Join us for a free one-day workshop for educators at the Japanese American National Museum, hosted by the USC U.S.-China Institute and the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. This workshop will include a guided tour of the beloved exhibition Common Ground: The Heart of Community, slated to close permanently in January 2025. Following the tour, learn strategies for engaging students in the primary source artifacts, images, and documents found in JANM’s vast collection and discover classroom-ready resources to support teaching and learning about the Japanese American experience.
2009-2010 USCI Documentary Series
USCI presents the annual 2009-2010 documentary series featuring a list of films that explore various dimensions of Chinese society.
April 28, 2010
Click here for a list of USCI events in 2009-2010.
October 14, 2009
China Blue:
中国蓝
China Blue takes viewers inside a blue jeans factory in southern China, where teenage workers struggle to survive harsh working conditions. Providing perspectives from both the top and bottom levels of the factory’s hierarchy, the film looks at complex issues of globalization from the human level.
About the Director
A native of Israel, Micha Peled is one of the few ever to emigrate to the U.S. by hitchhiking. Micha has directed and produced documentaries for broadcasters in the US, Britain, France and Germany. China Blue premiered at the Toronto Int’l Film Festival, the film was nominated at IDFA 2005 for the Juris Ivens Prize and won the Amnesty International Human Rights award.
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February 10, 2010
December 1, 2009
Dream Weavers - Beijing 2008:
筑梦20087 years of filming, 5 Olympic stories, 1 nation's preparation for the biggest sporting event in the world. Dream Weavers - Beijing 2008 is the first documentary that took 7 years to research, investigate, pursue and film 5 Olympic stories leading to China's first Olympic Games.
About the Director
Gu Jun graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1991. When it was announced that the 29th Olympic Games were awarded to Beijing in 2001, Gu began to divert her attention on how the Olympics will impact Beijing, and for the next 7 years, dedicated herself to doing up-close research and investigation to capture preparations for the Olympic Games in the documentary film Dream Weavers - Beijing 2008.
This screening was co-sponsored by USC East Asian Studies Center.
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January 28, 2010
Nanking:
南京
Nanking tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China, in the early days of World War II. As part of a campaign to conquer all of China, the Japanese subjected Nanking – which was then China’s capital – to months of aerial bombardment, and when the city fell, the Japanese army unleashed murder and rape on a horrifying scale. In the midst of the rampage, a small group of Westerners banded together to establish a Safety Zone where over 200,000 Chinese found refuge. Unarmed, these missionaries, university professors, doctors and businessmen – including a Schindler-esque Nazi named John Rabe – bore witness to the events, while risking their own lives to protect civilians from slaughter.
About the Director
Bill Guttentag is a two-time Oscar-winning documentary and feature film writer-producer-director. He also wrote and directed Nanking, a documentary which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Nanking was released theatrically last winter by THINKFilm.
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February 10, 2010
The Colony:
殖民地
The Colony is a short documentary about China’s aggressive economic role in Africa, which many compare to colonization. It is one of the first films that provide a close-up view of the Chinese who are working and living in Africa. Through the personal stories of several Chinese entrepreneurs in Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, The Colony examines the trend of China's expansion in Africa as well as the relationship between Chinese and African people.
The Women's Kingdom:
妇女王国
The Women's Kingdom offers a rare glimpse into a society virtually unheard of 10 years ago and now often misrepresented in the media. Mosuo women control their own finances and do not marry or live with partners; they practice what they call "walking marriage." While tourism has brought wealth and 21st century conveniences to this remote area, it has also introduced difficult challenges to the Mosuo culture – from pollution in the lake, to the establishment of brothels, to mainstream ideas about women, beauty and family. This finely wrought film is a sensitive portrayal of extraordinary women struggling to hold on to their extraordinary society.
About the Directors
Xiaoli Zhou is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with a strong journalism background. As a native Chinese and a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, Zhou specializes in international reporting and making documentaries about Asian cultures.
Brent E. Huffman is an award-winning director, writer, and cinematographer of documentaries and television programs. Huffman has been making social issue documentaries and environmental films for more than 12 years in Afghanistan, China, Africa, Haiti, and Puerto Rico.
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April 14, 2010
Small Happiness:
小喜
Small Happiness explores sexual politics in rural China with segments on love and marriage, foot-binding, child-bearing and birth control.
Guomen a sixteen-minute film about wedding preparations and rituals in a southern Chinese village.
About the Director
Carma Hinton is a documentary filmmaker and Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Visual Culture and Chinese Studies at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia, United States. She was born and raised in Beijing, China, by American parents, and lived there until she was twenty-one. Chinese is her first language and culture.
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April 21, 2010
Assignment China -- new USCI documentary:
Assignment China features interviews with journalists who were based in China and Hong Kong in 1979-1983. It also includes interviews with scholars who have studied the work of these journalists and government officials who had to be mindful of how such reporting influenced public opinion and thereby affected their ability to make and implement policies. The documentary includes clips from contemporary coverage and the documentary website will include examples of the reporting discussed as well as additional photos and video.
USCI Senior Fellow Mike Chinoy serves as the lead reporter on the series. Chinoy's widely known for his more than two decades of award-winning reporting on China for CNN. He's the author of two books: China Live: People Power and the Television Revolution and Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis.
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The web version of this document is at: http://china.usc.edu/Showrticle.aspx?articleID=2057.
Featured Articles
October 20, 2024
October 20, 2024
Please join us for the Grad Mixer! Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, Enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow students across USC Annenberg. Graduate students from any field are welcome to join, so it is a great opportunity to meet fellow students with IR/foreign policy-related research topics and interests.
RSVP link: https://forms.gle/1zer188RE9dCS6Ho6
Events
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 - 3:00pm
Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow international students.
Thursday, November 7, 2024 - 4:00pm
Join us for an in-person conversation on Thursday, November 7th at 4pm with author David M. Lampton as he discusses his new book, Living U.S.-China Relations: From Cold War to Cold War. The book examines the history of U.S.-China relations across eight U.S. presidential administrations.