Nation's Identity

Chris Berry and Mary Farquhar's China on Screen: Cinema and Nation sets out to distinguish and define the national and transnational aspects of Chinese cinema by examining the historical and filmic elements that shape this nation's identity. Covering Chinese film history from its inception to today, it closely examines operatic and realistic modes, female and male gender issues, ethnic identity, and national and global distribution. The titles range from the early 1900s—by directors like Ren Qingtai—to contemporary films produced by internationally recognized names such as Ang Lee. For anyone unfamiliar with Chinese films, helpful synopsis boxes are provided plus English translations of important words.

The text is divided into eight chapters and referenced in each chapter are current studies by European-language and Chinese-language scholars, which brings up the issue, also discussed in the text, of whether the use of Western paradigms and theories on film are legitimate tools of inquiry when analyzing Eastern films. As this is the only means of inquiry for most scholars, the question is left unanswered, although, it does set-up an intriguing dilemma of privileging the Western over the Eastern, which in turn calls to question the subordination of the national for transnational appeal, discussed in Chapter 8.

Chapter 1, "Introduction: Cinema and the National," is a basic introduction to subjects covered in the text and defines national and transnational. Chapter 2, "Time and the National: History, Historiology, Haunting," examines how Chinese cinema has formulated a sense of "nation and community" through a false construct of linear historical progression. It also studies The Opium War and how the retelling of this event has been manipulated through film for propaganda purposes, which leads to the topic of the use of history in film to help with the "promotion of the nation-state" through the creation a singular truth, which at times conflicts with films that present a "subaltern" truth of individual experience as found in Yellow Earth and City of Sadness. The chapter concludes with an examination of "Haunted Time in the Films of Wong Kar-wai," in particular his film In the Mood for Love (1997), set in 1960. The film is analyzed for "doubling," "interwoven," and "spliced plots" that reflect not only the nostalgic aspects of the time period in which it is set, but also the haunting uncertainty of the future when in 2046 "Hong Kong's new status as 'Special Administrative Region' will end," a fact that weighs heavily on many in the region.

Chapters 3 and 4 examine modes of Chinese filmmaking, Operatic and Realistic, respectively. Of these two chapters, Chapter 3, "Operatic Modes: Opera Film, Martial Arts, and Cultural National" is the more interesting. It provides an in -depth study of the origins of Opera film and how it has evolved from the tale of The White-haired Girl into action-packed adventures like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and House of Flying Daggers (2004).

Using a Western and Eastern lens, Chapters 5 and 6 offer a unique perspective on gender issues in Chinese film. These chapters raise the questions of "How Should Chinese Woman Look" and "How should Chinese Men Act?" and offers intriguing answers to both. Chapter 7, "Where Do you Draw the Line? Ethnicity in Chinese Cinemas," looks at the acceptance of Westerners in Chinese culture and how intra-Han relations among the various ethnicities are handled in films produced nationally and regionally.

And finally, Chapter 8, "The National in the Transnational," looks at the global market place and how Chinese filmmakers have incorporated Hollywood production models in order to compete with Hollywood's dominating commercial success in the Asian market. Zhang Yimou's Hero and Bruce Lee are used as the primary examples of how Western models have been co-opted to create transnational "blockbusters." This co-opting is questioned as "neo-colonization" and poses some interesting ethical dilemmas for both Chinese filmmakers and the readers of the text.

China on Screen places this nation's motion pictures in an historical, cultural...