Ka Lee Wong
Fall 2023
TR1-2.30 (4-146)
The context of this class is set in the Chinese diaspora, which has occurred over centuries. This global diaspora is characterized by waves of Chinese-speaking population migrating to different parts of the world. Each wave of the diaspora has influenced the societies of where the immigrants settled, creating hybridized Chinese languages and cultures. These locations with diasporic Chinese communities have different trajectories in the development of their own national and cultural identities. In this class, we will examine the concept of “Chineseness” among these communities through cinemas from different locations with a significant size of Chinese-speaking population in East and Southeast Asia. Some questions we will ask include: to what extent, or under what circumstances, are long-distance nationalism and anti-China sentiments still at play in these communities? Is this connection to “Chineseness”necessarily present? If not “Chineseness”, what defines the configuration of their national and cultural identities? We will begin the course with exploring what constitutes the national cinema in mainland China. Then we will discuss Chinese cinemas elsewhere, such as the cinemas of Hong Kong and Taiwan, where the history of colonization and the civil wars had set them apart from the mainland, as well as Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Burma, which were popular destinations for the historical Chinese diaspora. Through discussing the political, social and cultural concerns and dynamics in and between these locations, we will interrogate how the selected films demonstrate, reinforce or challenge a unified version of Chinese culture, rethinking how we can imagine global Chinese cultures and identities in the 21stcentury.