The World is the “Hometown” of the Camera: Interview with Jia Zhangke
-
Bingbing Wang
Bingbing Wang , male, from Taiyuan, Shanxi, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Communication University of China, specializing in film theory and film criticism.
Abstract
In this interview, director Jia Zhangke shares the background and thought process behind his latest documentary Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue (Yizhi Youdao Haishui Bianlan, 2021). Through the lens of rural literature, the film narrates 70 years of China’s social changes since 1949, featuring four writers – Jia Pingwa, Yu Hua, Liang Hong, and Duan Huifang, the daughter of Ma Feng – as the storytellers. The film explores the evolving relationship between urban and rural China and individual life experiences across different historical periods. Jia Zhangke emphasizes that the hometown is not only the starting point of creation but also a spiritual destination. He discusses the cultural value of dialects and traditional opera, highlighting that cinema should convey core Chinese stories through local narratives to preserve societal memory.
About the author
Bingbing Wang, male, from Taiyuan, Shanxi, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Communication University of China, specializing in film theory and film criticism.
© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Thematic Issue: Games and Gaming in Chinese and Sinophone Cinema; Guest Editors: Li Guo, Douglas Eyman and Hongmei Sun
- Introduction: Games, Gaming, and Interactive Aesthetics in Contemporary Chinese and Sinophone Cinema
- Soundscape and Sense of Presence in the VR Experience of Madame Pirate: Becoming a Legend
- Consuming the White Terror: Transmedia Adaptation and Franchise-Building of Detention
- Tracing the Shape of Despair: Video Game Aesthetics and Actor-Network Theory in An Elephant Sitting Still
- How Does Jade Dynasty Become a Big IP? Mapping Digital Media Ecology in Contemporary China
- Towards a Techno-Hauntological Aesthetic: Immiscible Time and the Spiritual Imagination in Bodyless (Shishenji, 2019) by Huang Hsin-Chien
- Other Research Articles
- Ambivalent Utopias: Corporate Biopower and the Gendered Limits of Agency in Reset
- An Inquiry into Gender and Queer Issues in Chinese-Language Sci-Fi Film: A Case Study of The Soul
- Century-Old Hong Kong Films and the Chinese Cultural Tradition
- The Evaluation System of Global Cinematic Strength and the Advancement of Chinese Films
- Interview
- The World is the “Hometown” of the Camera: Interview with Jia Zhangke
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Thematic Issue: Games and Gaming in Chinese and Sinophone Cinema; Guest Editors: Li Guo, Douglas Eyman and Hongmei Sun
- Introduction: Games, Gaming, and Interactive Aesthetics in Contemporary Chinese and Sinophone Cinema
- Soundscape and Sense of Presence in the VR Experience of Madame Pirate: Becoming a Legend
- Consuming the White Terror: Transmedia Adaptation and Franchise-Building of Detention
- Tracing the Shape of Despair: Video Game Aesthetics and Actor-Network Theory in An Elephant Sitting Still
- How Does Jade Dynasty Become a Big IP? Mapping Digital Media Ecology in Contemporary China
- Towards a Techno-Hauntological Aesthetic: Immiscible Time and the Spiritual Imagination in Bodyless (Shishenji, 2019) by Huang Hsin-Chien
- Other Research Articles
- Ambivalent Utopias: Corporate Biopower and the Gendered Limits of Agency in Reset
- An Inquiry into Gender and Queer Issues in Chinese-Language Sci-Fi Film: A Case Study of The Soul
- Century-Old Hong Kong Films and the Chinese Cultural Tradition
- The Evaluation System of Global Cinematic Strength and the Advancement of Chinese Films
- Interview
- The World is the “Hometown” of the Camera: Interview with Jia Zhangke
