Getting Reel: Chinese Cinema in the 21st Century
Chinese cinema has played a crucial role in the ongoing development of Chinese cultural identity in the last twenty years. More recently, China has experienced a rapid expansion of independent artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers. Documentary film, in particular, is one of the best, and most explicit, venues to illustrate contemporary Chinese life. In part, due to cheaper equipment and amateur, untrained filmmakers, many documentaries provide an honest glimpse into a changing country.
The “Reel China Documentary Film Festival” will be held at the Cornell Cinema and will showcase a selection of Chinese documentaries that deal with the struggles of the urban Chinese existence. The four films that will be screened are “The White Tower,” “Floating Life,” “High School Senior Year,” and “Nostalgia.”
Zhen Zhang will be introducing the screening of “Floating Life.” Zhang is currently an associate professor in Cinema Studies at NYU and is the editor of the forthcoming collection of essays “The Urban Generation: Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of the 21st Century.”
Popcorn Youth: Why do you think “Floating Life” is a good example of contemporary Chinese cinema?
Zhen Zhang: For independent films and documentary, this mode of production of filmmaking is very popular and even prevalent with young filmmakers today in China. For some, it is by choice, because it is the way that they want to do it, and for some, it is by necessity because it is the only way to get their voices out and get their films made.
The story is also very typical and representative of what is happening with China as a whole — millions of young people are on the move, a so-called “transient population,” people taking up residence in peripheral areas, and some are young and somewhat educated, but escaping the quandaries in rural areas, trying to attain some form of self-realization … It’s a very quintessential story for what we call “the urban generation.”
The documentary form or method is very personal form, and very improvisational, partly because the filmmaker is following something that is unfolding and unraveling; and the filmmaker uses on-the-fly method, but also dodges certain political control. It’s done in a very personal way, but stylistically it’s also a choice by the filmmaker to represent this transient existence. The temporality, the unfolding of the narrative has a sense of transience and ephemerality, and very much reflects the life and existence of its subjects.
Popcorn Youth: What makes these films independent?
Zhen Zhang: They are largely, and in some instances totally, divorced from the State. It’s not relying on the state for studios, in terms of finance or equipment, and computer software has made it possible to make personal films without prior authorization. And because it’s a documentary, it also makes it possible to actually evade certain state censorship regulations that are primarily aimed at narrative cinema. So there is a space, a crack, in the system that documentary filmmaking can take advantage of.
The Reel China festival is mostly interested in the independent cinema, although in China this is always changing, and sometimes the line between the State and the private sector is not that clear — the State is also being commodified and transformed. In some instances, there might be a mixture, the filmmaker might have a State-paid job, but then they would be working on personal projects, too. It’s a very typical post-Socialist scenario, where the State and private and commercial [spheres] are not easily divided.
But the stories they want to tell and the kind of film language they apply to those stories carry some markers of independence, which is very different from, say, a state-owned television or journalism news reel.
Popcorn Youth: You study silent film of the 20s and 30s as well. Are there some similarities to our own time?
Zhen Zhang: For me, film is the quintessential revolutionary medium that forever changed 20th century life all over the world. By looking at the two bookends of the century, the end of the 19th century and end of the 20th century, it’s an interesting way of seeing how film evolved as a medium. But more interestingly and more importantly, I am interested in what kind of social functions it served at these crucial moments in Chinese modernity, and there are almost similar kinds of intensity. A lot of these contemporary urban, fictional or documentary films actually speak to a lot of similar issues that were brought up in early Shanghai cinema in early 20s and 30s; issues about urbanization, class divisions and social injustices.
Popcorn Youth: Do these films have an audience within China? How much do these filmmakers cater to a Western audience?
Zhen Zhang: That kind of question was brought up quite a lot in the 80s and 90s with regards to Fifth Generation cinema and to some extent the Sixth Generation, such as issues of exoticism and political dissent, and how they were speaking to a Western audience. I think that’s changing. In a way, the Fifth and Sixth Generation have marched back home and become part of the mainstream! (Laughs) Look at Zhang Yimou, for instance. He is really working the red carpet; his movies are inaugurated at major official venues, and he really is the darling of the State at this moment — he was chosen to direct the opening show for the Olympics in 2008! So that says something in the change of China as well as about himself. (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: Where are the rest of those Fifth Generation filmmakers now? Are they still active within the world of Chinese cinema?
