Abstract
After a group of films were separated from the mainstream by production means, subject matters, and style, the interpretations produced by a set of auxiliary institutions were needed to brand these films as “new” and “artistic.” This materialistic and symbolic dual production is a universal working mechanism also found in the Western modern art world. In the formative years of Chinese art cinema, the symbolic production was particularly important because the underground nature of many of these films made them nearly inaccessible to general audiences. The artistic values of these films were largely appraised, endorsed, and promoted by critical institutions. This chapter identifies three such crucial institutions: director-centered discourse, the Beijing Film Academy, and international film festivals.
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Notes
- 1.
Steve Neale, “Art Cinema as Institution,” Screen 22, no. 1 (1981).
- 2.
Mattias Frey, Extreme Cinema: The Transgressive Rhetoric of Today’s Art Film Culture (2016).
- 3.
David Andrews, Theorizing Art Cinemas: Foreign, Cult, Avant-Garde, and Beyond (2014).
- 4.
Exceptions of course are made all the time as the censorship provisions are not articulated in detail. But the authorities always fell back on this “all films for all audience” principle for intervention when necessary.
- 5.
Gu Zheng, “Huiwang qingnian shiyan dianying xiaozu” [Looking Back at the Youth Experimental Film Group], Tianya [Frontiers], no. 1 (2000): 132–33.
- 6.
Dai Jinhua, Wu zhong feng jing: Zhongguo dianying wenhua 1978–1998 [Landscape in the Mist: Chinese Film Culture, 1978–1998] (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2000), 370.
- 7.
Pierre Bourdieu and Randal Johnson, The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1993), 115.
- 8.
Ibid., 37.
- 9.
Ibid., 121.
- 10.
See Andrew Tudor, “The Rise and Fall of the Art (House) Movie,” in The Sociology of Art: Ways of Seeing, ed. David Inglis and John Hughson (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). Neale, “Art Cinema as Institution.” Andrews , Theorizing Art Cinemas: Foreign, Cult, Avant-Garde, and Beyond. Shyon Baumann, Hollywood Highbrow: From Entertainment to Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007). Barbara Wilinsky, Sure Seaters: The Emergence of Art House Cinema (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001).
- 11.
David Andrews discusses and critiques auteurism in relation to Western art cinema extensively in Chapter 2 of his book. See Andrews, Theorizing Art Cinemas: Foreign, Cult, Avant-Garde, and Beyond: 36–40.
- 12.
Alexandre Astruc, “The Birth of a New Avant-Garde: La Camera-Stylo,” in The New Wave: Critical Landmarks, ed. Peter Graham (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968). François Truffaut, “A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema,” in Movies and Methods: An Anthology, ed. Bill Nichols (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975). Andrew Sarris, “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962,” in Film Theory and Criticism, ed. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
- 13.
Song Hwee Lim, “Positioning Auteur Theory in Chinese Cinemas Studies: Intratextuality, Intertextuality and Paratextuality in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang,” Journal of Chinese Cinemas 1, no. 3 (2007): 224–25.
- 14.
Ibid., 225.
- 15.
The sixth issue of Shijie dianying [World Cinema] in 1982 published the translation of Donald E. Staples, “The Auteur Theory Re-examined,” in The Emergence of Film Art, ed. Lewis Jacobs (New York, NY: Hopkinson and Blake, 1969).
- 16.
Lin Hua, “Qiantan dianying zuozhelun zai zhongguo de chuanbo ji yingxiang” [A Tentative Discussion of the Spread and Influence of Auteurism in China], Lilun yu dangdai [Theories and Contemporary Society], no. 5 (2007): 53–54.
- 17.
Dai Jinhua, “Geming yishi xingtai wenhua piping yanjiu: 1968 nian 5 yue yu dianying” [Cultural Study on Revolutionary Ideology: May 1968 and Cinema], interview by Yong Yi, Dianying yishu [Film Art], no. 3 (1998): 46.
- 18.
Li Daoxin, “Xinjilu dianying: zouxiang Zhongguo de ‘zuozhe dianying’” [New Documentary Films: Toward China’s “Auteur Film”], Dianying wenxue [Film Literature] no. 2 (1998): 23.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
Yang Ping, “Yige shitu gaizao guanzhong de daoyan—yu qingnian daoyan Tian Zhuangzhuang yixitan” [A Director Who Tries to Change Audiences—A Conversation with Young Director Tian Zhuangzhuang], Dazhong dianying [Popular Cinema], no. 9 (1989): 4.
- 21.
Ibid.
- 22.
