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Abstract:
This article argues that contemporary independent documentary filmmaking in China has been used as a tool by Chinese citizens to intervene in the public sphere and to provoke social change. I therefore propose to look at the phenomenon of Chinese video activism under the umbrella of alternative media. In particular, I take into consideration the “rhizomatic” media approach, which focuses on the interaction of alternative media with authority, the market and civil society. The case studies I present consist of several documentary projects completed between 2004 and 2010 that opened up spaces of dialogue between filmmakers and local authority, mass media and civil society. The paper claims that documentary films have an impact on audiences, whose members are consequently motivated to engage in discussion and action. I argue that activist video-making in China is reshaping the identity of urban citizens: through filmmaking, urban citizens claim their right to access information and demonstrate their will to participate and intervene in social issues.
摘 要
本文认为，当代中国独立纪录片制作已被中国公民用来作为一种工具，以此介入社会公共领域，并推动社会变革。因此，我提出要注意到另类媒体背后的中国纪录片激进主义现象。我也特别考虑到“草根”媒体的出现，该类媒体侧重于与权力机构、市场以及民间社会的互动。我介绍的案例研究包括完成于2004年至2010年间的数个纪录片项目，这些项目开辟了纪录片制作者与当地行政管理机构、大众媒体和民间社会之间的对话空间。本文提出，部分观众会在纪录片的影响下，积极参与讨论并且会采取行动。我认为，在中国，激进主义纪录片制作正在重塑城市公民的自我认同感：通过纪录片的制作，城市公民会主张他们对相关信息的知情权和展示他们参与和介入社会问题的意愿。
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Gary Sigley and two anonymous reviewers for Asian Studies Review for their helpful comments on this article.
Notes
1. Although it is currently blocked in China and can only be accessed through a paid VPN provider, Twitter is a powerful online tool capable of shaping the debate over human rights abuses and driving citizens’ activism.
2. See, for example, the so-called cine piquetero, a political documentary movement that emerged in 2001 amidst the Argentine economic crisis.
3. Chu Yingchi’s book Chinese documentary: From dogma to polyphony (2007) links documentary films to the creation of democratic public spheres in China. She argues that the traditional centralised, ideologically-controlled production (“dogmatic mode”) of documentary films changed to the post-1990s “polyphonic mode” in which different voices emerged and different points of view stimulated debate and created a kind of public sphere of media.
4. Karamay is a city in the autonomous region of Xinjiang in Western China.
5. These considerations are drawn from several conversations with activist filmmakers in China (2009–10).
6. Environmental activist and filmmaker Shi Lihong (The voice of the Nu River), who studied filmmaking in the United States, outlines the many problems faced by Chinese video activists. The search for a sponsor for a project is not practical, since it would delay shooting and it would also be very hard to find anyone to fund a project that might go against government policy. International support would call too much attention to the project and potentially be seen as “foreign interference in domestic affairs”. Screenings among the population are often organised at the last moment and hidden, because the local government would otherwise stop them. As she ironically states, “sometimes we can’t even shoot, let alone do anything else!” (Interview, 2009).
7. Involved are those intellectuals who share the ideas and are part of a network of those who either signed or supported those who were persecuted after signing Charter 08, an open letter demanding political reforms to the Party published on December 2008.
8. In this article I specifically take into consideration those video-makers who are conscious of the social role of their video production, which completes their off-screen activism. There are, however, also less-engaged and less-vocal individuals who produce videos, mainly uploaded on the Internet, which contribute to building public spheres. These individuals should certainly be considered another element in our understanding of the rhizomatic approach in alternative media. See, for example, Paola Voci on online videos that can turn “anonymous and supposedly individualistic Internet users into a collective of visible and compassionate citizens” (Voci, Citation2010, p. 114).
9. Since the crackdown of 1989, intellectuals tend to avoid involvement in public demonstrations for political reasons; instead, they find their own positions in the spaces that the Party-state grants them. As a consequence, they aim at stable work, but very rarely get involved in public life or speak out against government decisions. Many intellectuals lament their loss of contact with the population at large. Professor Cui Weiping remarks how the social problems that they mention in their works are often “false problems” or “secondary problems” in the context of current events (Interview, 2009).
10. Ai Xiaoming risked injury during the turmoil in Taishan. During the shooting of Laoma tihua, Ai Weiwei was beaten by the police. The incident was directly responsible for a haemorrhage and emergency brain operation some months later when he was touring Germany with his art exhibition.
11. It was not Ai Weiwei’s original intention to make a movie, but he encouraged everyone in the group of volunteers to bring a camera because “a camera is like bringing a witness in this world, where a lot of things are uncertain and unclear” (Ai Weiwei, interviewed by Ai Xiaoming in Why are the flowers so red).
12. The so-called “tofu buildings” (doufu zha gongcheng) are a series of student dormitories that completely collapsed, killing more than 5,000 students in Wenchuan county, Sichuan province.
13. Article 105 (2) of the Chinese Criminal Code stipulates the crime of “inciting subversion of State power” (shexia dianfu guojia zhengquan), which has been widely used to restrict freedom of expression.
14. In rural China many primary and secondary schools have been consolidated into large town-based institutions. Children from the surrounding areas typically board at the school, only going home at weekends or during vacation periods.
15. As recalled by volunteers interviewed by Ai Xiaoming in her film Why are the flowers so red.
16. After a period living in a hotel with her husband, supported by friends, family and other activists, Ni Yulan was jailed again during the April 2011 crackdown on activists and human rights defenders in China. During the same week, Ai Weiwei was imprisoned; he was released on bail in June.
17. Southern Weekend (Nanfang zhoumo) is one of the most popular commercial newspapers in China, famous for its reports on pressing social issues and lower-level corruption.
18. Investigative journalism nowadays often uses blogs and citizen journalism as a source of news and information (Zheng and Hao, 2008, cited in Xin, Citation2010, p. 6).