti-technologicalstatements. I was not aware that anyone has been making any
anti-technological statements. I think that the point is that many
artists are now dependent on technicians and people who are able

Session Ill

383

to use these technologies. Any museum today needs a lot oftechnicians just co operate. The thing is technology is apossibility. Ir is a medium . I do not agree chat medium ismessage. Arr can counteract chis. The medium is very powerful,bur it is up co the artist co use rhe medium co make a message. If
you lee it become the message, which I understand is what Zhang
Yimou's film was largely about, you get into the system of
oppression . We must let not char happen. Be it charcoal, video, or
anything digital, rhe medium is only something you work with.
You work with it in the best way. If we do nor, we lose control.

Moderator[S.Yoshimi):Mr. Vellani, please.
A. Vellani: I would like co speak about bridging rhe gap between
rhe traditional and the modern in relation co rhe performing arts,
although it was mentioned in che context of the fine arts.
The contemporary performing arcs in India, and probably
elsewhere in Asia, have been attacked from two sides. They havebeen attacked by rhe Scare, as being a vestige of colonialism andtherefore as having no legitimacy. They have been attacked by theWest for being derivative. This places them in an unenviable
position.
Should the performing artist respond co this double attack byattempting to bridge the gap between che traditional and rhe
modern? This is exaccly what the Indian Scare, given its
perspective, would like che contemporary performing artist co do.
Ir has funded modern artists co excavate tradition and use it intheir own work, even if it lies outside their experience, even if it isunrelated co their concerns. Bue should artists reinvent theiridentities in chis manner, or should they remain true cothemselves?
The question chat interests me is: "Is there another way inwhich rhe contemporary Indian performing artist could respondto chis double attack?" "Could there be such a thing as an Indian
modernism, and where would ir come from?" Many Indian
performing artists have a dual identi ry: they have one foot in theWest, perhaps because of their education, and one foot in their]84

Session Illown culture. One source oflndian modernism in performance,
therefore, might lie in performing artists' upholding this dual
identiry and exploring its implications in their art.
Another source might be artists whose impulse is cowards
modernism in art but who are not "westernized," and lackfamiliariry with Western modernism, particularly in theperforming arcs. Their contemporary performing arts practice, asa result, is likely to be rooted in their experience of the social andpolitical life of a modernizing India, combined with an artistic
sensibiliry that, rather than being influenced by the trajectory ofWestern modern art, springs from their insider-outsider
relationship with local cultural expression.
Perhaps the gap between tradition and moderniry can be
bridged, and an Indian modernism in the performing arts canemerge, if tradition itself modernizes. One could argue that chishas indeed happened, for instance, in the case of the dance form,
Bharatanaryam. This dance form was re-invented during thecolonial period. It was taken out of the temples and refashioned
for the proscenium stage. Brahmins cook the lead to "purify,""classicize" and rename sadir or dasi-attam as Bharatanaryam (thedance oflndia), and high-caste women began to perform it,
replacing the low-caste temple devadasi.The emerging urban
professional classes became its patrons and audience. For
Bharatanaryam, in short, the circumstances of patronage,
production and reception altered radically.
Bur the Bharatanaryam that emerged from this process
reflected a fractured modernism. It inherited the trappings but
not the spirit of modernism in art. The project to modernize thedance form remained incomplete because it was propelled bynationalist sentiments. It was a project motivated by a desire topurify and protect "the dance oflndia." Bharatanaryam was reinvented in order to be frozen, not to open it out to thepossibiliry of being re-invented again and again.
Moderator [5.Yoshimi): Thank you. Could we now have Professor

Chow?

SessionIll385

R. [how: I have quite a lot to say, but I will begin by indicatingsome of my responses to particul arly Anmol Vellani's paper,
which I find fascinating in the sense that it does not offer asentimental notion of the state. I chink Mr. Vellani has
pinpointed the predicament faced by Asian cultures since theopening of Asia to the West, namely, that the State, or the nation,
in Asia is typically confronted by the question : "If we were tomodernize, what do we do with that thing that we call 'national'
or 'native' past?" To that extent, I find very interesting Mr.
Vellani's description of the Indian artists, performers and so on,
who have to enter a kind of denial in that they cannot actually
put on stage someone like himself -the hybrid , the migrant , theperson who does not belong to one particular state or speak only
one language. I see chat as a general predicament faced by Asianartistic production in general. This also cakes us back to Professor
Sakai's reminder chat we need to chink about what we really mean
when we talk about Asia and its concept.
I would now like to turn to the director Zhang Yimou . I canonly comment on the questions about art from chis perspective,
based on the little that I know of contemporary Chinese cinema.
For directors like Zhang Yimou , working in contemporary China,
the State is still an oppressive force to contend with, even though
he may not show it in this light in his works. In fact, the State isalways there , hindering and modifying his conception of what hecan do when making a film. He is known to have said something
to chis effect in an interview, "When I look at a script, when I
think about a film chat I would like to make, the first questionthat occurs to me is not where I am going to find funding but
how I am going to make something the authorities will not
simply censor." This means that State censorship still remains the
topmost of his concerns. Because he is a very good artist, Zhang isaware of the policies chat govern filmmaking and any artistic
endeavor in China. He is aware of what the restrictions are. At
the same time , he has at his command a relatively new medium :film language. Because he is a good and sensitive artist, the best of
his films always read like holograms: you can read chem at one
level as perfectly realist, acceptable, and sentimental stories, yet if]86

