Since the early 1990s, while mainland China's state-owned movie
studios have struggled with financial and ideological constraints,
an exciting alternative cinema has developed. Dubbed the "Urban
Generation," this new cinema is driven by young filmmakers who
emerged in the shadow of the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
What unites diverse directors under the "Urban Generation" rubric
is their creative engagement with the wrenching economic and social
transformations underway in China. Urban Generation filmmakers are
vanguard interpreters of the confusion and anxiety triggered by the
massive urbanization of contemporary China. This collection brings
together some of the most recent original research on this emerging
cinema and its relationship to Chinese society.
The contributors analyze the historical and social conditions
that gave rise to the Urban Generation, its aesthetic innovation,
and its ambivalent relationship to China's mainstream film industry
and the international film market. Focusing attention on the Urban
Generation's sense of social urgency, its documentary impulses, and
its representations of gender and sexuality, the contributors
highlight the characters who populate this new urban
cinema--ordinary and marginalized city dwellers including aimless
bohemians, petty thieves, prostitutes, postal workers, taxi
drivers, migrant workers--and the fact that these "floating urban
subjects" are often portrayed by non-professional actors. Some
essays concentrate on specific films (such as "Shower "and "Suzhou
River") or filmmakers (including Jia Zhangke and Zhang Yuan), while
others survey broader concerns. Together the thirteen essays in
this collection give a multifaceted account of a significant,
ongoing cinematic and cultural phenomenon.
"Contributors." Chris Berry, Yomi Braester, Shuqin Cui, Linda
Chiu-han Lai, Charles Leary, Sheldon H. Lu, Jason McGrath, Augusta
Palmer, Berenice Reynaud, Yaohua Shi, Yingjin Zhang, Zhang Zhen,
Xueping Zhong
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