Screening Post-1989 China
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Screening Post-1989 China Critical Analysis of Chinese Film and Television Wing Shan Ho
screening post-1989 china Copyright Wing Shan Ho, 2015. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-51760-9 All rights reserved. First published in 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-50646-0 DOI 10.1057/9781137514707 ISBN 978-1-137-51470-7 (ebook) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Amnet. First edition: May 2015 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my mother
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Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments A Note on Translation and Romanization ix xi xiii Introduction: How Far Can We Go in Controlling and Negotiating Cultural Production and Consumption 1 Part I Screening the Economic Subject in Films 1 Selfless Party Officials and the Socialist Legacy 27 2 Insulting Portrayals of the Present Era?: Selling One s Son, Murder, and Human Trafficking 49 Part II Screening the Sexual Subject on the Television 3 Golden Marriage: An Exemplary Marriage and a Harmonious Society 75 4 Narrow Dwelling: Extra-marital Sex and the City 95 Part III Screening the Political Subject in Films 5 Selling Party Patriotism to Intellectuals in the Chinese Blockbuster Hero 117 6 (Dis)Associating Political Dissent and Non-heteronormative Sexual Desire 137 Conclusion: How Far Have We Gone 159 Notes 171 Bibliography 201 Index 219
List of Figures Figure A An illustration of the popular and the state approval spectrums. 19 Figure B An illustration of the popular and the state approval spectrums with specific examples. 162
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Acknowledgments There are too many to thank. This book is a revised form of my doctoral dissertation, so I would like to thank its initial readers, Tze-lan Sang, Maram Epstein, Alison Groppe, and David L. Li for their guidance, support, and inspiration during the course of my graduate studies. My friendly and encouraging friends Wang Li, Ye Qing, Zhang Yu, Bryna Tuft, Kyle Shernuck, and Shen Yipeng deserve recognition for brightening up my life in Eugene. I thank my family and friends in Hong Kong and mainland China for their help with the purchase/collection of books, DVDs, and other materials. My gratitude goes to Cui Zi en and Fan Popo. I would also like to express my appreciation to Laikwan Pang, Wai-ching Wong, and Ming-yan Lai for being my cheerleaders. I am most indebted to all who love me and support my academic pursuits; my mother is the greatest of all. I must also thank the anonymous reviewer of this manuscript for providing me with critical and constructive comments. My sincere gratitude also goes to the editors and blind reviewers of the following journals whose insightful comments on my articles were crucial in shaping the final form of the relevant chapters of the book. The earlier versions of Chapters 2 and 4 appeared in the following publications, respectively: On-screen Neo- liberalism and Off-screen State Control Filmmaking in Contemporary China, Studies in the Humanities 39 40 (2014): 233 54; and Negotiating Censorship: Narrow Dwelling as Social Critique, Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, no. 54 (2012). I thank these publications for granting me the rights to include updated versions of these essays in my book.
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A Note on Translation and Romanization This book uses mostly the pinyin system for romanizing Chinese-language words, though it also includes Wade-Giles transliterations of Mandarin and English transliterations of Cantonese pronunciations for the names of some places and people. Chinese characters and English translations are also provided. For film/tv drama titles, I adhere to their official English translations or their commonly known translations wherever available. Otherwise, translations of the titles are mine. For books, articles, and other bibliographical items, pinyin romanization of Mandarin Chinese is used for Chinese- language items and is followed by Chinese characters and my English translations. Spellings of characters in films and TV dramas are mostly in the pinyin system or have been adopted from the official English subtitles. Unless otherwise stated, translations of quotations from films and TV dramas are mine.