Session Ill

you read more carefully, you would see another side, which isextremely skeptical and critical of the sentimental and humanistic
messages that the film seems to embody. For me, therefore, thepolitics of art here is inseparable from the politics ofinterpretation and critical practice.
Finally, let_me say a few words about the issue of gender. The
use of women characters is very common in Zhang Yimou'smovies because he probably understands that women are ahistorically-loaded category. If you put a woman on stage, you are
immediately representing various kinds of pressure cultural, and sexual -social,being put on that person by Chinesesociety.
On the question of the relationships among the three womenin the film: the country girl is 13 years old and not much older
than the pupils. She does not have many concerns, and she has
become a teacher simply because she needs the money. When sheruns into difficulties, she tries to solve them in the best way shecan. In contrast, the television anchor is much more sophisticatedas an urban professional -she is a type of woman who has notbeen widely treated in Chinese cinema as yet, but I am sure there
will be more portrayals of her in the years to come. The
relationship berween the rwo is interesting, especially when they
are sitting side by side on the television news program . With herquestions, the television anchor is guiding the audience to think
about the whole problem of China's rural population. She also
tries to solicit responses from the girl but does not have muchsuccess. The mother of the boy actually does appear in the film.
She is ill and bedridden , and she is the one who sent the boy tothe city so that he can make some money .
Moderator[S.Yoshimi]: Thank you .

The comments of the three panelists have provided asummary of the discussion so far. I am sure the points they havemade will be developed further in the general discussion
moderated by Professor Sakai.
Yesterday, after Professor Sakai's keynote speech andpresentations from Professor Koizumi and Mr. Mohamad, it was

SessionIll

387

suggested that talking about Asia often involves a imagining acolonial type of self-identity and that this problem is not yet
resolved.
Today, we left behind yesterday's questions pertaining to the19th century and considered the dramatic changes of the last
decade or so, since the 1990s, from different perspectives. We
have discussed specific cases of representation in contemporaryart, performance art, or film as well as art institutions such as thebiennial and the art museums.
These new expressions do not contain the old stereotypes of
exoticism or Orientalism . We have pointed to a new trend, thebiennial , which opposes the museum, although the systemdominated by Western-type museums is still strong. The media
images that flow with unparalleled speed is also influencing art. In
the midst of these dynamic changes, the problems of the nation
state and colonial relationships are emerging again in new ways.
How should we think about these multifaceted conditions? I
would like to defer this discussion to the next session, which will
be moderated by Professor Sakai. Please give a hand to the threepanelists. Thank you.

388

SessionIll

Moderator[N.Sakai/: We have had a very productive discussion
today. I am afraid our audience may be tired afrer long hours ofpresentation and discussion, but _I chink we have now started cosee links between che discussions, so I hope you can stay with us
for a while longer. I have several questions here chat have been
handed in from che audience. To scare I would like co read thequestions chat are addressed co specific panelists, and have each ofchem respond. Lacer, I would like co read questions chat are open
co all panelists and open the discussion co che floor.
The first question is for Professor Chow.
"In one of the scenes in Not One Less, the girl speaking whilelooking at the television camera lefr an impression on me. The
television propaganda ironically shows the connection between
propaganda and propaganda, or propaganda and policies,
ridiculing the aurhoricies by showing what happens behind thescenes in propaganda-making, an arc in which Chinese authorities
excel. I would like co understand che relationship between
propaganda and power, in relation co Zhang Yimou, a former
dissident who is now commissioned by che Chinese government
co produce documentary films."
The next question is addressed co Professor Yoshimi .
"My question may be too simple, but what does it mean cogo 'beyond Asia'? You may have explained chis yesterday already,but since it was mentioned several times, I would like co knowwhat you meant by ic. Is chis border distinct ? Or is it
ambiguous? "The next question is for Professor Koizumi and me. For now,
lee's address it co Professor Koizumi.
"You pointed out chat Asia becomes visible in a relationshipwith what is not Asia (a word chat is difficulc co define). I chinkchat the notion of the 'ocher' was familiar in Asia, even before themodern times. Bue ic is a notion chat is distinct from the notionof the 'ocher' in the Western context. Unlike che West, where'you' comes only after a definite 'I' is established, the 'ocher' inAsia may include the self and the 'self' is determined by its
relationship co, or distance from, the 'ocher.' Therefore, I chinkchat Asians have always thought in terms of co-figuration, chat is,]90

