CINEMATIC REALISM AND INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING IN CHINA by MEI YANG A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2011 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Mei Yang Title: Cinematic Realism and Independent Filmmaking in China This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures by: Alison M. Groppe Chairperson Tze-Lan Sang Member Alisa D. Freedman Member David Li Outside Member and Richard Linton Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies/Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2011 ii © 2011 Mei Yang iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Mei Yang Doctor of Philosophy Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures June 2011 Title: Cinematic Realism and Independent Filmmaking in China Approved: _______________________________________________ Dr. Alison M. Groppe Independent filmmaking in China, with the directors’ reiteration of literary and cinematic realism carried on from May Fourth, reflects the nation’s social uneasiness triggered by the enlarging division between the enlightenment indenture and the unidirectional modernization project. Resisting the national allegories and Hollywood-style big budget fantasies made by the Fifth Generation, independent filmmakers bring back to the screen the unadorned life of city inhabitants. The meaning of “independent” and “alternative” does not exclusively lie in the production and distribution venues but is galvanized by film directors’ perception and cinematic depiction of what constitutes the social realities of contemporary China. The locality of hometown and the corporeality of the filmed subjects help to sustain a legitimate image-space for the socially underrepresented, at a time when the Party co-opts the discourse of nation-state to renew their regime. Directors employ the politics of sexuality, where body is the only thing remaining in their control, to usher in a redefinition of the Party and reassure the agency of Chinese intellectuals who were betrayed during the June Fourth massacre. The exegesis of the independent generation extends to the digital video (DV) filmmakers, whose cinematic language features the increased sense of interrogation between the camera and the iv characters. For the directors’ claims of neither representing the people nor wrestling against the Party, nonetheless, DV films retreat to a safe but enclosed space, in which the aggrandized size of the body on screen displays a fractioned and diminished self cutting off from the outside world and falling short of its full potential. Independent filmmaking in China derives its policy-shaping capacity from its increasing participants (domestic audiences, amateur filmmakers, critics, and scholars) and multiplying operative channels (film funds, online forums, and non-official archives), collectively converting filmmaking from a privilege exclusive to the state apparatus and its elite delegates to a right of self- expression belonging to each individual. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Mei Yang GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene, OR University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign, IL Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2011, University of Oregon Master of Arts, East Asian Languages and Cultures, 2004, University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign Master of Arts, Comparative Literature, 2002, Beijing Normal University Bachelor of Philosophy, Philosophy, 2000, Beijing Normal University AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Modern Chinese Literature and Film Japanese Cinema PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Assistant Professor, Defense Language Institute, 2009 to Present Instructor, Willamette University, 2004-2005 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Excellent Teaching Award, University of Illinois, 2004 Graduate Teaching Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2005-2009 Outstanding Thesis, Beijing Normal University, 2000 vi PUBLICATIONS: Mei Yang. “Female Fetishism in Zhu Tianwen’s Fin de Siècle Splendor,” Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies at the University of Colorado. Boulder, CO, 2008 Mei Yang. Advanced Chinese: Reading the Humanities. Salem: Willamette University, 2005 Mei Yang. “Fluidity, Innocence and Modernity: the Image of Central China in So Close to Paradise”, Columbia Graduate Student Conference on East Asia, New York, 2004 Mei Yang. “Ai Lüete he ta de huangyuan” (T.S. Eliot and The Waste Land) and “Yuehan Qici de shige” (The Poetry of John Keats), in Liu Hongtao ed. Waiguo wenxue zuopin daodu (Introduction to Foreign Literary Works), Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 2004 Mei Yang. “Yinxiang zhuyi” (The Works of Impressionists), in Liu Xiangyu ed. Xiandai zhuyi wen xue zuopinxuan (Anthology of Modernist Literature Works), Beijing: Gaodeng jiaoyu chubanshe, 2002 Mei Yang. “Tangjihede yu zhongguo wuxia xiashuo de bijiao” (A Comparative Reading of Don Quixote and Chinese Martial-Arts Fictions), Tangjihede daodu (Introduction to Don Quixote), Beijing: Jinghua chubanshe, 2001 Mei Yang. “Yingxiang yanjiu: zhongxi wenxue jiaoliu” (A Study of Influence: The Literature Interactions between the East and the West), Bijiao wenxue (Comparative Literature), Beijing: Beijing shifan daxue chubanshe, 2001 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express sincere appreciation to Professor Groppe for her assistance in the preparation of this manuscript. In addition, special thanks are due to Professor David Li, Professor Freedman and Professor Sang, who have provided valuable suggestions during the early phase of this undertaking. I also thank graduate students in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures for their encouragements and support during my study at the University of Oregon. viii Dedicated to families and friends ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 Naming.............................................................................................................. 5 Methodology ..................................................................................................... 10 Current Studies .................................................................................................. 12 Outline .............................................................................................................. 17 Notes ................................................................................................................. 24 II. REDISCOVERY OF REALISM: GENESIS OF THE SIXTH GENERATION .. 28 Beijing Film Academy and the Generations of Filmmaking ............................... 30 The Right to Make Films ................................................................................... 41 Independent Films and Diaspora ........................................................................ 52 Notes ................................................................................................................. 66 III. JIA ZHANGKE’S UNKNOWN PLEASURES .................................................... 70 Notes ................................................................................................................. 108 IV. JUNE FOURTH, THE REBELS, AND THE MARKET ................................... 112 June Fourth, Taboo and Sexuality as Rebellion .................................................. 114 The Return of the Rebels ................................................................................... 129 The Market: The Changing Film Industry .......................................................... 141 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 153 Notes ................................................................................................................. 155 x Chapter Page V. REBEL AND RETURN: FILMS BY ZHANG YUAN, WANG XIAOSHUAI, AND LOU YE ............................................................................................. 159 Zhang Yuan: Beijing Bastard (1993) ................................................................. 161 East Palace, West Palace (1997) and Seventeen Years (1999) ........................... 166 Wang Xiaoshuai: Frozen (1997) and In Love We Trust (2007) ........................... 181 Lou Ye: Summer Palace (2006) ......................................................................... 194 Notes ................................................................................................................. 204 VI. ONLINE SPACE AND THE DV GENERATION............................................. 207 Online Space and the Participation of Public Discourse ..................................... 209 Case 1: A Parodied Promise ......................................................................... 213 Case 2: “Jia Junpeng” and a Close Look at Internet Users ............................ 219 Case 3: Crowd-Funding and Beijing Taxi (2010) .......................................... 226 Overview of the Independent Film Circuit in China ........................................... 230 Domestic Independent Film Festivals and Multi-Screen Realities ...............