History of Cinema in the People's Republic of China
The history of cinema in the People's Republic of China begins in 1949 after the catastrophe of World War II, which also temporarily ended filmmaking in China. This contrasts with Taiwan's cinema , which is beginning at the same time, in the remaining sphere of influence of the Republic of China (Taiwan) .
From the founding of the People's Republic to the end of the Cultural Revolution, 1949–1976
Even if numerous filmmakers from the time before, especially from the context of the Shanghai film industry of the 1930s, were initially able to continue working, the CCP's takeover of power meant that the Chinese film was committed to a state-supporting propaganda function. Chinese filmmakers were sent to Moscow to study the model of Soviet film , and in 1950 the Beijing Film School was established. Thematically, many of the films were devoted to portraying the resistance against Japan and the heroic role of the party, as in “The Red Women's Battalion” (Hongse niangzi jun; 红色 娘子军; 1961) by Xie Jin (谢晋; 1923–2008). The first mainland Chinese color film and the most monumental production to date was "The East is Red" ( Dongfang hong ; 东方 红; 1965). 603 feature films were made by 1966. In terms of production, animation film production in the People's Republic was particularly seamless with earlier forms of production. Under the leadership of the brothers Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan, both pioneers of Chinese animation films in the 1920s and 1930s, animation films were produced again in Shanghai from the mid-1950s. A stylistic peculiarity was the use of traditional techniques from folk culture in cartoons such as paper cutting, shadow games and ink painting, which go back mainly to Wan Guchan. The Wan brothers' second full-length animated film "The Monkey God" (Da nao tiangong; 大 闹天宫; 1965) won the prize for best film at the London Film Festival.
During the Cultural Revolution , filmmaking came to an almost complete standstill under the aegis of Jiang Qing . Only the film versions of the eight model lopers approved by her were shown in the period up to 1972. From 1973 film production was gradually resumed. But still films of the still influential regularly came under political attack gang of four - for example, in 1975 the film "pioneering work" (Chuangye;创业; 1974) about the structure of the oil industry in the People's Republic of China.
From the end of the Cultural Revolution to 1997
| Chinese feature film production (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan) |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| year | number | ||||||
| 1975 | 27 | ||||||
| 1985 | 127 | ||||||
| 1995 | 146 | ||||||
| 2005 | 260 | ||||||
With the death of Mao and the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 and the reopening of the Beijing Film School in 1978, cinema in the People's Republic began anew. From the beginning of the 1980s in particular, freedom gradually opened up for more individual filmmaking. The cinema of the reform era turned away from class struggle and campaign politics and thus lost - despite continuing censorship - its character as a mouthpiece for the party. At the same time, state subsidies were cut and films were increasingly exposed to the mechanisms of the market.
The new freedoms were first used by the so-called fourth generation of filmmakers , who had already received their training in the 1960s, but were only now given the opportunity to make films. These included directors such as Xie Fei (谢 飞; * 1942) and Wu Tianming (吴天明; * 1939). In their films they broke away from the superficial, propagandistic representations of social conditions and used film again as an artistic medium that independently devotes itself to its topics. The acting persons thus became individuals again from representatives of social classes. However, this did not mean a fundamental confrontation with the rule of the party. Her works generally resulted in a return to traditional values or pursued coming to terms with the past within politically accepted limits. Aesthetically, however, the change was clearly visible.
The fifth generation of filmmakers revolutionized Chinese cinema in the mid-1980s and for the first time found international resonance. Films like Chen Kaige's “ Yellow Earth ” (1984), Tian Zhuangzhuang's “ The Horse Thief” (Daomazei; 盗 马贼; 1986) and Zhang Yimou's “ Red Cornfield ” (1987) set themselves on a high level in terms of both form and content with the conditions of Chinese society apart. On both levels they went decisively beyond the fourth generation . In terms of content, they completely detached themselves from the requirements of traditional morality and the ruling party and instead questioned them when they dealt with topics such as the continuity of authoritarian rule in China. Formally, they expanded Chinese cinema both in the use of expressive and realistic means. Due to the critical reception of foreign film theories, they turned to international film art, but at the same time retained their Chinese independence. However, the CCP's influence was still evident in the prevention of public screenings in China, so that some of these films were better known abroad for a while than in their country of origin.
From 1997 until today
A sixth generation of filmmakers has been making themselves felt since the late 1990s . Characteristic of her works is the undisguised criticism of the living conditions in China, mostly based on the experiences of urban youth. In hard realism without stylization, often documented and filmed on video material, they show the dark sides of modernization and the decline of values. Directors of this generation are u. a. Jia Zhangke (who received the Golden Lion in Venice in 2006 for his film “ Still Life ”), Zhang Yuan , Wang Xiaoshuai and Liu Jiayin (刘佳 茵, * 1982). Other varieties of sixth generation cinema can be found in Li Yu's attempts to portray female (sometimes lesbian) experiences in today's China in film and in the documentary film director Wang Bing . Wang's documentaries, often several hours long, revolve around the central political issues of the People's Republic, such as industrial modernization and its consequences (as in 鐵西 區 West of the Tracks 2003 and 原油Crude Oil and 钱 Coal Money from 2008), as well as (officially still always impossible) memory of the Cultural Revolution (as in 和 鳳鳴Fengming, a Chinese Memoir , 暴力 工厂 Brutality Factory by and most recently in Wang's first fictional film, 再见 夹 边沟The Ditch from 2010).
Overall, however, there is a broad spectrum of filmmaking at the beginning of the 21st century, so that counting according to generations is probably gradually getting done. An example of social realism without the harshness of the sixth generation would be Zhang Yang .
