

What is the sentimental? How can we understand it by way of the visual and narrative modes of signification specific to cinema and through the manners of social interaction and collective imagining specific to a particular culture in transition? What can the sentimental tell us about the precarious foundations of human coexistence in this age of globalization?
Rey Chow explores these questions through nine contemporary Chinese directors (Chen Kaige, Wong Kar-wai, Zhang Yimou, Ann Hui, Peter Chan, Wayne Wang, Ang Lee, Li Yang, and Tsai Ming-liang) whose accomplishments have become historic events in world cinema. Approaching their works from multiple perspectives, including the question of origins, nostalgia, the everyday, feminine "psychic interiority," commodification, biopolitics, migration, education, homosexuality, kinship, and incest, and concluding with an account of the Chinese films' epistemic affinity with the Hollywood blockbuster Brokeback Mountain, Chow proposes that the sentimental is a discursive constellation traversing affect, time, identity, and social mores, a constellation whose contours tends to morph under different historical circumstances and in different genres and media. In contemporary Chinese films, she argues, the sentimental consistently takes the form not of revolution but of compromise, not of radical departure but of moderation, endurance, and accommodation. By naming these films sentimental fabulationsscreen artifacts of cultural becoming with irreducible aesthetic, conceptual, and speculative logics of their ownChow presents Chinese cinema first and foremost as an invitation to the pleasures and challenges of critical thinking.
- Price: $32.00
- Pages: 288
- Carton Quantity: 26
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Imprint: Columbia University Press
- Series: Film and Culture Series
- Publication Date: 27th March 2007
- Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
- Illustration Note: 12 illus.
- ISBN: 9780231133333
- Format: Paperback
- BISACs:
LITERARY CRITICISM / Asian / Chinese
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture
PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / History & Criticism
a thought-inspiring work of scholarship- Journal of Film and Video
Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese Films is a thought-inspiring work of scholarship.- Jie Li, Journal of Film and Video
Chow's scholarship is consistently superior in its provocative arguments for humanistic concerns and its impressive coverage of secondary sources.- Howard Y. F. Choy, Wittenberg University, The China Journal
Through Chow's perspective, the sentimental thus becomes a productive and promising concept for understanding national cinema.- Kristi McKim, Film Quarterly
A thoughtful discussion of nine contemporary Chinese directors and their cinematic accomplishments.- James A. Cox, The Midwest Book Review
[Chow] captivates us with her challenging and refreshing arguments. Highly recommended.- Library Journal
Preface and Acknowledgments
Note on Transcriptions
Introduction
Part I: Remembrance of Things Past
1 The Seductions of Homecoming: Temptress Moon and the Question of Origins
2 Nostalgia of the New Wave: Romance, Domesticity,a nd the Longing for Oneness in Happy Together
3 The Everyday in The Road Home and In the Mood for Love: From the Legacy of Socialism to the Potency of Yuan
Part II: Migrants' Lore, Women's Options
4 Autumn Hearts: Filming Feminine "Psychic Interiority" in Song of the Exile
5 By Way of Mass Commodities: Love in Comrades, Almost a Love Story
6 All Chinese Families are Alike: Biopolitics in Eat a Bowl of Tea and The Wedding Banquet
Part III: Picturing the Life to Come...
7
What is the sentimental? How can we understand it by way of the visual and narrative modes of signification specific to cinema and through the manners of social interaction and collective imagining specific to a particular culture in transition? What can the sentimental tell us about the precarious foundations of human coexistence in this age of globalization?
Rey Chow explores these questions through nine contemporary Chinese directors (Chen Kaige, Wong Kar-wai, Zhang Yimou, Ann Hui, Peter Chan, Wayne Wang, Ang Lee, Li Yang, and Tsai Ming-liang) whose accomplishments have become historic events in world cinema. Approaching their works from multiple perspectives, including the question of origins, nostalgia, the everyday, feminine "psychic interiority," commodification, biopolitics, migration, education, homosexuality, kinship, and incest, and concluding with an account of the Chinese films' epistemic affinity with the Hollywood blockbuster Brokeback Mountain, Chow proposes that the sentimental is a discursive constellation traversing affect, time, identity, and social mores, a constellation whose contours tends to morph under different historical circumstances and in different genres and media. In contemporary Chinese films, she argues, the sentimental consistently takes the form not of revolution but of compromise, not of radical departure but of moderation, endurance, and accommodation. By naming these films sentimental fabulationsscreen artifacts of cultural becoming with irreducible aesthetic, conceptual, and speculative logics of their ownChow presents Chinese cinema first and foremost as an invitation to the pleasures and challenges of critical thinking.
- Price: $32.00
- Pages: 288
- Carton Quantity: 26
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Imprint: Columbia University Press
- Series: Film and Culture Series
- Publication Date: 27th March 2007
- Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
- Illustrations Note: 12 illus.
- ISBN: 9780231133333
- Format: Paperback
- BISACs:
LITERARY CRITICISM / Asian / Chinese
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture
PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / History & Criticism
a thought-inspiring work of scholarship– Journal of Film and Video
Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese Films is a thought-inspiring work of scholarship.– Jie Li, Journal of Film and Video
Chow's scholarship is consistently superior in its provocative arguments for humanistic concerns and its impressive coverage of secondary sources.– Howard Y. F. Choy, Wittenberg University, The China Journal
Through Chow's perspective, the sentimental thus becomes a productive and promising concept for understanding national cinema.– Kristi McKim, Film Quarterly
A thoughtful discussion of nine contemporary Chinese directors and their cinematic accomplishments.– James A. Cox, The Midwest Book Review
[Chow] captivates us with her challenging and refreshing arguments. Highly recommended.– Library Journal
Preface and Acknowledgments
Note on Transcriptions
Introduction
Part I: Remembrance of Things Past
1 The Seductions of Homecoming: Temptress Moon and the Question of Origins
2 Nostalgia of the New Wave: Romance, Domesticity,a nd the Longing for Oneness in Happy Together
3 The Everyday in The Road Home and In the Mood for Love: From the Legacy of Socialism to the Potency of Yuan
Part II: Migrants' Lore, Women's Options
4 Autumn Hearts: Filming Feminine "Psychic Interiority" in Song of the Exile
5 By Way of Mass Commodities: Love in Comrades, Almost a Love Story
6 All Chinese Families are Alike: Biopolitics in Eat a Bowl of Tea and The Wedding Banquet
Part III: Picturing the Life to Come...
7