Panel 1: Guoyu Pian Time: 9:00am-10:40am (Taipei time) Chair: Hong Guo-Juin
Hsi Shih: The Beauty of Beauties (1965): The Grand Mirage of Taiwanese Cinema/ James Udden
Victory (1974): Symbolic Analysis of the Film in Three Parts/ James Wicks
Legend of the Mountain (1979): Rediscovering King Hu’s Land of Wayward Ghosts/ Michael Berry
Panel 2: Taiyu Pian Time: 11:00am-12:40pm (Taipei time) Chair: Wenchi Lin
The Best Secret Agent (1964): The First Female Spy Hero of Taiyu pian/ Chunchi Wang
The Bride Who Has Returned from Hel (1965): Cosmopolitan Vernacularism/ Ping-hui Liao
Dangerous Youth (1969): Sexual Economy, Taiyu Films and Bricolage/ Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh
This Webinar is held as part of the International Symposium on Taiwan Cinema 台灣電影線上國際研討會.
The International Symposium on Taiwan Cinema, organized by the Visual Culture Research Center at National Central University and the Centre for Film, Taiwan and Creative Industry at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, will proceed as a series of webinars on Zoom to be held from December, 2021 to April, 2022, in which contributing authors of the book 32 NEW TAKES ON TAIWAN CINEMA to be published by The Michigan University Press will be invited to present key points in their chapters. For more information please visit the facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/NCUVisual.
The symposium is co-organized by: Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at University of Minnesota – Twin Cities The Department of Filmmaking at Taipei National University of the Arts Institut d’Etudes Transtextuelles et Transculturelles at Université de Lyon (Jean Moulin) The Center for Taiwan Studies at University of California Santa Barbara Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures, The University of Hong Kong
For updates on future events hosted by the Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures, please visit https://csgchku.wordpress.com/
Hsien-hao Liao｜Chair Jason McGrath｜Daughter of the Nile (1987): Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Dark Pop Experiment Earl Jackson｜Monga (2010): Affect and Structure Darrell Davis｜True Emotion Behind the Wall (2017): Taste of Salty Chicken Carlos Rojas｜The Great Buddha+ (2017): Tracing the Limits of the Visible
This Webinar is held as part of the International Symposium on Taiwan Cinema 台灣電影線上國際研討會.
The International Symposium on Taiwan Cinema, organized by the Visual Culture Research Center at National Central University and the Centre for Film, Taiwan and Creative Industry at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, will proceed as a series of webinars on Zoom to be held from December, 2021 to April, 2022, in which contributing authors of the book 32 NEW TAKES ON TAIWAN CINEMA to be published by The Michigan University Press will be invited to present key points in their chapters. For more information please visit the facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/NCUVisual.
The symposium is co-organized by: Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at University of Minnesota – Twin Cities The Department of Filmmaking at Taipei National University of the Arts Institut d’Etudes Transtextuelles et Transculturelles at Université de Lyon (Jean Moulin) The Center for Taiwan Studies at University of California Santa Barbara Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures, The University of Hong Kong
For updates on future events hosted by the Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures, please visit https://csgchku.wordpress.com/
Sun and moon have no light left, earth is dark; Our women’s world is sunk so deep, who can help us? Jewelry sold to pay this trip across the seas, Cut off from my family I leave my native land. Unbinding my feet I clean out a thousand years of poison, With heated heart arouse all women’s spirits. Alas, this delicate kerchief here Is half stained with blood, and half with tears. Qiu Jin, 1904 (translated by Jonathan Spence)
As she bode farewell to China in the summer of 1904, early revolutionary Qiu Jin penned these words to bemoan the fate of herself and of uncountable Chinese women. She was leaving behind her husband—whom she had married out of obligation—and two young children to go to study in Japan. Having returned to China, she would continue to engage in revolutionary activities, and was ultimately beheaded by the Qing authorities in July 1907 at the age of 31. Martyrdom made her into a legend. More than a century later, bound feet belong to another age and kerchieves stained with blood and tears have become an overused trope in revolutionary literature. Still, Qiu Jin’s spirit is more alive than ever in a whole new generation of Chinese feminists who are fighting for women’s rights—a renewed attempt to smash the bell jar of China’s patriarchal society.
