Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
In Working the System: Motion Picture, Filmmakers, and Subjectivities in Mao-Era China, 1949–1966, Qiliang He inquires into the making of the new citizenry in Mao-era China (1949–1976) by studying five preeminent Shanghai-based filmmakers. These case studies shed light on how individuals’ subjectivities took shape in the cinematic arena under a new sociopolitical system after 1949. He suggests that a filmmaker’s subjectivity was not fixed or stable but constantly in flux, requiring a host of “subjectivizing practices” to (re)shape and consolidate it. These filmmakers endeavored to reap maximal benefits from Mao’s sociopolitical system and minimize the disadvantages that would make them victims under the system. In short, Qiliang He argues that the filmmakers not only worked under the socialist system imposed upon them but also worked the system in their best interests.
“Through five chosen filmmakers’ creative control and their negotiation of their professional status within China’s newly adopted socialist system, the author presents a compelling case that illustrates how individual filmmakers constantly adjusted themselves professionally and ideologically to survive in a fast-changing industry and a highly politicized society.”
—Lin Feng, University of Leicester
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Relationship between the Party and Artists in Mao-Era China Beyond the Resistance/Accommodation Paradigm Filmmaking as a Subjectivizing Practice
1. Wu Xun, Song Jingshi, and Lin Zexu: Cinema and Historiography in Mao’s China (1949–1966)
The Wu Xun Film and New Historiography in the PRC
Song Jingshi: The Integration of the Class View and Historicism
The Disputes between Dogmatists and Historicists: The 1960s
History as a Public Realm of Communication
Conclusion
2. From Wu Xun to Lu Xun: Film, Stardom, and Subjectivity in Mao’s China
To Survive: Zhao Dan and The Life of Wu Xun
To Thrive
To Survive: Zhao Dan’s Confessions as a Survival Tactic
Conclusion
3. “Putting New Wine into Old Bottles”: Sun Yu’s Filmic Career in Post-1949 China
The Storyline
The Production of the Film
Criticisms and Reevaluation
Putting New Wine into Old Bottles
Sun Yu in the Early 1960s
Conclusion
4. Wu Yonggang: Opera Film, the Cinematic Cold War, and Artistic Autonomy
The Second-Generation Directors in Mao-Era China
The Cinema of Attractions
The Cinematic Cold War
The Jade Hairpin, a Yue Opera Film
Conclusion
5. The Making of Xie Jin in the PRC: Womanhood, Melodrama, and Co-authorship
Woman Basketball Player No. 5
Red Detachment of Women
Stage Sisters
The Xie Jin Mode Reconsidered
Conclusion: The Making of Xie Jin
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index