ix, 318 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This dissertation explores the interaction between filmmaking and the changing exigencies of leftist political ideologies in China at different stages of modernity: semi-colonial modernity, socialist modernity, and global modernity. Besides a historical examination of the left-wing cinema movement in the 1930s and socialist cinema in the Mao era, it focuses on the so-called "main melody" films that are either produced with financial backing by the state or sanctioned by governmental film awards in 1990s China. As products of globalization, Chinese "main melody" films are growing in complexity and maturity with the deepening of globalization, especially in competition with Hollywood cinema. Inspired by Louis Althusser, this dissertation attempts to address the lacunae of existing scholarship on Chinese "main melody" films by analyzing the role of the film medium as a significant ideological state apparatus (ISA) in serving ideological transitions occurring in 1990s China. Meanwhile, it also examines how the operation of the ideological mechanism in Chinese "main melody" films is different from the Althusserian definition. An examination of the polyphonic narration of history shows how the revolutionary history has been retold in "main melody" films in different ways to create a rich discursive space in post-socialist China. Special attention has also been paid to the cinematic representation of Chinese nationalism, contending that the instigation of nationalism in non-EuroAmerican societies--despite the fact that nationalism can be easily appropriated by the state as an effective ideological discourse to conceal domestic social conflicts--calls attention to the often ignored historical linkages between colonialism and the expanding global capitalism. In addition, it also examines the role of Chinese intellectuals in the discursive construction of nationalism. An analysis of Chinese masculinity shows that recent changes in gender discourse are closely related to China's socio-economic development in the era of globalization. Based on Stuart Hall's "encoding/decoding" model, the last part of this dissertation explores how the Chinese spectator as a subject can negotiate the ideological interpellation by the "main melody" film text in his/her own way. / Adviser: Tze-Ian Sang

À partir de la réforme économique chinoise de 1978, et en liaison avec le changement de la société chinoise, l'échange entre le cinéma chinois et celui de l'étranger est de plus en plus fréquent. Dans ce contexte, les réalisateurs chinois veulent montrer au monde entier leurs films et leur savoir faire, en mettrant en valeur leur propre identité culturelle. Au milieu de la théorie cinématographique chinoise se développe un courant d'idée sur l'identité nationale du film chinois. Les cinéastes chinois doivent-ils s'inspirer plutôt de la mondialisation ou de l'esprit chinois, c'est une question que se posent souvent les cinéastes chinois durant ces trois dernières décennies. Le corps est un thème caractéristique de l'identité nationale qui se situe à la jonction entre le cinéma, l'homme, la culture et la société. A travers la représentation du corps, cette thèse montre que la mondialisation et la volonté de conserver l'identité nationale influencent ensemble le développement du cinéma chinois de ces trente dernières années, surtout dans la création artistique. Grâce à la mondialisation les cinéastes chinois se rendent compte de la singularité nationale et ont la volonté de développer le cinéma chinois tout en représentant l'identité nationale. Même si la mondialisation permet aux Chinois une vision du monde plus large et plus lointaine, les films qui représentent les éléments liés à leur vie ou à leur culture locale attirent toujours les spectateurs. / From the dawn of economic reform in 1978, through the transformation of Chinese society, exchanges between foreign cinema and China are becoming more and more frequent. Chinese directors desire to share their films and cultural heritage to the world, while maintaining their own identity. A movement of new ideas about the national identity of Chinese film is developing at the heart of their cinematographic theory. Whether Chinese filmmakers should be inspired by globalization or not, is a question that they have often asked themselves in the past three decades.The body is a special subject which shows national identity. We can witness the evolution of film, humans, culture and society, through research in the body. Through the representation of the body, this thesis shows that globalization and the desire to preserve the national identity have influenced the development of Chinese cinema in the past thirty years, mainly through an artistic aspect. Due to globalization, Chinese filmmakers are aware of the national singularity and have the will to develop Chinese cinema while representing national identity. Even though globalization allows the Chinese to take a broader view of the world, films that represent elements related to their life or local culture always attract spectators.

