CCSS3440 China on Screen - The Chinese University of Hong Kong

<strong>CCSS3440</strong> <strong>China</strong> on Screen
2014-15, Term 1, Thu 2:30pm-6:15pm, CKB123 (Chen Kou Bun Building)
Lecturer: Dr. Kristof Van den Troost (k.vandentroost@cuhk.edu.hk)
Teaching Assistant: TBC
Chinese cinema has received tremendous international attention in recent years. Films by directors such as
Zhang Yimou, Wang Xiaoshuai, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Wong Kar-wai have garnered awards at several of
the world’s most prestigious film festivals. Many of these films, and others throughout the past century, have
mainly been concerned with issues of nationhood, national identity, national trauma, and a national past. In
recent years, however, while some directors have continued to focus on the nation, others have chosen to
look at the present, and in particular, at the effects of globalization on Chinese society, culture, and cinema
production.
This course asks that students begin to understand Chinese cinema(s) as transnational, as a triangular
composite of Mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong cinemas with extensive links to Asia and the rest of the
world. We will examine 10 films directed by some of the twentieth and twenty-first century’s most skilled
directors. The syllabus is structured in rough chronological order and covers <strong>China</strong>, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
This is by no means an exhaustive survey of Chinese cinema, but is instead meant as an introduction to
Chinese film history and criticism.
Learning outcomes
After completing this course, you should:
! exhibit a firm, if basic, grasp of modern Chinese history and be able to discuss its relation to cinema
production in Greater <strong>China</strong>
! be familiar with Greater <strong>China</strong>’s most important film directors and their works
! have a basic understanding of film language and technique
! be able to view and write about films critically
Learning activities
Students are required to attend one three-hour lecture session per week during which they will view a film
with the instructor and discuss its significance. When the film is long, class time may be extended as
necessary. This course uses the CUHK eLearning system, which can be found at https://elearn.cuhk.edu.hk.
You can find the course readings, assignments and recent announcements on this platform. Make sure to
check it regularly.
Recommended general reading
You will be expected to understand and apply film terminology accurately in this course. While the instructor
will explain new terms in class, the following book—especially Part 3 on film style—will be of great help to
those who want to get a more solid understanding of film language:
Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction. 10 th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013.
Assessment scheme
Students will be required to actively participate in class. All students must attend film viewings whether they
have seen the film or not. There are four (4) writing exercises listed at intervals throughout the syllabus.
Each student is required to complete three (3) of the four. The first assignment is required of all students.
Students may choose two from the remaining three. At the end of the term, each student will have to submit
a final paper / two final short assignments (which one will be decided in class). The final version of all
assignments should be delivered in hard copy and with signed VeriGuide receipt to the instructor’s
mailbox by 6:00pm of the due date. VeriGuide can be found at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/veriguide. Late
assignments will NOT be accepted.
Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary
guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.
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Course Grading System:
Attendance, participation 20%
Short assignments (3 of 4) 50%
Final assignment 30%
Course schedule
[PDF versions of all readings and assignments can be found on the CUHK eLearning System.
Registered students may access the <strong>CCSS3440</strong> account by using their CWEM ID and password.]
Week 1: 4 September Introduction
Pang, Laikwan. “The Institutionalization of ‘Chinese’ Cinema as an Academic Discipline.” Journal
of Chinese Cinemas 1, no. 1 (2007): 55-61.
Week 2: 11 September The Goddess 神 女 (1934)
Pang, Laikwan. “The Making of a National Cinema: Shanghai Films of the 1930s.” In The Chinese
Cinema Book, edited by Song Hwee Lim and Julian Ward, 56-64. Basingstoke: British Film
Institute/Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Harris, Kristine. “The Goddess: Fallen Woman of Shanghai.” In Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New
Takes, edited by Chris Berry, 111-19. London: British Film Institute, 2003.
Extra:
Hansen, Miriam Bratu. “Fallen Women, Rising Stars, New Horizons: Shanghai Silent Film as Vernacular Modernism.” Film
Quarterly 54, no. 1 (Autumn 2000): 10-22.
Hjort, Mette. “Ruan Lingyu: Reflections on an Individual Performance Style.” In Chinese Film Stars, edited by Mary
Farquhar and Yingjin Zhang, 32-49. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Week 3: 18 September Spring in a Small Town 小 城 之 春 (1948)
Pickowicz, Paul G. “Chinese Film-making on the Eve of the Communist Revolution.” In The
Chinese Cinema Book, edited by Song Hwee Lim and Julian Ward, 76-84. Basingstoke:
British Film Institute/Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Daruvala, Susan. “The Aesthetics and Moral Politics of Fei Mu’s Spring in a Small Town.” Journal
of Chinese Cinemas 1, no. 3 (2007): 171-187.
Extra:
FitzGerald, Carolyn. “Spring in a Small Town: Gazing at Ruins.” In Chinese Films in Focus II, edited by Chris Berry, 205-
11. Basingstoke/New York: BFI/Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Teo, Stephen. “Chinese Melodrama.” In Traditions in World Cinema, edited by Linda Badley, R. Barton Palmer and
Steven Jay Schneider, 203-13. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2006.
