Table of Content

15 January 2019, Volume 1 Issue 1

  

Constructing Critical Discourse and Adhering to Academic Ethics --The First Film and Television Art Summit Forum and the Film Criticism and Academic Ethics Seminar

2019, 1(1):  4-7. 

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In the context of the new era, the Chinese cinema industry has achieved rapid development. Under the advancement of academic progress and industry development, in response, the theory and criticism of Chinese cinema have emerged in a “new wave”.At this critical moment of the growth of Chinese cinema, film criticism should lead more important value and ideology to provide a value of reference system for the development of Chinese cinema.



Searching for Affirmative Technological Posthumanism: Alex Garland's Ex Machina and Annihilation

N. Katherine Hayles

2019, 1(1):  19-37. 

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A split is emerging within posthumanism between techno-optimists such as transhumanists, who tend to see technology as the cure for all ills, and environmental-animal-studies communities, who often downplay or disregard technology. This essay aspires to find a middle ground that, while deeply cognizant of technologies such as artificial intelligence and life extension, also leaves room for responsible critique and evaluation. The posthuman theories of Cary Wolfe and Rosi Braidotti are juxtaposed with two films by Alex Garland, Ex Machina and Annihilation, which implicitly illustrate why the theories of Wolfe and Braidotti fail to offer resources adequate to a posthuman future. In Ex Machina, the emergence of a conscious artificial being outstrips the boundaries that systems theory (as articulated by Luhmann and applied by Wolfe) attempts to impose on how complexity develops. In Annihilation, an alien presence enters earth’s ecosystems and wreaks havoc with earth’s evolutionary history, “refracting” the DNA of plants, animals and humans and creating impossible hybrids and distorted doubles. The film shows that the boundaries that Braidotti seeks to impose on how far the postman can go are ripped through by the alien presence, suggesting that when a fully posthuman entity emerges, it will not be able to be constrained or contained by human limits.The essay concludes with a list of the attributes that an affirmative posthumanism must have to be up to the challenges humans face in the contemporary era.



Untouchable Trauma: Haptic Cinema as the “Disconnection Thesis” of Posthumanism

2019, 1(1):  38-53. 

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The film philosophy from the second half of the 20th century to the present has undergone three important transformations: psychoanalysis, Deleuze’s vitalism and posthumanism. But in this leading clue, the position of subjectivity is always an unsolved doubt and difficulty. In Deleuze’s theory of affect, the subject is the surface effect generated by the flow of images. When it comes to posthumanism and accelerationism, subjectivity even becomes an outdated position. Therefore, we try to reintroduce phenomenology, which is often neglected. In Sobchack’s case, the mutual belonging and analogy between the human body and the film’s body is the main idea, but it still implies the possibility of rupture. When it comes to Laura Marks, the haptic surface further extends the position of “dying image”, which maintains subjectivity on the edge of rupture. These speculations, which have been gradually forgotten, just enlighten us on how to face the disconnection thesis of posthumanism and reconstruct the real position of subjectivity.

The Android Ethic and Bareness of Life: From Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep to Blade Runner 2049

2019, 1(1):  54-61. 

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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep， Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 have been a series of continuity. Blade Runner was adapted from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which was written by American science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. Blade Runner 2049 can be seen as a sequel to Blade Runner. From the view of these three texts, the ethical image of the android keeps changing. This article attempts to interpret the ethical issues of the android from the perspective of bareness of life. Beyond anthropocentrism, the posthuman ethic would be a new one including the android, as it is in the human sphere, and meanwhile it is a narrative ethics in relation to the future.

The Reform of Cultural System and the Industrialization of Chinese Film

2019, 1(1):  62-70. 

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In the era of creative industry, the reform of Chinese cultural system has stepped into a deep-water period, and the pace of cultural market construction has been accelerated.With the implementation of the support policy and the pulling of the strong market demand, the cultural industry shows great potential space and market tension.As the core of the cultural industry, the film industry shows the increasingly significant impact in the national economic system， cultural soft power and international influence and other aspects.In fact, the road map of Chinese film industrialization reform has always followed the evolution logic of cultural system reform and economic system reform, and witnessed the changes of the film policies and laws and production system.In recent years, the reform of Chinese film system has continuously promoted the upgrading of Chinese film industry and the construction of a powerful country in the film industry, and domestic films have demonstrated the industrial confidence, cultural confidence and aesthetic confidence of the new era. This is precisely the “four self-confidence” proposed by General Secretary Xi in the film field. Key words: Cultural system;Cultural industry;Film policy;Film industry;Movie power



Way Down East, Conservatism, and Early Melodrama Films in China

2019, 1(1):  71-80. 

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This article investigates the distribution and consumption of Way Down East (directed by D. W. Griffith, 1920) in Chinese cities in the 1920s in an attempt to explore the impact of foreign films on early Chinese filmmaking in particular and Chinese society in general. Way Down East highlights a young woman’s trials and tribulations caused by male tyranny and deception. Such melodrama films by D. W. Griffith struck a chord in China in the 1920s, when the concerns of women and the loss of family values after the May Fourth movement found expression in film. Ideologically, the embracing of Way Down East in China, particularly among progressive intellectuals, testifies to an anti-May Fourth conservatism. Chinese intellectuals were inspired by Way Down East to deny Chinese women’s subjectivity as new women who could control their own destinies. Technically, the popularity of D. W. Griffith’s films in China gave rise to the prevalence of cinematic melodrama in 1920s China.



Sinicism Realism and Surrealism: An Appreciation of Still Life, The Gold Lion Award Winning Film

2019, 1(1):  81-88. 

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The Gold Lion Award Winning Film Still Life, reflects humanism solicitude to the inferior society with a realistic approach, which is a consistent theme in Jia Zhangke’s films; meanwhile, this film also adopts a surrealistic way to present itself. The paper analyzes the way the director combines these two seemingly opposite expressing techniques through an in-depth interpretation of film symbols, and analyzes the way the film reflects the events and people of China under great changes. The film is a record of these changes, while also an inquiry of the results of these changes.

From Soozhow Creek to Huangpu River--The Spatial Representation and Cultural Imagination of Urban Images in Shanghai

2019, 1(1):  89-96. 

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Soozhow Creek and Huangpu River is the geographical boundaries of urban space, which plays an important role of depicting the image of Shanghai; it also carries the cultural life and human emotions of this metropolis. The visual expression of Soozhow Creek and Huangpu River in Chinese movies always cross history and reach present, and has become vital symbol of shanghai cultural imagination. Soozhow Creek and Huangpu River in Chinese movies were constantly dismantled and reconstructed. In response to the historical legend, while paying attention to the reality and focusing on the future, they show us a multi-faceted and rich modern Shanghai.