This issue of the Made in China Journal offers a series of perspectives on the plight and struggles of women and sexual minorities in today’s China. In the special section, Dušica Ristivojević reflects on how Anglophone media have been reporting on women’s activism in China over the past three decades and the implications of such coverage for our understanding of the phenomenon. Yige Dong considers the class composition of the Young Feminist Activism in China, asking whether this movement is really an elitarian urban project or if it represents a feminist movement from the left. Nuala Gathercole Lam in conversation with feminist activist Zhang Leilei discusses the dynamics that led to the emergence of a #MeToo movement in China, as well as the shortcomings of the campaign. Séagh Kehoe argues for increased attention and social mobilisation to address the complex and often brutal ways in which gender and ethnicity overlap in China, in particular in the borderland areas of Tibet and Xinjiang. Feminist activistZheng Churan recounts her relationship with her husband Wei Zhili, detained at the end of March for assisting migrant workers affected by pneumoconiosis. Tiantian Zheng looks back at the plight of sex workers in China since the beginning of the economic reforms, highlighting the tragic consequences of the existing repressive policies. Nicola Macbean describes the ‘accidental’ activism of the wifes of rights protection lawyers arrested in the crackdown of July 2015. Finally,Bao Hongwei in conversation with leading queer feminist filmmaker He Xiaopei talks about the formation of queer identities, communities, and activism in China since the 1990s.
The issue includes op-eds on the rise of transnational carceral capitalism in Xinjiang by Gerald Roche; the latest crackdown on labour activists by Kevin Lin; the implications of the recent detention of the former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei by Maya Wang; the ethical and practical risks that Western universities face in dealing with China by James Darrowby; and the role of ideology in Xi Jinping’s China by Christian Sorace. In the China columns section, Jie Yang looks into the workings of ‘hidden norms’ in the Chinese bureaucracy and how they affect the psychological well-being of Chinese officials. Jude Blanchette traces the history of the policies adopted by the Chinese Communist Party to exert influence within private companies in China. Finally, Robert Walker and Yang Lichao analyse a recent official report that offers an assessment of progress in poverty reduction and candidly discusses contradictions within the current strategy.
The Window on Asia section offers two essays. Milford Bateman, Nithya Natarajan, Katherine Brickell, and Laurie Parsons discuss the consequences of the expansion of Cambodia’s already microcredit sector, where indebted people have been forced to accept exploitative labour conditions in the garment and construction industries and, in the worst cases, have been forced to sell themselves as bonded labour to brick kilns owners. Yi Xiaocuo analyses a new Sino-Kazakh coproduction that recounts the time that celebrated Chinese musician Xian Xinghai spent in Kazakhstan in early 1942, shedding light on the dark side of the cooperation between China and Kazakhstan under the aegis of the Belt and Road Initiative. In the cultural section, Martina Caschera reanimates the artistic production of Lu Zhixiang, a master cartoonist whose work offered insight into the plight of the underclasses in Shanghai in the 1930s, and Zeng Jinyan and Tan Jia talk with director Wang Nanfu about her documentary Hooligan Sparrow.We wrap up the issue with a conversation with Daniel Vukovich about Illiberal China, his latest book on the idological challenges that China poses to liberal values and ideas.The EditorsIvan Franceschini (ivan.franceschini@anu.edu.au) and Nicholas Loubere
This year’s programme features in-depth dialogues with eight renowned documentary filmmakers and artists: Tsai Ming Liang, Jewel Maranan, Bettina Perut, Iván Osnovikoff, Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska, Philippe Bellaiche and Luke Lorentzen.
