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Are We Still Connected? Contemporary Chinese Minority-Centred Films and the Depiction of Interdependent Relations between Dwellers, Settlements, and Living Circumstances

image of Are We Still Connected? Contemporary Chinese Minority-Centred Films and the Depiction of Interdependent Relations between Dwellers, Settlements, and Living Circumstances

Chinese ethnic minority-themed cinema reflects and portrays the diverse living situations of modern non-Han Chinese. The indigenousness of ethnic minorities gives primitiveness to gazing at a complex triangle of interconnections among the inhabitants, the exotic environment, and the nowness, the representation of relationships is more variable, affected by the vicissitudes of society. The chapter interprets different emotional connections between minority locals and the settlements/ground with exemplary works. It attributes these relations to cultural geographical concepts, the topophilia and other forms of topobased affection, and ir includes four patterns: First, the settlement of ethnic minorities as a destination for escapism and change; second, the settlement of the minority as a territory where various disputes of oldness and newness are encountered; third, the settlement of ethnic minorities as a traumatized land creates anxiety; fourth, ethnic minority settlements serve as a platform for folkloric and ethnic cultural performances.

Keywords: affective bounding between human and land ; change of Chinese indigenous society ; Contemporary Chinese Ethnic-Minority-themed cinema ; filmic representation ; interventionism of human to history ; landscaoe of ethnic settlements ; Narration of Chinese minority ; Topophila ; Topophobia ; Yi-fu Tuan

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Are We Still Connected? Contemporary Chinese Minority-Centred Films and the Depiction of Interdependent Relations between Dwellers, Settlements, and Living Circumstances
Intellect , 106 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1386/9781789389807_7
/content/books/9781789389807.c05
/content/books/9781789389807.c05
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References

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     [Google Scholar]
  2. Castro, Teresa. ‘Mapping the City Through Film: From “Topophilia” to Urban Mapscapes.’ In The City and the Moving Image Urban Projections, edited by R. Koeck and L. Roberts, 144–56. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Gillette, Maris B. ‘New Ethnographic Film in the New China.’ Visual Anthropology Review 30, no. 1 (2014): 1–10. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/var.12026.123
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  4. González, Beatriz Muñoz. ‘Topophilia and Topophobia: The Home as an Evocative Place of Contradictory Emotions.’ Space and Culture 8, no. 2 (2005): 193–213. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331204273984.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Han, Wanfeng, dir. Wo men de sang ga (The Singer). China: Xiaoxiang Film Group, 2010.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Kusenbach, Margarethe. ‘Street Phenomenology: The Go-Along as Ethnographic Research Tool.’ Ethnography 4, no. 3 (2003): 455–85. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1177/146613810343007.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Oxford: Blackwell, 1991.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Lofland, Lyn H. ‘Book Review: Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes and Values by Yi-Fu Tuan.’ Human Ecology 4, no. 2 (1975): 131–33. Accessed March 6, 2024. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4602318.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Lv, Xinyu. ‘Rethinking China's New Documentary Movement: Engagement with the Society.’ In The New Chinese Documentary Film Movement for the Public Record, edited by C. Berry, X. Lv, and L. Rofel, 15–49. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Micek, Michał, and Sylwia Staszewska. ‘Urban and Rural Public Spaces: Development Issues and Qualitative Assessment.’ Bulletin of Geography 45, no. 45 (2019): 75–93. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://doi.org/10.2478/bog-2019-0025.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Oliveira, José, Zoran Roca, and Nuno Leitão. ‘Territorial Identity and Development: From Topophilia to Terraphilia.’ Land Use Policy 27, no. 3 (2010): 801–14. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.10.014.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Peng, Lanyu, and Ming'er Guo, dir. Hua yao lian ge (Huayao Sonata). China: Yunnan Gudian Wangguo Travel Media, 2017.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Rao, Shuguang. Film History of Chinese Minorities. Beijing: China Film Publication, 2010 (in Chinese).
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Rutten, Kris, An van Dienderen, and Ronald Soetaert. ‘Revisiting the Ethnographic Turn in Contemporary Art.’ Critical Arts-South-North Cultural and Media Studies 27, no. 5 (2013): 459–73, https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2013.855513.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Tuan, Yi-fu. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Performance, Attitudes, and Values. New York: Columbia University Press, 1974.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Tuan, Yi-fu. Landscapes of Fear. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Wu, Na, dir. Xing ge zuo yue (Song and Moon). China: Guangzhou Share Cultural Media Co., Ltd., 2012.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Zhang, Chunhe, and Lei Wang, dir. Yun shang shi tou cheng (Hometown on the Cloud). China: Lijiang Namei Media & Lijiang Shanghe Media, 2017.
     [Google Scholar]

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