Chinese Independent Cinema

Independent cinema in China is not only made outside the commercial system but also without being submitted for censorship. We know that for several decades it has been the crucible out of which China's most exciting new films have flowed. The essays in this volume interrogate what else we think we know. Did it really start with Wu Wenguang and Bumming in Beijing in 1990, or can its roots be traced back much earlier? What are its aesthetics? And its ethics, including of gender and class? Where do audiences watch these films in China and how do they circulate? And, since the 2017 Film Law defined uncensored films as illegal, is independent Chinese cinema still alive? What does it mean today? And does it have a future? The essays in this anthology-many by exciting new scholars-explore these urgent questions.

Chris Berry is Professor of Film Studies at King's College London. His publications include The New Chinese Documentary Film Movement (Hong Kong University Press, 2010), co-edited with Lisa Rofel and Lu Xinyu. He was also a co-investigator on the AHRC project, 'Independent Cinema in China 1990-2017: State, Market, and Film Culture' (2019-2024). Luke Robinson is Associate Professor in Film Studies in the School of Media, Arts, and Humanities at the University of Sussex. He is the author of Independent Chinese Documentary: From the Studio to the Street (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and was a co-investigator on the AHRC project, 'Independent Cinema in China 1990-2017: State, Market, and Film Culture' (2019-2024). Sabrina Qiong Yu is Professor of Film and Chinese Studies at Newcastle University, UK. Her research and publications focus on Chinese-language cinema, stardom and performance, gender and sexuality, and censorship. She leads the UK Research Council-funded project (2019-2024) on Chinese independent cinema and the establishment of the Chinese Independent Film Archive. Lydia Wu is a Newcastle University Academic Track Fellow in Culture and Creative Arts. She leads a five-year research project titled Decolonising Film Curation: Asian Cinemas as Method, supported by Newcastle University. She is also the founder of the Association for Curators and Programmers of Asian Cinemas (ACPAC).

List of Illustrations, Introduction &-Sabrina Qiong Yu, Chris Berry, Luke Robinson, and Lydia Wu, Genealogies, Chapter 1. The Soil and the Scar: A Genealogy of Photography and Documentary in Post-Mao China &-Zoe Meng Jiang, Chapter 2. Video Relics: Hu Jie and the Official Style &-Maximilian Berwald, Ethics and Aesthetics, Chapter 3. Hu Bo's Ethics of Realism &-Cecília Mello, Chapter 4. The Filmmaker as Feminist &-Jinyan Zeng, Chapter 5. Of Found Objects and Projected Things: The Relational Field in Wang Bing's West of the Tracks and Ma Li's Born in Beijing &-Yün Peng, Beside the Screen: Independent Cinema as Social Practice, Chapter 6. In Dependence and in Relation: A Relational Sociological Approach to Chinese Independent Cinema &-Seio Nakajima, Chapter 7. Distribution and Exhibition of Independent Film in China: Informal Infrastructure and Its Affordances &-Chris Berry, Luke Robinson, and Sabrina Qiong Yu, Chapter 8. Mediating the New Alternative Film Culture: An Ethnographic Study of Post-Independent Exhibition Practices Since 2017 &-Xiang Fan, Chapter 9. Three Modes of Independent Creative Documentary Production and the Rise of the Industrial Mode &-Kiki Tianqi Yu, Community and Engagement, Chapter 10. Cinematic Fabulation: Trans Representation in Miss Jin Xing &-Hongwei Bao, Chapter 11. Village Film and Place-Based Film Archive: Towards an Ecological and Archival Chinese Independent Documentary &-Zimu Zhang, Chapter 12. The Ethic of Collaboration: Rethinking Chinese Independent Cinema's Engagement with Grassroots Creativity &-Kaiyang Xu, List of Contributors, Index.