One major question in the area of Feminist Media Studies is to analyze the stereotypical female role portrayals in media. Researchers in this area have examined diverse media including television, radio, films, textbooks, literature and so on. Empirical evidence provided by these studies shows that women in media are often underrepresented or stereotypically portrayed in traditional roles such as housewives or mothers associated with feminine values, such as dependent, submissive, and passive. Using content analysis and semiotic analysis, this study is designed to examine the portrayals of female roles in a sample of contemporary (1949-2010) Chinese films. Content analysis is employed to examine how women have been portrayed in films, with the primary focus on the frequency of three types of female roles including (1) traditional roles, (2) modern role, and (3) ideal role. Results suggest that during this long period of time, representations and constructions of women in films have shifted from promotion of gender equality, to diminishing and erasing gender difference, and finally regressed to confining them to traditional roles while emphasizing traditional feminine values and expectations. In using semiotic analysis, this research is able to outline the connotative meanings of the female characters as well as the implicit cultural values and messages of gender that are embedded in films. On this cultural analysis, the findings reveal that female role portrayals in films, which are influenced by political, cultural, and social changes, remained associated with traditional feminine stereotypes, values, and expectations.

This study focuses on the evolution of the movie industries in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with an emphasis on the interaction and cooperation in movie production among these three areas. The study consists of three sections: a general description of the development of Chinese cinema before 1949; an overview of the movie industries in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China after the civil war; and an intensive study of the recent changes, interactions, and connections among these industries. In the third section, three models are proposed to explain the changing practices in movie production in these three areas. Obstacles preventing further cooperation and the significance of the reconstruction and integration of Chinese cinema are discussed.

No description available.

No description available.

西方自從1970年代末期逐漸重視華語電影，國內外影評、輿論經常以「中國電影熱」形容這個現象，本研究將此現象置入歷史文化的脈絡中分析，認為這個現象肇因於當時西方面對封閉而陌生的中國，一種交織過去文化想像、殖民經驗、神秘氛圍、現實需求（戰略考量、廣大的市場）所形塑的心理動機，並展現在許多不同領域，而電影「中國熱」是在此情況下的一個環節。 另一方面，本研究以「中心╱邊陲」的後殖民思考架構，視「中國熱」現象為華語電影走向世界的過程中的四個階段－「重新被發現、新電影運動與西方中級影展、納入主流藝術電影院線、與好萊塢電影工業接軌」。同時，本研究也將進一步探討背後的文化意涵及其所代表的意義。 / Since late 1970s, the Western has gradually put more and more concentration on the Chinese films. The film reviews and the public opinions always regard the phenomenon as the “Chinese Cinema Fever”. This article, on the one hand, analyzes the phenomenon in the historical and cultural veins. While facing China, a state once made the western feel so distant and unfamiliar before, a kind of mentality in the “Western” has been molded by the cultural imagination, colonial experience, mysterious atmosphere, and realistic demand (such like strategic consideration and large-scale market, et al.), and displayed in the various fields. Meanwhile, the “Chinese Cinema Fever” is being a part in such complicated situation. On the other hand, the phenomenon, the Chinese Cinema Fever in the Western Film Festivals since late 1970s, will be considered under the framework of “Center-Periphery” and be regarded as a process of the Chinese film toward the world, which is composed of re-discovering, re-emphasizing, including into the mainstream in the system of the Art Theatre. Nowadays, the Chinese films have turned into a part of the worldwide culture and universal consumption. At the same time, I would like to go a step further to discuss the cultural meanings behind the appearance.

