Chinese film spaces: the social locations and media of urban independent screen consumption

Abstract

Drawing upon rich detailed data collected through ethnography in the capital city of Beijing, China, this article examines the social locations and media used for watching Chinese independent films. Three key research questions frame the article. (1) Who are the audiences of Chinese independent films? (2) Under what circumstances do they watch the films? (3) What are the broader social consequences of watching independent films in China? Empirically, I focus on two particular locations of consumption – film clubs and independently organized film festivals, and two media of viewing – DVDs and the Internet. Analytically, I argue that consumption enables the production of Chinese independent films in two ways. First, literally, by providing knowledge, resources and personal networks for independent film production. Second, metaphorically, by making Chinese independent films become social reality by providing opportunities for circulation and exhibition of the officially illegal cultural product. I conclude the article by reflecting upon the utility of the emerging concept of prosumption for analysing film consumption in China.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Albert Moran and Karina Aveyard for insightful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts. I also want to thank anonymous reviewers whose very constructive criticisms helped me to improve the article. I take full responsibility for any remaining errors and omissions.

Notes

^1. I group and discuss together DVDs and the Internet as ‘media of viewing’ because they exist in a different order from ‘locations of consumption’ of film clubs and film festivals. The main medium the film clubs and film festivals use to show films is DVD, including both those purchased at DVD stores and DVDs self-burned by film directors. DVDs are also purchased by individual film viewers and watched privately, but the detailed discussion of how individual viewers watch Chinese independent films, e.g. at their home, requires different kinds of data and methods, and is beyond the scope of this article. As of this writing (March 2013), the Internet has not been used for watching films collectively in film clubs and film festivals probably due to the lack of availability, in specific sites of viewing, of the high-quality Internet connection with the bandwidth needed to stream films for collective viewing in large screens. Theoretically, film clubs and festival organizers could download films in advance using the Internet, and then show films stored in personal computers. Due to the portability and convenience of DVDs, however, the preferred medium used for collective viewing is DVDs. For individual viewing, the Internet has become one of the main media. Again, however, detailed analysis of how individual viewers watch Chinese independent films privately using the Internet is beyond the scope of this article. Table 1 clarifies the objects of study in this article.

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Notes on contributors

Seio Nakajima

Seio Nakajima teaches sociology at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. He has conducted organizational analyses of Chinese film industry, as well as ethnographies of Chinese film audiences and consumption. His research has appeared in From Underground to Independent (P. G. Pickowicz and Y. Zhang, eds. [2006]), Reclaiming Chinese Society (Y. Hsing and C. K. Lee, eds. [2009]) and The New Chinese Documentary Film Movement (C. Berry, L. Xinyu and L. Rofel, eds. [2010]). He has recently expanded his research interests to sociology of art, and his ‘Prosumption in Art’ (2012) has appeared in American Behavioral Scientist.