Zhen Zhang: Well, definitely not as a group anymore. Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige are still active, but Chen Kaige is less commercial-savvy with success than Zhang Yimou. (Laughs) And many others have gone into very commercial regular production; some have gone into television and created very popular television series. I think one exception might be Tian Zhuangzhuang who, in the beginning, was a more maverick figure to begin with, and he continues to stand by some of his convictions about the cinema’s function, its role as an arbiter of certain critical and intellectual conscience. They’re a very divisive group in that regard. And they’re getting old, and they’re no longer “young” cinema. Even the Sixth Generation is not that young anymore. (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: What period are you referring to with the Sixth Generation filmmakers?
Zhen Zhang: The 1990s, for the most part, post-1989. Cinema was trying to recover from the traumatic experience of ‘89, so it explores different ways of reviving Chinese cinema, right when Chinese cinema was going through a deep crisis, when China was making a transition to the market, privatization in other sectors. There were a lot adjustments to be made by filmmakers of different generations.
As opposed to the ones who graduated from the Academy in Beijing, after ‘89 many others came from other sectors, and not necessarily with film training, but from theater and from television and documentary fimmakers tend to have more connections to the television and some other areas of mass culture. So in some ways, they have been very defining — who decides who is fimmaker and what is cinema, they answer these kinds of fundamental questions. So in a way, it is a very diverse kind of cinema, but they are linked together by their common concern for contemporary markets, urban transformation and social consequences of that.
And as a result of coming from different backgrounds, they also employ different aesthetic strategies and production tactics as well. Some filmmaking still, in a way, uses conventional narrative cinema but with experimentation, and some entirely throw that out of the window, and make a very kind of different cinema altogether. So the documentary movement was converging with these strands of urban narrative cinema in some ways because they occupy a similar contemporary moment. They evolved in the same generation and are concerned with similar issues, but they have very different views on what cinema is. Documentary filmmakers tend to privilege a smaller format and short films, and they tend to be less concerned with the kind of aesthetic and political expectations that academies such as Beijing Film Academy would create.
Popcorn Youth: If someone who lived in the United States wanted to watch the kind of films that you’re talking about here, is there a way for them to get access outside of the occasion of the type of festival that is presented at Cornell this weekend?
Zhen Zhang: I think that goes back to your earlier question about audience viewship in the West. In the 50s, and then the Fifth Generation of the 80s and then the early part of the 90s, the innovative film cinema from China was actually not accessible by Chinese audiences at that time. But lately, with availability of CDs and then DVDs and general loosening of the cultural and commercial sphere in general, people are able to gain certain access to these films. They also become historical documents! (Laughs) We’re already speaking about something that happened ten years ago, in some instances. So they’ve become available in some bookstores. I was surprised to see that some of the banned films of the past are actually on the shelves of major bookstores in Shanghai and Beijing, so that says something about the change. But also the technological revolution with new media and so on have also contributed to these kinds of changes.
Popcorn Youth: So, just how strict is that censorship today? It has gotten better but…
Zhen Zhang: it is not gone entirely, yes.
Popcorn Youth: So what are some new challenges that independent filmmakers are facing today?
Zhen Zhang: I think it’s actually now more commercial! (Laughs) With the disillusion of the Socialist mode of production, it’s harder for young filmmakers to gain this quote unquote “free access” or use expensive equipment such as 35 or even 16mm film equipment. I think that’s probably why many of them have switched to digital media, a non-professional type of medium which is cheaper and more accessible. They also have to raise funds for their productions from scratch. Whereas with the Fifth and even Sixth Generation filmmakers in some instances, many of their films were actually State-funded. So they didn’t have to worry too much about those aspects. They were provided with hardware and an editing table and so on and so forth. And the films would eventually be released, they didn’t have to worry about box office flops! (Laughs) Those were not really their concerns in those days. But in the late 90s, even the Sixth Generation filmmakers and the younger ones that came into the scene, they really had to invent themselves into a new breed of cultural broker, to be involved in all aspects of filmmaking — not just the aesthetic aspects, but also planning and production and marketing! (Laughs) So that’s quite a change indeed.