Date: 21 – 28 . 03 . 2019 | 7:30pm
Location: Studio Room 303, Chong Yuet Ming Cultural Centre, HKU
Events
21 . 3 . 2019 (Thu): Dialogue with Jewel Maranan
Jewel Maranan is an independent documentary filmmaker and producer from the Philippines. She started working for independent documentaries in 2008, tackling conflict situations in Manila. Throughout the years, she has developed a deep interest in the ways by which history inches through ordinary life. She fixed her critical eye on the lives in the shadow of Tondo’s ever-engulfing port and finished her latest work IN THE CLAWS OF A CENTURY WANTING (2017), speaking for the silent from a small town near Manila. Jewel is an active participant in efforts to help develop Southeast Asian documentary through the SEA DocNet, a network of documentary professionals in Southeast Asia.
22 . 3 . 2019 (Fri): Dialogue with Tsai Ming-Liang
Born in Malaysia in 1957, Tsai Ming-Liang is one of the most prominent film directors of the new cinema movement in Taiwan. In 1994, his film VIVE L’AMOUR won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, establishing his status in international cinema. In 2009, FACE became the first film to be included in the collection of the Louvre Museum’s “Le Louvre s’offre aux cineastes.” It has since become the benchmark for films venturing into the world of art galleries. His STRAY DOGS (2013) was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 70th Venice Film Festival. In recent years, Tsai Ming-Liang has also moved on to installation art, showcased in exhibitions held in various cities including Taipei, Venice, Shanghai and Nagoya.
Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff have worked together since 1997 directing and producing documentaries. With seven feature films to their credit, their poetic journey is full of turning points and mutations that have accompanied the technological and cultural transformations of their time, challenging the most stable and conservative premises of what is meant by documentary filmmaking. Their work SURIRE (2015) is about the Surire salt flat located in the Chilean high plateau. As observation in visual language, it is a film that portrays this unique space in which natural beauty, human absurdity and cultural decline coexist.
Ljubomir Stefanov & Tamara Kotevska co-directed the documentary film HONEYLANDwhich won three awards at Sundance 2019 including World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. Ljubomir Stefanov has over 20 years of experience in development and production of communication concepts and documentaries related to environmental issues and human development. He worked for clients such as UN agencies, EuroNatur and Swisscontact. Tamara Kotevska graduated in film directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts Skopje. She has 5-year experience in documentary and fiction film making as a freelance film director.
28 . 3 . 2019 (Thu): Dialogue with Philippe Bellaiche & Luke Lorentzen
Born in Paris, Philippe Bellaiche is an award-winning cinematographer. His latest production , which he also produced and co-directed, ADVOCATE features Lea Tsemel, a Jewish-Israeli lawyer who has represented political prisoners for five decades. Luke Lorentzen graduated from Stanford University in art history and film studies. He directed MIDNIGHT FAMILY which won U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography at Sundance 2019. The documentary tells the story of the Ochoa family which runs a private ambulance in Mexico City, competing with other for-profit EMTs for patients in need of urgent help.
Children at a Village School a Jiang Nengjie’s film (Putonghua & Dialect dialogue, Chinese & English subtitles) 2009: First glance at the village school, in which the lives of 22 students including 17 left-behind children, together with the unsmooth application of the school’s reconstruction, were focused on. 2010: Teacher Zhang, a supply teacher with more than 10 years teaching experience, was assigned to the reconstructed school. While in charge of two classes, he was concerned about, and striving for the obtainment of permanent teaching status. Meanwhile, folks began to doubt on the quality of the school buildings, as the left-behind children were facing numerous problems in life, study and emotion. 2011: Mr. Zhang left the school out of dissatisfaction. After he left, the problems those left-behind children were confronting with became more serious. 2012: Thanks to the media, the material condition of the village school began to turn around. However, it still had a long way to go. 2013: The situation of those left-behind children seems unchanged, but it turned out to get changed day by day. 2014: As another Spring Festival comes, what is going on in those left-behind families?
