Challenges to Film-as-Ethnography in Chinese Cinema

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SAVAGE 1 John Savage Professor Lim Song Hwee CULS5204B Cultural Studies in Film and Video 8 December 2014 Challenges to Film-as-Ethnography in Chinese Cinema 1. Introduction In Primitive Passions, Film as Ethnography, Rey Chow calls for the “radical deprofessionalisation of anthropology and ethnography as ‘intellectual disciplines’.” 1 Writing from a postcolonial, anti-orientalist standpoint, Chow asserts that a “new ethnography is possible only when we turn our attention to the subjective origins of ethnography as it is practiced by those who were previously ethnographized and who have, in the postcolonial age, taken up the active task of ethnographizing their own cultures.” 2 While her call for deprofessionalisation is indeed radical, Chow demonstrates the validity of her assertions meticulously in the chapter. By looking at two films by what is often deemed as “Chinese” directors, this essay looks to assess the possibilities of her proposed method of a new- ethnography. If we see the ultimate goal of a new-ethnography as to provide an accurate depiction of a culture free from the biases of an outsider, then the focus of depiction still remains as accuracy even if choosing to disregard the abstract notions of what it means to be an “outsider”. 3 While Chow absolves the Chinese Director Zhang Yimou from his critics by her claim of their “prioritisation (of) some ‘original essence’ of Chinese culture, it is undeniable that the imagery in films such as Hero (2002) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) are 1 Chow, Rey. Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary Chinese Cinema. New York: Columbia UP, 1995. 181. Print. 2 Ibid. 180 3 "New Ethnography, Sociology Guide." New Ethnography, Sociology Guide. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://www.sociologyguide.com/anthropology/New-Ethnography.php>.

Transcript of Challenges to Film-as-Ethnography in Chinese Cinema

SAVAGE 1

John Savage

Professor Lim Song Hwee

CULS5204B – Cultural Studies in Film and Video

8 December 2014

Challenges to Film-as-Ethnography in Chinese Cinema

1. Introduction

In Primitive Passions, Film as Ethnography, Rey Chow calls for the “radical

deprofessionalisation of anthropology and ethnography as ‘intellectual disciplines’.”1 Writing

from a postcolonial, anti-orientalist standpoint, Chow asserts that a “new ethnography is

possible only when we turn our attention to the subjective origins of ethnography as it is

practiced by those who were previously ethnographized and who have, in the postcolonial

age, taken up the active task of ethnographizing their own cultures.”2 While her call for

deprofessionalisation is indeed radical, Chow demonstrates the validity of her assertions

meticulously in the chapter. By looking at two films by what is often deemed as “Chinese”

directors, this essay looks to assess the possibilities of her proposed method of a new-

ethnography.

If we see the ultimate goal of a new-ethnography as to provide an accurate depiction

of a culture free from the biases of an outsider, then the focus of depiction still remains as

accuracy even if choosing to disregard the abstract notions of what it means to be an

“outsider”.3 While Chow absolves the Chinese Director Zhang Yimou from his critics by her

claim of their “prioritisation (of) some ‘original essence’ of Chinese culture, it is undeniable

that the imagery in films such as Hero (2002) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) are 1 Chow, Rey. Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary Chinese Cinema. New

York: Columbia UP, 1995. 181. Print. 2 Ibid. 180

3 "New Ethnography, Sociology Guide." New Ethnography, Sociology Guide. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.

<http://www.sociologyguide.com/anthropology/New-Ethnography.php>.

