AEMS: NEH

Context

After the Opium Wars in the 1840s and internal rebellions, elites in the late Qing dynasty debated how to modernize without destroying tradition. But the collapse of the last dynasty and the founding of a republic opened China to foreign literature, art, and even social reforms, without providing political stability. The 1919 May Fourth or New Culture Movement after World War I called upon youth to abandon the "old" society and welcome world culture, setting the stage for Mao's revolution.

Over the following generations, authors who emerged in the New Culture Movement used stories, novels and films to expose the oppression of the old society, to resist imperialism, and to debate how to build a new China. The increasing reliance on film as a new medium for social mobilization made the 1930s China's "golden era of cinema." After 1949, the May Fourth literary classics were made into films which provided cultural legitimacy for the new regime. Mao's Cultural Revolution of the 1960s created chaos and appropriated the rhetoric of New Culture to attack his enemies. After Mao's death in 1976, this close relationship between politics, literature, and film created a new generation of film directors (the so-called "Fifth Generation") who explored historical themes in a popular medium.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), filmmaking was restricted; only the eight "model" operas and openly propagandist films were circulated, and many of the pre-1949 films and most foreign films were banned altogether. In the years after 1978, when China began to loosen restrictions and became more open to the world, the pre-1949 films were gradually re-released, foreign features were imported, and the Beijing Film Institute enrolled its first class since the Cultural Revolution. This first group of students became known later as the "Fifth Generation," are represented in the work of Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige. Chinese filmmakers today are at the cutting edge of their art, exploring boundaries with new cinematic forms that combine elements of both documentary and fiction filmmaking.


	Introduction Context Program Format Faculty Location Accommodations Completed Institute Contact	Context After the Opium Wars in the 1840s and internal rebellions, elites in the late Qing dynasty debated how to modernize without destroying tradition. But the collapse of the last dynasty and the founding of a republic opened China to foreign literature, art, and even social reforms, without providing political stability. The 1919 May Fourth or New Culture Movement after World War I called upon youth to abandon the "old" society and welcome world culture, setting the stage for Mao's revolution. Over the following generations, authors who emerged in the New Culture Movement used stories, novels and films to expose the oppression of the old society, to resist imperialism, and to debate how to build a new China. The increasing reliance on film as a new medium for social mobilization made the 1930s China's "golden era of cinema." After 1949, the May Fourth literary classics were made into films which provided cultural legitimacy for the new regime. Mao's Cultural Revolution of the 1960s created chaos and appropriated the rhetoric of New Culture to attack his enemies. After Mao's death in 1976, this close relationship between politics, literature, and film created a new generation of film directors (the so-called "Fifth Generation") who explored historical themes in a popular medium. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), filmmaking was restricted; only the eight "model" operas and openly propagandist films were circulated, and many of the pre-1949 films and most foreign films were banned altogether. In the years after 1978, when China began to loosen restrictions and became more open to the world, the pre-1949 films were gradually re-released, foreign features were imported, and the Beijing Film Institute enrolled its first class since the Cultural Revolution. This first group of students became known later as the "Fifth Generation," are represented in the work of Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige. Chinese filmmakers today are at the cutting edge of their art, exploring boundaries with new cinematic forms that combine elements of both documentary and fiction filmmaking.