In addition to the works of the fifth generation of film innovators , a politically disinterested cinema developed against the backdrop of the economic reforms, which sees film primarily as entertainment that must be economically viable. Often laid out as a historical drama, these works impressed with their monumental show values. In the mid-1990s, this type of film included, for example, “ The Opium War ” (1997) by Xie Jin, which was the most expensive production in the history of Chinese film until the premiere of Chen Kaige's drama “The Emperor and His Assassin” (1999). In the 2000s, Chinese cinema became even more commercial.In addition to the sixth generation cinema, which received international attention, there were numerous comedies (often with gender themes) and thrillers that repeatedly deal with topics from Chinese history such as the clashes between the KP and the Kuomintang . In films like this in particular, the boundaries between historical and propaganda films sometimes blur, for example in the 100th film by Hong Kong star Jackie Chan 1911 Revolution .
In addition, however, open propaganda films are still being made that deal primarily with the central moments in the state and party history of the People's Republic. The film 建國 大業The Founding of a Republic was made on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic and in 2011 on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the KpCh 建黨 偉業The Founding of a Party .
Some Chinese actors like Gong Li , Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi have become known worldwide.
Foreign cinema in the People's Republic of China
Foreign films are only shown to a limited extent due to import regulations. In addition to political motives, the economic component also plays a major role. The flourishing street trade in (often illegally copied) VCDs and DVDs offers a wide range of international films, which are also shown in equally semi-legal small cinemas.
Chinese cinema abroad
Along with the growing interest that accompanied the economic rise of the People's Republic, the People's Republic's cinema also found increasing interest abroad. Since current Chinese cinema has been present at festivals at least since the mid-1980s, film history in particular has been rediscovered in some retrospectives of recent years. The 62nd Venice Film Festival showed a whole series of Chinese classics, in 2009 the New York Film Fest showed a retrospective on Chinese cinema from 1949 to 1966 under the title "(Re) Inventing China: A New Cinema for a New Society" Die Kulturrevolution) and in March 2013 the group The Canine Condition shows in the Berlin Arsenal under the title "A Song at Midnight", the most comprehensive retrospective on Chinese cinema in Germany to date.
See also
Web links
literature
- Bergeron, Régis: Le cinéma chinois, Lausanne, Alfred Eibel 1977
- Bergeron, Régis: Le cinéma chinois 1949–1983 (three volumes), Paris, L'Harmattan 1983.
- Berry, Chris and Mary Farquhar: China on Screen: Cinema and Nation, Columbia University Press 2006.
- Berry, Chris: Chinese left cinema in the 1930s. Poisonous weeds or national treasures . In: Jump Cut No. 34, March 1989, pp. 87-94.
- Berry, Chris: Postsocialist Cinema in Post-Mao China: The Cultural Revolution after the Cultural Revolution, New York: Routledge, 2004.
- Berry, Chris, and Ying Zhu (Eds.): TV China, Indiana University Press, 2008.
- Berry, Chris (Ed.): Chinese Films in Focus II, London, British Film Institute, 2008.
- Berry, Chris (Ed.): Ni Zhen's Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy: The Origins of China's Fifth Generation Filmmakers, Duke University Press, 2002.
- Kramer, Stefan: Shadows. Chinese film history and the avant-garde of the eighties and nineties. Projekt Verlag, Dortmund 1996.
- Kramer, Stefan: Pictures from the realm of the dragon. Chinese film directors in conversation. Horlemann Verlag, Bad Honnef, 2002.
- Lee, Kevin B .: Counterintuitive sense of possibility. The history of the founding of the distribution label dGenerate films. In: Lukas Foerster, Nikolaus Perneczky, Fabian Tietke, Cecilia Valenti (eds.): Traces of a Third Cinema. On the Aesthetics, Politics and Economy of World Cinema, Bielefeld: transcript 2013, pp. 79–85.
- Meilicke, Elena: Speaking bitterness in the cinema. On the Poetics and Historiography of Wailing at Dr Ma's Country Clinic by Cong Feng. In: Lukas Foerster, Nikolaus Perneczky, Fabian Tietke, Cecilia Valenti (eds.): Traces of a Third Cinema. On the Aesthetics, Politics and Economy of World Cinema, Bielefeld: transcript 2013, pp. 69–78.
- Rothöler, Simon: Walking with. A History of the Present: The Films by Wang Bing. In: Lukas Foerster, Nikolaus Perneczky, Fabian Tietke, Cecilia Valenti (eds.): Traces of a Third Cinema. On the Aesthetics, Politics and Economy of World Cinema, Bielefeld: transcript 2013, pp. 51–68.
- Sierek, Karl and Guido Kirsten (eds.): The Chinese cinema after the cultural revolution theories and analyzes. Marburg: Schüren, 2011
- Yingjin Zhang, Zhiwei Xiao (Eds.): Encyclopedia of Chinese Film, London / New York, Routledge 2002.
Individual evidence
- ↑ bostonstreetlab.org Appreciation of the Wan brothers, as pioneers of Chinese animation film. Retrieved August 12, 2013.
- ↑ World Film Production Report (excerpt) ( Memento from August 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Screen Digest, June 2006, pp. 205–207, accessed on October 3, 2015.
- ↑ The film service speaks to The Kaiser and his assassin of a "marketable [n] exoticization " . Film service : The emperor and his assassin. In: Kabeleins Filmlexikon. SevenOne Intermedia GmbH, accessed on July 18, 2008 .
- ↑ 62ª Mostra internazionale d'arte cinematografica di Venezia
- ^ (Re) Inventing China: A New Cinema for a New Society
- ↑ A song at midnight ( memento of the original from March 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
