http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Mll/Chinese/ChineseFilm/film.htm

Syllabus

Required Texts
FAMILY by Ba, Jin (1932)
SPIDER EATERS by Rae Yang
HUNGER TRILOGY by Wang, Ruowang (fictionalized memoir about imprisonment under GMD, Japanese, and CCP)
RUNNING WILD ed by Wang, David and Tai (short stories from '80s and '90s)
All other readings will be on regular (RR) or Electronic (ER) Reserves, and marked RR or ER. ERES password is: dianying.

Assignments and Evaluation
1.  Class participation: 30%
 Attendance & participation in class discussion.  Anticipated absence should be cleared with the instructors; absences which are not cleared with the instructors in advance and are not due to emergencies (e.g., a car accident) or sudden illness will affect the course grade.  More than two absences will have a serious impact on the final grade. Participation includes preparing to discuss the week’s film and readings, and turning in on time all written assignments. Willingness to engage new material, approaches, & interpretations, to listen to other students, & to share your own ideas are what this course seeks to encourage.

2. Weekly response papers:  40%
 For weeks 2-12, you will submit a short written paper (2-3 pages) which attempts to critique some aspect of the film, raise questions, and discuss the relationship between the reading and the film.  These papers will be shared with the other students before class, and provide a starting point for class discussion.  They should be mailed as an attached file (NOT COMPOSED IN E-MAIL!) to Prof. Bai, who will put them up on the web site for the course, where they can be read or printed out by everyone in the class.  In addition you should bring a printed copy to class.  The papers will be evaluated and returned. The section on "How to "Read" a film?" may be of help for analyzing and writing about films.

 3.  Group presentation: 10%

3.1. The presenting group members are not required to hand in a response paper that week. Their presentation, in a sense, stands in for the paper.
3.2. A good presentation will take more than a week to prepare. Groups should meet together to watch the film before the Sunday screening, if possible, and discuss the film, decide which themes to analyze, what kind of clips to make, and how to distribute the presentation of the analysis among group members.
3.3. Each member of the group should participate actively and independently in the presentation, i.e., contribute a distinct segment of the overall analysis. No one may simply be responsible for just technical work.
3.4. Group members should meet together as often as necessary and at least twice after their initial viewing of the film. They should be fully aware of each other’s contribution to the analysis, and if possible, attempt to develop coordinating or deliberately contrastive modes of analysis, i.e., work collaboratively even as you prepare to present individually.
3.5. The readings (for that and any previous week) should be fully incorporated into the analysis by each member, as appropriate.
3.6. Presentations should be SPOKEN, not READ.

Presentations will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
1) Clarity and depth of analysis of thematic and filmic elements.
2) Degree of incorporation of insights from readings (for that or previous weeks).
3) Attempts to draw comparisons with other films we have watched.
4) Awareness of historical context and its affect on the filmmaker and his/her presentation of the subject matter.
5) Effective use of illustrative clips.

4.  Individual paper: 20%
 Every student will submit a final paper, 10-15 pages, on a topic related to the film analyzed by the group.  The paper should present an argument that incorporates analysis of relevant readings along with a filmic analysis, but may focus on historical, literary, or cinematic issues.  Topics must be cleared with the instructors in advance.

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Course Description

The course objectives are 1) To acquaint students with the dramatic impact of 20th century Chinese history on people's lives, thinking, modes of expression, and artistic conceptualization. 2) To introduce students to major works of fiction and filmmaking in 20th c. China, and to methods of analyzing and understanding Chinese film and fiction in both historical and artistic terms. 3) To enrich students' appreciation and critical understanding of the place of modern Chinese history and cultural expression in modern global history and culture.

Film viewing will  take place outside of the seminar meeting on Sunday evenings. Assignments will include short weekly papers, group analysis of a film and an individual seminar paper. The opportunity to read Chinese versions of assigned stories & submit short essays in Chinese also exists for advanced language students. Enrollment limited (20). No prerequisites, but a familiarity with Chinese history or a knowledge of Chinese or film studies will be helpful. Fulfills history seminar requirement.

