Adapted for the Screen: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Fiction and Film - Hardcover

Deppman, Hsiu-Chuang

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0824833732 ISBN 13: 9780824833732

Publisher: University of Hawai'i Press, 2010

Synopsis

Contemporary Chinese films are popular with audiences worldwide, but a key reason for their success has gone unnoticed: many of the films are adapted from brilliant literary works. This book is the first to put these landmark films in the context of their literary origins and explore how the best Chinese directors adapt fictional narratives and styles for film. Hsiu-Chuang Deppman unites aesthetics with history in her argument that the rise of cinema in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in the late 1980s was partly fueled by burgeoning literary movements. Fifth Generation director Zhang Yimou's highly acclaimed films ""Red Sorghum"", ""Raise the Red Lantern"", and ""To Live"" are built on the experimental works of Mo Yan, Su Tong, and Yu Hua, respectively. Hong Kong New Wave's Ann Hui and Stanley Kwan capitalized on the irresistible visual metaphors of Eileen Chang's postrealism. Hou Xiaoxian's new Taiwan cinema turned to fiction by Huang Chunming and Zhu Tianwen for fine-grained perspectives on class and gender relations. Delving equally into the individual approaches of directors and writers, Deppman initiates readers into the exciting possibilities emanating from the world of Chinese cinema. The seven in-depth studies include a diverse array of forms (cinematic adaptation of literature, literary adaptation of film, auto-adaptation, and non-narrative adaptation) and a variety of genres (martial arts, melodrama, romance, autobiography, and documentary drama).

About this title

About the Author

Hsiu-Chuang Deppman is associate professor of Chinese at Oberlin College.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Hawai'i Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0824833732
• ISBN 13: 9780824833732
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256