SessionIVthe formation of things in relationship rather than in isolation. In
this context, isn't Okakura's idea of'empciness ' (a concept used
co define che 'self' by measuring the distance from che 'other')very Asian?
I am also concerned with che difference between Asia and theEase. I do not think chat Asia is synonymous with the East. leseems chat Chi~a has long been considered the s,ource of Easternculture in the same way chat Greece has been considered che puresource of Western identity. Lee's cake nihongaQapanese-style
painting) and the East. I chink chat China is an illusionary
community conjured up by the Japanese to be used as reference
point . Okakura's choice offashions related co China portrays him
as a person from the Ease (a slighcly different notion than chat ofan Asian person). His attitude is the same as the Westerners who
cry co find their roots in Greece.
About the concept of the 'other.' The 'ocher' in the Westentails a definite 'self,' the 'you' opposed co 'me.' In Asia,
especially East Asia, che 'ocher' might include the 'self.' Even
before modern times, Asians always thought of things in pairs anddetermined the position of the self in a fluid relationship withothers. Was it not modern Westernization chat stopped thisfluidity?"
The next question is addressed co Mr. Elliott and myself. I
chink that Mr. Elliott is the best person co answer chis question.
"With all due respect co what the Japan Foundation is doing,
I have a question about the exhibition, 'Under Construction' in
relation co che symposium 'Asia in Transition.' My first reaction
on receiving the brochure was, 'Why isn't Singapore or Malaysia
pare of the Asia under construction?' I enjoyed seeing theinteresting work by Japanese artists, but was disturbed by the
representation of 'che ocher.' I could not help but wonder after
listening co Rey Chow's discussion of the transformation of the'Western' gaze into a 'national gaze' with respect co the villages in
Zhang's film. In chis case, che 'Western gaze' was changed into
the 'Japanese gaze' coward arc in Asia (ocher Asian countries).
There seem co be some inconsistencies in the related arc
exhibition and today's theme of Asian representation and

SessionIV391

identity."
The next three questions are addressed to all of us.
"In the discussion, biennials and triennials were considered
an apparatus of cultural representation for rhe public. Does chismean char rriennales are playing a completely different role frompure arr? Arr is part of most people's lives, and something charthey enjoy during their leisurely rime. There seems to be a
distance between the arr char anises pursue, and arr and culturethat the general public, including businessmen, enjoy. To whom
are we representing culture when we represent the arts andcultures of Asia, particularly in developing countries? I chink chisis a very fundamental issue.
There may be a political agenda embedded in
multiculturalism aimed at letting people who come from different
cultural backgrounds live together. Is it important to put
emphasis on traditional culture in order to maintain culrural
diversity? Is it possible to pursue mulriculruralism as well as
contemporary arr in Asia? What kind of arr is exhibited attriennials? Are all dimensions of culrure, including religion, arr,
and ways oflife (ethnographic objects), introduced at such
events?"The next question is more general.

"If culture is something char is inherited, can contemporary

l92

SessionIVart be left for later generations? It seems that it is the fate ofcontemporary art to be made and dismantled over and over. The
reasons for this are: 1) It does not all fir in the white cube.
2) There are too many biennials. 3) The creative process cannot
be fully exhibited."
Another question. ·"Good audiences produce good artists. But I do not thinkthat many good audiences for contemporary art have beendeveloped in Asia. What should we do to nurture and expand theaudience?"
There are rwo more questions, which are addressed to me. I
would like to respond to them at the end.
"In yesterday's discussion, you mentioned Japan's overemphasis on modernism, but I think this is based on jo, or
compassion. For example, films by directors such as Kurosawa
Akira, Ozu Yasujiro, and Miyazaki Hayao are very popular inJapan. On the contrary, Euro-American conceptual art that isbased on postmodern theory has not been easily accepted by theJapanese, perhaps because it lacks humanistic and narrative
characteristics that appeal to the Japanese. What do you rhink? I
think the Japanese have an excessive interest in humanism.""David Elliott spoke about tokenism and its problems , butalso proposed to consider 'Asia' as a performative concept(making trousers that fit). Could I have a comment on this inrelation to the postcolonialist potential of 'Asia'?