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highly exaggerated and exoticised as compared to his earlier works such as Red Sorghum

(1987).4 Red Sorghum, aside from being Zhang’s directorial debut, also put him on the

international stage, winning him the Golden Bear at the 1988 Berlin International Film

Festival.5 Yet even Red Sorghum, set in the idyllic pre-occupied countryside of China and

without the bells and whistles of shining armour and fancy swordplay had struck white

audiences as “exotic”. In the words of a film reviewer from the New York Times, “(Red

Sorghum) is a handsomely produced, finally lugubrious piece of exotica…”6

Therefore, if Zhang’s films have indeed been about the production of images of the

exotic and interested in pandering to foreign devils, then Zhang has been doing it from the

very start. The significance of the visual image in these films is inescapable; or as Roger

Ebert writes, with regard to Hero, “(Zhang) once again creates a visual poem of extraordinary

beauty.”7 And prior to that, “The cinematography in "Red Sorghum" has no desire to be

subtle, or muted; it wants to splash its passionate colors all over the screen with abandon, and

the sheer visual impact of the film is voluptuous.”8 Although I am tempted at this juncture to

further elucidate on the concepts of “outsider” and “original essence”, I will first discuss Rey

Chow’s case on why the focus on visuality may be the first step in developing a new-

ethnography through an analysis of select scenes from Red Sorghum.

2. Visuality

4 Chow 176

5 "Prizes & Honours 1988." | Berlinale. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.

<http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1988/03_preistr_ger_1988/03_Preistraeger_1988.html>. 6 Canby, Vincent. "Red Sorghum (1987) Film Festival; Social Realist Fable of 1930's China." The New York Times.

The New York Times, 9 Oct. 1988. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940DE6DC1F30F93AA35753C1A96E948260>. 7 Ebert, Roger. "Hero Movie Review & Film Summary (2004)." All Content. 26 Aug. 2004. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.

8 Ebert, Roger. "Red Sorghum Movie Review & Film Summary (1989)." Roger Ebert. 28 Feb. 1989. Web. 7 Dec.

2014.

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Of all the colours one is exposed to in a viewing of Red Sorghum, one colour stands

out – Red. In fact, red is a more prominent feature in the film then the entirety of Taylor

Swift’s last world tour. When we are first introduced to Jiu’Er, portrayed by a youthful Gong

Li, she is garbed in a traditional red wedding dress, carried in red sedan through a landscape

of red earth. Although we are given a brief respite from the red onslaught for a moment as the

carriage goes through the green sorghum fields, which incidentally ferment to become the red

coloured Hong Gao Liang wine, by the end of the film these sorghum fields will become red

as well. As well as the sky, as well as anything else as far as the eyes of Jiu’Er’s son can see.

Yet, the red our eyes perceive is merely the representation of the red our mind sees within the

non-visual contents of the film - it is a piece of Socialist Realist cinema, although claims of

realism in any socialist work are often highly debatable.9

Yet the definitive excellence of the film lies in its ability to convey its underlying

theme through its visual imagery alone, that the inevitable future of China would be red. In

this sense, Jiu’Er is less of a character than she is an embodiment of Maoist ideals, the very

words she spouts come seemingly straight out of the Little Red Book.10

The visual imagery

serves to reemphasise the “goodness” of red and its inevitability. In the scene where Jiu’Er

first sees the fruits of their combined labour, the wine that emerges from the distillery is red

(see fig. 1). If the redness of this wine is particularly significant, it is in its incorruptibility. In

the scenes that follow, the narrator’s grandfather, portrayed by Jiang Wen, urinates into the

vat of wine (see fig.2). Yet instead of becoming putrid, the wine is later deemed as a success

due to the addition of this catalyst which intended to be corrupting.

9 Canby

10 A poorly articulated article offering perspectives form within China. "“Red Sorghum”: The Transformation of

Chinese Society Reflected in Film." “Red Sorghum”: The Transformation of Chinese Society Reflected in Film--Electronic Lesson Plans--The Film and The Life in China after 1949. Shaanxi Normal University. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://jpkc.snnu.edu.cn/en/ShowArticle.asp?ID=6>.

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Fig. 1 The wine is a deep red colour. From Red Sorghum. Perf. Gong Li,

Jiang Wen. Xi'an Film Studio, 1988. Film.