Lin, “Qiantan dianying zuozhelun zai zhongguo de chuanbo ji yingxiang,” 54.
- 23.
Rui Zhang, Cinema of Feng Xiaogang: Commercialization and Censorship in Chinese Cinema after1989 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2008), 2.
- 24.
Huang Shixian, “Hongda xushi: yishu zhuti yu lishi jingshen de zhuangyan yuhe—shangpian” [Grand Narrative: The Solemn Confluence of Artistic Subjectivity and Historicism—Part I], Dianying [Movie] no. 5 (2002).
- 25.
See, for example, Chapters 1 and 2 of Xiaobing Tang, Visual Culture in Contemporary China: Paradigms and Shifts (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
- 26.
Paul Clark, Chinese Cinema: Culture and Politics since 1949 (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 56–86.
- 27.
Zhongguo dianshi yishujia xiehui yanjiu bu, Zhongguo dianying dianshi yishujia cidian [Encyclopedia of Chinese Film and Television Artists], Guanxi renmin chubanshe, 1991.
- 28.
See for example Hou Keren, “Zhongguo dianying dianshi yishujia cidian chuban” [Encyclopedia of Chinese Film and Television Artists Published], Zhongguo dianying zhoubao [China Film Weekly], August 22, No. 34, 1991.
- 29.
Ren Jie, “Lishi yange” [Historical Evolution], Beijing Film Academy, November 25, 2016, http://www.bfa.edu.cn/xygk/node_32.htm (accessed January 27, 2018).
- 30.
Ren Jie, “Lishi yange” http://www.bfa.edu.cn/xygk/node_32.htm.
- 31.
“Beijing dianying xueyuan jianjie” [About the Beijing Film Academy], Beijing Film Academy, November 25, 2016, http://www.bfa.edu.cn/xygk/node_31.htm (accessed January 27, 2018).
- 32.
Many notable alumni are listed on the website of the BFA. See http://www.bfa.edu.cn/xygk/node_593.htm. The directories of BFA graduates enrolled since 1998 are available on the official BFA alumni website: http://www.bfa.edu.cn/xygk/node_3092_2.htm (accessed January 27, 2018).
- 33.
Du Juan, “Acting on a Whim and a Prayer,” China Daily, February 21, 2017, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-02/21/content_28277915.htm (accessed January 27, 2018).
- 34.
Wuxian dianshi yiyuan xunlian ban in Chinese.
- 35.
Du Juan, “Acting on a Whim and a Prayer,” China Daily, February 21, 2017, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-02/21/content_28277915.htm (accessed January 27, 2018).
- 36.
Zhang Huijun, Zhi qingchun: Beijing dianying xueyuan 78 ban huiyilu [To Youth: The Memoir of the Class 78 of the Beijing Film Academy] (Beijing: Zhongguo qingnian chubanshe, 2015).
- 37.
Baumann, Hollywood Highbrow: From Entertainment to Art: 66–69.
- 38.
Bai Jingsheng, “Diudiao xiju de guaizhang” [Rid the Clutches of Theater], Dianying yishu cankao ziliao, no. 1 (1979).
- 39.
Zhang Nuanxin and Li Tuo, “Tan dianying yuyan de xiandaihua” [On the Modernization of Film Language], Dianying yishu [Film Art], no. 3 (1979): 40–52.
- 40.
Zhang, Zhi qingchun: Beijing dianying xueyuan 78 ban huiyilu: 364.
- 41.
Ibid., 180.
- 42.
“Dianying jigou jieshao” [Introduction to Film Institutions], in Zhongguo dianying nianjian 1981 [China Film Yearbook 1981] (Beijing: Zhongguo dianying chubanshe, 1981), 461–502.
- 43.
Zhang, Zhi qingchun: Beijing dianying xueyuan 78 ban huiyilu: 180–83.
- 44.
Tudor, “The Rise and Fall of the Art (House) Movie,” 127–28.
- 45.
Film Studio 101 (dianying 101 gongzuoshi) in Shanghai, one of the first cine clubs in the country, started in 1996.
- 46.
Zhang, Zhi qingchun: Beijing dianying xueyuan 78 ban huiyilu: 383–94.
- 47.
One type of such internal reference films came from foreign embassies, especially those of the Eastern Europe. See ibid., 392.
- 48.
Ibid., 115.
- 49.
Ibid., 116.
- 50.
Ibid., 392.
- 51.
Gu, “Huiwang qingnian shiyan dianying xiaozu.”
- 52.
