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“Aspiration” and “Rhetoric”: Lyric Aesthetics of Chinese Small-Town Films

  • Jun Meng

    Jun Meng is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Arts, Wuhan University.

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Published/Copyright: May 6, 2025
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Abstract

The history of Chinese cinema includes a marginalized category of small-town films which features “lyricism”: exploring the essence and aesthetic forms of cinematographic art, such films have achieved remarkable aesthetic accomplishments. When tracing the lyrical trajectory of Chinese film history, we find that, on one hand, realistic films pursue lyricism within dramatic narratives, thereby yielding poetic films with intense or overt lyrical nuances. On the other hand, we find that a group of filmmakers, dedicated to excavating and advancing cinematic aesthetics, have attempted to break new ground in film themes and cinematographic language, thus giving birth to genuinely lyrical films that embody cinematic poetry. A plethora of small-town films form an essential part of the lyric aesthetics of Chinese cinema. Three canonical examples – Spring in a Small Town, February in Early Spring, and Border Town – allow us to discern that the ontological core of this aesthetic lies in their lyrical subjectivity. The lyric subjects express their aspirations through their works, and unreservedly showcase their personal life experiences, artistic visions, and aesthetic ideals in the creative process. The formal aspect of lyrical aesthetics refers to the rhetorical methods employed by film subjects when engaging in lyricism. From the transitive rhetoric to detransitive rhetoric, the lyric subjects lead the audience into the material world – presented as the object of lyricism – while simultaneously creating a poetic realm that transcends the material world.


Corresponding author: Jun Meng, Wuhan University, Hubei, China, E-mail:
Translated by: Jiahui He, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China, E-mail: hjh0516@163.com

About the author

Jun Meng

Jun Meng is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Arts, Wuhan University.

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Postscript

The originally article entitled “志”与”辞”: 中国小城镇电影的抒情美学 was published in Minzu yishu yanjiu 《民族艺术研究》(Ethnic Art Studies) 2022, Issue 4, pp. 61–69.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2024-09-10
Accepted: 2025-01-25
Published Online: 2025-05-06
Published in Print: 2025-04-28

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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