What can a cultural history of Chinese cinema be?
1- History of Cinema and Cultural History
I use the concept of cultural history such as is has been defined by
the French historian Pascal Ory as a “social history of representation”
(« une histoire sociale des représentations »).
Cultural history studies cultural productions seen as a “total social
fact” (“un fait social total”, see Marcel Mauss). It allows us to
consider cultural production without any aesthetical value: in cultural
history, any type of cultural production, whether high or low are
studied.
The prerequisite of a cultural history of cinema are that:
- cinema belongs to a social system, we study it in relation with the historical context he belongs to. Therefore, cinema allows us to explore the cultural structures of the given social system.
- we need to put the production of films in an historical context. The contextualisation means the extension to other discourses whether they are political, juridical, economical, religious, etc.
- the film is a cultural mediated object that we examine in all its aspects, from production to reception and consumption. Questions such as: the economics, the production system, but also the national identity, the cultural flows, cinema as an art or as an entertaining product are part of the questions we can examine.
- because cultural history is HISTORY, this implies an archival approach.
2- History of the history of Chinese cinema
This approach must be understood in the context of the historiography
of Chinese cinema.
Readings:
Chinese film historiography
- Zhang Yingjing, Cinema and Urban Culture in Shanghai, 1922-1943, Stanford, Stanford University Press, introduction
- Zhang Yingjing, “A Typrography of Chinese Film Historiography”, Asian Cinema, 11,1, p. 16-32.
- Zhang Yingjing, Chinese National Cinema, New York, Routledge, 2004
Chinese Film History
- Gu Jiancheng 谷劍塵, Zhongguo dianying fada shi 中國電影發達 史中国电影发达史 (A history of the development of Chinese cinema) Chinese Cinema Yearbook, 1934
- Zheng Junli 鄭君里， Xiandai zhongguo dianying shilüe 現代中國電影史略 (A concise history of modern Chinese film), 1936
- Cheng Jihua 程季華, Li Shaobai 李少白, Xing Zuwen 刑祖文, Zhongguo dianying fazhan shi 中国电影发展史 (A History of the Development of Chinese Cinema), 1st edition 1963
- Li Suyuan 酈蘇元 Hu Jubin 胡菊彬， Zhongguo wusheng dianying shi 中国无声电影史 (A history of Chinese silent film), 1996
A Taiwanese prospective :
- Du Yunzhi 杜雲之, Zhongguo dianying shi 中國電影史 (Chinese cinema History), 1972
From Hong Kong :
- Gongsun Lu 公孫魯， Zhongguo dianying shihua 中國電影史話 (An oral history of Chinese cinema), 1977
3. Cultural History and cultural/visual studies
Our approach is distinct from what has been developed in the United
States. If we agree to include in our study the film culture in general,
our aim is to build a cultural history of cinema and not a cultural
history with the cinema. We are not so much concerned by the concepts of
« vernacular modernism », « colonialism », « cosmopolitanism » or «
nationalism » per se as we are interested in how cinema can be studied
as a cultural artefact. We are also skeptical to use too many of
conpects that were elaborated in a different culture and environment and
which may reflect more the concerns of today than the real cultural
world of the ones who produced, consumed, talked about and loved cinema
in the past.
Therefore, our first step is, rather than developing a theoretical
frame, to work with the archival material without any bias in our
choices and readings.
However, some American publications are worth reading such as:
Zhang Zhen, An Amorous History of the Silver Screen, Shanghai Cinema,
1896-1937, Chicago, Londres, The University of Chicago Press, 2005
4- Questions of chronology
Chronology is more than just dates. A chronology as an impact on the way we look at the history, it already delivers an historical interpretation. A first exercise we can propose is to study few chronologies and to propose new models.
Zheng Junli’s chronology:
- The building period 1909-1921
- The flowering period 1921-1926 (dominant genres: social education, romance, war)
- The decaying period, 1926-1930 (historical drama, martial arts, detectives)
- The reviving period since 1930.
This chronology, written in 1934, has one of many goals: to legitimize 1930’s Chinese film production in the eyes of the cultural elites who want to see in cinema more than an entertainment industry but also as a cultural national product, not to say, an art. This is why Zheng talks about a “reviving period” for the 1930’s: the revival is economical but also cultural as one can see from the genres.
Cheng Jihua, Li Shaobai
- Initial experiment 1905-1923
- Early artistic exploration 1923-26
- Crisis and turning 1927-1932
- Revolutionary change 1932-7
- War time 1937-45
- Artistic enrichment 1945-49
The chronology is built on a Marxist, dialectical, theoretical frame. It aims to show that Maoist cinema is the result of a long dialectical process: everything prior to 1949 is therefore the preparation of the cinema of the communist period. This chronology tried also to establish the role played (in theory) by CCP in the development of Chinese cinema: this is why the period 1932-1937 is labelled as “revolutionary change”.
Hu Jubin (Projecting a Nation: Chinese National Cinema before 1949),
Hong Kong University Press, 2003
- Cinema and cultural awareness 1896-1920
- Industrial Nationalism 1921-1930
- Class Nationalism versus Traditionalist Nationalism 1931-1936
- Colonial and Anti colonial Nationalism 1937-45
- Nationalism and Modernization 1946-49
This chronology is mixing the previous Marxist-Maoist frame with a type of analysis modelled after the economical and cultural history: antagonism stays but is relabelled.
Last update Thursday 3 June 2010 by C. Henriot