Cultural Dimensions of Visual Ethnography: U.S.- China Dialogues

The USC US-China Institute and the USC Center for Visual Anthropology present a symposium featuring the screening of several ethnographic films and extensive discussion of visual ethnography by Chinese and American scholars, documentary filmmakers and new media practitioners.

PLEASE RSVP TO JIA TAN AT jiatan@usc.edu

Challenging an older model in which Euro-American filmmakers documented Asian ethnography, this conference would look comparatively at Chinese and American sites of visual ethnography production, and examine the cultural dimensions of filmmaking.  A keynote speaker will frame the critical issues involved in these discussions, and lay the groundwork for the comparative evaluation of strategies for observing, recording, editing and framing ethnographic documentaries.

How has visual ethnography shifted from becoming a discipline of “first world” filmmakers traveling to film “third world” people to a more complex and dialogical series of exchanges?  Moving away from this bi-polar perspective to see the world in more complex and subtle terms, how have the audience for ethnographic documentaries shifted in recent years?  How are ethnographic documentaries influenced by controversies about minority nationalities and ethnicity?  What is the relationship between visual ethnography and the commercial videos produced for tourism promotion? What is the role of autobiographical or first person documentaries in defining a cultural perspective? What role do videos play in maintaining transnational connections among dispersed families and communities in China and the US? How do websites and web-based blogs serve to maintain transnational ties?

Thursday April 8

12:00 pm Welcome and Reception at the University Club

1:00 pm Opening Remarks: Janet Hoskins, Gary Seaman, Nancy Lutkehaus

  1:30-2:30 pm
  Opening lecture: “Ethnography, Ethnographic Film, & Religious Revival in Contemporary China”  Mayfair Yang, UCSB

Discussion

3:15-3:30 pm Coffee break

3:30- 5:00 pm
Student panel:  Body, Self and Identity
    Jia Tan, USC Cinema
    JP Sniadecki  Harvard Anthropology
    Fei-Mei Heberer USC, Cinema

Leavey Screenings (at Leavey Auditorium):

5:30 pm

  “Broken Pots, Broken Dreams” by Maris Boyd Gillette (30 minutes)
   To view the trailer, please click here.

6:20 pm

  “The Secret of the Stone” by Zhifang Song, Gary Seaman & Steven Schindler (39 minutes)
   To view the trailer, please click here.

Q and A with the filmmakers

Friday April 9

8:30 am Coffee and breakfast served at the Anthropology lounge

Morning Panels: Grace Ford Salvatori Auditorium 106

9:15 am  First Panel:  Ethnic Minorities and Cinematic Representation

  Papers presented by Professor Dru Gladney of Pomona College and the Pacific
     Bassin Institute and Professor Yang Hui of Yunnan University

Discussants: Stan Rosen, USC and Kenneth Dean, McGill University

10:30 am Coffee break (Anthropology Lounge)

10:45 am Second Panel:  Community-Based Documentary and Participatory Cinema

Papers presented by Wu Wenguang of Beijing and Kenneth Dean of McGill

Discussants: Eugene Cooper, USC Anthropology and Louisa Schein, Rutgers

12:00 noon Lunch Break

Lunch will be served in Gabilan Courtyard

Leavey Afternoon Screenings:

1:00 pm   “Tiger Day” by Zhuang Kongshao (20 minutes)

Warning: There are some graphic scenes depicting the slaying of animals in this film that viewers may find offensive or disturbing. It is not a film suitable for children.

1:30 pm   "A Buyei Priest" by Deng Qiyao (38 minutes)

Q and A with the filmmakers

2:30 pm “Through Chinese Women’s Eyes” by Mayfair Yang (52 minutes)

Q and A with the filmmaker

3:40- 4:00 pm Coffee Break Gabilan Courtyard

4:00  pm
   Wu Wenguang and Deng Qiyao
    “My Village: The Villagers Documentary Project”  (60 minutes)
   To view the trailer, please click here.

Q and A with Wu Wenguang and Deng Qiyao

   5:30 pm
   Keynote Speaker:  Louisa Schein of Rutgers University

   “Genres Unbound: Transnational and Grass Roots Media Perforating the Chinese Ethnographic"

Saturday April 10

9:00 am Coffee and breakfast served at Gabilan Courtyard

Morning Panels: Leavey Auditorium

9:15 am  Third Panel: Using Film in Teaching Anthropology

Papers by Zhuang Kongshao and Scott Wilson/Zhifang Song

Discussants:  Gary Seaman of USC and Stephen Schindler of CSULB

10:30 am Coffee break at Gabilan Courtyard

10:45 am  Fourth Panel:  Visual Ethnography and Folklore in the Digital Age

Papers by Deng Qiyao of Beijing and Maris Boyd Gillette of Haverford College

Discussants:  Michael Renov of USC Cinema and Meiling Cheng of USC
School of Theater

12:00 noon Lunch Break

Lunch will be served at Gabilan Courtyard

Leavey Afternoon Screenings:

1:00 pm  “Bored in Heaven” by Kenneth Dean  (70 minutes)

Q and A with Kenneth Dean, McGill University

   2:15 pm “Bing Ai” by Feng Yan (120 minutes)
   For more information about the filmmaker, please click here.

   4:45 pm  “A Dai Village’s New Year” by Yang Hui  (44 minutes)

   5:30 pm  SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL:
  ”Han Xin’s Revenge:  A Daoist Mystery”.  (90 minutes)
   A film by Patrice Fava with the participation of Zhuang Kongshao

Discussants: Kenneth Dean, McGill University,  Mayfair Yang, UCSB

Sunday April 11

Morning Business Meeting:  The Bohannon Anthropology Seminar Room, AHF B108, Hancock Building, Basement)

9:00 am Coffee and breakfast

9:15 am  Discussion of plans for publishing an edited volume on “Digital Media,
Cultural Lenses:  Visual Ethnography Dialogues with China”

For more info please visit the "Cultural Dimensions of Visual Ethnography" webpage.