This dissertation examines the development of Chinese art film in the 1990s. It explores the mechanisms that were conducive to the emergence of this art wave and its representative cinematic styles. Art film was a historically underdeveloped film practice in China, especially under the mass line-dominated Socialist film system. I argue that Chinese art cinema was fundamentally defined by the second art wave, which was flanked by the first art wave (the Fifth Generation Cinema) of the 1980s, and the full capitalization of the film industry in the new millennium. The key to understanding the second art wave was the paradoxical industrial process of the Socialist film system reform of the 1990s. The controlled top-down reform made the emergence of independent production possible while at the same time denying its legitimacy. As the result, the Chinese art film production breathed new life but was pushed from the mainstream to the realm of the alternative. In alliance with other youth subculture phenomena of the time, such as rock music and avant-garde art, art film came to be defined as a distinctive position in the field of Chinese film production in terms of the mode of production (mostly independent), distribution (international film festivals), and film style. Three styles are examined in detail in this dissertation: the documentary-inspired new realist style represented by films of Jia Zhangke, the modernistic expressionist style represented by films of He Jianjun, Zhang Ming, and others, and the style that falls in-between the new realist and expressionist style represented by early films of Zhang Yuan, Lou Ye, and Wang Xiaoshuai. / text

Le thème de la mobilisation totale est au cœur de la réflexion actuelle sur le renouvellement des modes de subjectivation et des manières d’être-ensemble. En arrière-plan, on trouve la question de la compatibilité entre les processus vitaux humains et la modernité, bref, la question de la viabilité du processus de civilisation occidental. Au cœur du diagnostic: l’insuffisance radicale de la fiction de l’homo oeconomicus, modèle de l’individu privé sans liens sociaux et souffrant d’un déficit de sphère. La « communauté qui vient » (Agamben), la « politisation de l’existence » (Lopez Petit) et la création de « sphères régénérées » (Sloterdijk) nomment autant de tentatives pour penser le dépassement de la forme désormais impropre et insensée de l’individualité. Mais comment réaliser ce dépassement? Ou de manière plus précise : quelle traversée pour amener l’individu privé à opérer ce dépassement? Ce doctorat s’organise autour d’une urgence focale : [E]scape. Ce concept suggère un horizon de fuite immanent : il signe une sortie hors de l’individu privé et trace un plan d’idéalité permettant d’effectuer cette sortie. Concrètement, ce concept commande la production d’une série d’analyses théoriques et artistiques portant sur des penseurs contemporains tels que Foucault, Deleuze ou Sloterdijk, l’album Kid A de Radiohead ainsi que sur le cinéma et l’art contemporain chinois (Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-Wai, Wong Xiaoshuai, Lou Ye, Shu Yong, Huang Rui, Zhang Huan, Zhu Yu, etc.). Ces analyses sont conçues comme autant de passages ou itinéraires de désubjectivation. Elles posent toutes, d’une manière ou d’une autre, le problème du commun et de l’être-ensemble, sur le seuil des non-lieux du capitalisme global. Ces itinéraires se veulent liminaux, c’est-à-dire qu’ils se constituent comme passages sur la ligne d’un dehors et impliquent une mise en jeu éthopoïétique. Sur le plan conceptuel, ils marquent résolument une distance avec le paradigme de la politique identitaire et la critique des représentations interculturelles. / The theme of total mobilization is central to the contemporary reflection on the renewing of subjectivation processes and ways of being-together. In the background, we find the question of the compatibility between the human vital processes and modernity, or in other words, the question of the viability of Western civilization. At the core of the diagnosis: the radical insufficiency of the homo oeconomicus’s fiction, model of the private individual without meaningful social links and suffering from a sphere deficit. The “coming community” (Agamben), the “politization of existence” (Lopez Petit) and the creation of “regenerated spheres” (Sloterdijk) name as many attempts to think how to go beyond the henceforth improper and senseless form of individuality. But how are we to realize this overcoming? Or more precisely: which crossing to bring the private individual to operate this overcoming? This work is organized around a focal urgency: [E]scape. This concept suggest an immanent horizon of flight: it signs a way out of the private individual and draws a plan of ideality allowing to effectuate this exit. Concretely, this concept commands the production of a series of theoretical an artistic analysis of contemporary thinkers like Foucault, Deleuze and Sloterdijk, of Radiohead’s Kid A Album, and of different Chinese contemporary filmmakers and artists (Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-Wai, Wong Xiaoshuai, Lou Ye, Shu Yong, Huang Rui, Zhang Huan, Zhu Yu, etc.) These analyses are conceived as passages or itineraries of desubjectivation. They all posit, in one way or the other, the problem of the common and of the being-together, on the threshold of global capitalism’s non-places. These itineraries are meant to be liminal, i.e. they constitute as many passages on the line and imply an ethopoietic mise en jeu. Conceptually speaking, they mark a distance with the identity politics paradigm and the critics of intercultural representations.

