Transnational Chinese Cinemas : Identity, Nationhood, Gender

Zhang Yimou's first film, __Red Sorghum,__ took the Golden Bear Award in 1988 at the Berlin International Film Festival. Since then Chinese films have continued to arrest worldwide attention and capture major film awards, winning an international following that continues to grow. __Transnational Chinese Cinemas__ spans nearly the entire length of twentieth-century Chinese film history. The volume traces the evolution of Chinese national cinema, and demonstrates that gender identity has been central to its formation. Femininity, masculinity and sexuality have been an integral part of the filmic discourses of modernity, nationhood, and history. This volume represents the most comprehensive, wide-ranging, and up-to-date study of China's major cinematic traditions. It is an indispensable source book for modern Chinese and Asian history, politics, literature, and culture. Contents List of Illustrations Preface Historical Introduction. Chinese Cinemas (1896–1996) and Transnational Film Studies Part I. Nation-Building, National Cinema, Transnational Cinema 1. Anti-Imperialism and Film Censorship During the Nanjing Decade, 1927–1937 2. Two Stage Sisters: The Blossoming of a Revolutionary Aesthetic 3. From “Minority Film” to “Minority Discourse”: Questions of Nationhood and Ethnicity in Chinese Cinema 4. National Cinema, Cultural Critique, Transnational Capital The Films of Zhang Yimou Part II. The Politics of Cultural and National Identity in the Cinemas of Taiwan and Hong Kong 5. Constructing a Nation: Taiwanese History and the Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien 6. The Diaspora in Postmodern Taiwan and Hong Kong Film: Framing Stan Lai’s The Peach Blossom Land with Allen Fong’s Ah Ying 7. Breaking the Soy Sauce Jar: Diaspora and Displacement in the Films of Ang Lee 8. Transnational Action: John Woo, Hong Kong, Hollywood 9. Jackie Chan and the Cultural Dynamics of Global Entertainment Part III. Engendering History and Nationhood: Cross-Cultural and Gendered Perspectives 10. Reading Formations and Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine 11. The New Woman Incident: Cinema, Scandal, and Spectacle in 1935 Shanghai 12. Gendered Perspective: The Construction and Representation of Subjectivity and Sexuality in Ju Dou 13. The Concubine and the Figure of History: Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine 14. Narrative Images of the Historical Passion: Those Other Women— On the Alterity in the New Wave of Chinese Cinema Chinese Glossary Filmography Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index

This Chinese-English dictionary of proverbs (yanyu) consists of approximately 4,000 Chinese proverbs alphabetically arranged by the first word(s) (ci) of the proverb according to the Hanyu Pinyin transcription and Chinese characters (standard simplified), followed by a literal (and when necessary also a figurative) English translation. Additional data such as brief usage notes, sources, parallel expressions, cross-references, and famous instances of use are provided where available. The proverbs are supplemented by an index of key words (both Chinese and English) found in all entries and of all topics addressed. The author has provided a scholarly introduction analyzing the definition, structure, usage, and history of these yanyu in traditional and contemporary China as well as a bibliography of collections and relevant scholarly studies of yanyu.

This work, the first such scholarly collection to appear since the Reverend Scarborough's 1926 collection, will be of use not only to sinologists in a wide variety of fields, including anthropology, literature, sociology, psychology, and history, but also to non-Chinese readers interested in Chinese culture or comparative ethnolinguistic and paremiological research.