Ecology and Chinese-Language Cinema: Reimagining a Field

Description

This edited collection explores new developments in the burgeoning field of Chinese ecocinema, examining a variety of works from local productions to global market films, spanning the Maoist era to the present. The ten chapters examine films with ecological significance in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, including documentaries, feature films, blockbusters and independent productions. Covering not only well-known works, such as Under the Dome, Wolf Totem, Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracts, and Mermaid, this book also provides analysis of less well-known but critically important works, such as Anchorage Prohibited, Luzon, and Three Flower/Tri-Color. The unique perspectives this book provides, along with the comprehensive engagement with existing Chinese and English scholarship, not only extend the scope of the growing field of ecocinematic studies, but also seeks to reform the means through which Chinese-language eco-films are understood in the years to come. Ecology and Chinese-Language Ecocinema will be of huge interest to students and scholars in the fields of Chinese cinema, environmental studies, media and communication studies. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures Notes on Contributors Acknowledgments Introduction: Revisiting the field of Chinese ecocinema Theoretical perimeters and critical genealogy “Chinese ecocinema” reconsidered Keyword one: Chinese Keyword two: ecology Keyword three: film What is Chinese ecocinema? What can Chinese ecocinema do? Chinese-language ecodocumentaries Structure of the book Notes References Part I: Ecodocumentaries and eco-festivals Chapter 1: Mapping Taiwanese ecodocumentary landscape: Politics of aesthetics and environmental ethics in Taiwanese ecodocumentaries “Ecocinema” under debate Ecodocumentary making in Taiwan Laying the foundation for Taiwanese ecodocumentary making: The Lukang Anti-DuPont Movement Endangered humans versus endanger nature: National Bandits Eco-cosmopolitanism in practice: Swing The politics of landscape aesthetics: Nimbus The politics of popular ecocinema: Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above Conclusion Acknowledgements Filmography References Chapter 2: Nature in the city: A study of Hong Kong’s independent eco-film festival Introduction The making of environmentally aware “citizen intellectuals” The film festival as alternative public sphere The FFFF and the eco-cosmopolitan public sphere Documenting everyday life and its poetic struggle Conclusion Notes References Part II: Contemporary ecologies Chapter 3: Three ecologies of cinema, migration, and the sea: Anchorage Prohibited and Luzon Ecologies of the virtual Hospitality and the acoustics of the seen and the unseen Cinematic ecologies: the foreshortened lives of short cinema Migratory ecologies and the temporal permanence of guestworkers Luzon, maritime conflict and aesthetico-political risk Notes References Chapter 4: Tracing extraction in contemporary Chinese cinema: Tie Xi Qu and the politics of the resource image The materiality of ecocinema Three ecologies Tie Xi Qu Materialities Representational materialities Corporeal materialities Tangible materialities Processual materialities Conclusion References Chapter 5: Chai Jing’s Under the Dome: A multimedia documentary in the digital age The multiple documentary mode Personal/maternal voice Interviews Animation Networked circulation and communication The official The netizens The international Conclusion Notes References Part III: Humans and animals Chapter 6: Global animal capital and animal garbage: Documentary redemption and hope Theoretical rumination: animal–capital–garbage entanglement and documentary redemption Animal capital and documentary activism San Hua and Cala, My Dog!: consumption and redemption (Trans)national moon bear documentaries: zootherapy and hope The Lost Sea: cross-strait cold war and deep-time matter Conclusion Notes References Filmography Chapter 7: Transcendence and transgression: Reading Wolf Totem as environmental world literature/cinema? Two types of boundary-crossing Ethics of boundary-crossing Hybridity, science, and love In the name of nature Universalizing the ecological Representing the unrepresentable Coda Notes References Chapter 8: Fabulating animals–human affinity: Towards an ethics of care in Monster Hunt and Mermaid Interrogating ecological correctness—eco-kitsch and/as eco-aesthetics Beyond the pleasure principles: the cute, the cruel, and the critical kitsch The cute Monster Hunt—animals–human affinity sans affect The cruel Mermaid—anthropomorphic amplification of pain Towards an ethics of care in the kitschy ecocinematic experience Notes References Part IV: Landscape and nation Chapter 9: Sinification by greening: Politics, nature, and ethnic borderlands in Maoist ecocinema Prelude: ecocinema, Maoist China, and ethnic minority Sinification by greening Nomadic spring Maoist green march toward Xinjiang Conclusion Acknowledgement Notes References Chapter 10: No Man’s Land: Eco-Western in contemporary Chinese cinema The ‘west’ in crisis—the eco-hostile frontier in Ning Hao’s No Man’s Land The Chinese ‘west’: a shifting cinematic geography Desertification of the heart: ecological and moral crisis Post-nationaleco-Western:Chinese Western in the global context Notes References Index