DV-Made China: Digital Subjects and Social Transformations after Independent Film

410 Pages·2015·3.324 MB·English

by  Zhen Zhang, Angela Zito

critical interventions
DV-MADE CHINA
DIGITAL SUBJECTS AND
SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS
AFTER INDEPENDENT FILM
EDITED BY
ZHANG ZHEN AND ANGEL A ZITO
DV- Made China
Critical Interventions
Sheldon H. Lu, general editor
Cinema, Space, and Polylocality in a Globalizing China
Yingjin Zhang
Children of Marx and Coca- Cola: Chinese Avant- garde Art
and In de pen dent Cinema
Xiaoping Lin
Uneven Modernity: Literature, Film, and Intellectual Discourse
in Postsocialist China
Haomin Gong
Remaking Chinese Cinema: Through the Prism of Shanghai,
Hong Kong, and Hollywood
Yiman Wang
From Fu Manchu to Kung Fu Panda: Images of China in American Film
Naomi Greene
Fragrant Orchid: The Story of My Early Life
Yamaguchi Yoshiko and Fujiwara Sakuya
Translated, with an Introduction, by Chia- ning Chang
CRITICAL INTERVENTIONS
DV- Made China
Digital Subjects and
Social Transformations
after In de pen dent Film
Edited by Zhang Zhen
and Angela Zito
University of Hawai‘i Press
Honolulu
Critical Interventions
Sheldon H. Lu, general editor
Critical Interventions consists of innovative, cutting- edge works with a focus on Asia or
the presence of Asia in other continents and regions. Series titles explore a wide range of
issues and topics in the modern and contemporary periods, especially those dealing with
literature, cinema, art, theater, media, cultural theory, and intellectual history as well as
subjects that cross disciplinary boundaries. The series encourages scholarship that com-
bines solid research with an imaginative approach, theoretical sophistication, and stylis-
tic lucidity.
© 2015 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
DV- made China : digital subjects and social transformations after in de pen dent film /
edited by Zhang Zhen and Angela Zito.
pages cm— (Critical interventions)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8248-4681-7 (cloth : alk. paper)— ISBN 978-0-8248-4682-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. In de pen dent films— China. 2. Digital cinematography— China.
I. Zhang, Zhen, editor. II. Zito, Angela, editor. III. Series: Critical
interventions (Honolulu, Hawaii)
PN1993.5.C4D89 2015
791.430951— dc23
2014042674
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid- free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Printed by Maple Press
Contents
AC KNOW LEDG MENTS | vii
Introduction | 1
Zhang Zhen and Angela Zito
PART ONE Ethical and Po liti cal Stakes | 27
1. Marking the Body: The Axiographics
of the Visible Hidden Camera | 29
Abé Mark Nornes
2. The Cruelty of the Social: Xianchang, Intersubjectivity,
and Interobjectivity | 57
J. P. Sniadecki
3. Filming Power and the Powerless: Zhao Liang’s Crime
and Punishment (2007) and Petition (2009) | 76
Jie Li
4. The Spectacular Crowd: Representing the Masses
in DV Documentary | 97
Shuang Shen
5. DV- made Tibet: Domestic Videos, Elite Films,
and the Work of Pema Tseden | 119
Robert Barnett
6. Chinese In de pen dent Cinema in the Age
of “Digital Distribution” | 163
Dan Gao
v
vi Contents
PART TWO Aesthetic and Activist Experiments | 185
7. Chinese Digital Shadows: Hybrid Forms, Bodily Archives,
and Transnational Visions | 187
Bérénice Reynaud
8. The Recalcitrance of Reality: Per for mances, Subjects,
and Filmmakers in 24 City and Tape | 215
Qi Wang
9. Crossing Cameras in China: Christian Aesthetics
and Realized Fictions | 237
Angela Zito
10. DV and the Animateur Cinema in China | 260
Paola Voci
11. “To Whom Do Our Bodies Belong?” Being Queer in Chinese
DV Documentary | 289
Luke Robinson
12. Toward a Digital Po liti cal Mimesis: Aesthetic of Affect
and Activist Video | 316
Zhang Zhen
Appendix I: Chinese and Non- Chinese Filmography/
Videography | 347
Compiled by Ting-wu Cho
Appendix II: Tibetan Filmography/Videography | 365
Compiled by Robert Barnett
CONTRIBUTORS | 371
INDEX | 375
Ac know ledg ments
This volume has been long in the making, finding its deep roots in more than a
de cade of seven editions of Reel China Documentary Biennial screenings and
discussions since 2001; in a jointly taught graduate seminar on Chinese in de pen-
dent documentaries (in conjunction with the Biennial in 2008, 2010, and 2012);
and more specifically, in a workshop at New York University in December 2010
that produced earlier versions of most of the chapters. More than any other aca-
demic work either of us has undertaken in the past, this project has placed us in
the midst of a rapidly changing Chinese society and culture in the new century.
The nascent, forceful, and increasingly diversified DV movement studied here,
with its significant social, po liti cal, and aesthetic aspirations, contributes to China’s
profound social and cultural transformations with a great deal of creative energy
as well as urgent critique.
First, and above all, we express our heartfelt thanks to the in de pen dent film
community in China, which has made the Biennial, the seminar, and the
research and development of this volume such an im mensely rewarding and
enlightening experience. We are especially grateful to the Chinese filmmakers,
critics, and curators, including Cong Feng, Cui Weiping, Cui Zi’en, Dong Bing-
feng, Du Haibin, Gu Yaping, Hao Jian, He Liren, He Xiaopei, Huang Weikai, Jian
Yi, Jiang Juan, Liu Jian, Li Xiaofeng, Lü Xinyu, Luo Bing, Ma Li, Ou Ning, Pema