Week 4: 25 September Two Stage Sisters 舞 台 姐 妹 (1964)
Clark, Paul. “Artists, Cadres, and Audiences: Chinese Socialist Cinema, 1949-1978.” In A
Companion to Chinese Cinema, edited by Yingjin Zhang, 42-56. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell,
2012.
Marchetti, Gina. “Two Stage Sisters: The Blossoming of a Revolutionary Aesthetic.” In
Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender, edited by Sheldon Hsiaopeng
Lu, 59-80. Honolulu: U of Hawai’i P, 1997.
Extra:
Zhang, Yingjin. Chinese National Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2004. 189-224.
***Friday 26 September
Assignment 1 due: Spring in a Small Town (REQUIRED!)***
Week 5: 2 October NO CLASS – Chung Yeung Festival
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Week 6: 9 October Red Sorghum 红 高 粱 (1987)
Larson, Wendy. “The Fifth Generation: A Reassessment.” In The Chinese Cinema Book, edited
by Song Hwee Lim and Julian Ward, 113-21. Basingstoke: British Film Institute/Palgrave
Macmillan, 2011.
Lu, Sheldon Hsiao-peng. “National Cinema, Cultural Critique, Transnational Capital: The Films of
Zhang Yimou.” In Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender, edited by
Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu, 105-36. Honolulu: U of Hawai’i P, 1997.
Extra:
Jameson, Fredric. “World Literature in an Age of Multinational Capitalism.” In The Current in Criticism: Essays on the
Present and Future of Literary Theory, edited by Clayton Koelb and Virgil Lokke, 139-58. West Lafayette: Purdue
UP, 1987.
Week 7: 16 October Beijing Bicycle 十 七 岁 的 单 车 (2001)
McGrath, Jason. “The Urban Generation: Underground and Independent Films from the PRC.” In
The Chinese Cinema Book, edited by Song Hwee Lim and Julian Ward, 167-76. Basingstoke:
British Film Institute/Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Letteri, Richard. “Realism, Hybridity, and the Construction of Identity in Wang Xiaoshuai’s Beijing
Bicycle.” Southeast Review of Asian Studies 29 (2007): 72-89.
Extra:
Gong, Haomin. Uneven Modernity: Literature, Film, and Intellectual Discourse in Postsocialist <strong>China</strong>. Honolulu: U of
Hawai’i P, 2012. 108-32.
Zhang, Yingjin. Cinema, Space, and Polylocality in a Globalizing <strong>China</strong>. Honolulu: U of Hawai’i P, 2010. 103-19.
***Friday 17 October
Assignment 2 due: Two Stage Sisters***
Week 8: 23 October The Killer 喋 血 雙 雄 (1989)
Bordwell, David. Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment. 2 nd ed.
Madison: Irvington Way Institute Press, 2011. 1-11.
Stringer, Julian. “‘Your Tender Smiles Give Me Strength’: Paradigms of Masculinity in John Woo’s
A Better Tomorrow and The Killer.” Screen 38, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 25-41.
Week 9: 30 October Chungking Express 重 慶 森 林 (1994)
Hu, Brian. “The KTV Aesthetic: Popular Music Culture and Contemporary Hong Kong Cinema.”
Screen 47, no. 4 (Winter 2006): 407-24.
Extra:
Teo, Stephen. Wong Kar-wai. London: BFI Pub., 2005. 47-64.
Abbas, Ackbar. “The New Hong Kong Cinema and the Deja Disparu.” In Asian Cinemas: A Reader & Guide, edited by
Dimitris Eleftheriotis and Gary Needham, 72-99. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2006.
***Thursday 31 October
Assignment 3 due: Fifth Generation***
Week 10: 6 November Exiled 放 ‧ 逐 (2006)
Sun, Yi. “Crossing Genres: A Study of Johnnie To’s Stylized Films.” Asian Cinema 22, no. 2
(December 2011): 74-111.
Extra:
Bordwell, David. Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment. 2 nd
ed. Madison: Irvington Way
Institute Press, 2011. 251-64.
Collier, Joelle. “The Noir East: Hong Kong’s Transmutation of a Hollywood Genre.” In Hong Kong Film, Hollywood, and
the New Global Cinema: No Film Is an Island, edited by Gina Marchetti and Tan See Kam, 137-58. London/New York:
Routledge, 2007.
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Week 11: 13 November A Time to Live and a Time to Die 童 年 往 事 (1985)
Bordwell, David. Figures Traced in Light: On Cinematic Staging. Berkeley: U of California P, 2005.
186-214.
Extra:
Udden, James. No Man an Island: The Cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien. Hong Kong: Hong Kong UP 2009. 49-86.
Week 12: 20 November NO CLASS – 76 th Congregation
***Friday 21 November
Assignment 4 due: Hong Kong Noir***
Week 13: 27 November Yi Yi 一 一 (2000)
Chen, Leo Chanjen. “The Frustrated Architect: The Cinema of Edward Yang.” New Left Review
11 (September 2001): 115-28.
Final paper due Friday 5 December 2014
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