Chinese Film Avant-Garde and Its Context
Abstract
The notion of avant-garde in relation to Chinese art, including film art, first appeared during the decade of 1979-1989, commonly known as the new Era. During that decade, the phenomenon of the “Great Cultural Discussion”, or the “Cultural Fever”, first appeared within intellectual debate and the ideological sphere. The author analyses in detail the factors and conditions (e.g. economic and political modernization, so called Chinese modernism, the negation of soc-realism, referring to the Chinese cultural and arts traditions, the threat of westernization) which shaped what is today called the Chinese avantgarde. The analysis of subsequent films allows the author to conclude that the films of the Fifth Generation as a whole can be considered avant-garde in the exact meaning of the word, only if we define avant-garde very widely - as an artistic practice that goes beyond the current conventions, where the avant-garde artist is an outsider, or a rebel. However if by avant-garde we mean a separate genre or stream of film making (with its own system of production and distribution, especially with its own artists, critics, audience), then one must conclude that there never was an avant-garde Chinese cinema.
Keywords:
Chinese avant-garde, Great Cultural Discussion, Cultural FeverReferences
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Authors
Alicja Helmankwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
Filmoznawca; wykłada w Instytucie Sztuk Audiowizualnych na UJ. W dorobku naukowym ma ponad 20 książek autorskich, m.in.: Słownik pojęć filmowych (1991-1998), Historia semiotyki filmu, t. 1-2 (1992-1993), Twórcza zdrada. Filmowe adaptacje literatury (1998), Urok zmierzchu. Filmy Luchina Viscontiego (2002), Ten smutek hiszpański. Konteksty twórczości filmowej Carlosa Saury (2005), Odcienie czerwieni. Twórczość filmowa Zhanga Yimou (2010).
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