Popcorn Youth: From a philosophical or intellectual perspective, are there interesting State-approved films being made? Or are all of the interesting films made in an independent sector?
Zhen Zhang: Personally, I think that the more variety there is, the better. Not all State films are dry, uninteresting things. Even the State industry itself has been changing in the past decade, so they are also invested in producing interesting, even appealing propaganda films that have a big budget and is well-acted and so on and so forth. And that has a certain market of its own in the public. There’s also a sizeable population and audience who very much enjoy the domestic comedy. And these are not necessarily political or aesthetically subversive or challenging, but they comment on social changes nevertheless. So there is this diversity. We also have these younger, more experimental filmmakers who really try to critique and maybe intervene in the social experience. And the documentary films push the envelope even a little bit more.
Popcorn Youth: In the 21st century, are there many women filmmakers who are making independent films and taken seriously?
Zhen Zhang: Unfortunately, that is also one casuality of the change. The Socialist apparatus had its own quota system of gender division; they were conscious about training female filmmakers, putting them into studios and sponsoring their projects, a kind of State Socialist feminism. But now, it is more survival-of-the-fittest, that is the kind of economic ethos in currency now, and there seems to be a backlash in that regard. (Laughs)
So although women are less visible as prominent filmmakers, but they are not absent. A lot of them work in television, and other media related industries. And with film, I would say a member who has survived the transition from the Fifth and Sixth Generations is Ning Ying, who has been making really interesting films and documentaries about Beijing in the past decade. And her feature films, as a result, have a very prominent documentary accent, in fact. But among this young group of documetary filmmakers, there are quite a number of young women who make films. Because unlike 35 or 16mm film — the more male-technology approved by the state and its male arbiters — here, the portability of the equipment is very convenient to women among this documentarian film group. There are quite a few women involved in this kind of filmmaking. Not in these four films though, unfortunately, that were selected for the Cornell program.
Popcorn Youth: In your opinion, what is the most innovative or cutting-edge kind of film being made in China today?
Zhen Zhang: That would be a very hard thing to say, actally. As I said earlier, I think at this point diversity — both in terms of film forms and content — would be a really good thing for China in order to really develop a wide range of audiences and tastes to broaden the base for this medium that is under transformation.
But personally, for my own interests, I think it not only be documentary filmmaking, and also this kind of experimental filmmaking that actually blurs the fiction and the documentary; in other words, it also questions the documentary form itself. It is not just simply a clear mirror for reflecting society, but it also interrogates its own ontology and social function. To me, those kind of experimentations, philosophically and critically, are very important indeed because they comment on not only the future of filmmaking in China, but also in the world as a whole.
Popcorn Youth: Has the number of Chinese documentaries significantly increased since the beginning of the 21st century?
Zhen Zhang: Oh, yes. In the early 90s, it was a very small group of people experimenting with 16mm film. Early documentaries were still made in 16mm, and then they used video, but it was very bulky equipment. But toward sthe end of decade, towards the 21st century, this portable, personal equipment became all the rage. And China was also changing, and the living standard was rising, so more people could actually afford this equipment. And we have emerging a new urban middle class, and they joined the rank of filmmakers without any prior training! (Laughs) The films are coming from amateurs, so to speak. And that is something that I am very interested in, that is, how the amateurs are reclaiming cinema and changing ownership of the cinema. Making it “democratic” is too optimistic of a word, but maybe … more open of a medium.
Popcorn Youth: How would you characterize the relationship between Chinese filmmakers and Hollywood cinema?
