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

410 Pages·2015·3.324 MB·English
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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

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