Alternative Visual Discourse and the Documentaries of Hu Jie and Wang Bing
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CAPTURING THE MEMORYSCAPE: ALTERNATIVE VISUAL DISCOURSE AND THE DOCUMENTARIES OF HU JIE AND WANG BING by Marie Nicole O’Connor B.Sc., The University of Victoria, 2004 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Asian Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) APRIL 2010 © Marie Nicole O’Connor, 2010 ABSTRACT Alternative Chinese film culture has become increasingly diverse since the 1990s. This diversification is related to the kinds of films being produced and to who has ‘the right’ to make and to view them. A significant number of new films are documentaries, distinct in form from the newsreels (xinwen pian) or special topic films (zhuanti pian) that represent the more traditional official forms of documentary. Some of these new unofficial (non-state funded) documentaries have attempted to create alternative space for the telling of individual stories about sensitive and traumatic historical periods such as the Great Leap Forward, the Great Famine, and the Cultural Revolution. Such stories are in marked contrast to official visual histories of these periods. This paper’s focus is the new alternative space created by two individual filmmakers, Hu Jie and Wang Bing, who have documented unofficial, individual histories. Three of their films are examined in the context of a film industry that offers them severely limited or no access at all to official channels of distribution. The paper begins by examining the manner in which historical narratives have been and are ongoingly integral to the construction of a specific official view of the Chinese nation. Such official narratives are dominant in state-run environments, such as schools and in the media, and they tend to drown out any attempted alternative narratives. Hu Jie and Wang Bing stand out, even within alternative film culture, as filmmakers willing to challenge official doctrine and history. The narrative styles of three of their films are closely analyzed with a view to understanding how and why their work differs from that of official historical narratives. The approaches taken by the two filmmakers are also compared and contrasted. A major aspect of this project has been the translation of Hu Jie’s film In Search of Soul of Lin Zhao into English. The other two films examined have already been translated. This paper argues that by privileging the individual narrative, the two filmmakers present more complex versions of traumatic historical periods that stand in contrast to the often idealized or superficial official histories. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................ii TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................iii LIST OF FIGURES .....................................................................................................iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..........................................................................................v 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1 2 OFFICIAL VISUAL DISCOURSE ........................................................................8 2.1 Visuality, Narrative and the Construction of the State.........................................8 2.2 The People’s Comic Book and the Idealization of Trauma................................12 2.3 The Sanyuanli Narrative in the Present Day...................................................... 18 2.4 Visualizing the Nation in Contemporary Chinese Film .....................................20 3 INDEPENDENT FILM IN CHINA......................................................................27 3.1 Overview of Film in China ............................................................................... 27 3.2 Huanying Daoban – Independence, Audience and Distribution......................... 32 4 UNOFFICIAL VISUAL DISCOURSE................................................................. 40 4.1 Speaking Outside the Official ........................................................................... 40 4.2 Individual Bruises – Approaches to Documenting Personal Trauma..................43 4.2.1 Hu Jie – Filmmaker Biography .................................................................. 43 4.2.2 Hu Jie’s In Search of the Soul of Lin Zhao ................................................. 50 4.2.3 Hu Jie’s Though I am Gone........................................................................ 63 4.2.4 Wang Bing – Filmmaker Biography........................................................... 71 4.2.5 Wang Bing’s He Fengming........................................................................ 73 5 CONCLUSION......................................................................................................84 5.1 Filmmaking Approaches: Hu Jie and Wang Bing.............................................. 84 5.2 Why Now? .......................................................................................................86 5.3 Official versus Unofficial Visual Discourse ...................................................... 88 5.4 The Future of Independent Film in China.......................................................... 90 6 ANNOTATED TRANSLATIONS........................................................................ 95 6.1 In Search of the Soul of Lin Zhao......................................................................95 6.2 Selected Translation of Zhai Minglei’s Article on Hu Jie ................................ 133 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... 154 APPENDICES........................................................................................................... 161 Appendix 1 – Complete Filmography for Hu Jie...................................................... 161 Appendix 2 – Selected Filmography for Wang Bing................................................ 164 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. The opening panel of the San-yuan-li comic. The effects of British imperialism on the Chinese people.......................................................................................... 140 Figure 2. British brutalities against Chinese women and children. ............................... 140 Figure 3. Workers participating in anti-British fighting................................................ 141 Figure 4. British cowardice in the face of the anti-British militia. ................................ 141 Figure 5. The victories of the anti-British militia. ........................................................ 142 Figure 6. A Qing official reading an appeal from the British appealing to halt the rebellion in San-yuan-li. ...................................................................................... 142 Figure 7. The untrustworthiness of the landlords and the literati. ................................. 143 Figure 8. The persistence of the Chinese people. ......................................................... 143 Figure 9. The conclusion of the San-yuan-li comic. ..................................................... 144 Figure 10. The advantages of fighting barefoot. The British are burdened by their heavy boots.................................................................................................................... 144 Figure 11. Scenes of violence against the British soldiers. ........................................... 145 Figure 12. Promotional poster for the 2009 film, Tian'anmen. ..................................... 146 Figure 13. Promotional posters for the 2009 film, Founding of a Republic (Jianguo Daye). ................................................................................................................. 147 Figure 14. Hu Jie’s painting of Lin Zhao. .................................................................... 148 Figure 15. Hu Jie and the author on March 19th, 2009. One of Hu’s paintings is visible in the background. ................................................................................................... 149 Figure 16. Lin Zhao as a teenager................................................................................ 150 Figure 17. Bian Zhongyun and her family. .................................................................. 151 Figure 18. Wang Jingyao with his camera. .................................................................. 152 Figure 19. He Fengming.............................................................................................. 153 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincere thanks to my supervisor Dr. Catherine Swatek. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with her. I have also greatly benefited from the support and guidance of Dr. Alison Bailey, whose encouragement and enthusiasm I have found invaluable. My thanks also to Dr. Christopher Rea for being part of my committee and for making many helpful observations and critiques. Thank you all for your careful readings of my work. You have helped spot mistakes, making it stronger and better written. I take full responsibility for all remaining errors. Special thanks to Dr. Richard King, whose wonderful teaching first encouraged me to pursue graduate studies, and to Karen Tang who taught my first Mandarin-language class and endured my awkward mistakes and struggles. I am indebted to my many wonderful friends, both in and