Date: 19 March 2019 (Tuesday) Time: 16:00 (15:30 – Reception; 16:00 – Film Screening; 17:35 – Discussion) Venue: Lecture Hall, G/F, May Hall, HKU Discussion with Director Jiang Nengjie, and Dr. Wang Dan (in Putonghua & English) Free admission; first come, first served. Poster: www.hkihss.hku.hk/events/film21 Enquiries: 3917 5772 | ihss@hku.hk
(This is an event jointly organized by The Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and Wah Ching Centre of Research on Education in China, The University of Hong Kong.)
Illiberal China analyzes the ‘intellectual political culture’ of post-Tiananmen China in comparison to and in conflict with liberalism inside and outside the P.R.C. How do mainland politics and discourses challenge ‘our’ own, chiefly liberal and anti-‘statist’ political frameworks? To what extent is China paradoxically intertwined with a liberal economism? How can one understand its general refusal of liberalism, as well as its frequent, direct responses to electoral democracy, universalism, Western media, and other normative forces? Vukovich argues that the Party-state poses a challenge to our understandings of politics, globalization, and even progress. To be illiberal is not necessarily to be reactionary and vulgar but, more interestingly, to be anti-liberal and to seek alternatives to a degraded liberalism. In this way Chinese politics illuminate the global conjuncture, and may have lessons in otherwise bleak times.
Advance Reviews:
“Illiberal China, from its punning title forwards, reveals how China is the objectified “other” of the West, but is also an actually existing subject with its own intrinsic logic full of paradoxes and tensions. It examines the political-economic and cultural narratives surrounding the different representations of “China,” as well as their logical boundaries and interrelationships. The book intertwines external and internal, global and domestic perspectives. At the same time, Vukovich tries to reflect critically on Western liberalism by presenting “China as a problem.” Vukovich deals frankly with many complex and sensitive topics, although this style is not an end in itself but serves to open up a new discursive space. He believes “China” challenges previous theoretical and historical narratives, especially those attached to political theory and concepts such as liberalism or democracy. This is a powerful, subtle book that challenges Chinese research from a different paradigm and theoretical system. It deserves serious attention indeed.” (Lu Xinyu, East China Normal University, China)
“Understanding today’s China is an intellectual and moral challenge. Vukovich takes it head on and makes a paradoxical case that “illiberal China” may be the best hope in this bleak moment in history. China may or may not deliver on the hope, but I am sure everyone will benefit from reading this well informed and thought-provoking study on the contemporary Chinese ideological struggle in its global context.” (Zhiyuan Cui, Tsinghua University, China)
“Liberal values and practices are supposed to be universal and China seemed to be going in the “right” direction. Until recently, that is. It now seems clear that the Chinese political system will evolve based on its own “illiberal” foundations. Vukovich’s original book argues that what he terms “progressive illiberalism” not only fits China’s political context, it is also defensible from a normative point of view. Whatever we think of his controversial argument, it will generate much-needed discussion.” (Daniel A. Bell, Shandong University and Tsinghua University, China)
Edited by Sebastian Veg Hong Kong University Press, 2019
The present volume provides an overview of new forms of popular memory, in particular critical memory, of the Mao era. Focusing on the processes of private production, public dissemination, and social sanctioning of narratives of the past in contemporary China, it examines the relation between popular memories and their social construction as historical knowledge. The three parts of the book are devoted to the shifting boundary between private and public in the press and media, the reconfiguration of elite and popular discourses in cultural productions (film, visual art, and literature), and the emergence of new discourses of knowledge through innovative readings of unofficial sources. Popular memories pose a challenge to the existing historiography of the first thirty years of the People’s Republic of China. Despite the recent backlash, these more critical reflections are beginning to transform the mainstream narrative of the Mao era in China.
