An Urban Exploration
Explores the relationship between cinema and the cities of Western China.
Explores the relationship between cinema and the cities of Western ChinaBridges the gap where the cinematic landscape in China has long been dominated by developed metropolisesBreaks the cinematic stereotypes of the region characterised by rural and ethnographic images in films such as Yellow Earth (dir. Chen Kaige, 1984) and Old Well (dir. Wu Tianming, 1987) by adding the urban facets of western ChinaExplores four Han-dominated urban centres of western China (Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi'an and Lanzhou) represented in films investigating material spacesDiscusses class, gender, post-colonialism and the history of post-socialismExploring the stories, memories and experiences attached to places, Western China on Screen is the first monograph to explore the affinity between the cinema and cities of western China through a spatial perspective. Investigating how cinematic cities in western China appear as both spaces of national power and enclosed spaces of traditional cultural values, the book diversifies the glamourised image of the post-socialist, technocratic metropolises of Beijing and Shanghai, breaking the long-existing rural and ethnographical images of western China established by Chinese Fifth Generation directors. Through case studies of films such as Rainclouds Over Wushan (1996), Buddha Mountain (2010) and Weaving Girl (2010), the book establishes a new way of looking at western urban China on screen: from a space of production to a space of increasing consumption.