Chinese Revolutionary Cinema: Propaganda, Aesthetics and Internationalism 1949–1966 (International Library of the Moving Image)

"Engaging with fiction films devoted to heroic tales from the decade and a half between 1949 and 1966, this book reconceives state propaganda as aesthetic experiments that not only radically transformed acting, cinematography and screenwriting in socialist China, but also articulated a new socialist film theory and criticism. Rooted in the interwar avant-garde and commercial cinema, Chinese revolutionary cinema, as a state cinema for the newly established People's Republic, adapted Chinese literature for the screen, incorporated Hollywood narration, appropriated Soviet montage theory and orchestrated a new, glamorous, socialist star culture. In the wake of decolonisation, Chinese film journals were quick to project and disseminate the country's redefined self-image to Asia, Africa and Latin America as they helped to create an alternative vision of modernity and internationalism. Revealing the historical contingency of the term 'propaganda', Chan uncovers the visual, aural, kinaesthetic, sexual and ideological dynamics that gave rise to a new aesthetic of revolutionary heroism in world cinema. Based on extensive archival research, this book's focus on the distinctive rhetoric of post-war socialist China will be of value to East Asian Cinema scholars, Chinese Studies academics and those interested in the history of twentieth-century socialist culture."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Engaging with key films from the decade and a half between 1949 and '66, this book explores the aesthetic experiment of socialist cinema in China. In the years succeeding the Communist Revolution, the state produced a diversity of genres that functioned as propaganda for the newly established People's Republic. Breaking from past forms, revolutionary cinema adapted and revised Chinese literature for the screen, incorporated aspects of Hollywood narration and appropriated Soviet montage theory for its own means, as well as orchestrating a new, glamorous, socialist star culture. Chinese film periodicals were quick to project and disseminate the country's redefined self-image to both domestic and international domains as they helped to create an alternative vision of modernity and internationalism.