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Weekly Routine

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Weekly Calendar

How to "Read" and Write about a Film?

1. State the “message(s) of the sequence, i.e. what is the filmmaker trying to communicate.
2. Explain how the message(s) are communicated by such channels as image, speech, music, sound effect and etc.
3. Sequence Analysis Worksheet:
A. Describe briefly what you see in the selected sequence.
B. What is the filmmaker trying to communicate in the segment?
C. How do the five channels of information in film, visual image, print, speech, music, sound effect, and work together to communicate the message? Is space—landscape or interior—used as a “comment” on the character’s inner state of mind? Does the use of space exude a certain atmosphere? Are there any symbolic uses of props? How are focus, angles, lighting, color and sound effect used to help communicate? What are some of the social and cultural codes?
D. Try to determine what function and significance this segment has for the film as a whole?

II. Viewing and reading share the same basic interactive process of getting the meaning across.
 

Author Playwrite    ---> Director

Text ----> Film ---->

<---->Readers <---->Film audience

Active reading and viewing involves constant interacting with the text and the film, analyzing how the messages are communicated via various channels. What broad statement is the film director trying to make? How is character portrayal is done to help communicate the director’s message(s)? How does the setting and time period shape or contribute to the film’s thematic structure or messages? Are certain cultural values (virtues) singled out for critical examination or upheld for emulation? How are cultural or social messages conveyed? How imagery is used? Such as camera angles and shots, lighting, color, focus, sounds, etc. Can you watch the movie and watch yourself watching the movie at the same time, i.e. critical reading/viewing?

III. Writing about a film.
    When you write about movies,  “it is insufficient to convince others to like or dislike the film, but to add to their understanding of the film… personal feelings, expectations and reactions may be the beginning of an intelligent critique, but they must be balanced with rigorous reflection on where those feelings and expectations and reactions come from and how they relate to more objective factors concerning the movie in question: its place in film history, its cultural background, its formal strategies… what is interesting is not pronouncing a film good or bad but explaining why (T. Corrigan)."

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Useful Links

2. Click here you will be able to visit the China section of the Asian Films Connections

3. Click here for another site on Chinese films

4. Click here for a website on Chinese history

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Schedule for Film Showings

1. Shadow Magic (Xiyang Jing) 2000
Directed by Hu An, this historical comedy tells when and how film making was introduced to China at the beginning of the 20th century.

2. To Live (Huozhe) 1994
Directed by Zhang Yimou, To Live follows a contemporary family across the turbulent face of modern China, from the Japanese invasion through Mao's Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. 132 min. This might be a good film to start the course since it covers almost the entire time period that we want to discuss. English Sub. MLL and Olin 950368.

3. Family (Jia)  1956
Directed by Chen Xihe & Ye Ming. Through the bitter experiences of the three brothers, the family contradictions , changes and finally declines, this film has vividly depicted the life of a wealthy family in the early years of Shanghai.  MLL

4. New Year Sacrifice (Zhufu)  1959
Directed by Sang Hu, New Year Sacrifice tells a tragic story on the life of a mid-aged village woman who was widowed twice and whose last hope was shattered by the news that her son was torn apart by a group of wolves.  MLL

5. A Girl from Hunan  (Xiang Nu Xiaoxiao) 1986
Directed by  Xie Fei and Wu Lan, A Girl From Hunan  is about a poor girl's miserable life as a child bride (at the turn of the century) and her happiness and bitterness in life as she falls in love with a young man. 99 min. English Sub.  Olin 920005

6. Crows and Sparrows  (Wuya yu Maque) 1949
Directed by Zheng Junyi, regarded as "a milestone in Chinese film history," this pre-revolution film (1949) portrays a group of characters, accurately representing various types among the working people in the lower social strata in 1949. 111 min. English Sub available.