Zhen Zhang: Again, it varies; they are very different. With Zhang Yimou and the more successful filmmakers, they are more concerned with competing with Hollywood; they are concerned with coming up with similar fims, big budget productions and getting awards, even getting their films released in America. It is a competitive Capitalist kind of ethos and also a Nationalist kind of ethos underlying their ambition. But other filmmakers watch, but they also like to enjoy Hollywood films as well. But they also try to analyze them and borrow from them selectively, just as the filmmakers back in Shanghai did in the 30s and 40s — trying to create a sort of cinema that really speaks to local experiences and particular social kind of experiences. So it’s a constant negotiation. I don’t think they reject Hollywood in total. I think it’s a very ambivalent thing and I think Hollywood has been changing as well. Economically, of course, they perceive it as a major threat.
Popcorn Youth: In terms of distribution and access, how easy is it for a Chinese audience to watch Hollywood films?
Zhen Zhang: The State has a quota every year for what it can allow in every year. Thankfully, there is still some control over the number of Hollywood commercial films that are imported and released in theaters in China. There is still some space for local films to be released in Chinese theaters, but beyond these major 35mm projection film theaters, a lot of Hollywood films both old and new are available in the large DVD market, both underground and official. So it is unlimited, you could say. (Laughs) Which is, in a way, interesting for the young filmmakers because they have learned some of their craft through this “parallel cinema,” this cheap market is a textbook for them. Of course, they perceive the danger because the imports just increase over the years, and resources are narrowing down for them, so they have to be all the more creative in finding support.
Luckily, there is increasing support for them, with changing social and economic structures and the loosening of censorship codes and so on, so there are actually maybe hundreds of small private initiatives or ventures involved in filmmaking. These days, you don’t have to get approval for the entire script before you can go ahead and shoot the film, all you need to do is get a synopsis more or less approved, and then you go ahead and amass the money you need to make the film. Ultimately, of course, the film has to be approved if you want it to be released commercially in China. It’s a constant struggle for them, as you can imagine.
Popcorn Youth: Is it possible to theorize about the next few years, how you see this movement of independent filmmaking ending up?
Zhen Zhang: Yes, it’s always very hard to do that. I’m more of a historian (laughs), and I look at the past, instead of predicting the future. But, of course, in looking at the past, I try to learn something about the present and future. And my sense is that it would be a coexistence of parallel forms, both big and small, both official and semi-official and non-official, and this is not a bad thing.
There will of course be more competition, but there will also be more varieties, more ways of experimenting with cinema. There will still be certain setbacks, as you hear from time to time. There are certain young filmmakers that have been recently banned again. I think it was Luo Ye, who made “Suzhou River,” and he sent his film “Summer Palace” to Cannes, and as a result, he got censored for three or five years from making films in China, but of course, critics love that kind of story. (Laughs) He will probably not be able to make a film for a while, but probably not for three or five years straight. He will probably find some way to work on his things. And that’s the peculiar nature with the Chinese political and cultural system — he will survive and even thrive. That’s just one example.
A more open-ended and positive area will actually be documentary filmmaking, especially the amateur brand. People are making films not just simply for theatrical release, or not just simply for television — they are making them because they just want to express themselves, and tell their neighbors and friends and families. They can circulate these films among themselves privately or also publicly, and they have been screened at many cinema clubs and semi-official or commercial venues that make it possible for the public viewing of these small films. These are even followed by a public discussion. This will change China’s filmmaking and culture, I think significantly. Because it’s no longer along the lines of the state vis-a-vis the “maverick individual artist.” (Laughs) It’s really about the transient nature of the medium and it’s a more open kind of application. So it’s kind of optimistic, really.
At the same time we are getting more public spaces, rather than just be restricted to theater viewings. So there will be this kind of change. And there will be multiplexes built, and digital projections, and all of those things that happen to other parts of the world, developed or developing places, are happening to China at an even faster speed! It’s almost a laboratory of globalization, if you like. (Laughs) I am curious to see what happens.
Zhen Zhang will introduce the screening of “Floating Life” tonight, Friday, March 9, at 7:15 in the Willard Straight Theatre. For more information, visit the Cornell Cinema website.