Approaches to Chinese Cinema

New York University

Spring 2016

M&W, 11:00-12:15
7 E 12th St., Room 125
Instructor: Todd Foley
Dept. of East Asian Studies
19 University Place, 5th Floor, #506
Office Hours: Tuesday 1:00-3:00
Email: twf218@nyu.edu

Course Description:

Beginning with one of the earliest Chinese films still in existence and ending with
a 2015 blockbuster, our class will examine not only a variety of Chinese films spanning
nearly a hundred years of production, but also a number of different intellectual
approaches to understanding these films. By focusing on one selected film per week,
we will develop our own critical capacities in a way that pays attention to issues of
history, politics, ideology, the material conditions of production, aesthetics, and
intellectual life. We will generally follow a chronological organization and focus on
important works by major directors from different parts of the Sinophone world,
although our major focus will be on cinema from the post-Mao era. We will
complement our critical focus on individual films with a selection of secondary readings,
some of which will help to paint a broader picture of Chinese cinematic history, and
some of which will provide specific readings of films through a variety of interpretive
methods. The course is by no means exhaustive, and after being introduced to these
several representative films and critical approaches, by the end of the semester
students will hopefully be better equipped to continue navigating this rich field of
cinematic production on their own.

Course Structure & Requirements:

Weekly Films: Each week students will be required to watch one film on their
own before Monday’s class. Most of these films are readily available on the internet, so
students can view them at their own convenience, although better quality versions may

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be available through the library. Students are welcomed and encouraged to organize
their own group screenings as they see fit. For several films that are not available
online, we will organize group screenings outside of class. All readings will be provided
on NYU Classes, and while there are no required books to purchase for the class, some
films may require a small fee to rent on Amazon or iTunes.
Weekly Responses: On Mondays, we will focus on our own critical
interpretations of the films through class discussion. After viewing each film, students
are required to email the instructor a brief response of roughly 3 to 4 sentences or
bullet points, which should be sent no later than 8:00 on Monday morning. These
responses will be ungraded and count only for completion; students may skip a total of
three responses, but any more than that will negatively affect the overall grade.
On Wednesdays we will focus on the assigned reading(s) for the week, paying
particular attention to the ways they inform our own understandings of the assigned
film. Because Mondays will be centered on practicing our own analytical approaches,
readings do not need to be completed for this day or addressed in students’ responses,
but should prepared for Wednesday classes.
Three graded written assignments will consist of two papers of 5 pages each,
and one paper of 10 pages. Each of the two shorter papers should focus on the critical
analysis of one film other than the ones assigned on the syllabus. The final paper should
bring two films into dialogue with one another in a way that is informed by the critical
approaches found in our readings of secondary scholarship. Only one of the films
discussed in this paper may be an assigned film from the class, while the other must be
selected by the student. Students are encouraged to discuss their paper topics with me
at office hours or over email. Papers should be submitted by email before midnight on
the day they are due (no hard copies, please!).
Final Grades: Each 5-page paper will count for roughly 25% of the grade, while
the 10-page paper will count for roughly 40%. The remaining 10% will be based on class
participation, including the completion of weekly responses. Students are required to
attend each class and contribute to discussion, and if students must for some reason
miss a class, they are asked to please contact the instructor in advance.

Schedule:

Week 1 (January 25 & 27) Introduction - What is Chinese Cinema?

Film: Laborer’s Love 掷果缘 (dir. Zhang Shichuan, 1922) (watch in class)

A Season of Good Rain 好雨时节 (dir. Hur Jin-ho; orig. intended to be

second portion of Chengdu, I Love You 成都我爱你 [dir. Fruit Chan, 2009])
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7956-jsEt-4

(no viewing response this week)

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 Reading: “Introduction: Mapping the Field of Chinese-Language Cinema,” (in
Chinese-Language Film: Historiography, Poetics, Politics. Ed. Sheldon Lu &
Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh. U of Hawaii Press, 2005. pp. 1-12)

Week 2 (February 1 & 3)

Film: Film: Spring in a Small Town 小城之春 (dir. Fei Mu, 1948)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN_iu_1kVjA

Reading: “Realist Modes: Melodrama, Modernity, and Home” (Ch. 4 in China on

Screen, by Chris Berry & Mary Farquhar. Columbia UP, 2006. pp. 75-107)

“Teahouse, Shadowplay, and Laborer’s Love” (Ch. 3 in An Amorous

History of the Silver Screen, by Zhang Zhen. U of Chicago Press, 2005. pp.
89-117)

Week 3 (February 8 & 10)

Film: The White Haired Girl 白毛女 (dir. Wang Bin & Shui Hua, 1950)
Available to rent on Amazon

Reading: “Talks at the Yan’an Conference on Literature and Art,” by Mao Zedong
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-
works/volume-3/mswv3_08.htm

“Operatic Modes: Opera Film, Martial Arts, and Cultural Nationalism” (Ch.
3 in China on Screen, pp. 47-74)

Week 4 (February 17 – no class on Monday, Feb. 15)

Film: Beautiful Duckling 养鸭人家 (dir. Lee Hsing, 1965)
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTYxMjUyMjAw.html#paction

Reading: “Tracing a Journeyman’s Electric Shadow: Healthy Realism, Cultural

Policies, and Lee Hsing, 1964-1980” (Ch. 3 in Taiwan Cinema: A Contested
Nation on Screen, by Guo-Juin Hong. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. pp. 65-
86)

