Introduction to the Fifth Issue
ZHANG Hua[1]
In the Internet era, watching movies is much more convenient, the quantity has changed greatly compared with the past, and the quality change can also be measured by data. It can be watched in the home theater, and the privacy is greatly enhanced; it can also be viewed in the public cinema to achieve the effect that is difficult to achieve in the home cinema; some films that we wanted to see but could not see in the past are now readily available.
Wu Tianming, a famous director, has a very important and special position in the history of Chinese film and even in the history of world film, and is an indispensable and irreplaceable figure in the fourth generation of directors. After Wu Tianming’s death in 2014, a series of commemorative articles were published in the domestic media, and later a commemorative collection was published, but relatively few academic research papers were published. Among foreign academic circles, the scholars from University of South Carolina in the United States began to study Wu Tianming earlier, with a variety of perspectives and rich viewpoints, which stems from the fact that the University of South Carolina has the richest and most complete Chinese theme film materials in the world, and has a strong and complete teaching and research team, Professor YE Tan is the team leader. The five English papers included in this issue of Sino-American Journal of Comparative Literature are all from this university, four of which are about Chinese film studies.
Speaking of Chinese film studies, I ever gave several keynote speeches at the Annual International Forum on Chinese Cinema held by the University of South Carolina, one of them in 2012 entitled How to Understand Chinese Films Today? I would like to take this opportunity to put part of it here.
If you ever read about Luxun, one of the greatest modern writers and poets in 1930s, you probably know one of his famous essays titled How should we be a father today?（《今天我们如何做父亲？》）I give my paper’s title How do we understand Chinese Films Today from his essay’s inspiration. This title in Chinese, it is“今天我们如何看中国电影?”(Jintian Women Ruhe Kan Dianying ?) This看（kan）has two meanings, one is观看, means “ to watch”, another is看待, means “to look on”, “to understand”. Although in English, I used “understand”, when I talk about “ How to”, I still take care of both meanings.
Actually, it is no exaggeration to say that in the“theoretical circles”or academia of today’s China, few people know the original meaning of “theory” (Theorein, Theoria, “watching”“contemplation”) let alone its historical evolution. Anyway, I will not talk about the original meaning of “theory” which is also“watching”like Chinese看（kan）. Nevertheless, how to watch film （如何看电影？Ruhe Kan Dianying ?）should not be a question. You only need to sit there, you may stand or lie there if you prefer, and watch. Then, since 100 readers can get 100 Hamlets, everybody can have their own understanding or interpretation about what they have watched. But, a question always is raised by others after their watching. That is看懂了吗（Kandong le ma）, that means: Did you fully understand the film you just watching? Or, sometimes it becomes a very common comment or direct answer even nobody asks the question after watching,我没看懂。这电影想说明什么？(Wo Mei Kandong. Zhe Dianying Xiang Shuoming Shenme? I could not understand, what does the film tell us?) This phenomenon, in some sense, has become a reading custom of Chinese readers or watching custom of Chinese audience. In other words, it has become part of Chinese film culture.
From my understanding, it may not be correct, I generally classify world film into two sorts or categories, one is artistic film, like the European countries especially France always made; another sort is entertainment film, like the Hollywood always making. Of course, I am saying this doesn’t mean artistic film does not have entertainment, and vice versa. But, if you take a look at Chinese films today, you’ll find it is quite difficult to put all the films of today’s China into those two categories.
I myself classify Chinese films in a way that “whether it is easy to be understood”, then the first level should be the films which are easiest in understanding—主旋律电影(main theme films), for instance,五个一工程电影(Five One Project Film[2]). Those kind of films are moving, even kids are tearing when they are watching. It is never difficult to be understood. Sometimes it has artistic consideration, and most are paying more attention on political ideology; Second level, easier in understanding—贺岁片(New Year’s Film), film makers of this kind of films pursue or seek a joint of entertainment with artistic, but they have to express a main theme which can be accept, because of this, it often made the film like the first sort; Third level, difficult in understanding—including artistic films like what JIA Zhangke made, even anthropological films. Some people call it ethnographical films.
When you mentioned about artistic films, a lot of people will think they are obscure. Even the Red Sorghum, one of the earlier works of MO Yan, the Nobel Prize winner in literature, made by ZHANG Yimou. When it was first screening 30 years ago, most the audience said it was difficult to be understood. The Red Sorghum directed by ZHANG Yimou, as the first Chinese film representative won an international award at that moment. Lots of people think that is because this film shows Chinese people have no culture, exposes the badly-rooted Chinese habit. Somebody even said the reason it won the prizes because it tells the world that Chinese also have wild nature, also can make love in the red sorghum field…Even the Brokeback and Lust, Caution made by LI An （Ang Lee）, I found many people said they were not able to understand, and keep on asking what LI An wants to tell us. They said in the Brokeback they only got the homosexuality and in Lust, Caution they take it as三级片（X-rated film） .
Talking about the anthropological films or Ethnographical films, I would like to introduce a very close friend, John Paul Sniadecki. He likes people call him J. P. or史杰鹏(SHI Jiepeng). I organized for him several film screenings at BLCU, which including 《松花》（Songhua）《拆、迁》(Chai, Qian) and 《四川记事》（Sichuan Jishi），New York Parts，etc. He got many award in France, Germany and Denmark by his works, but when these films were screening in BLCU, many many people commented that why this kind of films can get international awards? The audience keep on ask these kind of questions is because they may not fully understand these kind of films. So these kind of films only can find their bosom friends in some certain circles.
