Contemporary Chinese Independent Cinema: Urban Spaces, Mobility, Memory Tamara Valerie Courage September 2016 PhD Department of Film, Theatre and Television School of Arts and Communication Design DECLARATION I confirm that this is my own work and the use of all material from other sources has been properly and fully acknowledged. ABSTRACT Since the 1990s, Chinese independent cinema has been at the forefront of documenting contemporary realities for marginalised citizens in Mainland China. This began with the New Chinese Documentary Movement and exploded in the mid-late 1990s with the rise of what is called the ‘Urban Generation’ of filmmakers who mix fiction with documentary to make sense of urban transformations at the street level. Now, with the continued expansion of more affordable and portable digital video production, independent filmmakers have moved beyond their local parameters and urban aesthetic styles to explore, represent and imagine new ways to document reality for the everyday citizen. In recent years, scholarship on Chinese independent cinema has acquired greater significance in film studies, insofar as it has devoted itself to the analysis of the historical significance and lasting influence of the New Chinese Documentary Movement and the ‘Urban Generation’. However, in the past decade, increasingly active digital video practices in China have proliferated on the independent film scene, including an increase in amateur and grassroots filmmaking which has embraced realism in multiple and innovative ways through documentary, fiction and experimental films. In this thesis, I will address the question of realism in contemporary Chinese independent cinema, which I argue, remains under-examined and both requires and warrants closer textual analysis. The cultural politics of China’s subaltern voices provides the common thread of this research which is articulated through the tropes of urban spaces, mobility and memory in this alternative filmmaking practice. These films imagine and represent realities through different and original modes of intervention that include performance, self-portraits, re-enactment and participatory filmmaking. In short, my research focuses on film productions from the past decade that challenge China’s official culture but also engage with it, placing it in relief with the ambiguity inherent in representation in film and history. TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION 2 ABSTRACT 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 7 NOTES ON TRANSLATION & TRANSLITERATION 10 INTRODUCTION 11 Urban Spaces, Mobility, Memory 12 The conditions of filming on-the-spot 14 Modes of representation 18 PART I - Urban Spaces 23 1. ‘On-the-spot realism’ in Zhao Dayong’s Street Life: On Nanjing Road, Shanghai (Nanjinglu, 2006) 24 Historical trajectory: from the New Documentary Movement to Street Life 26 Urban space and hukou in Street Life 33 Point of view and liveness 37 Testimony and performance 42 Interaction, participation and the unexpected event 45 2. A Self-portrait in Li Ning’s Tape (Jiao Dai, 2010) 54 Preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics 56 Materiality of the medium in Tape 57 Bodily engagement 62 Self-reflexivity 69 3. Dynamics of Domestic Space in Liu Jiayin’s Oxhide I (Niu pi, 2005) and Oxhide II (Niu pi er, 2009) 81 Oxhide I and II 83 Contemporary representations of family 85 Filmmaker and daughter 90 Format and the defamiliarising effect 94 Mise-en-scène 105 PART II - Mobility 111 4. Mass Migration in Lixin Fan’s Last Train Home (Guitu lieche, 2009) and Jia Zhangke’s Still Life (Sanxia haoren, 2006) 112 Individuality and bitterness: Last Train Home 114 Individual and economy: Still Life 121 Conditions of space: Last Train Home 129 Conditions of space: Still Life 135 5. Mobility and Gender in Xiaolu Guo’s She, A Chinese (Zhongguo gu niang, 2008) and Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding, 2013) 143 Context: She, A Chinese 144 Context: A Touch of Sin 147 Li: Migrant and drifter 151 Female agency in A Touch of Sin 158 PART III - Memory 169 6. Reconstruction, Embodiment and Memory in Hu Jie’s Though I Am Gone (Wo sui si qu, 2007) 170 Documenting cultural memory 171 Reconstruction 176 Embodiment: close-up and family portraits 183 The material excess and the abject 193 7. Testimony and Re-enactment in Jia Zhangke’s 24 City (Er shi si chengshi, 2008) 197 Factory 420 and the making of 24 City 198 Presentation of Factory 420, its demolition and its future model 201 The frontal pose 209 Framing testimonials: actual 212 Framing testimonials: fictional 217 8. Participating in the Folk Memory Project: Zou Xueping’s Children’s Village (2012) 223 Caochangdi Workstation and Hunger: Memory Project 225 Contributing to the Folk Memory Project 228 Reflexivity and cultural