Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2016

Peng Xin, Hiu Man Chan

Description

The Beijing Film Academy Yearbook is a collection of specially selected articles chosen from issues of the Journal of Beijing Film Academy. This volume collates articles published in the journal throughout 2016, and are translated for an English-speaking readership. Due to the increased academic focus on Chinese cinema, the Beijing Film Academy Yearbook project aims to contribute to this research with a first-hand perspective in order to narrow the gap for cross-culture scholarly dialogue.

Notes on Translation 

Preface

Chapter 1: Cai YuanPei’s Thoughts on Film Education 

Wu, YueQing; Li, Long

Chapter 2: Fifty Years of Film Directing Education

Xie, Fei

Chapter 3: Internet Literature and TV Drama: Brief Thoughts on the Emergence of a New Culture

Zhang, YiWu

Chapter 4: Between Heterotopias and Reality: Chinese Science Fiction Films in the 1980s and 1990s

Lin, Chao

Chapter 5: Binary Logic and Identity Dilemma of Chinese Sci-Fi Films through the Structuring of Narrative Space

Chen, YiShui

Chapter 6: The Psychological Resonance between the New Trends in Chinese Film-Making and the New Generation Audience

Zhou, Zhou

Chapter 7: Film Consumers as Both ‘God’ and ‘Creator’

Shi, WenXue

Chapter 8: ‘New Academicism’ Requires a Foundation of Academic Rationality to Adapt to New Environments

Zhong, DaFeng

Chapter 9: Twelve Years of Reform of Chinese Cinema

Wu, GuanPing

Notes on Contributors 

Journal of BFA Advisory and Editorial Board

Notes on Intellect China Library Series

Sujets

• Arts visuels
• Arts visuels
• Cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinema
• Pekín
• Beijing
• Cinema of Asia
• General officer
• History of film
• Art
• General
• Film
• Pékin

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 15 août 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783208258
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published in the UK in 2017 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2017 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2017 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
Copy-editor: Emma Rhys
Cover designer: Alex Szalbot
Production manager: Jessica Lovett
Intellect China Library Series Editor: Hiu M. Chan
Typesetting: John Teehan
ISBN 978-1-78320-823-4
ePDF ISBN 978-1-78320-824-1
ePUB ISBN 978-1-78320-825-8
Printed and bound by Gomer Press Ltd, UK
Contents
Notes on Translation
Preface
Chapter 1: Cai YuanPei’s Thoughts on Film Education
Wu, YueQing; Li, Long
Chapter 2: Fifty Years of Film Directing Education
Xie, Fei
Chapter 3: Internet Literature and TV Drama: Brief Thoughts on the Emergence of a New Culture
Zhang, YiWu
Chapter 4: Between Heterotopias and Reality: Chinese Science Fiction Films in the 1980s and 1990s
Lin, Chao
Chapter 5: Binary Logic and Identity Dilemma of Chinese Sci-Fi Films through the Structuring of Narrative Space
Chen, YiShui
Chapter 6: The Psychological Resonance between the New Trends in Chinese Film-Making and the New Generation Audience
Zhou, Zhou
Chapter 7: Film Consumers as Both ‘God’ and ‘Creator’
Shi, WenXue
Chapter 8: ‘New Academicism’ Requires a Foundation of Academic Rationality to Adapt to New Environments
Zhong, DaFeng
Chapter 9: Twelve Years of Reform of Chinese Cinema
Wu, GuanPing
Notes on Contributors
Journal of BFA Advisory and Editorial Board
Notes on Intellect China Library Series
Notes on Translation
The practice of delivering a clear and accurate English representation of Chinese names has always been a challenge in translation. Many different attempts have been made and an agreed format has yet to be established. The Intellect China Library series has been experimenting with different methods of translation since its inception, in order to determine the clearest representation for our readership, both with or without knowledge of the Chinese language.
Throughout this volume, several new methods have been applied in order to distinguish surnames and given names. Instead of having the surname in capital letters like the previous publication, in this volume surnames of authors cited in the references will be highlighted with an underline for a name’s first appearance. Furthermore, in order to distinguish the different characters in a given name to show an appreciation for its original literal poetics, an additional capital letter will be used. For example, in the name Wu, YueQing, ‘Wu’ is the surname, while the given name is composed of the characters ‘Yue’ (Moon) and ‘Qing’ (transparency). That said, for overseas Chinese scholars who have been representing their own names with a western manner, such as Rey Chow, no specific emphasis will be added.
Most English representations of Chinese characters in this volume are based on their Mandarin pronunciation. An endnote with the original characters will be included at the end of each article, if necessary, for the clarification of specificities.
Preface
The idea of publishing translated materials from the Journal of Beijing Film Academy arose from a visit to China in 2011, during which Intellect’s Director Mark Lewis met with Professor Wu Guanping, Editor-in-Chief of the journal and Professor at Beijing Film Academy. The first volume of the Beijing Film Academy Yearbook project was published in March 2016 and this is the second publication in the series. This project selects the best articles published in the Journal of Beijing Film Academy each year, translates them into English and compiles them into a volume, with the aim of enhancing a cross-cultural academic conversation. It is the belief of the Intellect China Library Series that only through translating research of Chinese scholars into English will we be able to facilitate a cross-cultural intellectual debate and dialogue. The Beijing Film Academy Yearbook is only the beginning of this ambition.
Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2016 would not be possible without the commitments from several people at Intellect: Mark Lewis, Managing Director of Intellect, who initially embraced the idea of publishing an English yearbook together with the Beijing Film Academy; Jessica Lovett, Production Manager of this project; Emma Rhys, a truly professional copy-editor and finally Alex Szalbot, our cover designer. Chapter 1–8 are translated by Hiu M. Chan, Series Editor of Intellect China Library, while Chapter 9 is translated by Xin Peng, a Humanities MA graduate from the University of Chicago.
Intellect China Library Series
Chapter 1
Cai YuanPei’s Thoughts on Film Education 1
Wu, YueQing; Li, Long
C ai YuanPei (1868–1940) was a revolutionist for democracy, a scientist and an educator in modern Chinese history. He was the Minster of Education for the Nanking Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China; Vice Chancellor of Peking University; member of the Central Monitoring Department of the Nationalist Party of the Republic of China; member of the Central Politics Committee; and held many other positions. In addition, he was also the Chief of the highest academic research and education department. In 1928, he resigned all his administrative positions and focused on his role as Dean for the Academia Sinica. He actively supported the New Culture Movement, promoting his educational ethos to treat freedom of thoughts as principles and to practice absorbing flexibly as a belief; he proposed academic research, supported educational activities and paid several visits to Great Britain and France to observe their educational system, as well as to deliver talks. Between 1930 and 1934, he organized the Chinese Citizen’s Rights Protection Society with Soong Ching-ling (Song QingLing) and was actively involved in a series of anti-Japanese aggression campaigns. Cai’s unique background made him appreciate the importance of using film for education and for rescuing the country’s spirit from foreign invasions. This also became a major influence on the later Leftist Film Movement.

