상하이의 영상산업과 현대성: 서구화, 부유함, 스텍터클의 추구 (Shanghai Film Industry and Modernities: Westernization , Affluence and Spectacle)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국문화인류학회
· 수록지 정보 : 한국문화인류학 / 40권 / 2호 / 125 ~ 161페이지
· 저자명 : 이응철

초록

This paper examines the modernities developed in the film industry of post-Mao China. Modernity has been referred to as something related to industrialization, rationalization, and capitalization. Generally, modernity means a new phase experienced as different from the previous. At the same time, modernity seeks to rid oneself of the old ways of life. In China, the Nanjing Treaty of 1842 enabled Westerners to establish Concessions in Shanghai. Although it was a tragic result of colonialism, encounters with western civilization brought to Shanghai an opportunity to start a modernizing process earlier than occurred in other cities of China. As Shanghai grew into a commercial city, the westernized goods, institutions and attitudes were spread very quickly and accepted widely. In the context of commercialization, the film which originated from Europe was introduced early to form a film industry in Shanghai.
A distinctive feature of incipient modernization of Shanghai was a close relationship between nationalism and modernism‘. Modernism-as-nationalism’was a new component of Shanghai’s commercial culture.
The establishment of the People’s Republic of China(PRC) as a socialist state in 1949 launched socialist campaigns of modernization. The socialist modernization was a refusal of capitalistic ways of life, emphasizing socialist attitudes in all of the people’s activities. Contrary to general belief, socialist modernization was not antimodernity, as has been supposed, but can be said to have been another modernizing process different from capitalistic modernization. After the establishment of the PRC, the state cadres followed Mao Zedong in emphasizing that accelerating the development of productive power was the most important thing in the socialist modernization process. However, innumerable political campaigns including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution hindered the PRC from achieving successful modernization. The government sought to reorient the direction of socialist modernization when Deng Xiaoping decided to start the‘Open Door Policy’ to begin economic reform in China. In this new era, ordinary people came to regard modernity as affluence in everyday life.
In this context, the modernity in the contemporary Chinese film industry can be characterized as follows. First, film-goers experience modernity as meaning affluence. They think they are living in a more affluent society than ever, and it is demonstrated to be true when they go to multiplex to see a movie with spectacular scenes created by computer graphics and other modern technical effects. Secondly, producers or investors behind a film prefer to select some luxurious places as the filming location, for they believe that those places can symbolize China’s affluence, economic development, and modernity. Lastly, most of the film crews from rural areas, who are less-educated and belonging to lower social status, feel that filming at such luxurious places makes them realize their poor situation and uncertain future and they come to feel alienated from the modernizing process.
In this respect, modernity should be conceived of as a terrain filled with conflict and competition and should be explained as a process with heterogeneous and contextual phenomena.

영어초록

This paper examines the modernities developed in the film industry of post-Mao China. Modernity has been referred to as something related to industrialization, rationalization, and capitalization. Generally, modernity means a new phase experienced as different from the previous. At the same time, modernity seeks to rid oneself of the old ways of life. In China, the Nanjing Treaty of 1842 enabled Westerners to establish Concessions in Shanghai. Although it was a tragic result of colonialism, encounters with western civilization brought to Shanghai an opportunity to start a modernizing process earlier than occurred in other cities of China. As Shanghai grew into a commercial city, the westernized goods, institutions and attitudes were spread very quickly and accepted widely. In the context of commercialization, the film which originated from Europe was introduced early to form a film industry in Shanghai.
A distinctive feature of incipient modernization of Shanghai was a close relationship between nationalism and modernism‘. Modernism-as-nationalism’was a new component of Shanghai’s commercial culture.
The establishment of the People’s Republic of China(PRC) as a socialist state in 1949 launched socialist campaigns of modernization. The socialist modernization was a refusal of capitalistic ways of life, emphasizing socialist attitudes in all of the people’s activities. Contrary to general belief, socialist modernization was not antimodernity, as has been supposed, but can be said to have been another modernizing process different from capitalistic modernization. After the establishment of the PRC, the state cadres followed Mao Zedong in emphasizing that accelerating the development of productive power was the most important thing in the socialist modernization process. However, innumerable political campaigns including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution hindered the PRC from achieving successful modernization. The government sought to reorient the direction of socialist modernization when Deng Xiaoping decided to start the‘Open Door Policy’ to begin economic reform in China. In this new era, ordinary people came to regard modernity as affluence in everyday life.
In this context, the modernity in the contemporary Chinese film industry can be characterized as follows. First, film-goers experience modernity as meaning affluence. They think they are living in a more affluent society than ever, and it is demonstrated to be true when they go to multiplex to see a movie with spectacular scenes created by computer graphics and other modern technical effects. Secondly, producers or investors behind a film prefer to select some luxurious places as the filming location, for they believe that those places can symbolize China’s affluence, economic development, and modernity. Lastly, most of the film crews from rural areas, who are less-educated and belonging to lower social status, feel that filming at such luxurious places makes them realize their poor situation and uncertain future and they come to feel alienated from the modernizing process.
In this respect, modernity should be conceived of as a terrain filled with conflict and competition and should be explained as a process with heterogeneous and contextual phenomena.

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