memory 231 Participatory role of girls and women 238 CONCLUSION 245 FILMOGRAPHY 250 BIBLIOGRAPHY 253 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis began at the University of Leeds in 2011 when I had just completed my Master’s dissertation on the subject of migration in world cinema. It was here that I discovered Chinese independent filmmaker Jia Zhangke’s films and embarked on a journey that would take me to Nanjing, China for a year through the White Rose East Asia Centre (WREAC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) grants and then to the University of Reading. I want to express my gratitude to those filmmakers and artists who offered their time to discuss their work with me since I began this PhD. Special thanks to Xiaolu Guo, Jia Zhangke, Wang Bo, Yang Lina, Zhang Mengqi, Zhao Dayong and Zou Xueping. Before this process, I possessed an energy that matched the longevity of Methuselah but this thesis humbled my naïve self-beliefs. In exchange, this experience has enriched my life in ways I had not previously imagined. And for that, I must give thanks to certain individuals that were there to activate my creative flow, to push me through unchartered territory and to lift me up when I felt uncertain of myself. I owe a tremendous debt to Lúcia Nagib whose skilled guidance and indefatigable support all the way through this process was what kept this ship running. Also, special thanks to Simone Knox who joined up in the middle of this thesis without a moment’s hesitation and who provided critical feedback on my drafts. This would not have been possible without the optimism, support and advice from Li Ruru, Marco, Sandra, Cecília, Shu-Yi, Sufang, Eden, Miles and my family in Canada. And special love and affection to my very patient and trusting partner in life and in crime, Christine. To all of you. I could not have done this without you. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE 1.1: 'TALKING HEAD' INTERVIEWS OF THE FIVE ARTISTS DEPICTED IN BUMMING IN BEIJING. IN CLOCKWISE ORDER FROM TOP LEFT: GAO BO, ZHANG CI, ZHANG XIAPING, ZHANG DALI AND MOU SEN. 31 FIGURE 1.2: ZHAO CUTS IN TO A REVERSE CLOSE-UP SHOT TO REVEAL FATTY LEE'S FACIAL EXPRESSION. 39 FIGURE 1.3: CAMERA IS POSITIONED IN A CART WHILE THE HOMELESS SUBJECT WEAVES THROUGH THE CROWD ON NANJING ROAD. 41 FIGURE 1.4: WITHOUT SUBTITLES, THIS SCENE ILLUMINATES THE PUBLICNESS OF THE SITUATION FOR HOMELESS MIGRANTS WHO MUST SETTLE IN AT NIGHT ON THE STREET. 42 FIGURE 1.5: IN THE OPENING SEQUENCE TO STREET LIFE, FATTY LEE DESCRIBES HIS CONDITION THROUGH POETRY. 44 FIGURE 1.6: CAMERA LINGERS ON A CHILD LEFT BEHIND IN SHANGHAI. 46 FIGURE 1.7: ZHAO’S INTERVENTION LEADS TO AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE BY THE BOY. 47 FIGURE 1.8: THE COVER OF THE DVD SHOWS BLACK SKIN CARRYING BAGS OF BOTTLES THROUGH THE STREETS. 49 FIGURE 1.9: BLACK SKIN ENTERS A SHOPPING CENTRE AND ROLLS AROUND ON THE FLOOR. 50 FIGURE 1.10: ZHAO CAPTURES BLACK SKIN DANCING ALONE IN AN EMPTY PLAZA. 52 FIGURE 2.1: A J-TOWN GUERRILLA TROUPE MEMBER ATTEMPTS TO PRY HIMSELF AWAY FROM THE ‘STICKINESS’ CREATED WHEN HIS FACE COLLIDES WITH A CAR’S WINDSCREEN. 59 FIGURE 2.2: LI SHOWS THE POST-PRODUCTION PROCESS IN HIS SOUND STUDIO. 60 FIGURE 2.3: LI ATTEMPTS TO REMOVE THE LENS CAP BEFORE THE SCREEN FREEZES, PIXILATES AND BLURS TO A WHITE SCREEN. 61 FIGURE 2.4: LI’S BODILY ENGAGEMENT WITH AN URBAN WASTELAND AND WITH DEATH. 63 FIGURE 2.5: THE CAMERA AS AN ETHICAL AGENT AGAINST CENSORSHIP FOR EXPRESSION IN THE EVERYDAY DURING THE DEMOLITION PROCESS IN JINAN CITY. 66 FIGURE 2.6: LI COMES INTO CONTACT WITH A FORKLIFT ON THE DEMOLITION SITE. 68 FIGURE 2.7: LI ENCOUNTERS THE UNEXPECTED WHEN HE IS CONFRONTED BY LOCALS DURING HIS PERFORMANCE. 70 FIGURE 2.8: LI RECORDS HIS CONFESSIONAL ON JINAN’S NIGHT CITY STREETS. 71 FIGURE 2.9: LI’S ALIEN PERFORMANCE IN A FULL-BODY SILVER SUIT. 73 FIGURE 2.10: LI’S PARODY OF THE OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY. 76 FIGURE 2.11: MONTAGE SEQUENCE OF LI’S PERFORMANCE AND THE ACTUAL NEWS MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE TORCH RELAY. 77 FIGURE 2.12: LI BRIEFLY INCORPORATES TIANANMEN SQUARE FOOTAGE FROM 1989 INTO THE FILM. 79 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 8 FIGURE 3.1: THE FINAL SHOT IN OXHIDE I CLOSES WITH A SUFFOCATING FACIAL CLOSE- UP OF ZAIPING IN BED AT NIGHT. 88 FIGURE 3.2: THE CHANGE OF ATMOSPHERE MANIFESTS IN ZAIPING’S RELAXED DEMEANOUR IN OXHIDE II. 89 FIGURE 3.3: THIS CLIMACTIC FATHER-SON SCENE IN EAST OF EDEN (1955) BREAKS AWAY FROM THE LONG SHOT/LONG TAKE AESTHETIC OF CINEMASCOPE. 98 FIGURE 3.4: IN OXHIDE I, THE CAMERA IS POSITIONED AT FLOOR HEIGHT SHOOTING TWO BOWLS WHERE LIU AND HER MOTHER ARE SOAKING THEIR FEET. 99 FIGURE 3.5: THE PASSAGE OF TIME DEPICTED IN THREE REPEATED SHOTS OF OXHIDE I.