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Working the system: Motion picture, filmmakers, and subjectivities in Mao-era China, 1949-1966
Author(s)
Date Issued
2023
Publisher
Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN
9789888805600
9789888805211
Citation
He, Q. (2023). Working the system: Motion picture, filmmakers, and subjectivities in Mao-era China, 1949-1966. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Type
Book
Abstract
In Working the System: Motion Picture, Filmmakers, and Subjectivities in Mao-Era China, 1949–1966, Qiliang He inquired into the making of the new citizenry in Mao-era China (1949–1976) by studying five preeminent Shanghai-based filmmakers. These case studies shed light on how individuals’ subjectivities took shape in the cinematic arena under a new sociopolitical system after 1949. He suggests that a filmmaker’s subjectivity was not fixed or stable but constantly in flux, requiring a host of “subjectivizing practices” to (re)shape and consolidate it. These filmmakers endeavored to reap maximal benefits from Mao’s sociopolitical system and minimize the disadvantages that would make them victims under the system. In short, Qiliang He argues that the filmmakers not only worked under the socialist system imposed upon them but also worked the system in their best interests.
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