Screening: Datong: The Great Society

The Fairbank Center For Chinese Studies at Harvard University presents a screening of Datong: The Great Society.

Emergent Visions presents screenings of exceptional independent documentary films produced in China and Taiwan, followed by scholarly discussions led by faculty and students. The films selected range from the just released to classics and evince distinct, compelling cinematic visions; yet they all share a commitment to serving as witness to the rapid changes taking place in China today. Organizers: J. P. Sniadecki, Benny Shaffer, and Eugene Wang.

About the Film
New York-based Hong Kong director Evans Chan’s new film, Datong: The Great Society, which is playing in the former British colony to critical acclaim, became the first film to receive the inaugural Movie of the Year Award presented by Southern Metropolitan Daily as part of its Humane Life Awards for Shenzhen and Hong Kong.  The year-end award ceremony took place at the Shangri-la Hotel in Kowloon.

Chan’s film, which mixes documentary and theatrical presentation, has been recognized for its artistic originality and outstanding scholarship that departs from the officially-sponsored narratives of China’s past century, hence reopening vital debates about issues of Chinese nationhood during the much lauded centennial of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, which spelled an end to China’s imperial past.

Describing the film as “brimful of dissenting opinions,” the Hong Kong Economic Journal compared The Great Society to the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street protests. Veteran critic and programmer, Freddie Wong, said in Hong Kong’s Apple Daily that it “is a must see for anyone interested in the future of China.”  In her Ming Pao film review column, Esther Cheung, head of the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong, hailed the film as “a rare masterpiece in the history of Chinese cinema.” Jonathan Spence, renowned historian of China, praised its “unusual…Swedish angle…which brings Kang Youwei (1858-1927) back to life.”  Chinese cinema expert, Chris Berry of London’s Goldsmiths College, described The Great Society as “very moving…the life of this great Southern intellectual/utopian philosopher…resonates so strongly with the struggles of China’s diasporic intelligentsia today.”