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Beijing in the Shadow of Globalization: Production of Spatial Poetics in Contemporary Chinese Cinema, Literature, and Drama

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Beijing in the Shadow of Globalization: Production of Spatial Poetics in Contemporary Chinese Cinema, Literature, and Drama Beijing in the Shadow of Globalization: Production of Spatial Poetics in Contemporary Chinese Cinema, Literature, and Drama By JING NIE B.A. (Beijing Language and Cultural University) 1998 M.A. (Ohio University) 2003 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Comparative Literature in the OFFICE OF GRADUATE STUDIES of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS Approved: ___________Sheldon H. Lu_______________ ___________Michelle Yeh________________ ___________Li Zhang___________________ ___________Xiaomei Chen_______________ Committee in Charge 2009 -i- UMI Number: 3369875 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ______________________________________________________________ UMI Microform 3369875 Copyright 2009 by ProQuest LLC All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. _______________________________________________________________ ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 Contents List of Illustrations iii Acknowledgements iv Introduction 1 Chapter One A City of Disappearance: Trauma, Displacement and Spectral Cityscape in Contemporary Chinese Cinema 27 Chapter Two Transcendental Locality: Poetic Difference and Intimate Space in Yan Li’s Poetry 59 Chapter Three Paradigms of Flexible Configurations: I-Generation and Beijing- Punks in Wang Meng, Xu Xing, and Chun Shu 100 Chapter Four Staging Spatial Conflicts and Affect in Emotional Post-Socialism: Meng Jinghui’s Theater 143 Bibliography 183 -ii- Illustrations 1. Beijing’s futuristic architectural symbols. Upper left: the Egg (“Judan,” the National Grand Theater of China). Upper right: the Bird’s Nest (“Niaochao,” the Olympic Stadium). Lower left: the Water Cube (“Shui lifang,” National Aquatics Center). Lower right: the Big Pants (“Da kudang,” the CCTV Tower). 3 2. Master Liu and Da Ming on the roof of the bathhouse. Zhang Yang. Shower. 36 3. Gui swaggers through the streets. Wang Xiaoshui. Beijing Bicycle. 42 4. A Chinese beggar against the World Park. Jia Zhangke. The World. 46 5. Shen Xue and Yan in the bathroom. Feng Xiaogang. Cell Phone. 52 6. Daily Mail. Fendi Holds Fashion Show on Great Wall of China. 84 7. The stage setting of Gossip Street. Meng Jinghui. Gossip Street. 150 8. Ercong and the mysterious man. Meng Jinghui. Gossip Street. 156 9. Love training classes. Meng Jinghui. Rhinoceros in Love. 166 10. Malu and Mingming. Meng Jinghui. Rhinoceros in Love. 171 11. Malu and Mingming in the foreground with an actress jumping rope in the background. Meng Jinghui. Rhinoceros in Love. 175 12. The lottery winner was being drawn. Meng Jinghui. Rhinoceros in Love. 177 -iii- Acknowledgements As a product of my six-year long graduate study in Comparative Literature program at University of California, Davis, this dissertation would not have been possible without enormous support and help from many individuals and institutions. My home department graciously funded my fieldwork in 2008 and provided various supports over the years. Parts of the writing benefited from a fellowship from UC Davis Humanities Institute and a travel award from the Consortium for Women and Research, UC Davis. I want to express my deepest gratitude to my dissertation committee members — Sheldon H. Lu, Michelle Yeh, Li Zhang, and Xiaomei Chen — for their inspiration, advice, and support of my project. I am especially grateful to my dissertation supervisor, Sheldon H. Lu, who provided constant guidance, encouragement, and help during my graduate study at UC Davis. Many Professors at my home institution, friends, and colleagues read, heard, or commended on earlier versions of the various chapters. Among them, I especially want to thank Kari Locke, Jerome Silbergeld, and Jiayan Mi. My writing also benefited from productive discussions at several conventions of Association for Asian Studies where I presented various parts of my work. Finally, I want to thank my family for their unconditional support, love, and understanding. -iv- 1 Introduction This dissertation is a multidisciplinary study of the representation and reappropriation of space in contemporary Chinese cultural works. Focusing on Beijing, the capital city and the cultural center of China, the study analyzes selected contemporary filmic, literary, poetic, and dramatic works to investigate the significance of the metamorphosing