Cinema Off Screen - Moviegoing in Socialist China

"By digging into a deep and varied archive, in which political guidelines, film criticism, grassroots comments, and personal memories merge, Chenshu Zhou unearths the almost-forgotten film exhibition practices of Mao’s China. Movies were not the only point of attraction for filmgoers: other, often elusive elements also shaped the filmic experience. Hence a clear challenge to Western ideas of spectatorship. A book that combines the pleasure of a detective story and the rigor of a theoretical essay."—Francesco Casetti, author of The Lumière Galaxy: Seven Key Words for the Cinema to Come

"In this highly engaging and well-crafted book, the author achieves not only a better understanding of the post-1949 Chinese film experience but also a new way of understanding the very definition of film itself."—Emily Wilcox, author of Revolutionary Bodies: Chinese Dance and the Socialist Legacy

About the author

Chenshu Zhou is Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Product details

• Authors: Chenshu Zhou
• Publisher: University Of California Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 06.07.2021
• EAN: 9780520343399
• ISBN: 978-0-520-34339-9
• No. of pages: 282
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); China, Media Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Asian, HISTORY / Asia / China, Films, cinema, Far-left political ideologies and movements, Asian History, Socialism & left-of-centre democratic ideologies, Left-of-centre democratic ideologies, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / General, Marxism & Communism