On the Margins of Realism

<p>Realism has been endowed with a certain orthodox status as the aesthetic counterpart of China’s modernization and studies of Chinese film history have largely accepted a master narrative of realism as the guiding aesthetic of mainland Chinese cinema. This book argues however that alternative aesthetics to realism have always existed in Chinese cinema throughout its history from the early silent era to the new century.</p><p>The alternative aesthetics are closely linked to the indigenous Chinese ontology of cinema namely shadowplay (<em>yingxi </em>影戲). The author presents an alternative account through a close examination of four distinct visual narrative and stylistic devices or themes that recur in different periods of Chinese film history: the dream representation the doubling of characters the device of self-reflexivity and the allegorical construction of space. By considering specific films and scenes as problematic sites where history politics and aesthetics collide this book also seeks to elucidate the relationship between cinema and the multifaceted experiences of Chinese modernity with respect to subjectivity ideology identity and nationality.</p><p>This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Chinese cinemas realism and modernism.</p>