This chapter examines this deeply ingrained historical way of thinking— the imperial-time-order—a... more This chapter examines this deeply ingrained historical way of thinking— the imperial-time-order—and discusses its interaction with other modern dis- courses, in particular, Marxism and liberalism. The ways that Marxism has been adopted in China suggest a moralistic and unifying tendency that con- tinued the imperial-time-order, which stands at odds with Marxist historical materialism. Moreover, the continued downplaying of individual function in historical development implies a consciousness of time that limits individual agency.
Can ecocinema and the Western work together in one film? What does it mean to be an eco-Western? ... more Can ecocinema and the Western work together in one film? What does it mean to be an eco-Western? In the case of No Man’s Land, it is the de-culturalized landscape combined with an ecological concern reflecting on the process of modernization, the latter a built-in theme in Westerns, that makes this film a recognizable Western, or more accurately, post-Western. In other words, No Man’s Land achieves two things: first, it presents a Chinese west rid of Chinese characters to differentiate it from earlier films; second, it creates an eco-space to reflect on the questions of territory, morality, modernization, and globalization to negotiate a place for the emergence of the Western.
本文试图盘点香港黑帮电影的前世今生，以吴宇森、刘伟强、杜琪峰的黑帮电影为例，探讨香港黑帮片所揭示的社会关系与情感结构。通过其与好莱坞黑帮片的比较，本文拟说明，黑帮电影的发展与香港这个城市的命运息... more 本文试图盘点香港黑帮电影的前世今生，以吴宇森、刘伟强、杜琪峰的黑帮电影为例，探讨香港黑帮片所揭示的社会关系与情感结构。通过其与好莱坞黑帮片的比较，本文拟说明，黑帮电影的发展与香港这个城市的命运息息相关。从英属殖民地到中国的特别行政区，香港的转型反映着特殊的历史文化印记。从吴宇森的英雄叙事，刘伟强的身份危机，到杜琪峰的权力游戏，黑帮电影重构了香港的异托邦空间，成为香港命运的城市寓言。
Chinese Television in the Twenty-First Century: Entertaining the Nation , 2014
This article focuses on the TV series Emperor Hanwu (2005) to discuss the discourse of "Tianxia" ... more This article focuses on the TV series Emperor Hanwu (2005) to discuss the discourse of "Tianxia" in contemporary China.
Ever since an unknown, threatening disease was identified as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (... more Ever since an unknown, threatening disease was identified as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (aids) in the 1980s, aids has been a subject of filmmaking in Western cinemas. Directors usually capture the alienation and suffering of the aids patients-mostly urban, marginal individuals such as gays, drug addicts, and prostitutes who are portrayed as having a deviant lifestyle, and for whom the disease is a stigma for which they are held responsible. Often seen as a threat to the community, they serve as warnings and "bad" examples for the general public.1 Gu Changwei's 顾长卫 recent film, Love for Life (Zui ai 最爱, 2011), on the contrary, portrays a group of aids bearers in a rural environment in China as innocent peasants conforming a conventional life, whose biggest mistake lies in having followed the rhetoric of "getting rich quickly" by means of selling blood; in other words, the collective nature of this Chinese "tainted community" sets Gu's film apart from other aids narratives and, to a large extent, appears as a social criticism of national characteristics and contemporary economic development. As such, aids in the film is rid of the common stigma associated with gay sex and drug abuse, but is quintessentially tied to blood transfusion-the most direct way to depict the communicativeness and infectiousness of viruses which, as will be shown below, are not limited to hiv. Moreover, beyond capturing the horizontal, spatial pandemic of this formidable catastrophe, Gu Changwei attempts to deliver a sense of vertical, spiritual transcendence by highlighting a passionate love story between two young aids patients who, performed by the internationally known actors Zhang Ziyi 章子怡 and Aaron Kwok Fu-shing 郭富城, aestheticize the disease and probe the more universalistic questions regarding identity and subjectivity.
This article borrows Gilles Deleuze's theory of "time image" to discuss Hong Kong comedy film A ... more This article borrows Gilles Deleuze's theory of "time image" to discuss Hong Kong comedy film A Chinese Odyssey, starring Stephen Chow. It also touches upon the identity issue of Chinese cinema.
通过对田汉和郭沫若等剧作家五六十年代历史剧的分析，本文试图说明，从作品本身
来看，虽遭到曲解与误读，这些历史剧却反映了同样的帝国想象。借用郭沫若的“虚的焦点”，我们看到历史不仅被借用来反映现实... more 通过对田汉和郭沫若等剧作家五六十年代历史剧的分析，本文试图说明，从作品本身
来看，虽遭到曲解与误读，这些历史剧却反映了同样的帝国想象。借用郭沫若的“虚的焦点”，我们看到历史不仅被借用来反映现实，而且也指导现实，是传统的帝国思想使建构“人民”和统一的多民族现代国家具有合法性。同时，现代知识分子作为“虚的焦点”的代言人，继承了超越政治体系的道德话语权，努力寻求在帝国话语体系中的合法地位。
This paper analyzes three films on the attempted assassination of the first emperor Qin Shihuang-... more This paper analyzes three films on the attempted assassination of the first emperor Qin Shihuang--Zhou Xiaowen's The Emperor's Shadow (1996), Chen Kaige's The Emperor and the Assassin (1998), and Zhang Yimou's Hero (2002), to discuss the significance of such an intensive attention to the first emperor and articulation of Tianxia at turn of the century.
