Sixth Generation/Postsocialist Filmmaking in the PRC (1990-present)

Sixth Generation/Postsocialist Filmmaking in the PRC (1990-present)

Economic Background • Intensification of economic reforms in 1992 with Deng Xiaoping’s “southern tour” (南巡) • Move toward a market economy and the gradual removal of the “iron rice bowl” • State enterprise reform: rise of unemployment as state enterprises “restructured” and were forced to turn a profit

Economic Background • Establishment of a new ideology of entrepreneurship, profitability, free markets, consumerism, and globalization • Collusion of PRC state with global capital • “Neoliberalism” and state capitalism

Guangchang 广场 (Square) 1980s > to Guangchang (Plaza) 1990s Economic Background

Social Background • Rapid social change and rise of social problems (drugs, prostitution, divorce) • Rural/urban, class, and regional inequities emerge • Rise of urban unemployed let off by state enterprises (xia gang下岗) • “floating population” (盲流) of migrant workers and rapid urbanization • Globalization (全球化), especially in the cities Migrant workers often have deplorable living conditions

Cultural Background • Commercialization of the cultural sphere • Reducing or eliminating state subsidies • Profitability • Wang Shuo王朔 and the bestseller phenomenon

Market Reforms in the Film Industry • State studios forced in the mid-80s to become profitable, something that some studio directors welcomed and others did not • meant an increase in popular films (including wuxia and detective films); some use the revenues of these to fund more serious art films • Film industry now responds to market and popular demands • Market reforms instituted in the film industry in early 1990s a response to decline in film production and film spectatorship in the early 1990s caused by (1) poor quality post-1989 propaganda films; (2) threat from other media and forms of entertainment (tv, Karaoke, etc.); and (3) pirating of films on VCD

Market reform, Titanic, and “blockbusters” • In 1993, capitalist reforms began to undermine the state’s distribution monopoly for films • Ministry of Broadcast, Film, and Television in 1994 agreed to import 10 current Hollywood films (based mostly on market appeal, not cinematic quality) • Chinese film production suffered as domestic filmmakers struggled to compete with multi-million dollar American productions, (which received 70% of film revenues) • Propelled the film industry toward greater commercialization • Titanic (1997) fever and the advent of the Chinese blockbuster (Noble • State begins to promote blockbusters as “healthy” to film industry

Accession to WTO in 2001 • Since 2001, Chinese language filmmaking has been increasingly transnational • With accession to the WTO, the Chinese film market is now more open to Hollywood film importation (30 films per year and then to 40-50 per year on “revenue sharing” basis) • And the Chinese film industry has responded by exporting its own blockbusters (e.g., Hero, House of Flying Daggers, The Promise) • Emergence of independent production companies (e.g., Imar Films); joint venture production companies (e.g. Warner China Film; Columbia); and new Chinese film conglomerates (e.g., Oriental Divine Dragon Film Co. a merger of the Changchun Film Studio and Poly Group) • This cooperation has increased in recent years, e.g., Walt Disney Co. and DMG Entertainment

Popular Film in China • Feng Xiaogang and the “New Year’s Film” (贺岁片) • Big Shot’s Funeral: product of commercialization of culture or critique of it?

the martial arts blockbuster • Zhang Yimou’s most recent films should be understood in this economic context of WTO, etc. • His martial arts films have been heavily promoted in China and have been pushed into the foreign market • In the summer of 2004, there was a gala event celebrating the premiere of House of Flying Daggers • Response to success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Clip from premiere gala of House of Flying Daggers

Emergence of Sixth Generation/Postsocialist Film • This generation were not “sons and daughters” of the Cultural Revolution; they grew up in the era of the Four Modernizations and the market reforms of the 1990s • Most graduated from Beijing Film Academy around 1989 • Their films are a response to Fifth Gen and its symbolic and allegorical style; its obsessive concern with grand “cultural” issues; and its lack of attention to contemporary society • loss of faith in value systems, heroism, and idealism Still from Zhang Yuan’s Beijing Bastards (北京杂种), one of the first Sixth Gen films--about disaffected artists and rockers; one of the themes of Sixth Gen films is “youth subcultures”

Sixth Generation/Postsocialist Style? • in some sense, there isn’t really a coherent style that unites this generation of filmmakers • however, they tend to focus on contemporary urban society and draw attention to very contemporary concerns, such as urbanization, globalization, social change, the new economy, migration and the floating population • have a “documentary impulse” and gritty realist style • Focus on youth and youthful subcultures (e.g., Beijing Bastards) • Also tackles difficult themes such as drug use (e.g., Quitting) and homosexuality (e.g., East Palace, West Palace) • Themes are treated in an “objective” style that avoids moralism or didacticism • Sometimes fragmented or disjointed narrative style