Fig. 2 The narrator’s grandfather urinates into a vat of wine. From Red

Sorghum. Perf. Gong Li, Jiang Wen. Xi'an Film Studio, 1988. Film.

When the film takes a turn from the idyllic peasant life to the horrors of war, we are

provided with the scene of the peasants crushing the sorghum fields, crushing the plants from

which the “good” wine originates from. If the film’s visuals have a comment to make on the

Japanese invasion, it is that it was but a mere encumbrance to the inevitable redness. When a

trap is set in order to exact vengeance for the perpetrated atrocities, the clash between the

Japanese troops and the winery workers cover the sorghum fields in blood. As a child cries in

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a pit of the red earth of the battle grounds (see fig. 3), an eclipse paints the sky red in unison

with the horrors that had occurred on the ground.

Fig. 3 The crying son of Jiu’Er stands in a pit of red earth. From

Red Sorghum. Perf. Gong Li, Jiang Wen. Xi'an Film Studio, 1988.

Film.

Although it is possible to comment more on the use of colour in the films, one has

every right to be cautious in dissecting the thematic implications of mise en scene derived

from technology. An example from the Japanese film industries of the 1930s justifies this. In

Aesthetics of Shadow, Daisuke Miyao makes the case that Japanese filmmakers in the 1930s

had sought to emulate the visual styles of Hollywood lighting, but faced with a severe

shortage of the necessary equipment, as such, the much sought after Paramount Tone was an

unobtainable.11

In making do with the best they had, Japanese films of the early 1930s were

defined by the Shochiku’s Kamata Tone, before an increased focus on contrasty tones led to

the birth of what would be later on labelled as a Japanese Aesthetics of Shadow.12

The

aesthetics of shadow, which did not stem from a traditional Japanese aesthetic notion, can be

construed as a development arising from technical limitations.13

It is also these similar

11

Miyao, Daisuke. The Aesthetics of Shadow: Lighting and Japanese Cinema. Durham and London: Duke UP, 2013. 27. Print. 12

Ibid. 201 13

Ibid. 200

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technological limitations which lead one to question if the completed product, the film, is in

complete accordance with the expectations of the film’s maker?

In the same review of Red Sorghum mentioned earlier, Ebert points out that the film

was shot on Technicolor equipment which was sold to China when Hollywood switched over

to cheaper and faster forms of film production.14

Technicolor equipment which he describes

as making some of the best colour films in the world. In this regard, if the cinematography in

Red Sorghum “has no desire to be subtle or muted” was this merely a result of technical

limitations imposed on the filmmaker?

Japanese film history has yet another point to make on the current state of Chinese

filmmaking. The bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941 left Japanese filmmakers with an urgent

need to resolve the contradiction of portraying nationalistic themes with western aesthetics.

With the increasingly rigid imposition of censorship laws on filmmakers, a novel written by

Tanizaki in 1933, In Praise of Shadows, became a handy way of solidifying the aesthetics of

shadow as a concept distinctively Japanese.15

However, what is of greater concern here is the

imposition of censorship measures itself. Japanese films of that period were strongly curtailed

by legislation and were as such reiterations of the same few key themes.16

It is in this context

of censorship that the film of Zhang Yimou was made – shortly after the Cultural Revolution

(10 years). It is only logical that a reiteration of similar themes, amounting from censorship,

still projects only one half of a culture – the half which authorities deem fit for presentation.

Since the history of visuality in film was plagued by technological handicaps then,

and is still plagued by the issue of censorship now, at which point should the focus on

14

Ebert, Roger. "Red Sorghum Movie Review & Film Summary (1989)." Roger Ebert. 28 Feb. 1989. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. 15

Miyao 209 & 214 16

Miyao 197

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visuality begin? Furthermore, what would it make of cultures who aren’t equipped with the

tools to be a part of this modern visual culture?

