Chinese Revolutionary Cinema: Propaganda, Aesthetics and Internationalism, 1949–1966, by Jessica Ka Yee Chan

Abstract

In Chinese Revolutionary Cinema: Propaganda, Aesthetics and Internationalism,Jessica Ka Yee Chan brings new research and fresh insight to bear on the Seventeen Years, a period still understudied in Anglophone scholarship. Foregrounding the unique processes by which filmmakers of the early People’s Republic of China (PRC) produced works that gave expression to revolutionary values, Chan gets to the heart of what makes the period so singular. At the same time, her analysis puts to rest the notion that the Red Films were produced in a context of national isolation. In this, Chan continues the work of scholars like Zhuoyi Wang, Qi Xiaoping, Cai Xiang, Ban Wang and Krista Van Fleit Hang, who have likewise sought to produce a more nuanced portrait of the transnational flows that informed these unique films.

Keywords

• chinese cinema
• propaganda film
• propaganda aesthetics
• modern chinese history
• chinese film history