Sixth Generation/Postsocialist Style? • Interaction with other arts (rock, avant-garde art) • Beijing Bastards • Frozen (1997), film about an avant-garde performance artist • Dong(2006) documentary by JiaZhangke on the avant-garde artist Liu Xiaodong (刘小东)

Sixth Generation/Postsocialist Film Production • For the first time in PRC filmmaking, some of these directors have attempted to work outside of the studio system; some “underground” with little funding; some with funding and production support from abroad • This has been made possible by the film industry market reforms of the 1990s • Prevalent use of non-professional actors; rarely shoot in studios • Films often not permitted in China because they were made without approval or because of their content • Recently, some of the key members of this generation, such as Zhang Yuan (e.g., Green Tea), have opted to rejoin the studio system to make more popular films; Jia Zhangke’s films, The World and Sanxia haoren (三峡好人) were approved for distribution in China

Sixth Generation/Postsocialist Examples • Wang Xiaoshuai 王小帅 • So Close to Paradise (扁担-姑娘; 1998) • third film by Wang Xiaoshuai (whose other credits include The Days [日子] and Beijing Bicycle [十七岁的单车], and Shanghai Dreams [青红]); was held up by censorship for three years • two central characters are migrant laborers from the countryside who come to the provincial city of Wuhan to find their fortunes. One, a naif, becomes a dock worker; the other, more worldly, a small-time con man; • looks at alienation, crime, and prostitution among those who leave rural areas for economic opportunities in China’s cities Still from end of So Close to Paradise Frozen (极度寒冷; 1995): Based on the story of an actual student artist who committs suicide as an act (and performance) of protest; produced under the pseudonym Anonymous (无名) and “smuggled” out of the country

Sixth Generation/Postsocialist Examples • Zhang Yang 张扬, Quitting (昨天; 2002) -A feature film about the real heroin addiction of a real actor/singer Jia Hongsheng 贾宏声, starring Jia Hongsheng and other people from his real life -pseudo-documentary style • Zhang Yuan 张元, East Palace, West Palace (东宫西宫; 1996) A young gay writer, Ah Lan, is arrested by the police; a long “interrogation” ensues; Ah Lan is masochistically attracted to the policeman, who is himself drawn, against his will, to Ah Lan Jia Hongsheng playing Jia Hongsheng in Quitting Ah Lan, a gay writer, and his captor in East Palace, West Palace

Sixth Generation/Postsocialist Examples • Ning Ying 宁赢, On the Beat (民警故事; 1995): a sometimes humorous take on the daily work of Beijing cops on the streets • He Jianjun何建军, The Postman (邮差; 1995) • Zhang Ming 章明, Clouds over Wushan, aka In Expectation (巫山云雨; 1996) Above: Still from Clouds over Wushan; right: still from On the Beat

documentary Still from the opening of West of the Tracks • Wu Wenguang 吴文光, Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers (流浪北京:最后的梦幻者; 1991) • Chen Jue 陈爵 and Shi Jian 时间, Tiananmen (天安门; 1991) • Zhang Yuan, Square (广场; 1994) • Jiang Yue 蒋樾, The Other Shore (彼岸; 1994) • Cui Zi’en 崔子恩, gay writer and filmmaker who has made numerous documentaries (e.g., Men and Women [男男女女; 1999]; Enter the Clowns [丑角登台; 2001] • Wang Bing 王兵, West of the Tracks (铁西区; 3 parts; 2003) Documentarian, Wu Wenguang (above); poster for Wu’s Bumming in Beijing (1990) (right)

Jia Zhangke 贾樟柯 • Xiao Wu (小武; 1997) • Platform (站台; 2000): about the lives of a group of young people in small-town China from late 1970s to early 1990s • Unknown Pleasures (任逍遥; 2002) • The World (世界; 2004) • Still Life (三峡好人; 2006) • 24 City (二十四城记; 2008) • I Wish I Knew (海上传奇; 2010) • critiques of moral vacuum of contemporary life; the difficult transition from socialism to a market economy; rootlessness in a modernizing and globalizing society, etc. Still from Xiao Wu

the documentary impulse in 5th Gen directors • Zhang Yimou, The Story of Qiuju (秋菊打官司) (lower left image) • TianZhuanzhuang田壮壮, Delamu (2005): documentary about the Tea-Horse road (lower right)

Hollywood in China circa 2011

Sixth Generation/Postsocialist Filmmaking in the PRC (1990-present)