3. Translating a Culture into Film

If “China” is indeed, as Rey Chow suggests, a “sum total of the history and culture of

a people”, then the process of translating a culture into film would be the transmission of

such a content; in which some of this content would be the same “original essence”

prioritised by critics of Zhang.17

Yet, as I have argued earlier, strong regulation and

censorship policies in China would inevitably curtail the transmission of the myriad of

themes which would constitute to the “sum total of the history and culture of a people.”

If a new-ethnography is only possible by looking at the subjective origins of self-

ethnography, then who exactly would be these self-ethnographers we should be looking to in

the case of ethnographizing China? Would the works of Mainland Chinese filmmakers be

freer of this “outsider bias” when compared to a China-born director who has spent most of

his life abroad?18

How then should we approach the works of individuals who were born and

raised abroad, but yet identify themselves as “Chinese”?19

What then of works from

marginalised communities in the People’s Republic of China who refuse the ethnic label of

Chineseness?20

Yet despite these issues, I would agree with the sentiment put forth by Johannes

Fabian, and shared by Rey Chow, with regard to the covealness of cultures.2122

Chow argues

the case of how modern media can serve to function as a loci of cultural transmission,

17

Chow 184 18

Here the two directors I have in mind are Zhang Yimou and John Woo 19

Here I am referring to Tsui Hark 20

Tibet is often considered a distinct cultural entity from China. See, Van Pragg, Walt, and Michael Van. "The Legal Status of Tibet." Cultural Survival. 1 Jan. 1988. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/the-legal-status-tibet>. 21

Fabian, Johannes. Time and the Other. Columbia UP, 1983. Print. 22

Chow 194

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allowing for what was regarded as the “primitive” to be recognised as a contemporary. In fact,

what this loci of translation is, is the removal of “in-betweeness” between the colonialist self

and the colonised other that Homi Bhaba recognises as what constitutes the figure of colonial

otherness.23

It is through the will of the god from the machine, that Chow Yung Fat can once again

join us in A Better Tomorrow 2 (1987, John Woo). After his death as Mark in the first movie,

we are revealed to the existence of his twin, Ken, working as a chef in New York City in the

introductory portion of the second film. In Chow’s first appearance in A Better Tomorrow 2,

we are immediately presented with an East and West conflict. Local Caucasian mobsters have

caused a ruckus in the restaurant, and we are presented with a “table talk” scenario, typical of

mob films, where terms are discussed. As the Caucasian mobster sits on one end of the table,

Ken sits at the other end. The visual of the scene is charged with tension as flips between East

confronting West, the table between them representative of the cultural distance between two

parties (See fig.4 & fig. 5). Tension mounts as Ken refuses to give in to the demands of the

mobster and mocks him with a quarter he has in his pocket– the awkward dubbing of Chow

“speaking” in English contributes to the effect of this mockery through the subversion of a

western language, and culminates in the mobster flipping the plate of fried rice in front of

him all over the place.24

The scene then explodes, metaphorically speaking.

23

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994. Print. 24

Driesen, C.V. "When Language Dances: The Subversive Poer of Roy’s Text in The God of Small Things.”." Arundhati Roy: The Novelist Extraordinary. New Delhi: Prestige, 1999. 365-376. Print.

SAVAGE 9

Fig. 4 Ken stares down the Caucasian mobster. From A Better

Tomorrow 2. Perf. Chow Yung Fat, Leslie Cheung, Dean Shek, Ti

Lung. 2001. DVD.

Fig. 5 The Caucasian mobster sets out his demands. From A Better

Tomorrow 2. Perf. Chow Yung Fat, Leslie Cheung, Dean Shek, Ti

Lung. 2001. DVD.

