Celluloid China: Cinematic Encounters with Culture and Society

Harry H. Kuoshu

Jan 2002 · SIU Press

About this ebook

Celluloid China: Cinematic Encounters with Culture and Society by Harry H. Kuoshu is a lucid introduc­tion to the cinema of mainland China from the early 1930s to the early 1990s. Emphasizing both film contexts and film texts, this study invites film scholars and students to a broad cinematic analysis that includes investigations of cultural, cross-cultural, intellectual, social, ethnic, and political issues. Such a holistic evaluation allows for a better understanding of both the genesis of a special kind of film art from the People's Republic of China and the culture exemplified in those films.

The fifteen films include: Two Stage Sisters; Hibis­cus Town; Farewell My Concubine; Street Angel; Three Women; Human, Woman, Demon; Judou; Girl from Hunan; Sacrificed Youth; Horse Thief; Yellow Earth; Old Well; Red Sorghum; Black Cannon Incident; and Good Morning, Beijing. Discussions of each film have an introduction, passages from the director's own notes whenever available, and a scholarly article. Discussion ques­tions are found in an appendix. Within its complete bibliography, the book also features a suggested read­ing list for Chinese film classes. Celluloid China is the first book to provide such an exhaustive study of the art and cultural context of Chinese cinema.

About the author

Harry H. Kuoshu, aka Haixin Xu, is an assistant pro­fessor of cinema studies and modern languages at Northeastern University, where he teaches Chinese film, culture, and language. He is the author of Light­ness of Being in China: Adaptation and Discursive Figuration in Cinema and Theater.