Abstract
The Nanjing Massacre (1937–1938) has been rewritten by two controversial Chinese hits aimed at the global market: City of Life and Death (2009) and The Flowers of War (2011). Directed, respectively, by the rising director Lu Chuan and the internationally renowned “Fifth Generation” director Zhang Yimou, the films feature the complicated dynamics between Chinese refugees, Westerners and Japanese soldiers amidst the devastation. Their ambition to reach worldwide audiences, such as the nuanced treatment of wartime occupation and aesthetic references to Hollywood, is either affirmed by international awards or thwarted by the lackluster reception in the West. By examining the various globalist transformations in the cinematic narrative, this paper argues that what begins as a rearticulation of the patriotic discourse turns into a tentative construction of new identity at the historical moment of China’s rise. The reconfiguration of the national epic in City of Life and Death and The Flowers of War manifests a repositioning of Chinese self in response to global consumerism.
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©2014 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Rethinking China’s Soft Power
- Articles
- Reporting for China: Cosmopolitan Attitudes and the “Chinese Perspective” among Chinese Correspondents Abroad
- Rewriting the Chinese National Epic in an Age of Global Consumerism: City of Life and Death and The Flowers of War
- Fei Cheng Wu Rao (非诚勿扰): Staging Global China through International Format Television and Overseas Special Episodes
- Exporting the Communist Image: The 1976 Chinese Peasant Painting Exhibition in Britain
- Projecting the Good Life at Home and Abroad: Lineages of the Chinese National Image from 1949 to the Present
- New Public Diplomacy Meets Old Public Diplomacy – the Case of China and Its Confucius Institutes
- The Politics of Affect in Confucius Institutes: Re-orienting Foreigners towards the PRC
- Book Reviews
- Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel: The Syrian Dilemma
- Jaesok Kim: Chinese Labor in a Korean Factory: Class, Ethnicity, and Productivity on the Shop Floor in Globalizing China
- J. H. Elliott: History in the Making
- Daniel Brook: A History of Future Cities
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Rethinking China’s Soft Power
- Articles
- Reporting for China: Cosmopolitan Attitudes and the “Chinese Perspective” among Chinese Correspondents Abroad
- Rewriting the Chinese National Epic in an Age of Global Consumerism: City of Life and Death and The Flowers of War
- Fei Cheng Wu Rao (非诚勿扰): Staging Global China through International Format Television and Overseas Special Episodes
- Exporting the Communist Image: The 1976 Chinese Peasant Painting Exhibition in Britain
- Projecting the Good Life at Home and Abroad: Lineages of the Chinese National Image from 1949 to the Present
- New Public Diplomacy Meets Old Public Diplomacy – the Case of China and Its Confucius Institutes
- The Politics of Affect in Confucius Institutes: Re-orienting Foreigners towards the PRC
- Book Reviews
- Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel: The Syrian Dilemma
- Jaesok Kim: Chinese Labor in a Korean Factory: Class, Ethnicity, and Productivity on the Shop Floor in Globalizing China
- J. H. Elliott: History in the Making
- Daniel Brook: A History of Future Cities