See, for example, Andrews, Theorizing Art Cinemas: Foreign, Cult, Avant-Garde, and Beyond.
- 53.
The Venice International Film Festival was founded in 1932, Cannes 1946, and Berlin 1951.
- 54.
Marijke de Valck , Film Festivals: From European Geopolitics to Global Cinephilia (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007). Cindy H. Wong, Film Festivals: Culture, People, and Power on the Global Screen (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2011).
- 55.
de Valck, Film Festivals: from European Geopolitics to Global Cinephilia, 38.
- 56.
Rosalind Galt and Karl Schoonover, Global Art Cinema: New Theories and Histories (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 13.
- 57.
Li Yang, “Art Cinema in China?: Examining the Discourse of Chinese Art Film in the 1980s,” The Journal of the Southwest Conference on Asian Studies, no. 6 (2008).
- 58.
Yingjin Zhang, Screening China: Critical Interventions, Cinematic Reconfigurations, and the Transnational Imaginary in Contemporary Chinese Cinema (Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Chinese Studies, 2002), 221.
- 59.
Dai Qing and Jeanne Tai, “Raised Eyebrows for Raise the Red Lantern,” Public Culture 2, no. 5 (1993).
- 60.
Roderick Conway Morris, “Screen Classics Star on the Lido,” New York Times, August 27, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/28/movies/moviesspecial/screen-classics-star-on-the-lido.html (accessed January 27, 2018).
- 61.
For example, see “Chinese Stars Shine at the Red Carpet of Cannes Film Festival,” Renmingwang, May 16, 2013, http://en.people.cn/90782/8246599.html (accessed January 27, 2018).
- 62.
Wong, Film Festivals: Culture, People, and Power on the Global Screen, 4.
- 63.
Cheng Qingsong and Huang Ou, Wo de sheyingji bu sahuang [My Camera Does Not Lie] (Beijing Zhongguo youyi chuban gongsi, 2002), 110.
- 64.
Tan Ye, “From the Fifth to the Sixth Generation: An Interview with Zhang Yimou,” in Zhang Yimou: Interviews, ed. Frances K. Gateward (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2001).
- 65.
Patrick Frater, “China’s Indie Icon Launches Commercial Venture Fabula,” Variety, May 15, 2016, http://variety.com/2016/film/asia/jia-zhangke-launches-fabula-commercial-venture-1201775144/ (accessed January 28, 2018).
- 66.
“Explainer: What Is Platform,” Toronto International Film Festival official website, August 13, 2015, http://v1.tiff.net/whats-on/news-events/what-is-platform (accessed January 28, 2018).
- 67.
Rhonda Richford, “Cannes: Jia Zhangke to Receive Carrosse d’Or Prize,” The Hollywood Reporter, March 16, 2015, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cannes-jia-zhangke-receive-carrosse-781648 (accessed December 9, 2017).
- 68.
The other term “New Generation directors” (Xinshengdai daoyan) did use the word “new,” but this term was less popular than the Fifth and Sixth Generation directors.
- 69.
Nie Wei, “Cong hou Huangtudi dao hou Jia Zhangke shidai: diliudai dianying de meixue yu chanye fazhan luelun” [From Post Yellow Earth to Post Jia Zhangke: On the Aesthetics and Industrialization of the Sixth Generation Cinema], Shanghai daxue xuebao (shehui kexue ban) [Journal of Shanghai University (Social Sciences)] 13, no. 6 (2006): 19.
- 70.
Yang Yuanying, “Bainian liudai, yingxiang zhongguo—guan yu zhongguo dianying daoyan de daiji puxi yanxun” [Six Generations in 100 Years, Cinema China: A Study of Chinese Directors’ Generational Genealogy], Dangdai dianying [Contemporary Cinema], no. 6 (2001): 99.
- 71.
Hu Xueyang, “Tantan wo de ‘Tongnian wangshi’” [Talk About My “Childhood Memories”], Dianying gushi no. 6 (1991): 14.
- 72.
Li Sheng, “Sheishi Diliudai” [Who Are the Sixth Generation], Beijing dianying xueyuan xuebao [Journal of Beijing Film Academy], no. 1 (1995): 149.
- 73.
Ge Ying, “Ganga: ‘Diliudai zhi zheng’ yinfa lilun weiji” [Embarrassment: Debate over the Sixth Generation Ignites Theoretical Crisis], Journal of Shanghai University (Social Sciences) 10, no. 2 (2003): 47.
- 74.
Ibid.
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Yang, L. (2018). Institutions of Consecration. In: The Formation of Chinese Art Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97211-4_4
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