If we think of the distances between the two individuals as representative of a cultural

divide, then the scene that follows would be the rapid removal of this divide. As Ken picks up

the scattered grains of rice, he launches into a soliloquy on the importance of rice to his

culture where he describes rice to be like his “mother and father.” The scene would

undoubtedly resonate strongly with Asian audiences, who too recognise the importance of

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rice as a part of their cultures.25

Here, Ken is the new-age wuxia hero, who in his wanderings

has found himself in a land devoid of the ethics of jianghu. Yet, it is also in this world that

Ken chooses to stay, while holding on to his notion of a cultural identity. When Ken finally

points the gun at the mobster and tells him “sek le hum gar chan”, we can read the scene as

the bridging of a cultural divide; in part through the knowledge delivered in Ken’s soliloquy,

and in part facilitated by a gun (See fig. 6). Even without a translation of the phrase, any

audience would know that Ken is adamant in wanting the mobster to eat the rice, the visuals

of the scene say it clearly enough. If Ken here is the new-age wuxia hero, then the enemy

here is the cultural ignorance of the West.

Fig. 6. The cultural divide is bridged. From A Better Tomorrow 2.

Perf. Chow Yung Fat, Leslie Cheung, Dean Shek, Ti Lung. 2001.

DVD.

Yet despite the setting of the majority of the movie in America and the sheer

quantities of Caucasians killed, the film is not set to undermine a notion of the West. For at

least two individuals in the movie, the West exists as a place of salvation where one can

escape the past. However, in A Better Tomorrow 2, it is not the journey to the West which is

25

Li, Jinhui. "Rice Culture of China." China.org. 2 Oct. 2002. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://www.china.org.cn/english/2002/Oct/44854.htm>.

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fraught with dangers, but rather being in the West itself.26

In the film, Lung Sing, played by

Dean Shek, escapes to New York after being framed for a murder. In New York, he meets up

with an old friend who has turned away from his past life of crime and is now a priest. After

working in the garden, the friends wash their hands, as the priest mentions about his forearm

tattoos and how they have scared some parishioners away. The washing of hands is always

symbolic and always carries numerous undertones; for example, when one washes one’s

hands of something. In this instance, while the priest can wash his hands of his past ways of

living, he is unable to eliminate his past per se; his past being represented by the tattoos

which remain on his forearms (see fig. 7). It seems almost inevitable that he is killed by this

past when he dies in a violent gunfight while trying to aide in Lung Sing’s escape from

assassins dispatched by his subordinate.

Fig. 7 The priest washes his hands. From A Better Tomorrow 2. Perf.

Chow Yung Fat, Leslie Cheung, Dean Shek, Ti Lung. 2001. DVD.

The culmination of personal tragedies leaves Lung Sing struggling for his sanity as he

remains pursued by a seemingly endless supply of hired guns. Now under the care of Ken, he

is brought to a dilapidated hotel, after the drive-by shooting of his earlier place of domicile.

26

I am referring to the Chinese fable “Journey to the West” where the holy monk Tripitaka faces numerous perils in his journey to collect the holy scriptures.

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As Ken grows increasingly frustrated with Lung Sing’s state, Ken delivers yet another

soliloquy on the futility of self-pity and dwelling in the past as he loads guns in preparation

for the impending gunfight. As the attackers charge into the building, Ken shouts “FUCK

YOU!” as he unloads a round from his shotgun into the first attacker (see fig. 8). If indeed the

goal of translation is to be seen as transmission, or as Rey Chow asserts, the light going

through an arcade, the “light” in this scene would surely be the visuals which accompany the

speech, for one would be hard-pressed to find a cuss word in any other language that did not

fit in this scenario.27

Fig. 8 Ken unloads a round into an assassin. From A Better

Tomorrow 2. Perf. Chow Yung Fat, Leslie Cheung, Dean Shek, Ti

Lung. 2001. DVD.

In the context of the plot, the Caucasian aggressors in this scene are no longer the

symbols of an oppressive West, but rather the oppressive past. When Ken is shot in the events

that unfold, Lung Sing immediately re-gathers his wits. Lung Sing’s reawakening is more

than the awareness of his friend being shot, it is also about the realisation that the symbol of

hope for the future (Ken) is about to be gunned down by agents of the past. If one's identity is

written in the past, then one must kill that past for the possibility of a future. John Woo

27

Chow 198-201

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delivers on this hope for a desired future when Ken and Lung Sing return to Hong Kong to

team up with Ti Leung to kill everyone associated with this undesired past.

