This preliminary consideration of genre and memory explores the appearance of colonial Taiwan in the work of Japanese and Taiwan filmmakers. Visuality and identification in cinema, the pragmatic and affective dimensio...This preliminary consideration of genre and memory explores the appearance of colonial Taiwan in the work of Japanese and Taiwan filmmakers. Visuality and identification in cinema, the pragmatic and affective dimensions of memory, and the colonial and postcolonial viewing subject are discussed. Also noted in this essay are the apparatuses of recording and reproducing music and the human voice, ideologies, and time in Taiwan during the twentieth century. The examination of postcolonial and colonial documentaries and postcolonial fiction films suggests that colonial filmmakers often demonstrate a utopian outlook, while postcolonial cinema tends to adopt a dystopian, retrospective gaze These examinations, in turn, comprise a reflection, on multiple levels, of diegetic register and on the uniquely Taiwan Residents visual and aural aspects of these multi-lingual films. In summary, this article is an attempt to highlight the powerful and sometimes subversive uses of film in the propagation and circulation of a postcolonial Taiwan Residents identity which transcends national boundaries, and the polarizing, moribund research that they engender, so that scholars might better understand the postcolonial condition.展开更多
This essay suggests memory studies, ecocriticism, and trauma studies as new avenues for the study of rustic, ated youth narratives. Towards reaching this goal, I first introduce a meditation on memory by Paul Ricoeur ...This essay suggests memory studies, ecocriticism, and trauma studies as new avenues for the study of rustic, ated youth narratives. Towards reaching this goal, I first introduce a meditation on memory by Paul Ricoeur （1913-2005）, especially his sketch of memory and imagination with classical Greek philosophy His ideas on affective and practical me^aaories are then telescoped into individual and communal memories. Onze Fleurs （Wo shiyi, 2011）, directed by Wang Xiaoshuai （1966-）, and The River without Buoys （Meiyou hangbiao de heliu, 1984）, directed by Wu Tianming （1939-2014） provide illustrative examples of each. Building upon these notions of personal memory I turn to the popular memory of rustication, especially that of the natural environment in Liang Xiaosheng＇s ＂A Land of Wonder and Mystery＂ （＂Zhe shi yipian shenqi de tudi,＂ 1985）. More specifically I examine the,, evocation of the ghost marsh, narratives of departure, the family left in the city, and the menace of nature in Liang＇s short story to force not only a reconsideration of rustication, but also of nature in contemporary China. Moreover, in addition to noting the questioning of the sanitization of rusticated memories as a means of conforming to dominant state ideological discourses, I introduce a comparison of the story of doomed rusticated youth to the doomed youth in Sean Penn＇s lnto the Wild, in order to force a comparison of youth and the environment often overlooked in rusticated youth studies. Finally, this essay concludes by suggesting that by more carefully considering the interplay between memory and place more nuanced and perhaps more ecologically and critically engaged assessments of rusticated youth fiction become possible.展开更多
文摘This preliminary consideration of genre and memory explores the appearance of colonial Taiwan in the work of Japanese and Taiwan filmmakers. Visuality and identification in cinema, the pragmatic and affective dimensions of memory, and the colonial and postcolonial viewing subject are discussed. Also noted in this essay are the apparatuses of recording and reproducing music and the human voice, ideologies, and time in Taiwan during the twentieth century. The examination of postcolonial and colonial documentaries and postcolonial fiction films suggests that colonial filmmakers often demonstrate a utopian outlook, while postcolonial cinema tends to adopt a dystopian, retrospective gaze These examinations, in turn, comprise a reflection, on multiple levels, of diegetic register and on the uniquely Taiwan Residents visual and aural aspects of these multi-lingual films. In summary, this article is an attempt to highlight the powerful and sometimes subversive uses of film in the propagation and circulation of a postcolonial Taiwan Residents identity which transcends national boundaries, and the polarizing, moribund research that they engender, so that scholars might better understand the postcolonial condition.
文摘This essay suggests memory studies, ecocriticism, and trauma studies as new avenues for the study of rustic, ated youth narratives. Towards reaching this goal, I first introduce a meditation on memory by Paul Ricoeur （1913-2005）, especially his sketch of memory and imagination with classical Greek philosophy His ideas on affective and practical me^aaories are then telescoped into individual and communal memories. Onze Fleurs （Wo shiyi, 2011）, directed by Wang Xiaoshuai （1966-）, and The River without Buoys （Meiyou hangbiao de heliu, 1984）, directed by Wu Tianming （1939-2014） provide illustrative examples of each. Building upon these notions of personal memory I turn to the popular memory of rustication, especially that of the natural environment in Liang Xiaosheng＇s ＂A Land of Wonder and Mystery＂ （＂Zhe shi yipian shenqi de tudi,＂ 1985）. More specifically I examine the,, evocation of the ghost marsh, narratives of departure, the family left in the city, and the menace of nature in Liang＇s short story to force not only a reconsideration of rustication, but also of nature in contemporary China. Moreover, in addition to noting the questioning of the sanitization of rusticated memories as a means of conforming to dominant state ideological discourses, I introduce a comparison of the story of doomed rusticated youth to the doomed youth in Sean Penn＇s lnto the Wild, in order to force a comparison of youth and the environment often overlooked in rusticated youth studies. Finally, this essay concludes by suggesting that by more carefully considering the interplay between memory and place more nuanced and perhaps more ecologically and critically engaged assessments of rusticated youth fiction become possible.
