Chinese Indie Films across the Century and Metamorphic
Micro Cinema
School of Journalism, Fudan University
Instructor: Yong Liu, Lecturer
Office: Room 423, Office BLDG
Phone: 8621-55664681, 86-13916198152
Email: yongliu@fudan.edu.cn
Class time:
Office hours:
Course Description
This course will systematically introduce contemporary Chinese independent
filmmaking from around the start of the 1990s, its 10-year “underground” status since
then, and another 10 years of market-struggling status quo in China. The final bloc of
the course will be focused on the emerging Chinese Micro Cinema mainly distributed
through online, which is the transforming and evolving morph in the digitization era of
its passing predecessor—Chinese Indie Films. In class, through analyzing and
discussing clips of important representative works by Chinese independent
filmmakers in different periods of time, students will have a chance to delve into these
renown films and more importantly take a close look at the cultural, economic, and
political transformations in Chinese society over the last two decades (1990s and
2000s). Also, by reviewing the currently popularizing representative works of Chinese
Micro Cinema and comparing it with a prostrating predecessor, alongside the required
textbook and articles, this course will shed some light on Chinese popular culture and
ethos evolvement over the past 20 years. This will enable students a profound insight
into the trajectory of this evolvement in the context of over 30 years of Chinese
economic reform and nearly a decade of rapid development. Also, students will divide
into groups and each group of 4-5 members will making a 15 minute digital micro
cinema (short film) as the final term project.
Course Evaluation
Class participation is required for every student. All the students must finish the
required readings and film viewings for each week before class and bring questions
from the specific readings and films to class. Student contribution to class discussions
is completely encouraged and considered for their final grades. Alongside class
presence (10%) and discussion participation (15%), grading will be mainly based on
mid-term personal papers (30%) and final group-produced micro cinema projects
(45%).
Assignments
The mid-term personal paper requires about 2000 words, analyzing a chosen
Chinese indie filmmaker, his/her representative works and manifested aesthetics,
comparisons between different filmmakers’ artistic styles, or a cinematic phenomenon
reflecting China’s cultural and social changes over the decades, etc. For the
group-produced term project, detailed requirements of this final assignment will be
handed out in the early stage of the semester.
Readings

Required textbook: Zhang Zhen (ed.), The Urban Generation: Chinese

Cinema and Society at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century. Durham and
London: Duke University Press, 2007.
Recommended reading: William A. Hachten and James F. Scotton (eds.),
New Media for a New China. Wiley-Blackwell, (1st edition) March 16, 2010.
Lecture & Readings Outline
Bloc 1 (two sections): Sixth Generation Filmmakers and the beginning of
Chinese Independent filmmaking.
Week 1 (February 29, 2012)
Topic: The Sixth Generation’s debut and the first Chinese indie film work, Mom (Dir.
Zhang Yuan, 80min, 1990). Social, economic and political context and aesthetic
influences on the Sixth Generation’s creative choices.
Screen: Beijing Bastards (Dir. Zhang Yuan, 88min, 1992), clips of Wang Xiaoshuai’s
The Days (80 min, 1993) and Frozen (95 min, shot in 1994 and released in 1997)
Readings:
1. Berenice Reynaud. “Zhuang Yuan’s Imaginary Cities and Theatricalization
of the Chinese ‘Bastards’”. Zhang Zhen (ed.), The Urban Generation:
Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century.
Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2007. pp 264-294.
2. Yingjin Zhang. “Rebel without a Cause? China’s New Urban Generation
and Post-socialist Filmmaking”. Zhang Zhen (ed.), The Urban Generation:
Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century.
Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2007. pp 49-80.
Week 2 (March 6, 2012)
Topic: Chinese Indie filmmaking gains momentum while more Sixth Generation
filmmakers emerge. Why are they called the Sixth Generation? What are the common
characteristics of these filmmakers’ works and the differences between their films and
Fifth Generation Directors’ works?
Screen: In the Heat of the Sun (Dir. Jiang Wen, 134 min, 1994), clips of Weekend
Lover (Dir. Lou Ye, 96min, 1995), A Beautiful New World (Dir. Shi Runjiu, 97min,
1998); Spicy Love Soup (109min, 1997) or Shower (92min, 1999), both dir. by Zhang
Yang.
Readings:
1. Linda Chiu-Han Lai. “Whither the Walker Goes: Spatial Practices and Negative
Poetics in 1990s Chinese Urban Cinema”. Zhang Zhen (ed.), The Urban
Generation: Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of the Twenty-First
Century. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2007. pp 205-240.
2. Augusta Palmer. “Scaling the Skyscraper: Images of Cosmopolitan
Consumption in Street Angle (1937) and Beautiful New World (1998)”. Zhang
Zhen (ed.), The Urban Generation: Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of
the Twenty-First Century. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2007.
pp 181-204.
