{"title":"Mapping the AD Development Patterns Between China and Europe: China, Spain and the UK in Focus","authors":"Yuchen Liu","doi":"10.1515/jcfs-2022-0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jcfs-2022-0028","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract China is a country which has a substantial population with disabilities, and efforts to take care of their socio-cultural needs and make the physical environment accessible to them have proved challenging as the primary media access service in China AD is volunteer-dependent. However, the transition to professionalisation is already on track with efforts by a few AD stakeholders. At the same time, there are differences between AD development patterns in China and some European countries where AD has come of age (Tor-Carroggio, I., and G. Vercauteren. 2020. “When East Meets West: A Comparison of Audio Description Guidelines in China and Europe.” Hikma 19 (1): 167–86). The aim of this article is twofold: firstly, to systematise the differences in AD development between China and Europe, with Spain and the UK as reference countries; secondly, to investigate whether there are any areas where China and Europe can learn from each other to improve this service in the future. The results show that the high input from users in China can be useful for AD practices in Europe, while collaboration at all levels backed by European legislation can be essential in promoting AD professionalisation and standardisation in China.","PeriodicalId":342453,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Film Studies","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121538052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Enhancing Cinema Experience for Visually Impaired Persons in China: A Case Study on Shenzhen","authors":"Zi Ye, Huamei Jie","doi":"10.1515/jcfs-2022-0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jcfs-2022-0030","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Film is an essential medium through which people access information and participate in cultural activities. However, it is not equally accessible to everyone. In China, some visually impaired persons (VIPs) benefit from “barrier-free films” (无障碍电影, Wuzhang’ai Dianying), which help them access films through audio description (AD). AD provides oral descriptions of visual information without disturbing the original dialogue. China’s barrier-free film industry is progressing but remains at a preliminary stage, leaving potential deficiencies in VIPs’ film-watching experience. Relevant literature is scarce and often written in Chinese, constituting a barrier to connections with the international accessibility research community. Here, Shenzhen is used as an example to develop a holistic view of the status of China’s barrier-free film industry. Problems in the quantity, quality, physical facilities, and virtual services involved in AD are identified and recommendations regarding operating modes, accessibility training, and screening channels are proposed.","PeriodicalId":342453,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Film Studies","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133586614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Interview with Wei Ma on Audio Description Script Writing for Blind-Accessible Films in China","authors":"Yunke Deng, Weimin Ma","doi":"10.1515/jcfs-2022-0033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jcfs-2022-0033","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Blind-accessible films offer blind and visually impaired individuals the opportunity of enjoying a cinematic experience alongside the rest of the audience. Wei Ma is a member of the China Film and Television Association of Higher Education Institutions. His book, How to Make Blind-accessible Films in China, provides an overview of the evolution of blind-accessible films in Europe and the United States, elaborates on the growth and development of blind-accessible films in China, and provides a comprehensive exploration of the theory behind audio description (AD) and AD script-writing methods for blind-accessible films. In this interview, Ma Wei elaborates on blind-accessible film AD script-writing skills from both practical and theoretical perspectives and discusses some creative rules, methods, and techniques in AD. This interview was conducted online in January 2022 and is based on the final interview transcript in Chinese, which Wei Ma confirmed in May 2022.","PeriodicalId":342453,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Film Studies","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127063813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction to the Special Section: Film Accessibility for Blind and Low Vision Viewers in China","authors":"Xiaochun Zhang","doi":"10.1515/jcfs-2023-0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jcfs-2023-0024","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":342453,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Film Studies","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116347168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“She Deserves It All (?)”: Romance and Tradition in Qiong Yao Films of the 1960s","authors":"Xuelin Zhou","doi":"10.1515/jcfs-2023-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jcfs-2023-0012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Qiong Yao films are known for telling stories of romance. This essay focuses on the female characters in Qiong Yao films produced by the Grand Motion Picture Company (GMP) in the 1960s. Founded by Li Han-xiang in 1963, GMP played a key role in the evolution of Taiwan cinema in general and Qiong Yao films in particular. The 1960s was to Taiwan a time of political and ideological conservatism. Discipline and obedience to authorities were prioritized as an official strategy to celebrate the traditional values and principles of Chinese culture. The Confucian-oriented ideology toward women dominated. The paper proposes that most women portrayed in the Qiong Yao films by GMP remain in the traditional status, emotionally and economically dependent on men. The paper posits that the gender-based/biased authoritarian hierarchy represented in these romantic dramas was closely associated to the patriarchal social structure and the mainstream political ideology. GMP’s 1968 film Love Eternal will be used as a case study to show how “the limits of proprieties” must be followed and what devastating effects were produced in the case when these traditional values were challenged and violated.","PeriodicalId":342453,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Film Studies","volume":"0 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131344115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Reconstruction of “Cinema as the Vehicle of Dao”: On the Methodology of Combining Traditional Chinese Culture and Film Theory","authors":"Haizhou Wang, Yifeng Lin","doi":"10.1515/jcfs-2023-0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jcfs-2023-0022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The methodology of combining traditional Chinese culture and film studies is of significant