By Robert Hamilton

Following the success of CFFUK’s symposium on Chinese Identities and in celebration of Chinese New Year, the Cornerhouse screened the Taiwanese romantic comedy You Are the Apple of My Eye (Na xie nian, wo men yi qi zhui de nu hai) directed by Giddens Ho in 2011. In support of the screening and to contextualize the film, Dr. Felicia Chan (University of Manchester and Chinese Film Forum, UK) gave an introductory talk on Popular Taiwan Cinema Beyond the Arthouse.

It was an informal and informative lecture that placed Taiwanese popular cinema outside the west’s received perception of the sad, melancholic, slow cinema of the New Taiwan cinema of Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang. While these directors are fêted in the west with little concern of the taint of commercialism, a popular, youth orientated cinema emerged from the rapid social modernisation of the 1980s. It drew on the small budget, big box office savvy of Ang Lee. It opted for a youthful promise as opposed to the artistic depression of the arthouse film. Dr. Chan argued that while it was aimed at a youth market, it dealt with a school days nostalgia that appealed to a wide range of ages that, in the words of Dr. Ming-Yeh Rawnsley (University of Leeds), ‘triggered a sense of nostalgia and reverence’. Continue reading →

By Wikanda Promkhuntong

This is the second time I had the opportunity to attend the Chinese Film Forum UK’s (CFFUK) Symposium. Set up for the research and promotion of transnational Chinese film, CFFUK is an AHRC-supported joint venture between the University of Manchester, University of Salford, Manchester Metropolitan University, Confucius Institute, Chinese Arts Centre and Cornerhouse. I recall that one of the highlights of the CFFUK symposium I attended last spring (The Distribution and Exhibition of Chinese and Asian Cinema in the UK) was the dynamic between academic paper presentations and talks by those involved in the distribution and promotion of Chinese and Asian films in the UK. The sheer diversity of papers this time from established scholars from all over the world combined with a large and vibrant group of young researchers in the field was equally impressive.

Held at the Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester on 29th-30th January 2013, the symposium presented a total of eight panels with twenty-two invigorating papers that explored the subject of Chinese identities from incredibly diverse aspects. These included the historical studies of Chineseness in early cinema and animations, papers on the shifting representations of gender and class of characters and film stars in contemporary Chinese cinema, the commoditisation of Taiwan’s landscapes though cinema, the construction of Chinese public personas and works on industrial contexts particularly the transnational commercial productions and festival films. The symposium also featured a keynote speech from a revered Chinese cinema expert, Professor Chris Berry and a public film screening. The organisers remain committed to showcasing Chinese films that have not received UK distribution, so I had a chance to see Song Fang’s meditative directing debut, Memories Look At Me (China 2012) in the evening of the first day.

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