Le thème de la mobilisation totale est au cœur de la réflexion actuelle sur le renouvellement des modes de subjectivation et des manières d’être-ensemble. En arrière-plan, on trouve la question de la compatibilité entre les processus vitaux humains et la modernité, bref, la question de la viabilité du processus de civilisation occidental. Au cœur du diagnostic: l’insuffisance radicale de la fiction de l’homo oeconomicus, modèle de l’individu privé sans liens sociaux et souffrant d’un déficit de sphère. La « communauté qui vient » (Agamben), la « politisation de l’existence » (Lopez Petit) et la création de « sphères régénérées » (Sloterdijk) nomment autant de tentatives pour penser le dépassement de la forme désormais impropre et insensée de l’individualité. Mais comment réaliser ce dépassement? Ou de manière plus précise : quelle traversée pour amener l’individu privé à opérer ce dépassement? Ce doctorat s’organise autour d’une urgence focale : [E]scape. Ce concept suggère un horizon de fuite immanent : il signe une sortie hors de l’individu privé et trace un plan d’idéalité permettant d’effectuer cette sortie. Concrètement, ce concept commande la production d’une série d’analyses théoriques et artistiques portant sur des penseurs contemporains tels que Foucault, Deleuze ou Sloterdijk, l’album Kid A de Radiohead ainsi que sur le cinéma et l’art contemporain chinois (Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-Wai, Wong Xiaoshuai, Lou Ye, Shu Yong, Huang Rui, Zhang Huan, Zhu Yu, etc.). Ces analyses sont conçues comme autant de passages ou itinéraires de désubjectivation. Elles posent toutes, d’une manière ou d’une autre, le problème du commun et de l’être-ensemble, sur le seuil des non-lieux du capitalisme global. Ces itinéraires se veulent liminaux, c’est-à-dire qu’ils se constituent comme passages sur la ligne d’un dehors et impliquent une mise en jeu éthopoïétique. Sur le plan conceptuel, ils marquent résolument une distance avec le paradigme de la politique identitaire et la critique des représentations interculturelles. / The theme of total mobilization is central to the contemporary reflection on the renewing of subjectivation processes and ways of being-together. In the background, we find the question of the compatibility between the human vital processes and modernity, or in other words, the question of the viability of Western civilization. At the core of the diagnosis: the radical insufficiency of the homo oeconomicus’s fiction, model of the private individual without meaningful social links and suffering from a sphere deficit. The “coming community” (Agamben), the “politization of existence” (Lopez Petit) and the creation of “regenerated spheres” (Sloterdijk) name as many attempts to think how to go beyond the henceforth improper and senseless form of individuality. But how are we to realize this overcoming? Or more precisely: which crossing to bring the private individual to operate this overcoming? This work is organized around a focal urgency: [E]scape. This concept suggest an immanent horizon of flight: it signs a way out of the private individual and draws a plan of ideality allowing to effectuate this exit. Concretely, this concept commands the production of a series of theoretical an artistic analysis of contemporary thinkers like Foucault, Deleuze and Sloterdijk, of Radiohead’s Kid A Album, and of different Chinese contemporary filmmakers and artists (Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-Wai, Wong Xiaoshuai, Lou Ye, Shu Yong, Huang Rui, Zhang Huan, Zhu Yu, etc.) These analyses are conceived as passages or itineraries of desubjectivation. They all posit, in one way or the other, the problem of the common and of the being-together, on the threshold of global capitalism’s non-places. These itineraries are meant to be liminal, i.e. they constitute as many passages on the line and imply an ethopoietic mise en jeu. Conceptually speaking, they mark a distance with the identity politics paradigm and the critics of intercultural representations.