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HISTGC06: Chinese Film and the Body

Course Convenor: Vivienne Lo       v.lo@ucl.ac.uk
Room G03, 23 Gordon Square       tel. 020 7679 3605
Office hours: Tuesdays 2–4pm

Film screenings: Tuesday 7pm
Lecturers: Patrizia Liberati (Peking University) and Michael Clark (King's College, London)
Location: Garwood Lecture Theatre, 1st floor, South Wing unless otherwise stated

This module will use the media of Chinese film to analyse representations of social and cultural issues related to health and the body in twentieth and twenty-first century China. A set of ten Chinese films will form the core content of this course, ordered thematically: 1950s hagiographies of traditional doctors, eulogies of revolutionary health campaigns to depictions of women and women and children’s health, the martial arts and the experience of drug use, SARS and the contemporary health system. The programme provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the relationship between the conditions of film making and representations and the unique conditions of health and the body in China.

Students will be required to watch all the films during the first term and first half of the second term on the dates detailed below. Selected compulsory reading material will be provided for each film. Please also see the general reading list below. The course itself will be held intensively in 20 hours between the 11th and 14th February 2013.  At that time the films already viewed will be introduced and discussed in seminar style. A small selection of films will be shown and analysed during the intensive week. 

Assessment: 1 Essay, 4000 words (100%)

October 30, Auditorium, Room 33LT, National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, 33 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG
Presentation/discussion 1:
Global Health*
Viewing:     Gu Changwei 顾长卫 – Love for life (Zui ai 最爱, 2011)

November 13 – Presentation/discussion 2:
Barefoot revolution
Viewing:     Cui Wei 崔嵬 – Hongyu (Hongyu 红雨, 1975)

November 20 – Presentation/discussion 3:
Drug addiction and urban youth
Viewing:     Zhang Yang 张杨 – Quitting (Zuotian 昨天, 2001)

November 27 – Presentation/discussion 4:
The troubled mind
Viewing:     Ning Ying 宁瀛 – The double life (A mian B mian A面B面, 2010)

December 4 – Presentation/discussion 5:
Intercultural Interaction*
Viewing:     Wei Te-sheng 魏德圣 (Taiwan) Warriors of the rainbow (Seediq Bale 赛德克·巴莱, 2011)

December 11 – Presentation/discussion 6:
East meets West – cultural approaches to medicine
Viewing:     Zheng Xiaolong 刮痧 – The treatment (Guasha 刮痧, 2001)

January 8 – Presentation/discussion 7:
In sickness and in health – illness in the family
Viewing:     Wang Xiaoshuai 王小帅 – In love we trust (Zuoyou 左右, 2008)
                    [Zhang Yuan 张元 – Mother (Mama 妈妈, 1989)]
                    [Zhang Yuan 张元 – Sons (Erzi 儿子, 1996)]

January 15, Sir Ambrose Fleming Lecture Theatre, Roberts (Engineering) Building G06, Malet Place
Presentation/discussion 8:
Sustainable Cities*
Viewing:    Fan Lixin 范立欣 – Last Train Home (Guitu lieche 归途列车, 2009)
                   Zhang Meng 张猛 – The piano in a factory (Gang de qin 钢的琴, 2011)
                   Han Jie 韩杰 – Hello Mr Tree (Hello! Shu xiansheng / Hello！树先生, 2011)

January 22: Presentation/discussion 9:
Medical Hagiographies
Viewing:     Shen Fu 沈浮 – Li Shizhen (Li Shizhen 李时珍, 1956)
                    [Cui Yin 神医扁鹊 – Bian Que the doctor (Shenyi Bian Que 神医扁鹊, 1984)]
                    [Fang Junliang 方军亮 – Ye Tianshi (Yizhi Ye Tianshi 医痴叶天士, 2008)]

February 12, Gustav Tuck Lecture Theatre
Presentation/discussion 10:
Human Wellbeing and the Environment*
Lu Chuan 陆川 – Mountain Patrol (Kekexili 可可西里, 2004)

Reading Seminar: Michael Clarke, Vivienne Lo, date tbc
This session is an integral part of the course

