“Chinese Film and Society” is a four-week school teacher institute for twenty-five participants that uses film as a means of learning about modern Chinese history and culture. The Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS) and the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies treat China’s national cinema as a medium for studying Chinese history and issues of national identity. The Institute has a dual ambition: to make use of films to understand and interpret Chinese history, culture and contemporary society, and to understand the problematics of film as a medium for representing an entire nation. Prior to arriving, teachers are asked to read Yu Hua’s novel To Live and watch the 1994 film version; read key texts, including co-director Gary Xu’s Sinascape: Contemporary Chinese Cinema; and participate in web-based discussion. As an example of the full program’s offerings, the first week includes an overview of Opium War to Communist Revolution history, with special emphasis on the May Fourth Movement of 1919; a study of literature and their film adaptations; discussion of China’s 1930s “golden era” of cinema; and the screening of two films on the Opium War made generations apart that underscore revisions in popular historic interpretation. Films from the Maoist period (1949-1976) as well as documentaries (e.g., Last Train Home) are introduced in the next three weeks to stimulate consideration of the changing nature of politics, culture, and society in China, as well as recent challenges stemming from globalization. Visiting scholars include political scientist Stanley Rosen (University of Southern California), anthropologist Myron Cohen (Columbia University), film expert and philosopher William Rothman (University of Miami), and historian Paul Pickowicz (University of California, San Diego).