In Looking at A Better Tomorrow 2 from a cultural and identity-making perspective,

one can see why the English title of the film is just as apt, even though the original Chinese

title Ying Xiong Ben Se translates better as “Traits of a Hero”. Even though a film in which

Chow Yung Fat kills 76 people with an unlimited supply of bullets in the course of an hour

and forty minutes may seem an unlikely resource for a deeper understanding of culture, John

Woo has in fact presented the dilemma of numerous diasporic Chinese – the persistence of an

undesired past identity which haunts the future.

4. Subjective Origins

If Chow’s text, Film as Ethnography, can be summarised in short, it is that the works

of filmmakers offer personal introspectives into the cultural background of their countries,

which through the mediation of mass media, may serve the purpose of a new ethnography.28

If it is true, in Chow’s own words, that “It is in translation’s faithlessness that “China”

survives and thrives,” then all that this new-ethnography would achieve is to perpetuate the

“violent active force to which culture’s members continue to be subjugated.”29

I find this

problematic, even if not so for all cultures, still especially so for China. If I did not make it

explicit in addressing the difficulties of isolating “Chinese” filmmakers – Fuck Chineseness;

Allen Chun provides an adequate elaboration to the stance which I take.30

The word

“Chinese” is dead insofar as it exists only as a politicised notion of return, unification, and a

representation of a cultural hegemony commencing from the 1949 social revolution. Herein

lays the key problem with regard to the subjective origins of self-ethnography. The focus on 28

Chow 176-202 29

Ibid. 198 30

Chun, Allen. "Fuck Chineseness: On the Ambiguities of Ethnicity as Culture as Identity." Boundary 2 23.2 (1996): 111-38. JSTOR. Duke University Press. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/303809?uid=3738176&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21105400224353>.

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“origins”, or more explicitly “Chinese” in this case, may demolish the West’s long held

prejudicial views of the East, but would re-establish in its place an inherent cultural tyranny.31

Yet the concept of “Chineseness” remains a strongly clung-to notion amongst

numerous individuals and communities in what has been come to be known as the Sinophone

World. If this notion of “Chineseness” does not lie in the origin, where then may it be found?

I would propose that the concept of an “origin” necessitates journeys, and therefore implicitly

proposes destinations.

Gayatri Spivak, writing on hegemonic structures as spaces one cannot want to inhabit

but which one tries to change is contextualised well for use in this scenario by Xiaodong Liu.

Liu writes, “For the post-colonial, culture is an indispensable element of a desired future, and

it is also an embarrassed sign of one’s former and later colonisation.”32

I would therefore

assert that this future is the destination in which the cultures of displaced others may be found.

A culture which is maintained only by individuals and communities who should choose to

desire it as a part of their future. Because it is only in the future where there can be truly no

need for sympathy, no need for regrets, and a solid “Fuck You!” can be said to agents of

cultural hegemonies in whatever form they may take.

Based on the issues presented, I find it difficult to believe in the subjective origin of

self-ethnography. I would however propose that a new-ethnography might perhaps be

reached by turning our attention to the desired futures of self-ethnographers instead.

31

Mullaney, Thomas S. "Seeing for the State: The Role of Social Scientists in China's Ethnic Classification Project." Asian Ethnicity 11.3 (2010): 325-42. Taylor & Francis. Routledge. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14631369.2010.510874#.VITRtzGUdqU>. 32

Liu, Xiaodong. "COLLABORATIVE ORIENTALISM: FROM HOLLYWOOD‘S ―YELLOW PERILS‖ TO ZHANG

YIMOU‘S ―RED TRILOGY‖." Thesis. Graduate College of Bowling Green State University, 2010.