interest to Chinese film theory. Besides revealing traditional cultural characteristics of Chinese films, film studies should also explore the nature of cinema. Hence, the task of inheriting traditional Chinese culture extends far beyond the conversion of concepts from classical literature to modern literature, to that of illuminating the philosophy behind those concepts. Such an exploration may be illustrated by revisiting the traditional phrase, “essay as the vehicle of Dao”. Through an analysis of different layers of Dao, and with the phrase reshaped as “cinema as the vehicle of Dao”, the scope of enquiry stretches from theme to ontology and epistemology, where a conversation between Chinese film theory and Western film theory may be found.","PeriodicalId":342453,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Film Studies","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125967560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Kongqi” Theory and the Aesthetic Spirit of Chinese Film","authors":"Daoxin Li","doi":"10.1515/jcfs-2023-0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jcfs-2023-0015","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Based on the traditional Chinese “kong view” and “qi view” of classical literature and art, this article aims to further construct localized Chinese film theory, by combining methods and approaches to media archeology, and comparing Chinese and foreign literary aesthetics and film art poetics. The ancient Chinese word “dianying” (electric shadow) basically carries the same connotations as the modern word “cinema”, which is internally connected. The “kong view” (empty) and the “qi view” constitute the Chinese aesthetic foundation for the “kongqi” (atmosphere) theory of Chinese film. This theory has been nourished by western aesthetics since the 1920s, absorbing both film spirit theory and film art poetics. With exchanges and dialogues between ancient and modern language, and between China and other countries, this article examines the ways in which the “kongqi” (atmosphere) theory has nurtured a large number of outstanding Chinese film authors, and highlights the aesthetic spirit of “One World One Qi” that is perceived in Chinese films.","PeriodicalId":342453,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Film Studies","volume":"77 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121608760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Comparative Analysis of “Rural Science Fiction”, a New Chinese Film Genre","authors":"Min-Ling Huang, Ling-Li Xiang","doi":"10.1515/jcfs-2022-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jcfs-2022-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract “Rural Science Fiction” (RSF) is a new category of science fiction comedy film, which has recently emerged in China. In RSF, modern farmers are presented as the protagonist, and alien visitors as the other. In the context of changing rural environments, two opposing views are expressed, which leads to a unique comedy: on the one hand, the vision of longing inspired by the trends of commercialization, industrialization, and urbanization; and on the other hand, the worthlessness of these trends. In RSF, thoughts concerning the prospect of technology, the future of human beings, and the interstellar interactions are mainly carried out from the perspective of country folks, whose wisdom is shown through indigenous methods that are adapted to local conditions. As a result, the “low-tech” earthmen typically defeat the “high-tech” aliens.","PeriodicalId":342453,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Film Studies","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126854478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On the “Imagination Consumption” of Film in the Internet Age","authors":"Xuguang Chen","doi":"10.1515/jcfs-2023-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jcfs-2023-0008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The discussion regarding artistic imagination, and the artist’s subjective imagination, has long been an important issue for Chinese and foreign art theories. In the Internet Age, film imagination and “imagination consumption” show new features such as the fantasy of surreality, virtual reality, simulacra, and the aesthetics of “post-conditional theatre”. Films in the Internet age enrich the theory of film industrial aesthetics with fruitful practices. The article concludes with four types of film styles relevant to the “imagination consumption”: first, films which include modes of surreality, the aesthetic of conditional theatre and allegory; second, films from the mysterious fantasy and magic genres; third, films from the science fiction genre; and fourth, films from the film-game convergence genre. This article further notes the connection between such films, the dependence upon simulacra by today’s youth audience, and their demand for “imagination consumption”, suggesting the approach of the age of “imagination consumption”.","PeriodicalId":342453,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Film Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128176813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Animating Eco-aesthetics: Multiplanar Images, Interspecies Government, and Eco-conscious Gaming in The Legend of Hei (2019) and Its TV Series (2011–Present)","authors":"Li Guo","doi":"10.1515/jcfs-2022-0037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jcfs-2022-0037","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study on the animation feature The Legend of Hei (2019) and its TV animation series (2011 to the present) endeavors to explore nascent models of eco-aesthetics in Chinese animation through an intersectional framework bridging studies of eco-politics, eco-cinema, and contemporary animation and media studies. Through close analysis of multiplanar imaging and limited animation in the animation feature, I discuss how varied animation techniques in the film contribute to aesthetic effects of appearance and disappearance, diversified characterization, and representations of contesting models of ecological subjectivities, bio-politics, and environmental governance. Contrary to a radical ecologist’s approach that resorts to forceful undertakings to “rescue nature,” the animation projects an alternative ethico-political method that promotes co-existence, inter-species governance, tolerance, and the art of “letting be.” The latter half of the essay situates the TV animation series The Battle of Luo Xiaohei in the milieu of eco-cinema and media ecology. I argue that the TV animation’s transmedial presentation of ACG gaming, platformativity, and parasocial participation of gamers, human characters and elfin alike, offer new insights on videogaming as social and cultural responses to environmental crises, also drawing attention to the ethico-political potential of parasocial gameplay in promoting democratic ideals of ecosystem governance.","PeriodicalId":342453,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chinese Film Studies","volume":"73 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131558238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}