Chinese Cinema

Catalog description

Critical survey of Chinese Cinema taught in English with historical coverage but focusing on contemporary (post-80s) cinema, covering a range of genres including art films, comedies. Melodramas, science fiction, and historical films from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. A key question we address is how cinema becomes "national," highlighting the geopolitical and historical issues that inhere in the global circulation of films and their interpretation. Students will learn skills in film analysis and criticism with a view of problems of cross cultural analysis and key themes in modem Chinese culture, including the meaning of revolution, shifting gender roles. and the relation between politics and art.