spaces in China in a global context. Positioning itself in the dialectic of globalization,1 the central concern of the study is to examine the possibility and capability of cultural products to influence and (re)mold social space and practice in cultural performance. Though the beginning of globalization could be dated at the rise of the modern capitalist world-system, the term is commonly used to refer to the post-Cold War era where we observe its most intensive development. In its escalated evolvement, globalization has propelled global capitalism, modified the nature of the nation-state, and inseminated consumerism. On the one hand, it seems to exemplify what David Harvey calls “time-space compression,” a speed-up social life of perpetual nowness in a “global village” through technology and shrinking of time to the schizophrenic present.2 On the other hand, “time-space distanciation,” as “both local and distant institutions and incidents have become mutually dependent and equally formative.”3 There have been different opinions on globalization’s impact on local identities. Some critics of globalization denounce it as a Eurocentric, equate it with Westernization, and call it a threat to local individuality and an attempt at cultural homogenization.4 Supporters of globalization cite historical examples of cultures’ mutual informativeness 2 and constructiveness.5 Globalization’s impact on the spatial organization of social relations has been debated along a similar line. Capitalism’s erosion of local identity and cultures has been suggested since the late 1970s. Sameness and placelessness are said to increasingly characterize post-industrial cities, though Manuel Castells argues that homogenization and deterritorialization are limited to the “space of flows,” especially in places such as international airports, corporate buildings, and world class hotels.6 Some scholars identify space as ever-changing social processes and argue for the persistence of place identities.7 As Sheldon Lu has observed, though “China’s entry into the capitalist world economy, troubled and difficult as always, has unleashed fantasies and imaginings that attempt to bypass the limitations of local and national traditions,” it is also caught in the tension between “the universalizing, globalizing tendency of capital and the defensive enclaves of nationalism, localism, and tradition.”8 The Transformation of Beijing: From the “Forbidden City” to a Knot on the World Wide Web Beijing, the host of the 2008 summer Olympic Games, caught the world’s attention. With the breathtakingly beautiful and densely coded opening ceremony directed by famous Chinese director Yimou Zhang, Beijing not only staged the most expensive and stunning theatrical spectacle of the Olympic Games in history, but also awakened the world to the indisputable fact of China’s rise. Broadcasting along with the Games is the glamorous cityscape of Beijing, with its futuristic architectural symbols of 3 the “Bird’s Nest” (“Niaochao” , the Olympic Stadium), the “Egg” (“Judan” , the National Grand Theater of China), the “Water Cube” (“Shui lifang” , National Aquatics Center), and the “Big Pants” (“Da kucha” , the CCTV Tower), designed by world famous architects (Figure 1). The extremely competitive Chinese athletes (who won 51 gold medals and ranked second), marvelous artists, and enthusiastic volunteers of the Olympics brushed away an lingering image of the Chinese as backwards or godless Communists, and projected a picture of a new, modern, open China to the world. (Figure 19) The enormous change, nevertheless, did not come overnight. Ever since Deng Xiaoping advocated the “reform and opening up” (gaige kaifang ) policy in the late 1970s, China has been fumbling to be rich, strong, and modern, in other words, to be more comparable to the West. With this ultimate goal in mind, China has shifted gradually from a centrally controlled and state economy to a market economy. To overcome the contradiction between socialist orthodoxy and capitalist practice, Deng 4 said, “It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.” To feed the people and build a wealthy country become the overriding goals of the state despite their theoretical justifiability. The “absolute equality” boasted earlier by socialism is now taken as a tacit commitment to being “equally poor” and regarded as a constraint on development. Deng further advocated developmentalism in 1992 when he traveled to China’s southern provinces. Huge advertising boards, bearing Deng’s famous slogan “development is the key” (fazhan shi ying daoli ) proliferated in Chinese cities
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