Home Imagining an Alternative Future: Children’s Bodies in Wonder Boy (1988), Magic Watch (1990), and Mad Rabbit (1997)
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Imagining an Alternative Future: Children’s Bodies in Wonder Boy (1988), Magic Watch (1990), and Mad Rabbit (1997)

  • Shuang Liang EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: September 3, 2024
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

Since China launched its reform and opening-up campaign, the country experienced significant economic growth and infrastructure expansion, which helped spur the release of numerous science fiction works. Among these works, Zhang Zhilu’s three children’s sf films presented an alternative future for Chinese children and teenagers. This essay contends that while these films portray children as integral to infrastructure and the construction of a market economy network, they opt for natural and playful growth driven by a longing for freedom and emotional connection, and by doing so they circumvent the predetermined and goal-oriented trajectory of social development.


Corresponding author: Shuang Liang, China Film Culture Institute, Beijing Film Academy, 4 Xi Tu Cheng Street, Beijing, 100088, China, E-mail:

References

Brown, Noel. 2017. The Children’s Film: Genre, Nation, and Narrative. New York: Columbia University Press; Wallflower Press.10.7312/brow18269Search in Google Scholar

Buckley, Craig, Rüdiger Campe, and Francesco Casetti, eds. 2019. Screen Genealogies: From Optical Device to Environmental Medium. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.10.2307/j.ctvs32t6sSearch in Google Scholar

Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. 1987. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Search in Google Scholar

Galloway, Alexander R. 2012. The Interface Effect. Malden: Polity Press.Search in Google Scholar

Gibson, William. 1986. Neuromancer. New York: Ace Books.Search in Google Scholar

Haggerty, Kevin D, and Richard V. Ericson. 2000. “The Surveillant Assemblage.” British Journal of Sociology 51 (4): 605–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071310020015280.Search in Google Scholar

HengYan 恒炎. 1978. “UFO—Yi ge bujie de ‘shijie zhi mi’” UFO——一个不解的“世界之谜 [UFOs—An unsolved ‘mystery of the world’]. Renmin ribao 人民日报 [People’s daily].Search in Google Scholar

Jameson, Fredric. 2005. Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. New York: Verso.Search in Google Scholar

Jin, Tao 金涛. 2016. “Wo dui kexue wenyi chuangzuo de fansi” 我对科学文艺创作的反思 [My Reflections on Science Literature Creation]. Kepu chuangzuo 科普创作 [Studies on Science Popularization] 11 (1): 82–7.Search in Google Scholar

Larkin, Brian. 2008. Signals and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria. Durham and London: Duke University Press.10.1215/9780822389316Search in Google Scholar

Larkin, Brian. 2013. “The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure.” Annual Review of Anthropology 42: 327–43. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-092412-155522.Search in Google Scholar

Li Jing 李静. 2020. “Dangdai zhongguo yujing xia ‘kehuan’ gainian de shengcheng—Yi 20 shiji qibashi niandai zhi jiao de ‘ke wen zhi zheng’ wei gean” 当代中国语境下”科幻”概念的生成——以20世纪七八十年代之交的”科文之争”为个案 [The Generation of the Concept of “Science Fiction” in the Contemporary Chinese Context—A Case Study of the ‘Science and Literature Controversy’ at the Turn of the 1970s and 1980s]. Wenxue pinglun文学评论 [Literary Review] 05: 198–206.Search in Google Scholar

Li, Hua. 2021. Chinese Science Fiction during the Post-Mao Cultural Thaw. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.10.3138/9781487537807Search in Google Scholar

Liao, Hong 廖玒. 1997. “Zhumu ‘di si meiti’” 瞩目 “第四媒体” [Attention to the “Fourth Media”]. Renmin ribao 人民日报 [People’s Daily].Search in Google Scholar

Liu, Xiao. 2019. Information Fantasies: Precarious Mediation in Postsocialist China. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.10.5749/j.ctvbcd13qSearch in Google Scholar

McLuhan, Marshall. 1994. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Peters, John Durham. 2015. The Marvelous Clouds: Towards a Philosophy of Elemental Media. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226253978.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Riemenschnitter, A., Jessica I., and Justyna J., eds. 2023. Sinophone Utopias: Exploring Futures Beyond the China Dream. Amherst: Cambria Press.Search in Google Scholar

Serres, Michel. 1982. The Parasite. Translated by Lawrence R. Schehr. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Song, Chong 宋崇. 1988. “Zhongguo di yi bu xiandai tonghua dianying de dansheng—Pili Beibei daoyan gongzuo zongjie” 中国第一部现代童话电影的诞生——《霹雳贝贝》导演工作总结 [The Birth of the First Chinese Modern Fairy Tale Film – Director’s Work Summary of Wonder Boy].” In Ertong dianying lilun yanjiu ziliao 儿童电影理论研究资料 [Children’s Film Theory Research Materials], Vol. 2, edited by Jie Ting 解婷, pp. 120–37. Beijing: China Peace Publishing House.Search in Google Scholar

Song, Mingwei. 2023. Fear of Seeing: A Poetics of Chinese Science Fiction. New York: Columbia University Press.10.7312/song20442Search in Google Scholar

Strogatz, Steven. 2003. “How the Blackout Came to Life.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/25/opinion/how-the-blackout-came-to-life.html (accessed August 25, 2003).Search in Google Scholar

Virilio, Paul. 2006. Speed and Politics. Translated by Marc Polizzotti. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e).Search in Google Scholar

Wu, Yan 吴岩. 2009. ““Qinli zhongguo kehuan 30 nian” 亲历中国科幻30年 [Experiencing 30 Years of Chinese Science Fiction]. Keji chao 科技潮 [Science and culture] 10: 56–7.Search in Google Scholar

Zhang, Zhilu 张之路. 2005. Zhongguo shaonian ertong dianying shilun 中国少年儿童电影史论 [History of Chinese Children’s Films]. Beijing: China Film Publishing House.Search in Google Scholar

Zhang, Zhilu 张之路. 2020. “Pili Beibei zuozhe Zhang Zhilu: Ertong dianying de Ah Q”《霹雳贝贝》作者张之路: 儿童电影的阿Q [Wonder Boy’s author Zhang Zhilu: Ah Q of children’s film]. Interview by Chen Chen陈晨. Pengpai xinwen澎湃新闻 [The paper]. https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_10357367 (accessed December 13, 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Zheng, Wenguang 郑文光. 1982. “Zai wenxue chuangzuo zuotanhui shang guanyu kehuan xiaoshuo de fayan” 在文学创作座谈会上关于科幻小说的发言 [Speech at the Literature Creation Symposium on Science Fiction]. Kehuan xiaoshuo chuangzuo cankao ziliao 科幻小说创作参考资料 [References for Science Fiction Writing].Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2023-08-28
Accepted: 2024-03-03
Published Online: 2024-09-03
Published in Print: 2024-08-27

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 8.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2023-0042/html
Scroll to top button