Nostalgia:Chinese Imagination In Hou Hsiao-hsien's Movies

The important feature of Hou's films is that they show strong literariness,Chineseness,historicness and modernity.His films have repeatedly focused on Taiwan's changes in different historical periods after the Opium War,presenting a more magnificent and time-spaced “Chinese scene”.In particular,a vivid picture of historical recognition and cultural root-seeking process from Taiwan to China is outlined through a series of stories and sound as well as images.His films aims to state historical sense and spiritual pursuit centered on contemporary Taiwan and display a train of major issues involved in modern China's development and poetic imagination/construction.By watching Hou's films,we can not only understand Taiwan more profoundly,but also gain a deeper understanding of China – including its history,present and future.Based on the nostalgia objective “China”,this paper studies “Chinese imagination” under different time and space dimensions from a perspective of various eras in his films,and explores the degree of “Chinese imagination” in his films and the realistic significance to “Chinese culture” in 21 st century,an era of globalization.This paper includes Six chapters:The introduction chapter focuses on the Chinese literary characteristics of Hou Hsiaohsien's films.The paper tries to find the deep Chinese cultural origin within his films through careful and in-depth analysis of the literary characteristics,and the “Chineseness” and “Chinese modernity” in his films.The first chapter is about the changing Taiwan society and its pursuit in the transition.During the 1980 s and 1990 s,Hou Hsiao-hsien's films presented a typical scene of “loss of paternity” in Taiwan's transition from a traditional to a modern society and the process of the younger Taiwanese run away from their homes and get lost in the process of Taiwan's economic take-off and re-into the globalization system.The second chapter talks about the journey of searching for oneself from Taiwan to China.It focuses on the pictures of “motherland” resulting from the political and historical factors of mainland and Taiwan in the modern era in Hou Hsiao-hsien's films.Taiwan's confirmation of its own identity in historical changes is a profound reflection on Chinese history,and it has also deepened Taiwanese people's national imagination from a cultural and psychological perspective in the “Taiwan Trilogy” of Hou's film.The third chapter is the traditional Chinese image and its metaphor in Hou Hsiao-hsien's film.First of all,from the change of female characters in Hou Hsiao-hsien's film,then analyze the main focus of traditional Chinese imagination represented by “Flowers of Shanghai” and “The Assassin” and its realistic metaphor,The reason why Hou's films deliberately highlight the scenes of “the late Qing Dynasty” and “Tang Dynasty” is that the traditional sides of these two periods shows a special “modern China”.The fourth chapter is to find/imagine “China” in the context of “whole world”.Under the post-modern background of the 21 st century which is characterized by multicultural coexistence,the paper lays emphasis on two non-Chinese films of Hou Hsiao-hsien.The film “Coffee Jikou” discovers and unfolds a “hidden China” through dissecting Japanese cultural system,thereby re-examining the war between China and Japan and Sino-Japanese relations;the film “Flight of the Red Balloon” puts “China” in a broad background of globalization,reexploring ancient Chinese culture from the perspective of life outside the country,and discovering the tenacity and dedication of its classical folk art in the post-modern world of life.The spirit is super-exciting.Conclusion: From the different aspects of Chinese scroll aesthetics,lyrical aesthetics and sentimental sentiments embodied in Hou Hsiao-hsien's films,this paper explores the Chinese and world issues implied by Hou's cinema art pursuit.