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Tragedy and Tender Beauty: Exploring the Tradition of Kuqing in the Chinese Film School

  • Fan Liu

    Fan Liu is a professor and doctoral supervisor from the School of Liberal Arts at Southwest University, serves as an academic leader, and also holds the position of Vice Chairman of the Chongqing Film Association. His main research areas include the history and theory of Chinese cinema, along with the theory and practice of film creation. He has led six projects funded by the National Social Science Fund and the Ministry of Education’s Social Science Fund. Liu has published over 40 papers in CSSCI-indexed journals such as Literature and Art Studies, Film Art, and Contemporary Cinema and has authored two monographs. He has contributed as a screenwriter and planner to five films, with one of the films he produced and wrote being selected for competition at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

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Published/Copyright: April 29, 2024
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Abstract

Films such as An Orphan Rescues His Grandpa (Guer Jiuzuji, 1923), New Women (Xin Nüxing, 1935), Hibiscus Town (Furong Zhen, 1987), Nuan (Nuan, 2003), and Sister (Wode Jiejie, 2021) demonstrate that, over a century of development, Chinese cinema has crafted a distinctive and significant lineage of kuqingxi (苦情戏, tragic drama with Chinese characteristics). This lineage not only preserves but consistently maintains the kuqing (苦情, a literary and artistic style that signifies tragedy in China) narrative tradition intrinsic to Chinese storytelling, culminating in a unique national aesthetic and cultural experience. In accordance with the core essence of “school,” these family-themed works, which preserve the tradition of kuqing, have emerged as a deliberate and stable genre in Chinese Film School. The films, and their public reception, offer a reflection of China’s national character, emotional structure, and refined aesthetic preferences. It is the central theme of tenderness found within adversity, presented in these films, that conveys the values and spirit of contemporary China.


Corresponding author: Fan Liu, School of Liberal Arts, Southwest University, Chongqing, China, E-mail:
Translated by: Xiaoxiao Luo, Yunnan Minzu University, Kunming, China, E-mail: 448674924@qq.com

Funding source: 2022 Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project of the Chongqing Municipal Education Commission

About the author

Fan Liu

Fan Liu is a professor and doctoral supervisor from the School of Liberal Arts at Southwest University, serves as an academic leader, and also holds the position of Vice Chairman of the Chongqing Film Association. His main research areas include the history and theory of Chinese cinema, along with the theory and practice of film creation. He has led six projects funded by the National Social Science Fund and the Ministry of Education’s Social Science Fund. Liu has published over 40 papers in CSSCI-indexed journals such as Literature and Art Studies, Film Art, and Contemporary Cinema and has authored two monographs. He has contributed as a screenwriter and planner to five films, with one of the films he produced and wrote being selected for competition at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

  1. Research funding: This work was supported by the 2022 Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project of the Chongqing Municipal Education Commission.

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Postscript

The originally article entitled 中国电影学派的 “苦情” 传统、悲剧感与温情美 was published in Beijing Dianying Xueyuan Xuebao 北京电影学院学报 (Journal of Beijing Film Academy) 2022(04):21-29.

Received: 2024-01-01
Accepted: 2024-03-11
Published Online: 2024-04-29
Published in Print: 2024-04-25

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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