General Description

In recent years, a whole host of new books on Chinese film have been published with titles such as Screeing China, Celluoid China, Projecting a Nation, China into Film, and Building a New China in Cinema. The premise behind these studies is that Chinese film has been tightly interonnected with the larger nation-building project and that film has primarily been concerned with issues of nationhood. Through much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, "Greater China" (Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Mainland) experienced various forms of imperialism and colonialism, an experience that has indeed shaped to a large degree this cultural orientation toward the nation. The central question addressed in the course is: How has Chinese-language film represented the nation, national identity, national trauma, and the national past? This course adopts the "nation" as its primariy structuring device, but it encourages students to recognize that this is only one way of looking at the history of Chinese film. Clearly, many Chinese-language films do not easily fit this category.

Organized in rough chronological order, in this course we look at such questions as how women's virtue becomes an emblem of the nation in the Republican era (1911-1949); how filmakers represent the dislocation and trauma brought on by the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1945); the ideological use of film in the period of socialist construction after 1949; the use of melodrama in the aftermath of the trauma of the Cultural Revolution and alternative forms of memory in films of the 1990s; issues of "national" identity in Hong Kong and Taiwan films; how filmmakers on the mainland represent a radically new society in the throes of market reforms and globalization; and how globalization has given birth to a new "transnational Chinese cinema." In addition to getting a general introduction to the development Chinese national cinema, students will learn how to "read" films and appreciate the elements that make up the visual and aural languages of film. In short, we study film not just for their content, but for the forms that shape that content.

This course is an overview of Chinese film. It is aimed at students who do not know much about China or Chinese film. All films screened for the course have English subtitles, so knowledge of Chinese is not needed.

Optional Texts

Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction. NY: Knopf, 2001 [use most recent edition].

Film Viewings

Each week on Monday you will view one film related to the week's theme. Every other week (or so), students are expected to view a "supplemental" film. Supplemental films will be put on reserve in Hagerty Hall 171A Computer Lab. Bring your own headphones! And call ahead to make sure they are open (292-0743).

You are required to write four short reaction papers of two pages each in length. Reaction papers ask for your personal reactions to the films. In preparing your papers, you should NOT consult secondary sources (i.e., film reviews, film scholarship). The point of these assignments is for you to actively engage with the film. You may begin with a "gut" reaction (i.e., how did the film make you feel), but you should also try to intellectualize your feelings (i.e., why does the film--either in terms of filmmaking style or plot--make you feel this way?). A reaction paper should NOT be a summary of the plot, nor simply your emotional reactions to the films. We want you to think about subtle levels of meaning. You should also take into consideration issues of film technique, narrative style, and cultural codes.

Writing of Research Paper

Sometime around the seventh week of the quarter, I will ask you to choose a topic for your final research paper. You may not write about a film that we have already seen and discussed in class. I would prefer you work on a single film rather than engage in comparative analysis of multiple films, but I might also accept proposals to treat a group of films by looking at common styles or themes. You may consult secondary sources, but it is not necessary that you do so. If you consult secondary sources, please use proper bibliographic format (MLA or Chicago Style), giving credit where credit is due. Rest assured that I am very familiar with the secondary literature. Any use of these materials without proper references will be considered plagiarism, a serious infraction of academic protocol (see Academic Misconduct below).

Your analysis should offer an interpretation of the meaning of the film, which might ultimately draw attention to the film's ambiguous or paradoxical qualities. Your analysis should take into consideration the form and style, not just content. In other words, please think about how meaning is conveyed through the form of the film (e.g., its narrative structure, editing, use of camera, mise en scene). You might also want to consider in your analysis the socio-historical and cultural context that produced the film. What social function did the film have in the period of history in which it was written? Does this context somehow shape our reading of the film? However, do not allow this historical approach to limit your own subjective interpretation. Engage yourself creatively with the film, but be sure to draw evidence for your interpretation from the film itself.

I would recommend to all of you (especially those of you who lack experience in writing papers) to avail yourself of the services of the OSU Writing Center. I expect your papers to be grammatically correct, written in proper academic style, well structured, organized logically, and argued coherently. Open with an explicit statement explaining your argument or intepretation; follow this with a brief (no longer than one page) synopsis of the plot of the film; finally, present a systematically-argued, analysis, being sure to include evidence (citations) from the film(s) to substantiated your views. Use the present tense, not the past, to describe the contents of the film(s) your are analyzing; think of the world of the film as alive in the present. Harvard's writing center has an extensive list of tools with down-to-earth, practical advice on how to approach research and writing. Dartmouth University Writing Program's Writing about Film is also useful.

Students also have the option of making a film in lieu of a research paper. The film should be a fictional film--the topic of which need not relate to China--that is done in the style of one of the filmmakers we have studied in class. The film should be a minimum of 15 mins long. I would recommend that only those who have some experience in making films choose this option. Equipment for making films can be borrowed from Office of Information Technology, Classrooom Services. Another possible source of equipment and multimedia services is the Digital Union (Room 370, Sciences and Engineering Library).

When filming, please be aware of the following:

-the voice of the cinematographer (the one holding the camera and doing the filmming) is right next to the camera mike; unless this is part of your design, the cinematographer's voice should not be heard

-to make for a balanced sound, it is best to use a microphone with an extension that can be moved close to your "actors"; one can balance sound in the editing stage as well

-be sure to test out your final product on the equipment in our classroom; supported formats include DVD, Quicktime, WMV, Realplayer