..

Also, I am very interested in the opinion of art professionals
on 'the unique history of identification'? Also, what are rhepanelists' suggestions to how to 'wear the trousers,' in the wordsof Mr. Elliott?"Could I first ask Professor Chow to answer the questions?
R. [how: The question that was specifically addressed to me wasabout propaganda and politics. I have several things I have to say.
First of all, I believe rhe notion of propaganda itself has to beinterrogated and re-thought. I say this, because the notion of
propaganda is used, for instance, by countries like the UnitedStates to refer to other political entities such as the former Soviet

Session1V

393

Union, Cuba, or Communist China, in order to distinguish a
Western form of government from other forms of governmentthat are considered totalitarian. In other words, propaganda isoften associated with totalitarianism. If we accept that definitionof propaganda , then we are implicitly also accepting the ideologythat underlies American way of thinking. There is a "Cold War"implication here. I am not sure that I would myself agree withpropaganda defined in those terms.
Has the Chinese government not, in fact, been using thiskind of propaganda all along? I would say yes and no. If you
think that a communist government or a totalitarian government
always issues propaganda, then yes. But what is interesting here,
at least in this film, is that we are shown China in transition .
Contemporary China has opened itself to the market, and has
accepted a capitalist mode of production and consumption. So
Zhang's film is interesting because it asks us to think about what
has happened, in a situation like this, to the older notion of thecommunity. I would say that this film is not propaganda, but thatit shows us how the media could work under the present
circumstances, when China is no longer acting like a totalitarian
government any more.
To the question about cinema and propaganda in general, I
do not know what my response is. I am not sure ifl would always
automatically equate cinema and propaganda. I think it has been
negotiated in each case, depending on which film or whichgroups of film we are talking about.

•.Elliott: I would like to add to this comment on propaganda .
This word exists as the same in Russian and related Slavic
languages, and maybe also in Chinese . There is no negative
meaning when it is used by an authoritarian State system, whereas
in the West, it is regarded as a bad thing. But that is not to saythat propaganda does not exist in the West. I think a number of
us now are watching the Western media just for propaganda,
particularly in relation to the world situation. It does exist.
Moderator[N. Sakai]: The next question is for Professor Yoshimi.

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SessionIV5. Yoshimi: The question addressed to me asked what is theborder or boundary? I do not recall using such an expression. If I
used the word at all, I may have used it unconsciously. Iflmentioned going "beyond Asia," I would have to explain what I
meant by chis phrase.
There are two aspects to be considered when I use the word
"border." When chinking about chis theoretically, I could
consider the issue of border at the level of cultural representation.
As Professor Sakai explained with his word, "co-figuration, " there
is an issue of demarcation, when we define our identity inreference to the "ocher" chat we project outside our boundaries.
At a different level, there is an issue of demarcation andactivities co cross borders chat involves violence: military forces,
the Seate, and the political and economic system, and ocher
structural frameworks. This applies to American hegemony aswell as colonialism. I would like to try to connect such violent
events occurring at the national level by taking an approach chatis not a simple reductionism.
Therefore, when I talk about borders, I refer to creating
borders with these two perspectives in mind. In ocher words, I
would like to turn to the problem involved in the process ofdeveloping independent subjectivity, in which borders are createdat both policical/milicariscic and cultural representation/discourse
levels.

If I referred co anything related to transcending Asia, I chink
I may have made a misleading statement. What I was chinking ischat there are two sides to the process of creating the self orconstructing Asia within a colonialist framework. The issue, inchis context, is whether or not we can find a way to free ourselvesfrom such colonialist constructs. We can only do chis bydiscussing about Asia and representing Asia.

If I were to describe chis process simply as transcending Asia,
then it would conform to the current idea of globalism. Thatwould involve the problem of, as Professor Lee put it, howrepresentation of something Asian could coincide with the global
homogeneity supported by non-Asian global identity.
Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, a journal I mentioned earlier, is a