Actually, in my attitude, we got used to the meta-narratives, got used to listen to others telling us stories. When we were kids, we listened to our parents; when we were teenagers, we listened to our teachers, when we got a job, we still have to listen to others telling stories.
Today, there is a saying quite popular, which is “学会讲好中国故
事”—that means “learning to tell Chinese stories well”. I think, before we telling a Chinese story to other countries, we need to understand ourselves well, that apparently includes understanding Chinese films. I know I did not give a answer to the question on the title, only raised this question, but you know it is very important to think independently and will have your own answer about that.
Another English article in this issue, not about film, but about education, is written by Daria SMIRNOVA from Russia, who is currently studying for a doctorate in comparative literature at the University of South Carolina in the United States. This article is her speech at the 21st Annual Conference of Comparative Literature in South Carolina (Borders and Borderlands in the Age of Globalization, March 29-30, 2019, USC.)
The themes of the three Chinese articles are also very distinct, all of which are related to Sino-American literary exchanges and Qiao-Yiology, to be more precise, the three articles have interpreted and studied a key academic project achievement of China, The History of Sino-Foreign Literary Exchange, from the perspective or angle of Qiao-Yiology, and the focus of the three articles is on Sino-American volumes.
In recent years, more and more people have learned about the study of Qiao-Yiology in China’s domestic academic circles, and in the international arena, German scholars who pay attention to Sinology and Chinese studies have also learned about it. It is an academic method or interpretation perspective initiated by Professor YE Jun. In other words, Qiao-Yiology is a term that can best represent and reflect Professor YE Jun’s academic achievements. YE Jun is currently a professor of Humanities College of Tongji University and a doctoral supervisor of cultural history and philosophy. He has done research in academic institutions in Britain, France and Germany. Monographs include Bian-Chuang and Jian-Chang—the idea of Qiao-Yiology（《变创与渐常—侨易学的观念》），A Theoretical Introduction to the Germanology（《德国学理论初探》），The Game Playing of the Different Cultures （《异文化博弈》），The Transformation of the Subject（《主体的迁变》），The Other Western Learning（《另一种西学》），The Making of Goethe’s Thoughts（《歌德思想之形成》），Study on the Academic History of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe（《歌德学术史研究》） and so on; The collection of academic essays includes the Spiritual Criterion of the University（《大学的精神尺度》），The Spiritual Trouble of the Epoch—Essays on the German-speaking Literature（《时代的精神忧患：德语文学论集》），Essays on the Sino-German Cultural Relationships（《中德文化关系评论集》） and so on; Professor YE is also chief editor of Sino-German Culture Series（《中德文化丛书》），Academic Studies in the Republic of China Series（《民国学术丛刊》），History of Study Abroad Series（《留学史丛书》） and so on; He translated Education and the Future（《教育与未来》） with others as well. His academic interests now focus on German classical literature, intellectual history and Qiao-Yiology.
The magazine Beautiful Prose（Meiwen, 《美文》) edited by the famous Chinese writer JIA Pingwa, once published an essay entitled “Cherishing the Memory of Grandparents” written by YE Jun. At the end of the essay, YE Jun wrote: “Every individual can’t avoid the fate of struggling in the great era. Grandfather is like this, and so is grandmother. Their life course is insignificant, and it seems so insignificant against the background of the great era. I often wonder, without my records and thinking, whether their life history is bound to be like a lonely leaf withering in autumn, coming and going alone, leaving no trace of stars in the great history? But when I heard such an elaboration of life history, I was moved, not only as an individual’s sympathy and sadness, but also as a historian’s consciousness and touch.”
Out of the academic understanding of Professor YE Jun, when I read here, I feel that this prose in memory of my grandparents is the extension of his academic thinking of studying and writing history, from the celebrities and masters in the traditional academic history, ideological history and life history to the unknown generation, and then to the most ordinary life individual. From grand narrative, major achievements, great course to ordinary and universal feelings, mental journey and even details of life.
The basic idea of Qiao-Yiology is Yi caused by Qiao. The former emphasizes the integration of space dimension, while the latter focuses on the evolution of time dimension, which includes not only the formation and creation of individual ideas caused by material displacement and spiritual roaming, but also the interaction and spiritual deformation of different cultural subsystems. Popularly speaking, it is to grasp the changeable law of the spiritual level by carefully observing the material or physical migration or displacement of the object of study. Qiao comes from LI Shizeng’s Outline of Qiao(Qiaoxue Fafan, 《侨学发凡》 ) and Yi comes from the Book of Changes（《易经》 ). This also constitutes YE Jun’s two theoretical bases for putting forward the Qiao-Yiology. YE Jun hopes to excavate the rich resources of Qiao-Yiology, establish the research object, core content and basic principles of Qiao-Yiology, and on this basis, apply this approach to analyze a large number of cases in academic history to verify and improve this theory.
Apparently, this world is a world of moving and changing both physically and spiritually. The Humboldt Forum has set up a sub-forum on Qiao-Yiology for many times, and it was set up again in 2020. Scholars from different countries and different humanities disciplines once again exchanged on Qiao-Yiology. This also fully shows that Qiao-Yiology is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural academic perspective，approach and vision, and after its theoretical system is perfected, there will be different disciplines of Qiao-Yiology, such as Qiao-Yiology of literature, Qiao-Yiology of philosophy and Qiao-Yiology of history. I am very much looking forward to this and full of confidence for this.
[1] 作者为北京语言大学比较文学与世界文学专业教授，博士生导师，《中美比较文学》集刊中方主编。
[2] Five One Project means one good book, one good TV series, one good play, one good film, and one good article.