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Jia Zhangke is praised as "the most internationally prominent and celebrated figure of the Six-Generation of Chinese filmmakers". This book provides an examination the content and forms of Jia's featured films and analyzes their merits and faults.
Jia's films often narrate the lives of ordinary Chinese people against the backdrop of the political-economic changes. The author conducts an in-depth analysis of how this change have ferociously impinged upon the characters' living conditions since China integrated itself with the world economy in the high tide of accelerated globalization since the 1970s. The author focuses on discussing the "politics of dignity" expressed by Jia's allegorical renditions to explore the director's political unconsciousness and cultural-political notions.
This book maps ten of Jia Zhangke's films onto three major themes: Jia's filmmaking and China in the market society; truth claims and political unconscious; "post-socialist modernity" in the age of globalization. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese film studies, as well as other disciplines, such as political science, sociology, anthropology, etc.
List of contents
Contents. List of Illustrations. Acknowledgements. Introduction A Lyricist of China's "Postsocialist Modernity" in the Age of Neoliberal Transformation Part I Chapter One Recording Human Affection within Social Transmutation: Portrayal of Early Reform China in Platform (2000) Chapter Two Morality and Love in Post-Revolutionary China: A Pickpocket’s Being and Nothingness in Xiao Wu (1997) Chapter Three Hedonism, Nihilism and Roaming in the Consumerist Wasteland: Unknown pleasures (2002) as a Fable of Drifters in the Era of Globalization Part Two Chapter Four Post-Modern Paradise or Post-Socialist Fantasy? New Proletariat and the Commodity World of Alienation in The World (2002) Chapter Five Revolutionary Realism or Socialist Realism? Chinese Goodman in Jia Zhangke’s Still Life (2006) Chapter Six Contradictions of Contemporary China from An Elite’ s Perspective: Sound and Fury in A Touch of Sin (2012) Part Three Chapter Seven Orchestrating Workers’ Memories and Chinese National History: The Narrative Strategy and Aesthetics of 24 City (2008) Chapter Eight A Postmodern Style of Historical Fragments and Elitist Historicism: Fiction and Reality in I Wish I Knew (2010) Chapter Nine "China Consciousness" in the Age of Globalization and Its Shortage: Mountains May Depart (2014) as a Postmodern Film. Conclusion. The Cultural Politics of the "Poetics of Vanishing". References. Appendix. Index
About the author
Xiaoping Wang is Chair Professor of Chinese studies at Huaqiao University and adjunct professor of the Institute of Arts and Humanities at Shanghai Jiaotong University. His research interests include modern and contemporary Chinese literature, culture and critical theory.
Summary
This book is a comprehensive exploration of the content, forms, merits, and faults of Jia Zhangke’s films. It analyzes ten of his featured film regarding three major themes: Jia’s filmmaking and China in the market society; truth claims and political unconscious; “post-socialist modernity” in the age of globalization.