*UCL Grand Challenge showings, please check location

Intensive Seminar Week, February 11th – 15th 2012
Seminar leader: Patrizia Liberati
Much of  this week will be devoted to an analysis of representations of the body in different genre of Chinese film. Films to be watched include
Confronting the Natural Body
Viewing:     Zhang Nuanxin 张暖忻 – Sacrifice of youth (Qingchun ji 青春祭, 1985)
Body and soul – the holistic approach
Viewing:     Zhang Yang 张杨 – Shower (Xizao 洗澡, 1999)
The supernatural body
Viewing:     King Hu 胡金铨 – A touch of Zen (Xianü 侠女,  1971, Taiwan)
                    Gordon Chan 陈嘉上 – Painted skin (Huapi 画皮, 2008)
                    Ching Siu-tung  –  A Chinese Ghost Story (Qiannü youhun 倩女幽魂, 1987)
Old Age
Viewing:    Zhang Yang 张杨 –  Full circle (Feiyue laoren yuan 飞越老人院, 2012)
                    Ning Ying 宁瀛 – Looking for Fun (Zhao le 找乐, 1993)
The Mind
Viewing:    Xie Fei 谢飞 – Woman sesame oil maker (Xiang hun nü 香魂女, 1972)
Public Health
Cui Wei 崔嵬 – Hongyu (Hongyu 红雨, 1975)
Epidemic Control
国医
惊心动魄
Addiction   
Zhang Yuan 张元 – Beijing Bastards (Beijing zazhong 北京杂种, 1993)

Reading List
Please note: a reading list specific to each film will be made available before the individual screenings

General Surveys of Chinese Cinema
- Song Hwee Lim & Julian Ward, eds, The Chinese Cinema Book
  (Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave Macmillhan for British Film Institute, 2011)
- Chris Berry, ed., Chinese Films in Focus II (Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave
  Macmillan for British Film Institute, 2008)
- Chris Berry & Mary Farquhar, China on Screen: Cinema and Nation (New
  York & Chichester, Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2006)
- Yingjin Zhang & Zhiwei Xhao, eds, Encyclopaedia of Chinese Film (London
   & New York: Routledge, 1999)
- Yingjin Zhang, Chinese National Cinema (New York: Routledge, 2004)
- Sheldon Hsiao-ping Lu, ‘Historical Introduction: Chinese Cinemas (1896–1996)
  and Transnational Film Studies’, in Sheldon H. Lu, ed., Transnational Chinese
  Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender (Honolulu: University of Hawaii
  Press, 1997), 1–25
- Jerome Silbergeld, China into Film: Frames of Reference in Contemporary
  Chinese Cinema (London: Reaktion Books, 1999)

Hong Kong Cinema & Television
- Stephen Teo, Hong Kong Cinema: The Extra Dimensions (London: BFI
  Publishing, 1997)
- Stephen Teo, ‘The Hong Kong Cantonese Cinema: Emergence, Development
  and Decline’, in Lim & Ward, eds, The Chinese Cinema Book (2011), 103–110
- Vivian P.Y. Lee, ‘The Hong Kong New Wave: A Critical Reappraisal’, in Lim &
  Ward, eds, The Chinese Cinema Book (2011), 131–138
- David Bordwell, Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of
  Entertainment (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000)
- Poshek Fu & David Desser, eds, The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts,
  Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)
- Eric Ma, Culture, Politics and Television in Hong Kong (London: Routledge,
  1999)