Figure 1: Cai YuanPei in 1923.
Current research on Cai’s ideas is generally comprehensive; however, research on his contributions to film education is only evident in two journal articles: ‘Cai YuanPei: Pioneer of Early Film Education’ (2011) by Wang Ying; and ‘Cai YuanPei’s Contributions towards Early Chinese Cinema’ (2013) by Shan BingXin. These two publications are supportive reference materials for this chapter. On top of the existing journal articles about the history of this period, this chapter will contribute some new research. The speech by Cai on ‘The Way Out for Film Education’ presented in 1933 comes to a conclusion on the issue after his experiences working in film education. This chapter not only summarizes Cai’s practical activities in supporting film education, but it also reflects on his thoughts on film education. This chapter, therefore, wishes to analyse Cai’s thoughts on film education and their potential to inspire current practices in film education.
The Background of Cai YuanPei’s Thoughts on Film Education
Since the birth of film and cinema there have always been two main directions: film for commercial purposes and film for educational purposes. The United States, Soviet Union, France and Japan all emphasized using film as a tool for national education. Therefore, the idea of film education in China emerged within this broader external historical context. Certain specific internal conditions also need to be considered. At that time, the films being screened in the country were mostly western commercial pictures, alongside films with themes such as superstition and pornography that were made by local Chinese people; therefore, the impact of film culture on society at that time was rather negative. As a result of this critical condition, the education sector and several other sectors in Chinese society realized that there was a need to create more films with a positive and educational purpose. Thus, the use of film for educational purposes was inevitable.
During this time, China was involved in long wars and crises, the nation was facing oblivion: ‘to rescue the country through education’ was many intellectuals’ mission at that time. The famous May Fourth Movement occurred in 1919. Cai YuanPei, Tao XingZhi and many other intellectuals from the education sectors actively searched for solutions to the crisis facing the country. However, while academic education was still not popularized at the time in China, social education was even more difficult, as almost 90% of the people was illiterate. Therefore, Cai set up a department for social education within the Ministry of Education and Tao and others founded the Chinese Civilian Education Promotion Society in the hope of popularizing education. At that time, the idea of using film’s unique combination of image and sound for educational purposes was agreed to by the majority of the government. Therefore, the Chinese Film Education Association was also founded, in order to support a series of film education practices and activities.
Film as an Educational Tool
On 13 January 1912, Cai was appointed as the first Minister of Education for the Republic of China and the Ministry of Education was founded. On 30 January, Minister Cai made an official announcement to all province captaincies declaring himself as the Minister of Education for the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China, in order to promote education in society:
education in society (social education) is our urgent miss