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• W2085451320 abstract "Gary G. Xu engages popular Chinese films of the past decade to introduce his challenging theories about the cinematic and global importance of the medium. Sinascape encompasses the network of Chinese cinema, a “complex web of transnational film production and consumption centered on China”; the “filmic representation of China's social, political and economic changes in the early twenty-first century;” and the “mediascape,” which indicates the “image-based, media-manipulated, and transnational nature of China's century” (p. 17). Xu adapts the term “mediascape” from Arjun Appadurai to deemphasize qualities of postnationalism and deterritoriality. Unable to float free of nationalism, Chinese filmmakers must contend with state regulations (carefully summarized here) and struggle for independence within a powerful and ever-watchful nation-state. Xu contends, following Aihwa Ong, that the Chinese state quickly responds to the challenges of transnationality. These brief borrowings indicate Xu's method of matching criticism of Chinese film with sophisticated cultural and political analysis. Choice film stills enhance the reader's understanding throughout the book.Xu first discusses Zhang Yimou's controversial film Hero to expand his own ideas on copyright and digitalization. Much attention is given to how Zhang worked in tight secrecy to avoid the national penchant for instant, pirated copies. While Chinese audiences viewed Hero as a waste of money and perhaps a paean to George W. Bush's warmongering, international audiences, especially Americans, were stunned by the film's visual beauty and extraordinary martial arts acrobatics. Xu explains that Zhang wanted to educate international audiences in “ideascape” (yijing) to explore the poetic beauty of the Chinese landscape while providing the thrill of martial arts spectacle. Xu's method implicitly emphasizes the auteur theory of filmmaking, in which the director's vision is paramount. This leads to unfortunate omissions. A nice chapter postscript on Feng Xiaogang's hilarious holiday film, A World without Thieves, does not even mention the lead role of Ge You, one of China's most versatile and popular veteran stars. Ge is perhaps China's favorite male lead, with expert talents that meld easily into repertory casting, one of the Chinese film industry's greatest strengths.Subsequent chapters explore the well-known films The Devils on the Doorstep, Beijing Bicycle, and Suzhou River and the works of Jia Zhangke. In each instance, Xu embeds narrative about the film with discussions of the directors' intentions and sophisticated theoretical discussion. Chapter 2 discusses the irony that “sixth-generation” Chinese filmmakers secure critical acclaim abroad despite banishment at home. Realistic portrayals of violence and work enable Jiang Wen (Devils), Lou Ye (Suzhou River), and Jia Zhangke (Xiao Wu, Platform, and Unknown Pleasures) to comment on the harsh truths of China's economic boom.Chapter 3, the best of the book in my judgment, provides a terrific genealogy of the martial arts film, from older Hong Kong epics to the internationally popular Kung Fu Hustle, director Stephen Chow's international hit of 2005. Xu shows off his impressive knowledge of kung fu films to demonstrate the lineage from Chang Cheh, a legendary Hong Kong director and Chow's idol. Xu tells how Pigsty Alley, the film's set, was borrowed from a 1973 Shaw Brothers film, The House of Seventy-Two Tenants, itself indebted to a mainland 1962 film made by Pearl River Studios and, in turn, based upon a popular Shanghai play of the 1940s. Such history best advances Xu's argument that Sinascape can teach the world about the richness of Chinese film culture.Readers reassured by the familiarity of the titles Xu discusses may find themselves less steady in the last two chapters. Chapter 5 explicates Millennium Mambo, Hou Hsiao-hsien's meditation on Taipei's urban youth, as seen through the harsh experiences of a b-girl. The wounded generation is a commonplace artistic term for post–Cultural Revolution Chinese youth; similarly, Hou's camera searches through the bars and dance halls of Taipei to evoke the political trauma and melancholy he perceives at the heart of Taiwan's society. Millennium Mambo is a powerful film, though I wish Xu had given more attention to the rest of Hou's fine oeuvre, which is relatively unknown in the West. Chapter 6 examines how Hong Kong's directors have an “unattached attachment” (p. 134) to the mainland. Rather, Hong Kong becomes a cinematic product of China and Hollywood, a binary sensibility best found in the films of Chen Guo. Xu uses Chen's work to argue his point rather than that of the globally famous Wong Kar-wai.Similarly, though Xu acknowledges Ang Lee and apparently knows him, there is little mention of him. Ang Lee is highly successful in Hollywood and commonly works in English. Still, he was born, raised, and educated in Taiwan, composed his memoir in Chinese, and most recently used Mandarin in Lust, Caution (2006). Perhaps Xu regarded Lee as too famous for consideration here, but Lee is strong evidence for the transnational power of Chinese films. This quibble aside, Sinascape is an engrossing, highly informed introduction to contemporary Chinese cinema that will be of value to specialists, interested readers, and classrooms." @default.
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• W2085451320 date "2008-11-01" @default.
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• W2085451320 title "Sinascape: Contemporary Chinese Cinema. By Gary G. Xu. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. xii, 175 pp. $72.00 (cloth); $26.95 (paper)." @default.
• W2085451320 doi "https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021911808002064" @default.
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