Taiwan Cinema
- Guo-Juin Hong, ‘Healthy Realism in Taiwan, 1964–80: Film Style, Cultural
  Policies and Mandarin Cinema’, in Lim & Ward, eds, The Chinese Cinema
  Book (2011), 95–102
- Tonglin Lu, ‘Taiwan New Cinema and its Legacy’, in Lim & Ward, eds, The
  Chinese Cinema Book (2011), 122–130
- Tonglin Lu, Confronting Modernity in the Cinemas of Taiwan and Mainland
  China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)
- June Yip, Envisioning Taiwan: Fiction, Cinema and the Nation in the
  Cultural Imaginary (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2004)
- Chris Berry & Lu Feii, eds, Island on the Edge: Taiwan New Cinema and
  After (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2005)
- Brian Hu, ‘Formula 17: Mainstream in the Margins’, in Berry, ed., Chinese 
  Films in Focus II (2008), 121–127
- Corrado Neri, ‘A Time to Live, a Time to Die: A Time to Grow’, in Berry, ed.,
  Chinese Films in Focus II (2008), 212–218
- Fran Martin, ‘Vive l’Amour: Eloquent Emptiness’, in Berry, ed., Chinese Films
  in Focus II (2008), 227–234
- Chris Berry & Mary Farquhar, ‘Time and the National: History, Historiology,
  Haunting’, in Berry & Farquhar, China on Screen: Cinema and Nation (2006),
  Ch. 2, especially pp. 29–38
- Chris Berry & Mary Farquhar, ‘Where Do You Draw the Line?  Ethnicity in   
  Chinese Cinemas’, in Berry & Farquhar, China on Screen: Cinema and
  Nation (2006), Ch. 7, especially pp. 188–194

Film in Singapore
- Chris Berry & Mary Farquhar, ‘Singapore Stories: Transnational Cinematic
  Modes and National Images’, in Berry & Farquhar, China on Screen: Cinema   
  and Nation (2006), 213–222
- Song Hwee Lim, ’15: The Singapore Failure Story, ‘Slanged Up’, in Chris Berry,
  ed., Chinese Films in Focus II (2008), 9–16
- Gina Marchetti, ‘Cinemas of the Chinese Diaspora’, especially pp. 32–33, and   
  Song Hwee Lim, ‘Six Chinese Cinemas in Search of a Historiography’, 
  especially pp. 36–38, in Lim & Ward, eds, The Chinese Cinema Book (2011)

Chinese Cinema(s) in East Asian Context(s)
- Leon Hunt & Leung Wing-Fai, East Asian Cinemas (London: I.B. Tauris, 2008)

Documentary in Contemporary Chinese Film and Television
- Chris Berry, Lu Xinyu & Lisa Rofel, eds, The New Chinese Documentary  
  Film Movement: For the Public Record (Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong
  Press, 2010), especially Chris Berry and Lisa Rofel,  ‘Introduction’, and Lu
  Xinyu, ‘Rethinking China’s New Documentary Movement: Engagement with the
   Social’, in Part I, ‘Historical Overview’, Chs 1 & 2

Bodies, ‘Embodiment’, Trauma and ‘The Logic of the Wound’ in Modern Chinese National Identity, Cinema and History
- Chris Berry & Mary Farquhar, ‘The Logic of the Wound: The Opium War and
  National History’, in Berry & Farquhar, China on Screen: Cinema and Nation
  (2006), 19–23
- Jerome Silbergeld, Body in Question: Image and Illusion in Two Chinese
  Films by Director Jiang Wen (Princeton, N.J., 2008: Princeton University
  Press for P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Center for East Asian Art, Princeton
  University)
- Michael Berry, A History of Pain: Trauma in Modern Chinese Literature and
  Film (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008)