“Cinematic Reinvention of the National in Taiwan, 1896-1978” (Ch. 4 in

Chinese National Cinema, by Zhang Yingjin. Routledge, 2004, pp. 113-
149)

Week 5 (February 22 & 24)

Film: Drunken Master 醉拳 (dir. Yuen Woo-ping, 1978)

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 Available to rent on Amazon

Reading: “How Should Chinese Men Act? Ordering the Nation” (Ch. 6 in China on
Screen) pp. 135-168

First 5-page paper due Friday, Feb. 26

Week 6 (February 29 & March 2)

Film: Yellow Earth 黄土地 (dir. Chen Kaige, 1984)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEqfyZGYVrM

Reading: “Generational Politics: What is the Fifth Generation?” (Ch. 7 in Chinese

Modernism in the Era of Reforms, by Zhang Xudong. Duke UP, 1997. pp.
215-231)

“Yellow Earth: Hesitant Apprenticeship and Bitter Agency” (by Helen Hok-
sze Leung, in Chinese Films in Focus II, Ed. Chris Berry. Palgrave
Macmillan, 2008. pp. 258-264)

Week 7 (March 7 & 9)

Film: Red Sorghum 红高粱 (dir. Zhang Yimou, 1987)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDMO7Rs6NMg

Reading: “Reds: Zhang Yimou’s Films” (in Reinventing China: A Generation and
It’s Films, by Paul Clark. The Chinese Univ. Press, 2005. pp. 164-186)

“How Should a Chinese Woman Look? Woman and Nation” (Ch. 5 in

China on Screen) pp. 108-134

“Ideology and Utopia in Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum” (Ch. 11 in Chinese

Modernism in the Era of Reforms, by Zhang Xudong, pp. 306-328)

Week 8 - Spring Break

Week 9 (March 21 & 23)

Film: City of Sadness 悲情城市 (dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1989)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RqYl8fb9rI&list=PL7EB439EA4D13
3DAB&index=1

Reading: A City of Sadness, by Bérénice Reynaud. (British Film Institute, 2002. pp.
8-86)

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Week 10 (March 28 & 30)
Film: In the Heat of the Sun 阳光灿烂的日子 (dir. Jiang Wen, 1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsY7NmNeECo&list=PLVASq-
H1JTWtzDc-T7MKZQ0JsuaYqA_pN&index=1

Reading: “For a Narration of One’s Own” (Ch. 3 in Memory, Subjectivity, and

Independent Chinese Cinema, by Qi Wang. Edinburgh UP, 2014. pp. 55-90)

Second 5-page paper due Friday, April 1

Week 11 (April 4 & 6)

Film: In the Mood for Love 花样年华 (dir. Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhwCnL7Tv-Q

Reading: “Time and the National: History, Historiology, Haunting” (Ch. 2 in China
on Screen, pp. 17-46)

“The Everyday in The Road Home and In the Mood for Love” (Ch. 3 in
Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese Films: Attachment in the
Age of Global Visibility, by Rey Chow. Columbia UP, 2007. pp. 65-82)

Week 12 (April 11 & 13)

Film: Ilo Ilo 爸妈不在家 (dir. Anthony Chen, 2013)
available for purchase on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcZZl2yZKYA&oref=https%3A%2F%
2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DPcZZl2yZKYA&has_verified=1

Reading: “Global Modernity, Postmodern Singapore, and the Cinema of Eric

Khoo” (by Gina Marchetti, Ch. 16 in Chinese-Language Film:
Historiography, Poetics, Politics, ed. Lu & Yeh. U of Hawaii Press, 2005.)

Week 13 (April 18 & 20)

Film: Blind Shaft 盲井 (dir. Li Yang, 2003)

Reading: “Bearing Witness: Chinese Urban Cinema in the Era of ‘Transformation’

(Zhuanxing)” (by Zhang Zhen, Introduction to The Urban Generation:
Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century. Ed.
Zhang Zhen. Duke UP, 2007. pp. 1-39)

“’Human’ in the Age of Disposable People” (Ch. 8 in Sentimental

Fabulations, by Rey Chow, pp. 167-179)

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Week 14 (April 25 & 27)
Film: The World 世界 (dir. Jia Zhangke, 2004)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UentCQ98n4

Reading: “Dialect and Modernity in Twenty-first-Century Sinophone Cinema”

(Ch. 8 in Chinese Modernity and Global Biopolitics, by Sheldon H. Lu.
Hawaii UP, 2007. pp. 150-163)

“Trapped Freedom and Localized Globalism” (by Lu Tonglin, in From

Underground to Independent: Alternative Film Culture in Contemporary
China, Ed. Paul Pickowicz & Yingjin Zhang. pp. 123-139).

Week 15 (May 2 & 4)

Film: A World Without Thieves 天下无贼 (dir. Feng Xiaogang, 2004)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa_g5q0vdw8

Reading: “New Year’s Films: Chinese Entertainment Cinema in a Globalized

Cultural Market” (Ch. 6 in Postsocialist Modernity: Chinese Literature,
Cinema, and Criticism in the Market Age, by Jason McGrath. Stanford UP,
2008. pp. 165-202)

Week 16 (May 9)
Film: The Taking of Tiger Mountain (dir. Tsui Hark, 2015)

10-page paper due