The Instant City and the Postspatial Turn in Chinese Cinema

The Instant City and the Postspatial Turn in Chinese Cinema

Yomi Braester - Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Washington at Seattle

Tuesday, February 3, 2009 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm
Room 103, Henry R. Luce Hall See map
34 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 6511

The trope of a city constructed in the blink of the eye is central to recent Chinese films and stage plays. The instant city is visually represented by miniature models and computerized simulations. The salience of architectural modeling - in the media, on the theater stage, and on the screen - is a symptom of the neoliberal state’s need to reify its vision in idealized form. In response, some filmmakers have turned to preserving the present condition of cities in images. Others go beyond recording the pro-filmic, using new media to propose a post-cinematic and post-spatial understanding of the city.

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China, Taiwan, Hong Kong