COLLABORATIVE ORIENTALISM: FROM HOLLYWOOD‘S ―YELLOW PERILS‖ TO ZHANG YIMOU‘S ―RED

TRILOGY‖. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <https://etd.ohiolink.edu/ap/0?0:APPLICATION_PROCESS%3DDOWNLOAD_ETD_SUB_DOC_ACCNUM:::F1501_ID:bgsu1269018727%2Cinline>.

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Works Cited

A Better Tomorrow 2. Perf. Chow Yung Fat, Leslie Cheung, Dean Shek, Ti Lung. 2001.

DVD.

Chun, Allen. "Fuck Chineseness: On the Ambiguities of Ethnicity as Culture as Identity."

Boundary 2 23.2 (1996): 111-38. JSTOR. Duke University Press. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.

<http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/303809?uid=3738176&uid=2&uid=4&sid=

21105400224353>.

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994. Print.

Canby, Vincent. "Red Sorghum (1987) Film Festival; Social Realist Fable of 1930's China."

The New York Times. The New York Times, 9 Oct. 1988. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.

<http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940DE6DC1F30F93AA35753C1A96

E948260>.

Chow, Rey. Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary

Chinese Cinema. New York: Columbia UP, 1995. Print.

Driesen, C.V. "When Language Dances: The Subversive Poer of Roy’s Text in The God of

Small Things.”." Arundhati Roy: The Novelist Extraordinary. New Delhi: Prestige,

1999. 365-376. Print.

Ebert, Roger. "Hero Movie Review & Film Summary (2004)." Roger Ebert. 26 Aug. 2004.

Web. 7 Dec. 2014.

Ebert, Roger. "Red Sorghum Movie Review & Film Summary (1989)." Roger Ebert. 28 Feb.

1989. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.

Fabian, Johannes. Time and the Other. Columbia UP, 1983. Print.

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Miyao, Daisuke. The Aesthetics of Shadow: Lighting and Japanese Cinema. Durham and

London: Duke UP, 2013. Print.

Mullaney, Thomas S. "Seeing for the State: The Role of Social Scientists in China's Ethnic

Classification Project." Asian Ethnicity 11.3 (2010): 325-42. Taylor & Francis.

Routledge. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.

<http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14631369.2010.510874#.VITRtzGU

dqU>.

"New Ethnography, Sociology Guide." New Ethnography, Sociology Guide. Web. 7 Dec.

2014. <http://www.sociologyguide.com/anthropology/New-Ethnography.php>.

"Prizes & Honours 1988." | Berlinale. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.

<http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1988/03_preistr_ger_1988/03_Prei

straeger_1988.html>.

Red Sorghum. Perf. Gong Li, Jiang Wen. Xi'an Film Studio, 1988. Film.

"“Red Sorghum”: The Transformation of Chinese Society Reflected in Film." “Red

Sorghum”: The Transformation of Chinese Society Reflected in Film--Electronic

Lesson Plans--The Film and The Life in China after 1949. Shaanxi Normal

University. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://jpkc.snnu.edu.cn/en/ShowArticle.asp?ID=6>.

Van Pragg, Walt, and Michael Van. "The Legal Status of Tibet." Cultural Survival. 1 Jan.

1988. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.

<http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/the-legal-status-tibet>.

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Liu, Xiaodong. "COLLABORATIVE ORIENTALISM: FROM

HOLLYWOOD‘S ―YELLOW PERILS‖ TO ZHANG YIMOU‘S ―RED

TRILOGY‖." Thesis. Graduate College of Bowling Green State University, 2010.

Web. 7 Dec. 2014.

<https://etd.ohiolink.edu/ap/0?0:APPLICATION_PROCESS%3DDOWNLOAD_E

TD_SUB_DOC_ACCNUM:::F1501_ID:bgsu1269018727%2Cinline>.