During the War of Resistance to Japan (1937-45), the cultural scene in Japanese-occupied Shanghai... more During the War of Resistance to Japan (1937-45), the cultural scene in Japanese-occupied Shanghai took on a "feminine" quality, as female leads dominated stage performance and film screens. This essay seeks to engage this gendered phenomenon through examples of Ouyang Yuqian's wartime play Peach Blossom Fan (Taohua shan) and the film Mulan Joins the Army (Mulan congjun). Borrowing affect theory in conjunction with the gendered perception of modernity, the author argues that these representations of female characters, on the one hand, highlight the subjective projection of male intellectuals motivated by intense feelings of shame and anger, which constitutes a feminized national imagination encountering the colonial Other. On the other hand, such representations continue the May Fourth project of enlightening and liberating woman from the conventional family while reintroducing the concept of the nation in the family setting and proposing the foundational family as the basic unit of the new nation.
Imperial-Time-Order is an engagingly written critical study on a persistent historical way of thi... more Imperial-Time-Order is an engagingly written critical study on a persistent historical way of thinking in modern China. Defined as normalization of unification and moralization of time, Qian suggests, the imperial-time-order signifies a temporal structure of empire that has continued to shape the way modern China developed itself conceptually. Weaving together intellectual debates with literary and media representations of imperial history since the late Qing period, ranging from novels, stage plays, films, to television series, Qian traces the different temporalities of each period and takes "time" as the analytical node by which issues of empire, nation, family, morality, individual and collective subjectivity are constructed and contested.
This chapter examines this deeply ingrained historical way of thinking— the imperial-time-order—a... more This chapter examines this deeply ingrained historical way of thinking— the imperial-time-order—and discusses its interaction with other modern dis- courses, in particular, Marxism and liberalism. The ways that Marxism has been adopted in China suggest a moralistic and unifying tendency that con- tinued the imperial-time-order, which stands at odds with Marxist historical materialism. Moreover, the continued downplaying of individual function in historical development implies a consciousness of time that limits individual agency.
Can ecocinema and the Western work together in one film? What does it mean to be an eco-Western? ... more Can ecocinema and the Western work together in one film? What does it mean to be an eco-Western? In the case of No Man’s Land, it is the de-culturalized landscape combined with an ecological concern reflecting on the process of modernization, the latter a built-in theme in Westerns, that makes this film a recognizable Western, or more accurately, post-Western. In other words, No Man’s Land achieves two things: first, it presents a Chinese west rid of Chinese characters to differentiate it from earlier films; second, it creates an eco-space to reflect on the questions of territory, morality, modernization, and globalization to negotiate a place for the emergence of the Western.
本文试图盘点香港黑帮电影的前世今生，以吴宇森、刘伟强、杜琪峰的黑帮电影为例，探讨香港黑帮片所揭示的社会关系与情感结构。通过其与好莱坞黑帮片的比较，本文拟说明，黑帮电影的发展与香港这个城市的命运息... more 本文试图盘点香港黑帮电影的前世今生，以吴宇森、刘伟强、杜琪峰的黑帮电影为例，探讨香港黑帮片所揭示的社会关系与情感结构。通过其与好莱坞黑帮片的比较，本文拟说明，黑帮电影的发展与香港这个城市的命运息息相关。从英属殖民地到中国的特别行政区，香港的转型反映着特殊的历史文化印记。从吴宇森的英雄叙事，刘伟强的身份危机，到杜琪峰的权力游戏，黑帮电影重构了香港的异托邦空间，成为香港命运的城市寓言。
Chinese Television in the Twenty-First Century: Entertaining the Nation , 2014
This article focuses on the TV series Emperor Hanwu (2005) to discuss the discourse of "Tianxia" ... more This article focuses on the TV series Emperor Hanwu (2005) to discuss the discourse of "Tianxia" in contemporary China.
