Copyright by Mariana Estrada 2009
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Copyright by Mariana Estrada 2009 The Thesis Committee for Mariana Estrada Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Jia Zhangke’s Shijie and China’s Changing Global Space APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: Chien-hsin Tsai Robert M. Oppenheim Jia Zhangke’s Shijie and China’s Changing Global Space by Mariana Estrada, B.A. Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin December 2009 Abstract Jia Zhangke’s Shijie and China’s Changing Global Space Mariana Estrada, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2009 Supervisor: Chien-hsin Tsai This paper explores tourism and space-making in modern China through the lens of Sixth Generation Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke. His film Shijie (The World) features people whose lives play out in and around a Chinese theme park of the same name. Through its portrayal of theme parks and the social stratum who visit and inhabit them, Shijie depicts both the filmmaker‟s opinion of China‟s modernization project, as well as his evolving status within the Chinese international/national film system. As China‟s interest in its global image is being transformed through its media products, its concept of global and local space is also changing. The Olympic Village created for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics can be seen as an attempt at physically and symbolically engineering China‟s new global space. This paper will consider Jia Zhangke, The World, and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as several points along a continuum that leads toward a new envisioning of global space in China. iv Table of Contents Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................................7 The Evolution of Chinese Tourism ..........................................................................7 The Development of Leisure Travel and Tourism in China ...........................8 Resolving Conflicting Tourism Practices: Red Tourism and Self-driving Tourism ................................................................................................11 Theme Parks and Being “Modern” ...............................................................14 Chapter 2 ................................................................................................................18 Theme Parks and Creating “China” for the World ................................................18 World Showcase, World Park and The World ..............................................19 China at Home and Abroad .......................................................................24 Space and Simulation in the World Park ......................................................26 Chapter 3 ................................................................................................................31 Debunking the Myths of Progress: The People Behind The World .......................31 Migrant Workers in the City .........................................................................32 Flying High: Imagining Cosmopolitanism ...................................................34 The Other Half: Human Consequences of Development .............................40 Chapter 4 ................................................................................................................47 Shijie and the State: Fashioning the World ............................................................47 Seeing the World in Jia Zhangke‟s Films .....................................................48 Filmmaking in China: Working with-in/out the System...............................51 Shifting Loyalties: Independent/Official, Global/Local ...............................53 Chapter 5 ................................................................................................................58 Global Space in the 2008 Olympics and Beyond ..................................................58 China‟s Olympics on the World Stage..........................................................58 v Global Space in the Olympic Village ...........................................................61 Narratives of New China: The Opening Ceremonies and Zhang Yimou .....62 Conclusions ...................................................................................................65 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................67 Vita ………………………………………………………………………………75 vi Introduction In an increasingly technologically advanced and accessible world, imagining any place in the world is as simple as a trip to Google Maps. One can type in a state, city, and street address and in a few seconds zoom in from an image of the planet Earth, down through space, parting the clouds and arriving at a real on-the-street view of the destination, complete with cars and people frozen in the poses of their everyday lives. What today is thought of as an instantaneous and objective process of locating in space was, until fairly recently, a complex and highly charged process of imagining. The world was at least a mere concept, too remote to be relevant, or at most it was everywhere and everything, too massive to be apprehended. Likely the average person in the 19th century never gave it much thought, preoccupied with life‟s day-to-day trials and tribulations, until something came along to change her way of thinking. Combining novelty to attract and keep the senses, with technology to prove the promises of things to come, International Expositions, or World‟s Fairs, opened 19th century America‟s eyes.1 Ostensibly created to generate trade by presenting the wares and cultures of other countries, World‟s Fairs combined the business of industrial aims with the pleasure of amusement centers and exotic sights. Increasingly, following each fair‟s run its facilities were left standing, particularly its most profitable section the Midway. It was from these Midways that theme parks evolved, including the world‟s most recognizable-- Disneyland. 1 Although not the first nation to hold World Fair‟s, it was the American variety and combination of exhibits, education and entertainment that combined to form the precursor to the theme park. Distinct from amusement parks, theme parks are characterized by their all-encompassing theme. See Chapter 2 for a discussion of “theming.” 1 As World‟s Fairs evolved into theme parks, a concept of the world and world space was also evolving. World‟s Fairs created a narrative of America and the world, using the twin themes of nationalism and capitalism, and prominently featuring the role of technology to solve social and political problems.2 The Fair‟s theme, exhibits, and staged environment were all designed to foreground America‟s standing in the global community, technologically, at times militarily and always ideologically. In the early 20th century, America was portrayed as a nation destined to lead and first to find a way from current hardships to the “promised land of material abundance.”3 Disneyland and other theme parks that followed in the footsteps of World‟s Fairs built on their established methods, “concentrating on popular science, mass amusements, patriotic nostalgia, and industrialized mythology” to create a unique world within their walls.4 But it is another feature of the parks that best highlights their worldview-- the World Showcase. In just one section of the park, visitors could see the sites, hear the music and taste the flavors of a dozen countries. More than a fun-filled jaunt to exotic locales, the message reads, “the real nations of the world are essentially theme parks- World Showcase pavilions writ large.”5 In China, too, the explosion in number and popularity of theme parks has signaled changing views about the world. China‟s isolationist past combined with the political excesses of recent history have created a largely negative image against which modernizing China has had to struggle. In order to accomplish its economic and social 2 Robert Rydell, et al., Fair America: World’s Fairs in the United States (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000) 133. 3 Robert Rydell, World of Fairs: The Century of Progress Expositions (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993) 9. 4 Neil Harris, “Expository Expositions: Preparing for the Theme Parks,” Designing Disney’s Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance, Ed. Karal Ann Marling (Paris: Flammarion, 1997) 27. 5 Stephen M. Fjellman, Vinyl Leaves: Walt Disney World and America (Boulder: Westview Press, 1992) 233. 2 aims on the world stage, it faces the task of molding the world‟s largest population into global citizens capable of representing China to the world. In achieving this goal, the educational system, technological advancement, and selective control over accessible media can only do so much. The people of China in the 21st century must understand the world and their real and potential place in it. As part of this project, theme parks in China have served two purposes; they have glorified a mythologized traditional China, as well as its future and globally-oriented counterpart. China is doubly themed as an ancient culture, rich in heritage and wisdom, and one whose time has come; in the diminutive world of theme parks, China stands as a sophisticated giant among miniatures.