The Poetics of Chinese Cinema

Gary Bettinson is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at Lancaster University, UK and author of The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai: Film Poetics and the Aesthetic of Disturbance (Hong Kong University Press), and chief editor of Asian Cinema journal.

James Udden is Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at Gettysburg College, USA. He has published extensively on Asian cinema including the book-length monograph, No Man an Island: The Cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien (Hong Kong University Press). His current book project concerns the improbable, parallel rise of Taiwan and Iran in the international festival world starting in the mid-1980s.

This book examines the aesthetic qualities of particular Chinese-language films and the rich artistic traditions from which they spring. It brings together leading experts in the field, and encompasses detailed and wide-ranging case studies of films such as Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Spring in a Small Town, 24 City, and The Grandmaster, and filmmakers including Hou Hsiao-hsien, Jia Zhangke, Chen Kaige, Fei Mu, Zhang Yimou, Johnnie To, and Wong Kar-wai. By illuminating the form and style of Chinese films from across cinema history, The Poetics of Chinese Cinema testifies to the artistic value and uniqueness of Chinese-language filmmaking. 

.1 Introduction: The Poetics of Chinese Cinema Gary Bettinson.-.2  Five Lessons from Stealth Poetics David Bordwell.-.3Red Poetics: The Films of the Chinese Cultural Revolution Revolutionary Model Operas Chris Berry.-.4            Renewal of Classical Painting Aesthetics Combined with a Contemplative Modernism in the Early Work of Chen Kaige Peter Rist.-.5       Poetics of Two Springs: Fei Mu vs. Tian Zhuangzhuang James Udden.-.6 Remaking Ozu: Hou Hsiao-hsien's Café Lumiere Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh.-.7 Hong Kong Puzzle Films: The Persistence of Tradition Gary Bettinson.-.8 Can Poetics Break Bricks? Song Hwee Lim.-.9 Poetics of Parapraxis and Reeducation: The Hong Kong Cantonese Cinema in the 1950s Victor Fan.-.10 China as Documentary: Some Basic Questions (Inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni and Jia Zhangke) Rey Chow.