Overview

How do contemporary Chinese audiences access art cinema? What are the alternative channels for the distribution and exhibition of art cinema in China? How is Chinese art cinema changing with the booming of internet media and commodity culture in the 21st century? To answer these questions, Xiang Fan explores the dynamic networks of art cinema in China in the 21st century, highlighting the cultural practices of intermediaries such as independent programmers, internet critics, and fan translators. Offering insights gleaned from original ethnographic research, Fan reveals how these intermediary practitioners think about cinema, negotiate judgement and appreciation, construct a discourse of value and taste, and most importantly, constitute a coordinated and interrelated network for the sharing of art cinema. She argues that although their motivation was derived from a cinephilia seeking to forge an alternative mode of distribution and reception, the ‘new’ cinema culture they have produced simultaneously negotiates a subtly complicit relationship with authoritative and market forces. In doing so, she offers an original interdisciplinary perspective on contemporary art cinema culture in Chinese society.

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9781350370104

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Xiang Fan’s exemplary ethnography lifts the lid on China’s cinephile culture, caught between the market economy and one-party state, to reveal the venue operators, amateur critics, and fansubbers whose dedication and determination makes it survive – and often even thrive. -- Chris Berry, King’s College London, UK Contemporary Art Cinema Culture in China challenges the mainstream/independent dichotomy in Chinese film studies scholarship; it offers a much-needed non-Western perspective on the global discourse of art cinema. Shifting the research focus from the film text to the audience, from institutions to individuals, and from production to circulation, exhibition and consumption, the book champions a welcome sociological and ethnographic approach to the study of film culture. -- Hongwei Bao, author of Queer Media in China In her absorbing study of contemporary Chinese art cinema’s distribution, exhibition, and consumption, Xiang Fan reveals, though interviews and participant observation, how a range of institutions and intermediaries—from film programmers to fan subbers and from internet critics to pirate DVD vendors—help shape this emerging film culture. -- Luke Robinson, University of Sussex, UK

Author Information

Xiang Fan holds a PhD in Media Communications and Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London. She was previously a Postdoctoral Research Associate for the Chinese Independent Film Archive at Newcastle University, UK. Her research interests include Chinese independent and art cinema, film festivals and exhibition culture in the digital age, and women’s cinema.

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