Documenting the past: performativity and inter-subjectivity in the memory project

ABSTRACT

A growing number of Chinese independent documentaries about history and memory have emerged since 2000. This paper explores several documentaries of the Folk Memory Project: Wu Wenguang's Treatment (Zhiliao, 2010) and Zhang Mengqi's Self-Portrait series: Self-Portrait with Three Women (Zihuaxiang he san ge nüren, 2010), Self-Portrait: at 47 km (Zihuaxiang: 47 gongli, 2011), Self-portrait: Dancing at 47 km (Zihuaxiang: 47 gongli tiaowu, 2012) and Self-Portrait: Dreaming at 47 km (Zihuaxiang: 47 gongli zuomeng, 2013). Drawing on concepts of performativity and inter-subjectivity, I argue that Wu's and Zhang's documentaries highlight the subjective and dialogical dimensions of documentation and memory, making visible their techniques for dealing with past events in ways which invite further engagement and reflection. Wu's and Zhang's documentaries have enabled the utterance and affective sharing of muted memories. Moreover, these Chinese independent documentaries also represent a shift in style from austere, long-take realism toward more experimental, performative and self-reflexive works.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Wu Wenguang and Zhang Mengqi for their time and help. Comments from anonymous reviewers at JCC and Julian Ward were greatly beneficial for me during the revision process. I really appreciate a lot their hard work. Any and all remaining errors are my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Many people have argued that subjective position and performative tendency actually have roots in the very beginning of the ‘New Documentary Movement’ starting from the late 1980s (Robinson 2013; Zhang 2006, 2010). Zhang Yingjin contends that when independent directors declare ‘my camera doesn't lie’, the statement is actually more about the new positions than about ‘objectivity’; in other words, ‘(b)y declaring “my camera doesn't lie,” they broke through to the Chinese media and succeeded in reclaiming the space of subjectivity’ (2010, 119).

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Jing Meng

Jing Meng has taught Chinese Cinemas at University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Her published articles about representations of Chinese cultural memories on screens appear in journals including Media, Culture & Society and Studies in Documentary Film.