7. Two Stage Sisters (Wutai Jiemei) 1965.
Directed by Xie Jin, this film contrasts the lives of two actresses, one who seeks happiness and fulfilment through family life, and the other through political activism. You probably can guess who will be happier.

8. Hibiscus Town (Furong Zhen) 1986
Directed by Xie Jin. During the "cultural revolution", Hibiscus Town is filled with darkness and terror. Hu Yuyin, a diligent country woman, is sentenced to sweep the streets every day together with the "Rightist" Qin Shutian. They helped each other and gradually fall in love. They got married, but misfortunes never come singly. 143 min. MLL

9. Sacrificed Youth (Qingchun Ji) 1985
A story of a youth sent to live with the Miao people in southern China. The Cha1-dui4-luo4-hu4 experience during the cultural revolution. English Sub. Olin 900080

10. WOMEN'S STORY (Nuren de Gushi)1988
Directed by Peng Xiaolian, the plight of Chinese women seen from their point of view in this poignant tale of three peasant women who flee their village to taste freedom in the big city and escape the sexist oppression of rural China. 96 min. MLL
(Economy reform and social change in recent China)

11. Black Canon Incident" (Heipao Shijian), dir Huang Jianxin, 1985

12. Shower (Xizao) 1999
Directed by Zhang Yuan, one of the sixth generations of Chinese directors, The old and new worlds collide in this charming tale of a family divided, then brought together by a traditional bathhouse. The successful, career-minded son of the bathhouse's owner first sees the establishment as outdated, but as he spends more time with his family and friends, and as the threat of its destruction draws near, he begins to see its worth. "...a delicate, lyrical case for the importance of holding on to small traditions" (Desson Howe, Washington Post).

13. EAT, DRINK, MAN, WOMAN (Yinshi Nannu) 1994
Directed by Ang Lee, this film tells a story about  Master Chef Chu who attempts to maintain family unity with ritual Sunday dinners as he comes to terms with his three daughters' growing independence. 104 min. Olin

More Recently-released Good Films:
Rouge 1987
Directed by Stanley Kwan (Hong Kong)
The popular singers/actors Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung are paired in this supernatural love story which alternates between the brothels, theaters and opium dens of Hong Kong in the Thirties, and the cool, detached world of the present day. The ghost of a courtesan appeals to a young journalist to help her find her lost lover who recovered from their joint suicide attempt and thus failed to join her in the spirit world. Cantonese with English. 99 min.

Not One Less (yi ge dou bu neng shao)       1999
From the celebrated director of Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern comes this warm, witty and touching comic fable about a thirteen-year-old girl who is chosen to serve as a substitute teacher when her poor village's elder schoolmaster is away. Her troubles teaching children not much younger than herself are nothing compared to the trouble she finds in th city when she travels to find a missing student. "Not One Less is a movie whose humanity is irresistibly, even joyfully, accessible" (Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com). A Golden Lion winner at the Venice Film Festival. In Mandarin with English subtitles. 106 min

Yi Yi (A One and a Two)  2000
Edward Yang's profound and beautiful film conveys the powerful emotional truths of everyday life as it depicts the struggles, hopes and dreams of a middle-class family in Taipei. "...a wonderfully engrossing experience--a lucid, elegant, nuanced, humorous movie that's never nearly as sentimental as it might have been...Yang orchestrates a soap opera season's worth of family crises with virtuoso discretion" (J. Hoberman, The Village Voice). Yang won Best Director honors at the Cannes Film Festival and Yi Yi was named Best Film of 2000 by the National Society of Film Critics and Best Foreign Language Film by the New York Film Critics' Circle. In Mandarin with English subtitles. 173 min.

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Disability Access Statement
If you have a hidden or visible disability which may require classroom or test accommodations please see me as soon as possible during a scheduled office hour. If you have not already done so, you must register with the Coordinator of Disability Services (Erin Salva, salvae@kenyon.edu, x5145), who is the individual responsible for coordinating accommodations and
services for students with disabilities. All information and documentation of disability is strictly confidential. No accommodations will be granted in this course without notification from the Office of Disability Services.

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