Bodies, Sexuality and Gender in Chinese Cinema(s)
- Chris Berry & Mary Farquhar, ‘How Should a Chinese Woman Look?’, in Berry &
  Farquhar, China on Screen: Cinema and Nation (2006), Ch. 5.  See also
 ‘Introduction’, p. 12
- Chris Berry & Mary Farquhar, ‘How Should Chinese Men Act?’, in Berry & Farquhar,
China on Screen: Cinema and Nation (2006), Ch. 6 and pp. 197–204.  See also
  ‘Introduction’, pp. 12–13
- Jerome Silbergeld, ‘The Veil of Tradition: Victims, Warriors and the Female
  Analogy’, in Silbergeld, China into Film (1999), Ch. 4, pp. 132–187
- Gina Marchetti, ‘Cinemas of the Chinese Diaspora’, in Lim & Ward, eds, The
  Chinese Cinema Book (2011), especially pp. 31–32
- Stephen Teo, ‘Postmodernism and the End of Hong Kong Cinema’, Ch. 16 in Teo,
  Hong Kong Cinema (1997), pp. 250–251
- Chao Shi-Yan, ‘Coming Out of The Box, Marching as Dykes’, in Berry, Lu Xinfu &
  Rofel, eds, The New Chinese Documentary Film Movement (2010), 77–95
- Bérénice Reynaud, ‘Centre Stage: A Shadow in Reverse’, in Berry, ed., Chinese
  Films in Focus II (2008), 48–55
- Gary G. Xu, ‘Flowers of Shanghai: Visualising Ellipses and (Colonial) Absence’, in
  Berry, ed., Chinese Films in Focus II (2008), 114–118
- Brian Hu, ‘Formula 17: Mainstream in the Margins’, in Berry, ed., Chinese Films in
  Focus II (2008), 121–124
- Kristine Harris, ‘The Goddess: Fallen Woman of Shanghai’, in Berry, ed., Chinese
  Films in Focus II (2008), 128–136
- Kam Louie, ‘Hero: The Return of a Traditional Masculine Ideal in China’, in Berry,
  ed., Chinese Films in Focus II (2008),137–143
- Tan See-Kam & Annette Aw, ‘The Love Eterne: Almost a (Heterosexual) Love
  Story’, in Berry, ed., Chinese Films in Focus II (2008), 160–166
- Fran Martin, ‘Vive l’Amour: Eloquent Emptiness’, in Berry, ed., Chinese Films in
  Focus II (2008), 227–234
- Chris Berry, ‘The Wedding Banquet: A Family (Melodrama) Affair’, in Berry, ed.,
Chinese Films in Focus II (2008), 235–242
- Haiyan Lee, ‘Woman, Demon, Human: The Spectral Journey Home’, in Berry, ed.,
  Chinese Films in Focus II (2008), 243–249

The ‘Supernatural Body’ in Chinese Medicine and Cinema
- Meir Shahar, ‘Diamond Body: The Origins of Invulnerability in the Chinese
  Martial Arts’, in Vivienne Lo, ed., Perfect Bodies, Sports, Medicine and
  Immortality (London: The British Museum Press, 2012), 119–128.
- Livia Kohn, ‘Daoyin among the Daoists: Physical Practice and Immortal
  Transformation in Highest Clarity’, in Lo, ed., Perfect Bodies (2012),
  109–118.
- Vivienne Lo, ‘Introduction’, in Lo, ed., Perfect Bodies (2012), especially pp. 3–
  4, 6–9, 11–14, 16–17
- Mary Farquhar, ‘A Touch of Zen: Action in Martial Arts Movies’, in Berry &
  Farquhar, Chinese Films in Focus II (2008), especially pp. 223–225
-Stephen Teo, Hong Kong Cinema (1997), especially Ch. 6, ‘The Dao of King
  Hu’, and Ch. 14, ‘Ghosts, Cadavers, Demons and Other Hybrids’
- Stephen Teo, King Hu’s A Touch of Zen (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University
  Press, 2007), especially Ch. 6, ‘The Zen Finale’, and Ch. 7, ‘Conclusion’,
  especially pp. 107–111

Martial Arts Movies and the Body
- Chris Berry & Mary Farquhar, ‘Operatic Modes: Opera Film, Martial Arts and  
  Cultural Nationalism’, in Berry & Farquhar, China on Screen: Cinema and
  Nation (2006), Ch. 3, especially pp. 53–54, 57–58, 66–74
- Stephen Teo, Hong Kong Cinema (1997), especially Ch. 7, ‘The Sword and
  the Fist’
- Stephen Teo, Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition
  (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009)
- Leon Hunt, ‘Dragons Forever: Chinese Martial Arts Stars’, in Lim & Ward, eds,
The Chinese Cinema Book (2011), 141–149
- Felicia Chan, ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Cultural Migrancy and
  Translatability’, in Berry, ed., Chinese Films in Focus II (2008), Ch. 9,
  especially pp. 76–81