(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
become quite literally voluminous. Such as Chinese film and National Culture ed. by
Huang Huilin and Zhou xing(1999); Commentary of Chinese Film Theory History by
Hu Ke (2005); History of Chinese Film Criticism by Li Dao Xin (2007); Chinese film
Yijing by Liu Shuliang (2008) and so on.
Why?
At least two factors may account for this, one is the historical context of the changes
of Chinese society, and the other is the result of academic debate.
The Historical Consideration
The historical consideration is this; for the national theories to take root in any serious
way, a substantial cadre of scholars steeped in that field and a optimal academic
environment were necessary in order for a deep and informed conversation to be
sustained. Historically speaking, that condition did not begin to be satisfied
sufficiently until the late 1990s and 2000s.
In the socialist countries, all artistic phenomena inevitably bring along with strong
political backgrounds. Ideology responses from art intellectuals to social and political
environment are decisive to the essential characteristics of specific art phenomenon.
Before 1980s, a unitary national film industry was pursued under the Planned
Economy system. Film in P.R.China was first seen as a tool which has great impacts
on political propaganda. When people make analysis on film phenomenon which is
subject to the most serious official controls, the manner of aesthetics or cultural
research is almost the least effective. So national film theories study in mainland
China remain in deep freeze.
With the ending of the Cultural Revolution, the launching of reformation and the open
economic policy, great changes have taken place in Chinese society. In the field of
film study, the error of exorbitant Leftism was corrected, and the confirmed concept
that politics is closely related with art was oppugned. After a couple of decades
blockade, whole set of contemporary western film theories (such as Film Semiotics,
Ideological Criticism, Psychoanalysis and Author theory) were introduced to
mainland China. The enthusiasm of most researchers were placed on those large
number of western film theories, but not on Chinese traditional aesthetics and
philosophy which almost vanished at that time. The lacking of human resources with
considerable knowledge in both film and Chinese culture areas, was the first problem
of carrying out a national research. In addition, there are no ready-made theories and
methods can be taken from Chinese traditional aesthetics and philosophies as a
foundational sistem of film study. The so-called national research on Chinese film
only can basically compare Chinese film techniques with mature Chinese traditional
art (in which theory robust, such as Chinese Painting); or select one or two concepts
from Chinese aesthetic philosophy to analysis their presentation in Chinese film
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