Beijing Film Academy 2018

Alvin Li, Hiu Man Chan

Description

The annual Beijing Film Academy Yearbook showcases the best academic debates, discussions and research from the previous year, as previously published in the highly prestigious Journal of Beijing Film Academy. This volume brings together specially selected articles, appearing for the first time in English, in order to bridge the gap in cross-cultural research in cinema and media studies.

The book is the latest in the Intellect China Library series to produce work by Chinese scholars that have not previously been available to English language academia. Covering the subjects of film studies, visual arts, performing arts, media and cultural studies, the series aims to foster intellectual debate and to promote closer cross-cultural intellectual exchanges by introducing important works of Chinese scholarship to readers.

Notes on Translation

Preface

 

1. Turing Limitations into Style: An Interview with Qiao Liang, Director of Crested Ibis – Wang Yao

2. The 'Regional Flavours' of Hong Kong Cinema in the Post-Integration Era – Zhao Weifang

3. Changes in Contemporary Chinese Film Aesthetics – Wu Guanping

4. A Cultural Study of Stardom in 1920s China – Li Zhenlin and Cheng Gong

5. Ways of Seeing and Physical Governance: On the Reconstruction of Reception Aesthetics by Virtual Reality Technology – Yi Yuxiao

6. Moxi: A Study of Narrative Structures in Early Chinese Cinema – Wan Chuanfa

7. Cinematic Innovation: Networked Living in Sci-Fi Film Narratives – Huang Mingfen

8. A Panel Discussion on Several Key Problems Facing the Development of Art Theory as an Academic Discipline in China –  Wu Guanping

9. The Modified and the Excluded: On the Logic of Bodily Transformation in Contemporary Urban Film – Chen Yanjiao

10. Styling the Supernatural: Creative Character Design in Chinese Supernatural Film – An Yan

 

Notes on Contributors

Advisory and Editorial Board

Notes on Intellect China Library Series

 

Sujets

• Media Studies
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Pekín
• Película fotográfica
• Reference
• Beijing
• Policy
• Cultural studies
• History of film
• Cinema
• Audience
• Urban
• China
• ART
• Film
• Pékin
• Media

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 10 décembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789381610
• Langue: English

Extrait

Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2018
Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2018
E DITED BY
Journal of Beijing Film Academy
First published in the UK in 2021 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2021 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2021 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 Szumlas
Production manager: Jessica Lovett
Typesetting: Newgen
Translation: Dr Hiu Chan and Alvin Li
Print ISBN 978-1-78938-159-7
ePDF ISBN 978-1-78938-160-3
ePUB ISBN 978-1-78938-161-0
To find out about all our publications, please visit www.intellectbooks.com
There you can subscribe to our e-newsletter, browse or download our current catalogue,and buy any titles that are in print.
Contents
Notes on Translation
Preface
1.  Turing Limitations into Style: An Interview with Qiao Liang, Director of Crested Ibis
Wang Yao
2.  The ‘Regional Flavours’ of Hong Kong Cinema in the Post-Integration Era
Zhao Weifang
3.  Changes in Contemporary Chinese Film Aesthetics
Wu Guanping
4.  A Cultural Study of Stardom in 1920s China
Li Zhenlin and Cheng Gong
5.  Ways of Seeing and Physical Governance: On the Reconstruction of Reception Aesthetics by Virtual Reality Technology
Yi Yuxiao
6.  Moxi : A Study of Narrative Structures in Early Chinese Cinema
Wan Chuanfa
7.  Cinematic Innovation: Networked Living in Sci-Fi Film Narratives
Huang Mingfen
8.  A Panel Discussion on Several Key Problems Facing the Development of Art Theory as an Academic Discipline in China
Wu Guanping
9. The Modified and the Excluded: On the Logic of Bodily Transformation in Contemporary Urban Film
Chen Yanjiao
10. Styling the Supernatural: Creative Character Design in Chinese Supernatural Film
An Yan
Notes on Contributors
Advisory and Editorial Board
Notes on Intellect China Library Series
Notes on Translation
The practice of delivering clear and accurate English representation of Chinese names has always been a challenge in translation. Many different attempts have been made, but an agreed format has yet to be established. The Intellect China Library series has also been experimenting with different methods of translation since its inception, in order to determine the clearest representation to our readership, both with or without knowledge of the Chinese language.
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
Initiated by Mark Lewis, Managing Director of Intellect and Professor Wu Guanping, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Beijing Film Acacademy , this is the third publication of the Beijing Film Academy Yearbook project, as part of the Intellect China Library series.
What this particular project aims to do, is in a hope to enhance a cross-cultural academic conversation on the research on cinema, through introducing the latest research on cinema by Chinese scholars to Intellect’s readers. Any academic translation project is not easy, our BFA Yearbook in English is still learning and developing. As an annual practice, articles are selected at the end of each year by the Beijing Film Academy Yearbook editorial board, they are then translated and compiled into a volume in English. The only regret we have of this project is its slight delay in publication; each Yearbook is approximately one year behind the materials’ original release, due to the process of translation, editorial and production. However, this is a necessary period, from the series editor and the publisher’s point of view, in order to ensure its quality.
Indeed, some of the contents in these Yearbooks are more like a piece of criticism rather than a style which follows a standard peer-reviewed article. What these translated materials can offer to scholars who work in English-language academia, however, is their domestic insights, opinions, commentaries, industrial updates which will open many new opportunities and ideas toward the research of Chinese cinema and cinema in general. It is the belief of the Intellect China Library series, that only through translating outstanding research and writing by Chinese scholars into English, may we achieve a cross-cultural intellectual dialogue and mutual understanding. Beijing Film Academy Yearbook is only at the beginning of this ambition, and the wider project.
Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2017 would not have been possible without the commitment of Dr Hiu Chan and Alvin Li, translator of this volume; Jessica Lovett from Intellect, production manager of this project; Aleksandra Szumlas, designer of the book cover; and finally Beijing Film Academy, for their trust and faith in Intellect to deliver their academic voices to the globe on their behalf.
1
Turing Limitations into Style: An Interview with Qiao Liang, Director of Crested Ibis
Wang Yao

