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This book explores manifestations and perpetuations of the sentimental in Mainland Chinese cinema from the 1990s to the 2000s. A sentimental Chinese cinema - one that articulates notions of homecoming and belonging - emerged in the 1990s with its distinctive styles. The representations and configurations of this evolving style of Chinese cinematic expression are not only thought provoking in their own right, but also in the way they contrast with past forms of Chinese sentimental cinema and with sentimental aesthetics elsewhere in the world. These new representations have transformed established family centred expressions of the sentimental in Chinese cinema. The new sentimental emphasises togetherness and a yearning for belonging which often appear in the themes of homecoming and home-longing. This also forms a cultural resistance towards the increasingly alienating and isolating forces of globalisation and urbanisation. This book analyses the sociocultural conditions that have allowed for a renewed understanding of the sentimental and the cultural identity markers that are perpetually under contestation.
List of contents
1. Introduction.- PART 1.- 2. The Power of Home: Shadow Magic and the Visibility of the Sentimental.- 3. Two Cities and the Same Sentimental: Perpetuation of the Sentimental through Films.- 4. Death and the Road Home: the Sentimental as an Enduring Theme.- PART 2.- 5. Searching for an Alternative Intimacy in Nostalgia: The Sentimental in In the Heat of the Sun.- 6. The Intimate Spaces in a Transforming World.- 7. Carnivalisation of Language: The Rhetorical Strategy of The Dream Factory.- 8. Conclusion: The Chinese Sentimental and Cross-Cultural Analysis.
About the author
Dr Hui Miao is an Assistant Professor in Film Studies in the Department of Media and Communication at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), China.
