Overview

Winner of the 2022 Book Award for Performance and Visual Culture presented by the American Association of Teachers of Italian Orienting Italy explores contemporary Italian filmmakers' fascination with China and the Chinese in both documentary and fictional films. Delineating the contours of this fascination, the book begins with the works of Carlo Lizzani (Behind the Great Wall, 1958) and Michelangelo Antonioni (Chung Kuo—China, 1972), both of whom ventured to China with the aim of documenting new, yet physically and culturally distant, realities. Their documentary investigations yielded to fictional portrayals, from the lavish view of a historical Middle Kingdom by director Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor, 1987) to the stark consideration of Italian economic exchange with contemporary China by Gianni Amelio (The Missing Star, 2006). The wave of Chinese migration to Italy in the late twentieth century created a new sense of otherness within Italy as Chinese migrants became the subjects of fictional narratives and documentaries in the works of Stefano Incerti (Gorbaciof, 2010) and Andrea Segre (Shun Li and the Poet, 2011) and Riccardo Cremona and Vincenzo De Cecco (Miss Little China, 2009). In the twenty-first century, a new chapter in the relationship between Italy and China has emerged in the form of transnational collaborations in the art and business of filmmaking.

Full Product Details

Author:   Mary Ann McDonald Carolan
Publisher:   State University of New York Press
Imprint:   State University of New York Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.227kg
ISBN:  

9781438490601

ISBN 10:   1438490607
Pages:   200
Publication Date:   02 March 2023
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Documenting China between Fact and Fiction: La muraglia cinese/Behind the Great Wall (Carlo Lizzani, 1958) 2. An Italian Director in China: Chung Kuo—Cina/Chung Kuo—China (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1972) 3. A Tale of the Forbidden City: Bernardo Bertolucci’s L’ultimo imperatore/The Last Emperor (1987) 4. Orienting Neorealism: Gianni Amelio’s La stella che non c’è /The Missing Star (2006) 5. The Chinese Woman in Italy: Gorbaciof (Stefano Incerti, 2010) and Io sono Li/Shun Li and the Poet (Andrea Segre, 2011) 6. Documenting Chinese Immigrant Youth and Italian Anti-Immigrant Prejudice: Miss Little China (Riccardo Cremona and Vincenzo De Cecco, 2009) Conclusion Notes Filmography and Works Cited Index

Reviews

"""In Orienting Italy Mary Ann Carolan has achieved a difficult task in the humanistic and interdisciplinary scholarship on Italy and China. She has provided an eminently readable and yet well-contextualized text on major Italian films about mainland Chinese and Chinese in diaspora. This is the first book in any language that offers an at once panoramic and close-up view of Italian cinematic representations of China from the late 1950s to the early 2010s. Carolan considers both documentary and fiction films, and both widely-viewed major productions and little-known gems, carefully explaining the filmmakers' diverse experiences with China. This is a must-read for anyone with an interest in understanding the Italian tradition of screening China and Chinese people over the past few decades."" — Gaoheng Zhang, University of British Columbia ""Orienting Italy provides a concise introduction to films made by Italian directors about China as well as about the Chinese in Italy, focusing primarily on films made after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and including key films from the twenty-first century. Only recently have scholars turned their attention to the depiction of China in European cinema, particularly French cinema. More needs to be done on the rich cinematic history that links other European nations, such as Italy, to China, and this book helps to fill that gap."" — Gina Marchetti, author of Citing China: Politics, Postmodernism, and World Cinema"

In Orienting Italy Mary Ann Carolan has achieved a difficult task in the humanistic and interdisciplinary scholarship on Italy and China. She has provided an eminently readable and yet well-contextualized text on major Italian films about mainland Chinese and Chinese in diaspora. This is the first book in any language that offers an at once panoramic and close-up view of Italian cinematic representations of China from the late 1950s to the early 2010s. Carolan considers both documentary and fiction films, and both widely-viewed major productions and little-known gems, carefully explaining the filmmakers' diverse experiences with China. This is a must-read for anyone with an interest in understanding the Italian tradition of screening China and Chinese people over the past few decades. - Gaoheng Zhang, University of British Columbia Orienting Italy provides a concise introduction to films made by Italian directors about China as well as about the Chinese in Italy, focusing primarily on films made after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and including key films from the twenty-first century. Only recently have scholars turned their attention to the depiction of China in European cinema, particularly French cinema. More needs to be done on the rich cinematic history that links other European nations, such as Italy, to China, and this book helps to fill that gap. - Gina Marchetti, author of Citing China: Politics, Postmodernism, and World Cinema

Author Information

Mary Ann McDonald Carolan is Professor of Italian and Director of the Italian Studies program at Fairfield University. She is the author of The Transatlantic Gaze: Italian Cinema, American Film, also published by SUNY Press.

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