Ever since an unknown, threatening disease was identified as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (... more Ever since an unknown, threatening disease was identified as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (aids) in the 1980s, aids has been a subject of filmmaking in Western cinemas. Directors usually capture the alienation and suffering of the aids patients-mostly urban, marginal individuals such as gays, drug addicts, and prostitutes who are portrayed as having a deviant lifestyle, and for whom the disease is a stigma for which they are held responsible. Often seen as a threat to the community, they serve as warnings and "bad" examples for the general public.1 Gu Changwei's 顾长卫 recent film, Love for Life (Zui ai 最爱, 2011), on the contrary, portrays a group of aids bearers in a rural environment in China as innocent peasants conforming a conventional life, whose biggest mistake lies in having followed the rhetoric of "getting rich quickly" by means of selling blood; in other words, the collective nature of this Chinese "tainted community" sets Gu's film apart from other aids narratives and, to a large extent, appears as a social criticism of national characteristics and contemporary economic development. As such, aids in the film is rid of the common stigma associated with gay sex and drug abuse, but is quintessentially tied to blood transfusion-the most direct way to depict the communicativeness and infectiousness of viruses which, as will be shown below, are not limited to hiv. Moreover, beyond capturing the horizontal, spatial pandemic of this formidable catastrophe, Gu Changwei attempts to deliver a sense of vertical, spiritual transcendence by highlighting a passionate love story between two young aids patients who, performed by the internationally known actors Zhang Ziyi 章子怡 and Aaron Kwok Fu-shing 郭富城, aestheticize the disease and probe the more universalistic questions regarding identity and subjectivity.
This article borrows Gilles Deleuze's theory of "time image" to discuss Hong Kong comedy film A ... more This article borrows Gilles Deleuze's theory of "time image" to discuss Hong Kong comedy film A Chinese Odyssey, starring Stephen Chow. It also touches upon the identity issue of Chinese cinema.
通过对田汉和郭沫若等剧作家五六十年代历史剧的分析，本文试图说明，从作品本身
来看，虽遭到曲解与误读，这些历史剧却反映了同样的帝国想象。借用郭沫若的“虚的焦点”，我们看到历史不仅被借用来反映现实... more 通过对田汉和郭沫若等剧作家五六十年代历史剧的分析，本文试图说明，从作品本身
来看，虽遭到曲解与误读，这些历史剧却反映了同样的帝国想象。借用郭沫若的“虚的焦点”，我们看到历史不仅被借用来反映现实，而且也指导现实，是传统的帝国思想使建构“人民”和统一的多民族现代国家具有合法性。同时，现代知识分子作为“虚的焦点”的代言人，继承了超越政治体系的道德话语权，努力寻求在帝国话语体系中的合法地位。
This paper analyzes three films on the attempted assassination of the first emperor Qin Shihuang-... more This paper analyzes three films on the attempted assassination of the first emperor Qin Shihuang--Zhou Xiaowen's The Emperor's Shadow (1996), Chen Kaige's The Emperor and the Assassin (1998), and Zhang Yimou's Hero (2002), to discuss the significance of such an intensive attention to the first emperor and articulation of Tianxia at turn of the century.
During the War of Resistance to Japan (1937-45), the cultural scene in Japanese-occupied Shanghai... more During the War of Resistance to Japan (1937-45), the cultural scene in Japanese-occupied Shanghai took on a "feminine" quality, as female leads dominated stage performance and film screens. This essay seeks to engage this gendered phenomenon through examples of Ouyang Yuqian's wartime play Peach Blossom Fan (Taohua shan) and the film Mulan Joins the Army (Mulan congjun). Borrowing affect theory in conjunction with the gendered perception of modernity, the author argues that these representations of female characters, on the one hand, highlight the subjective projection of male intellectuals motivated by intense feelings of shame and anger, which constitutes a feminized national imagination encountering the colonial Other. On the other hand, such representations continue the May Fourth project of enlightening and liberating woman from the conventional family while reintroducing the concept of the nation in the family setting and proposing the foundational family as the basic unit of the new nation.
Imperial-Time-Order is an engagingly written critical study on a persistent historical way of thi... more Imperial-Time-Order is an engagingly written critical study on a persistent historical way of thinking in modern China. Defined as normalization of unification and moralization of time, Qian suggests, the imperial-time-order signifies a temporal structure of empire that has continued to shape the way modern China developed itself conceptually. Weaving together intellectual debates with literary and media representations of imperial history since the late Qing period, ranging from novels, stage plays, films, to television series, Qian traces the different temporalities of each period and takes "time" as the analytical node by which issues of empire, nation, family, morality, individual and collective subjectivity are constructed and contested.
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Papers by Kun Qian
来看，虽遭到曲解与误读，这些历史剧却反映了同样的帝国想象。借用郭沫若的“虚的焦点”，我们看到历史不仅被借用来反映现实，而且也指导现实，是传统的帝国思想使建构“人民”和统一的多民族现代国家具有合法性。同时，现代知识分子作为“虚的焦点”的代言人，继承了超越政治体系的道德话语权，努力寻求在帝国话语体系中的合法地位。
Talks by Kun Qian
Books by Kun Qian
来看，虽遭到曲解与误读，这些历史剧却反映了同样的帝国想象。借用郭沫若的“虚的焦点”，我们看到历史不仅被借用来反映现实，而且也指导现实，是传统的帝国思想使建构“人民”和统一的多民族现代国家具有合法性。同时，现代知识分子作为“虚的焦点”的代言人，继承了超越政治体系的道德话语权，努力寻求在帝国话语体系中的合法地位。