Digital Effects and the Ethics of Historical Representation: Chinese Responses to the Global Blockbuster Logic

A part of the China Colloquium Series, this talk outlines contemporary debates among Chinese film circles and shows how they are manifested in films, with special attention to Jia Zhangke's I Wish I Knew.

CHINA COLLOQUIUM SERIES
Digital Effects and the Ethics of Historical Representation: Chinese Responses to the Global Blockbuster Logic
Yomi Braester - Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Washington

The Council on East Asian Studies China Colloquium Series is generously supported by the Edward H. Hume Memorial Lectureship Fund.

Avatar was met with enthusiastic reception by Chinese audiences and with hostility by many critics. The reception of Avatar exemplifies the tension between the blockbuster logic and local culture. Against the celebration of market forces stood an aversion to special effects and a commitment to film’s past. The talk outlines contemporary debates among Chinese film circles and shows how they are manifested in films, with special attention to Jia Zhangke’s I Wish I Knew.

Yomi Braester is Professor of Comparative Literature and Cinema Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. Among his publications are Witness Against History: Literature, Film, and Public Discourse in Twentieth-Century China and Painting the City Red: Chinese Cinema and the Urban Contract.