Public discussions of key episodes in the history of the People’s Republic, in particular the Anti-Rightist Movement of 1957, the Great Famine of 1959–1961, and the Cultural Revolution, have proliferated in the last fifteen years. These discussions are qualitatively different from previous expressions of traumatic or nostalgic memories of Mao in the 1980s and the 1990s respectively. They reflect a growing dissatisfaction with the authoritarian control over history exercised by the Chinese state, and often they make use of the new spaces provided for counter-hegemonic narratives by social media and the growing private economy in the 2000s. Unofficial or independent journals, self-published books, social media groups, independent documentary films, private museums, oral history projects, and archival research by amateur historians, all of which analyzed in this collection, have contributed to these embryonic public or semi-public dialogues.
“An excellent guide to the independent journalism, cultural production, and amateur histories that are transforming the mainstream narrative of the Mao era in China. Rich in detail and sound in analysis, these studies document the emergence of critical memory in Chinese society. A valuable resource for students and scholars.” —Timothy Cheek, University of British Columbia; author of The Intellectual in Modern Chinese History“Popular memories of the Mao era are signposts of contemporary politics and culture. This volume features exciting new research by distinguished scholars. Extremely rich and readable, the chapters in this collection illuminate both China’s past and present. A timely and important contribution.” —Guobin Yang, University of Pennsylvania; author of The Red Guard Generation and Political Activism in China
Table of Contents Introduction: Trauma, Nostalgia, Public Debate By Sebastian Veg
Part I. Unofficial Memories in the Public Sphere: Journals, Internet, Museums
Writing about the Past, an Act of Resistance: An Overview of Independent Journals and Publications about the Mao Era By Jean-Philippe Béja
Annals of the Yellow Emperor: Reconstructing Public Memory of the Mao Era By Wu Si
Contested Past: Social Media and the Production of Historical Knowledge of the Mao Era By Jun Liu
Can Private Museums Offer Space for Alternative History? The Red Era Series at the Jianchuan Museum Cluster By Kirk A. Denton
Part II. Critical Memory and Cultural Practices: Reconfiguring Elite and Popular Discourse
Literary and Documentary Accounts of the Great Famine: Challenging the Political System and the Social Hierarchies of Memory By Sebastian Veg
Filmed Testimonies, Archives, and Memoirs of the Mao Era: Staging Unofficial History in Chinese Independent Documentaries By Judith Pernin
Visual Memory, Personal Experience, and Public History: The Rediscovery of Cultural Revolution Underground Art By Aihe Wang
Part III. Unofficial Sources and Popular Historiography: New Discourses of Knowledge on the Mao Era
The Second Society By Frank Dikötter
Case Files as a Source of Alternative Memories from the Maoist Past By Daniel Leese
Popular Memories and Popular History, Indispensable Tools for Understanding Contemporary Chinese History: The Case of the End of the Rustication Movement By Michel Bonnin
This award-winning 6-week online course looks at how Hong Kong cinema has become an integral part of global popular culture, and offers uniquely Hong Kong perspectives on the immigrant’s experience, gender and other issues. Week 3 of the course is dedicated to Hong Kong women filmmakers. The pioneering course was developed by internationally recognized film studies scholars Professor Gina Marchetti and Dr. Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park from the HKU Department of Comparative Literature and Dr. Stacilee Ford from the HKU Department of History and American Studies Program with the creative assistance of HKU TELI (Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative).
Each unit showcases talents, themes, and local-global connections. The cinematic canvas ranges from martial arts and heroic bloodshed films to romantic comedies and migration melodramas. Covering a range of topics, genres, and films, the course features demonstrations of swordplay and action choreography. It also tutors students in the close analysis of film techniques, uncovers the reasons for the worldwide appeal of genres such as the kung fu film, and nurtures a comparative and critical understanding of issues of gender, race, and migration. Interviews with film professionals such as directors Mabel Cheung and Andrew Lau, producer John Sham, film festival director Roger Garcia, and other guests, offer candid insights about the industry.