SessionIV395

specific example of my activities related to this issue. Our
objective is similar to what Professor Sakai is working hard toachieve in his involvement in the journal Traces.Our journal aims
to create a new space for dialog between young researchers in thefield of cultural studies, and try to discover solutions in theprocess. These activities take part in the globalizing process, but I
think we may eventually find something meaningful along theway.
I would also like to add my comments on the issue of
propaganda. I have done some research on the history of
discourses related to 20th century mass communication. I havefound out that during World War II, Germans, Americans, andJapanese studied propaganda energetically. Wartime propaganda
studies in America turned into mass communication studies.
After the war, a number of Japanese scholars who had been
involved with propaganda began to say that propaganda was masscommunication. Since they acknowledged that propaganda isequal to mass communication, it made perfect sense to them tosubstitute the concepts used for propaganda in the structure ofknowledge connected to mass communications.
As seen in this example, the discursive structures supporting

propaganda and mass communication are progressively linked
with each other.
Moderator [N. Sakai]: Thank you. If there are any questions orcomments to be addressed to the panelists who have just spoken,
please remember them so that you can share them with us when
we open our discussion to the floor.
Now, I would like to invite Professor Koizumi to talk about
the concept of kyo, or emptiness, in relation to Okakura and Asia.
~. Koizumi: The question that was just presented was quite

penetrating and I can only agree. However, Okakura wasdifferent from those of us who unconsciously learn about China
and then discover Europe because he went through this process inreverse. His father was engaged in trade, so he had Okakura
educated to acquire English as his first language. Then his father

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SessionIV'took him out in the street one day, and realized that he could notread a word of kanji (Chinese characters), so he enrolled him in aclass to learn kanbun (classical Chinese). Thereafter, Okakura's
writings, other than those translated from an English text, are all
in a classical Chinese style. In this sense, Okakura discovered
Europe before discovering China. His research in the arts also
followed this order. He first went to Europe to do research onfine arts and then went to China after he became the director of
the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. When he went to China, hedescribed China not as an integrated nation but as an entity
similar to Europe.
In Okakura's case, the co-figuration of Asia was carried out
first by taking Europe, and later by taking China, as a standard.
Because of this, I do not think that the relationship between
Okakura and China can be compared to that of Europeans andGreece.

Moderator[N. Sakai): This question is also addressed to me, but I
think the issue entails a problem closely related to the issue of
Hinglish that Mr. Vellani raised in his presentation. I would liketo comment from this perspective.
In Professor Koizumi's view, the people of Japan co-figured
China before the modern era, particularly in the Edo period andearlier, but I do not think this is correct. Although the word kan
or han is included in the word kanji, which means Chinesecharacters, I do not think the people of the time thought of theseideographs as a Chinese writing system. This use of a certain typeof script in different languages can be seen not only in the East
but around the world, for example, in the use of Arabic, Sanskrit,
and Latin languages.
Until the 18th century or so, the Japanese referred toChinese characters as mana. Mana means "true script" as opposed
to kana (the Japanese syllabary) which was ad hoc, temporary,and evasive. Therefore, I do not think that there was a concept ofa Chinese language opposed to Japanese.
Therefore, the identification of linguistic imagination, in
which Japan is posited against China in a co-figurative scheme, isSession1V

397

actually a modernist construct. Co-figuration does not take place
only in a relationship with "them." The scheme is first
constructed by marking "us" and "them" as two distinct entities,
and then "us" building a relationship with "them." But it is not
only that. It is an apparatus that makes us eventually forget that"us" and "them" are mutually dependent in this construct.
The circumstances changed in Japan after the Meiji Era.
Until Meiji, Japanese intellectuals, primarily male, wrote kanbun
or its transliterated style as well as pseudoclassical Japanese,creating a multilinguistic environment, similar to what Mr.
Vellani described among the Indian intellectuals who use English
and several vernacular languages at the same time. There musehave been similar situations in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
Similarly, in South Asia and Southeast Asia at a different rime inhistory, Sanskrit may have been used in the same way kanji wasused in Japan. Circumstances in which multiple languages coexist, where vernacular languages are distinguished in the Indianstyle of multilingual society, are themselves closely related to theissue of modernity.
There was a reference made to tracing roots back to Greece.
As Mr. Mohamad revealed yesterday, Greece is not a legacy thatshould be monopolized by the West. This notion is comparable
to the situation in Japan in the 18th century, when scholars in

kokugaku,or the study of Japanese classical literature, were trying
to reclaim Japanese classics to posit a continuum in Japanese
history. In the same way, Europeans were trying to reclaim theclassical period of Greece in the 18th century to posit the systemof Western history.
So, the structure and mechanism by which Western scholars
claimed Greece as their origin, is similar to that of the kokugaku
scholars who claimed Manyoshuand Kojiki as Japan 's historicalorigin.
I would like to invite Mr. Vellani to respond.
A. Vellani: It is worth noting that the role played by Sanskrit inIndia in earlier times is different from the role played by English
today. Ac some point, the Brahmins claimed the exclusive right to398

SessionIV