(王垚, Wang Yao): First of all, congratulations on your Crested Ibis (塬上/ Yuan Shang , 2017) for winning the Golden St George Prize at the 39 th Moscow International Film Festival(2018). This is the highest achievement of any Chinese submission to the film festival in its history. (乔梁, Qiao Liang): Thank you. Wang: Looking at your filmography, you seem to have worked on more TV series and TV films than silver screen titles, with Crested Ibis being your third film. How do you select your film projects? Qiao: In my work, I never really think about those categories; the only criteria that guides my selection is whether I like the project or not. If I do [like it], I will start working on it, no matter whether it’s a made-for-television movie or a feature film. I also sense a widespread prejudice against television movies today. Many audiences believe that a film only deserves that classification if it hits the silver screen, and if it’s distributed through any other channel it’s not a film. By that logic, even Kieślowski’s Dekalog (1989–90) wouldn’t count as a film series. This method of categorization is really problematic. So, in this regard, I treat all my projects equally; I do not exert any more effort on films made for theatrical release. I also don’t think that films are, by default, more sophisticated than television shows. There are as many lousy films as really well-made television shows out there. I’m just shooting what I like, on subject matters that I choose to talk about. I do not make my choices based on these categories. Wang: The scale of investment and the distribution channel also affect certain aspects of a film. Some scholars (Yu Chen, 2011) conducted research to compare the audio-visual language of web series and web films with traditional television shows and films made for theatrical release, and they discovered differences in the number of close-up shots, the framing techniques and the rhythm of the editing, among other aspects. They consider the distribution channel to be the main cause of these differences. Have you thought about this? Qiao: Of course. What I just said relates to my modus operandi: if I’m interested in a project or if I feel like I have something to say about it, I won’t have a bias towards any form in particular. However, when it comes to production methods and techniques, certainly there are differences between big screen and small screen productions. This is something that took a while for me to realize. When I was studying at the Beijing Film Academy, I was trained exclusively in film, so in terms of pre-production, I have always worked in a more filmic tradition. When I first started working on television movies, my instructors at the television movie channels often told me that the pace of my works was too slow. Later, when My Own Private Deutschland (我自己的德意志/ Wo zi ji de de yi zhi , 2006) travelled to Tokyo for a film festival, one of the guest from CCTV6 went to the screening and realized that ‘the pace is actually not too slow’. This led me to consider the differences between big screen and small screen productions, especially in terms of editing and framing. Furthermore, depending on whether it’s a commercial film for a mass audience or an auteur film, the techniques are also different. Wang: The reason I ask these questions is because I noticed many long shots in Crested Ibis . The camera remains approximately at human eye level, with a limited range of movement, almost throughout the entire film. Did you choose this style of cinematography because the film was intended for film festival distribution? Qiao: No, that wasn’t really the reason.The film was shot in north-west China, and the natural landscape and culture of the region left subtle imprints on me. This is evident in the fact that the film opens with a sequence showcasing the Wuding River, a tributary of the Yellow River. When I first saw the river during my visit, the water was as still as mud and I could barely see it moving. In the north-west, life is also very slow-paced. When I was filming there, I found myself slowing down too, which explains the slow camera movement. Meanwhile, I took a lot of extreme long shots because I wanted to tell this complex story from an objective, and dispassionate perspective. Since everyone has a lot to say about pollution, and every subject in the film has their own opinion on this issue, I did not want the audience to sense my own attitude towards it, nor did I want to show which side I lean towards as a director. [I wanted] to present the narrative as objectively as p