Faculty of Arts News Letter Winter 2015 Hong Kong Film Course Taps a Global Audience By Faculty of Arts News Letter http://arts.hku.hk/winter2015.pdf
Endorsements
“The second week of the module on HONG KONG CINEMA THROUGH A GLOBAL LENS was a truly exceptional educational experience for me. Like many others of my generation in Film Studies, I also come with a high-brow educational background in Philosophy, literature and cultural history. My credentials in knowing and understanding popular culture are poor – but improving all the time. In the past, I received a major boost in this direction from the work of Savas Arslan on popular Turkish cinema. And now, through the competent and efficient bite-sized commentary on the global phenomenon of Bruce Lee, Aaron Magnan-Park has taken an equally important role in my further education.
So many aspects of this second week were important for me, but I would particularly underscore how pleased I was to see Aaron acknowledging that the very first statue of Bruce Lee has been erected in Mostar, on the territory of former Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina). This prompted me to think of my friend Goran Topalovic who today runs the New York Asian Film Festival at Lincoln Center – but who started off as one of the boys fascinated with the martial art fare coming out of Hong Kong in his early days in Yugoslavia. Aaron, Goran, I think the two of you may have quite a bit to talk about. It would be part of the global conversation that I see Aaron is involved with at the moment, as the photo I found illustrates.”
Professor Dîna Iordanova Department of Film Studies, University of St Andrews 26 Feb 2017
“This is my first ever MOOC session and I’m skeptical about online education. But the lecture and clips overcame my objections and I really enjoyed this session. Like the instructor I was also around in the UK at the time of the Kung Fu craze and remember those Golden Harvest, Shaw Bros releases as well as the first ever King Hu film THE FATE OF LEE KHAN shown in the old Electric Cinema Club in Portobello Road, London. I learned much more about Bruce Lee and his influence from this session and I’m really looking forward to slotting time to watch the rest.” Professor Tony Williams Department of English Southern Illinois University 18 Feb 2017
“ I am so excited about what is probably (one of?) the first MOOC(s) in the teaching of global cinema: The University of Hong Kong’s module on HONG KONG CINEMA TROUGH A GLOBAL LENS, taught by my friend Gina Marchetti with assistance from my friend Aaron Magnan-Park, and others. As my doctoral student Abdulrahman Alghannam put it yesterday — it is ‘the stuff of the future’:) Quite inspirational.
I sat through the introductory videos, on Globalization, yesterday, and was particularly pleased to see how the role that film festivals play is interwoven in the analysis of the processes of globalization in cinema. It is precisely such acknowledgment of festivals that I have always been hoping for will take place when I was first starting to work on film festivals — so I feel rewarded.
Today I am planning to educate myself on Jackie Chan, the world’s most recognizable film star at large. And, I hope to get soon to the moment where Aaron will be teaching on wuxia/martial arts routines — by demonstration, as far as I understand. I have seen the kenpo gear in his office in the Run Run Shaw Tower — on display, but not yet in action…Cannot wait:) ” Professor Dîna Iordanova Department of Film Studies, University of St Andrews 8 Feb 2017
“The brilliant, prolific, and insightful Gina Marchetti has developed a MOOC about Hong Kong Cinema Through a Global Lens. Course is FREE, and you can engage other learners and discussants from around the globe to talk and debate all things cinematic and Hong Kong. NOT TO BE MISSED!” Professor Patricia R. Zimmermann Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College 10 Jan 2017
This collection offers new approaches to theorizing Asian film in relation to the history, culture, geopolitics and economics of the continent. Bringing together original essays written by established and emerging scholars, this anthology transcends the limitations of national borders to do justice to the diverse ways in which the cinema shapes Asia geographically and imaginatively in the world today. From the revival of the Silk Road as the “belt and road” of a rising China to historical ruminations on the legacy of colonialism across the continent, the authors argue that the category of “Asian cinema” from Turkey to the edges of the Pacific continues to play a vital role in cutting-edge film research. This handbook will serve as an essential guide for committed scholars, students, and all those interested in the past, present, and possible future of Asian cinema in the 21st century.
Get your copy of “The Palgrave Handbook of Asian Cinema” at these links:
