The Politics of Memory in Sinophone Cinemas and Image Culture

Cinema archives memories, conserves the past, and rewrites histories. As much as the Sinophone embodies differences, contemporary Sinophone cinemas in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the People's Republic of China invest various images of contested politics in order to assert different histories and self-consciousness. As such, Sinophone cinemas and image production function as archives, with the capability of reinterpreting the multiple dimensions of past and present. The Politics of Memory in Sinophone Cinemas and Image Culture investigates Sinophone films and art projects that express this desire for archiving and reconfiguring the past. Comprising ten chapters, this book brings together contributors from an array of disciplines - artists, filmmakers, curators, film critics, and literary scholars - to grapple with the creative ambiguities of Sinophone cinemas and image culture. Blending eclectic methods of scholarly research, knowledge-making, and art-making into a new discursive space, the chapters address the diverse complexities of the cinematic culture and image production in Sinitic language regions. This book is a valuable resource for students and scholars of film studies, China studies, East Asian studies, Taiwan studies, and Sinophone studies, as well as professionals who work in the film industry.

Peng Hsiao-yen is Research Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Ella Raidel is Senior Postdoc (Elise-Richter-PEEK) at Art University Linz, Austria.

Introduction I. Remembering China: The Individual Self, the Collective, and the State Apparatus Chapter 1. Why Remember Everyday Movie-Going in Cultural Revolution Shanghai? Chapter 2. Persuasive Communication in Chinese Historical Film: The Founding of a Republic as a Milestone Chapter 3. Images of Redress and Rehabilitation: "pingfan (in) film" and perceptions of coming to terms with the past in China Chapter 4. A Familiar Stranger - Grierson in China II. Politicizing Archives: Artists and Digital History Chapter 5. The Use and Abuse of the Archives in Contemporary Art Chapter 6. Making Reverberation: Residue of Sounds and Images Chapter 7. The Digital Emergence of a New History: The Archiving of Colonial Japanese Documentaries on Taiwan III. Manufactured Archives: the Fictional Memory Chapter 8. Wong Kar-wai's Mood Trilogy: Robot, Tears, and the Affective Aura Chapter 9. The Missing and the Fictional Memory: Leitmotifs of Tsai Ming Liang's Oeuvre Chapter 10. Light and Shadow of Jianghu: Peering into the Contemporary Political Mythology in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and The Grandmaster