Bloc 2 (two sections): Chinese indie filmmakers turn underground while
government regulations strengthen.
Week 3 (March 13, 2012):
Topic: The social and political context in late 1990s China, how the Sixth Generation
Directors keep making films, and their underground status.
Screen: Xiao Wu (also titled The Pickpocket, 105min, 1997), clips of Jia Zhangke’s
films: Platform (2001) and Unknown Pleasures (2002).
Readings:
2
1. Jason McGrath. “The Independent Cinema of Jia Zhangke: From Postsocialist
Realism to Transnational Aesthetic”. Zhang Zhen (ed.), The Urban Generation:
Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century. Durham
and London: Duke University Press, 2007. pp 81-114.
Week 4 (March 20, 2012)
Topic: Popular culture and ethos in late 1990s China and Chinese Underground
Indies get acclaimed at European film festivals.
Screen: Suzhou River (Dir. Lou Ye, 83min, 2000). Clips of Lou Ye’s film: Purple
Butterfly (2003).
Readings:
1. Sheldon H. Lu. “Tear down the City: Reconstructing Urban Space in
Contemporary Chinese Popular Cinema and Avart-Garde Art”. Zhang Zhen
(ed.), The Urban Generation: Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of the
Twenty-First Century. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2007. pp
137-160.
Bloc 3 (two sections): New challenge for Chinese cinema in the new century: an
industry vs. independents.
Week 5 (March 27, 2012)
Topic: Loosened-up censorship means harder survival for Chinese Indie filmmakers:
Chinese social and economic transformation during the first decade of the 21st
century.
Screen: Jia Zhangke’s Venice Film Festival awarded film, Still Life (108min, 2006),
clips of Ning Hao’s Mongolian Ping Pong (102min, 2004).
Readings:
1. Yong Liu. “New Challenge for Chinese Cinema in New Century: an Industry vs.
Independents” Chapter12 in Scotton, James and Hachten, William (eds.), New
Media for a New China. Wiley-Blackwell, March 2010. pp 165-183.
Week 6 (April 11, 2012):
Topic: Female Indie filmmakers in China.
Screen: A Letter from an Unknown Woman (Dir. Xu Jinglei, 90 min, 2004), won Best
Director Award from San Sebastián International Film Festival, clips of Ning Ying’s On
the Beat (105min, 1995), Perpetual Motion (90 min, 2005).
Readings:
2. Shuqin, Cui. “Ning Ying’s Beijing Trilogy: Cinematic Configurations of Age,
Class and Sexuality”. Zhang Zhen (ed.), The Urban Generation: Chinese
Cinema and Society at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century. Durham and
London: Duke University Press, 2007. pp 241-263.
Bloc 4 (two sections): Chinese Indie films’ metamorphic form in the Digitization
Era: Micro Cinema
Week 7 (April 18, 2012):
Topic: Nostalgia amidst the Consumerizing Show Culture and Online Popular
Culture.
Screen: Chopsticks Brothers’ Old Boy (43 min, 2010) and Father (28 min, 2011)
Readings:
1. James Scotton. “The Impact of New Media”, Chapter 3 in Scotton, James and
Hachten, William (eds.), New Media for a New China. Wiley-Blackwell, March
2010.
Week 8 (April 25, 2012):
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Topic: Diversity and Deviant of online trans-media narratives in the Digitization Era.
Screen: Nono Jin’s Let You Know Shanghai in Ten Minutes (10 min, 2011) and Jiao
Yang’s The Gao Chao Redemption (10 min, 2011).
Readings:
1. Glorianna Davenport. When Place Becomes Character: a critical framing of
place for mobile and situated narratives.
http://mf.media.mit.edu/pubs/other/CharacterPlace.pdf (accessed on Feb
2012)
Bloc 5 (5 sections): Learn how to applying digital media tools for narrative
experiment.
Week 9 (May 9, 2012): PERSONAL MID-TERM PAPER DUE.
Content: Learn how to use digital cameras and editing equipments in Apple computer
lab.
Reading: to be decided.
Week 10: Out-of-town field trip.
Week 11-14 (May 23, 2012 to June 13, 2012): Digital Micro Cinema Practice
Situated in Shanghai.
Content: Students divide into groups, 4 or 5 members form one crew, employing
Sony EX-3s or Panasonics DV cameras and Apple Final Cut Pro nonlinear editing
equipments provided by Fudan J-school, shoot and edit a 15 minute-long digital micro
cinema.
Bloc 6 (2 Sections): Rough cut screening and class wrap-up.
Week 15 (June 20, 2012): MICRO CINEMA’S ROUGH CUT DUE AND CLASS
SCREENING.
Topic: Each crew’s rough cut version of micro cinema will be screening in class and
each crew will get comments and feedback from fellow students and course instructor;
then crews will revise their works based on above suggestions.
Week 16 (June 27, 2012): FINAL VERSION DUE & HAND IN ON DVD.
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