Tsedan, Wang Nanfu, Wang Yuanlong, Wang Wo, Wen Hui, Wu Wenguang,
Yang Lina, Yang Rui, Zhang Mengqi, Zhang Xianmin, Zhao Liang, Zou Xueping,
Zhu Rikun, as well as Tammy Cheung and Yao Ching of Hong Kong, who came
to NYU to share with students, faculty, and the public countless moving images
and provocative ideas. We are equally grateful to all filmmakers whose works
were screened at the Biennial and other related events.
We are particularly indebted to the Li Xianting Film Fund, which presents
the annual Beijing In de pen dent Film Festival, for inviting the two of us in vari-
ous capacities to take part in BIFF and its related activities. They have shared
valuable resources and experiences in our joint effort to promote in de pen dent
vii
viii Ac know ledg ments
cinema over the past many years. Mr. Li Xianting, Mr. Wang Hongwei, and
Ms. Zhang Qi have been most generous and gracious in hosting us and collabo-
rating with us. We gratefully acknowledge as well the collaboration of Mr. Zhang
Pingjie and his associates at Rec Foundation. The Asian Cultural Council in New
York has, several times over the years, also provided crucial support in bringing
filmmakers to the Biennial and the workshop.
At NYU, we are most thankful to our home departments and affiliated insti-
tutions, Cinema Studies and the Center for Religion and Media (CRM), which
have copresented the Biennial since 2006. The Anthropology and History Depart-
ments, the Religious Studies Program, the Center for Media, Culture and History
(CMCH), and China House have offered cosponsorship and/or administrative
support.
Faye Ginsburg (Anthropology Department), codirector of the CRM and di-
rector of CMCH, and Richard Allen, chair of Cinema Studies till recently, have
offered moral as well as concrete support over the years. Thanks also go to Dan
Streible (Cinema Studies), a constant participant in the Biennial, offering in-
sightful comparative perspectives. Mai Kiang (who left NYU in 2007) and Jeff
Richardson, events coordinator at Cinema Studies since 2007, and Catherine
Holter, Cinema Studies technical coordinator, and departmental “bookkeeper”
Liza Greenfield, along with contingents of student projectionists and volunteers,
were indispensible to the successful execution of the Biennial and related events
over the last thirteen years. The staff of the CRM, including Laura Terruso, Ann
Neumann, and Kali Handelman, along with the staff of CMCH, Barbara Abrash,
Pegi Vail, and Cheryl Furjanic, likewise provided constant and excellent support
in public programming and coordination of academic events.
For the book itself, we are especially grateful to the NYU Humanities Initia-
tive for a timely collaborative teaching grant that allowed the two of us to further
develop the 2010 seminar and the workshop that produced this book. At the
workshop three discussants provided a lively chance to further hone the papers:
Jennifer Deger, Dan Streible, and Ellen Zweig. The NYU Provost’s Office for
Global Research Initiative, which has contributed substantially to several edi-
tions of the Biennial, also provided a generous subvention for this book’s produc-
tion; our thanks to K. E. Fleming. The Dean of Humanities at NYU, Joy Con-
nelly, dipped into special funds to enable us to hire Shilpa Gupta as a copyediting
assistant during the final stage of manuscript preparation. We are grateful to the
University of Hawai‘i Press’s editorial team and to the anonymous readers who
offered praises and pressed us for clarifications that strengthened the manu-
script. Most importantly, we thank the contributors for their hard and brilliant
work (including work revised and updated from a previously published article in
Ac know ledg ments ix
China Perspectives, in the case of Jie Li) and for their patience and cooperation
during the long and complicated pro cess of realizing this collective project.
Both of us also received individual support to devote time and energy on
research, writing, editing, and filmmaking. Zhen received an NYU Humanities
Initiative faculty fellowship in 2009–2010, which allowed her to research and
present initial work for her own chapter and develop with Angela the frame-
works for the workshop. A fellowship at Hong Kong Baptist University in spring
2012 and a summer fellowship at Fu Dan University’s School of Journalism and
Broadcasting in 2013 gave her additional time and a number of forums to work
further on the project as a w hole. A Tisch School of the Arts dean’s research
grant also enabled her to make multiple trips to China. Angela’s turn to thinking
about digital media was facilitated by a two- year grant from the Luce Founda-
tion’s Henry R. Luce initiative on Religion and International Affairs to study
“Digital Religion: Knowledge, Politics, and Practice” at CRM (2011–2013). She re-
lied on research funding from NYU to shoot and edit her own documentary in
Beijing, Writing in Water, which provided her with an additional perspective on
the problem of in de pen dent cinema in China.
Saving the best for last, we thank our families for putting up with our insane
schedules each time a Biennial was or ga nized and carried out and extend our
deep appreciation to the interlocking circles of friends and students who have
been sounding boards and the most enthusiastic and loyal audience members.
As we say when opening yet another edition of Reel China: “That’s enough from
us. . . . Now, please enjoy the show!”
ZZ and AZ,
New York, July 21, 2014