Whose Discourse? On Chinese Film And Public Sphere

According to the paradigm of "film as a mass medium", this study puts Chinese film into a communication context and explores the relationship between film communication and the Habermasian public sphere. By using qualitative methods, including literature reviews, case studies and interviews, it observes that the film communication contributes to a "public sphere" with Chinese characteristics. Through the construction of public sphere, Chinese film plays a key role in the cultivation, organization and mobilization of people's political and cultural identities and citizenship. Nevertheless, the development of Chinese film has failed to establish film communication as public sphere so far, because of the absence of the academic perspective of "film as a mass medium". The public sphere of Chinese film has even been mocked or repressed in some specific historical contexts. Throught putting the theory of public sphere into a wider perspective of Chinese film, on the one hand, we find out that Chinese film has actively involved itself into the fights against the Japanese aggressions from 1937 to 1941, the engagement of "Imagined Community", the mobilizations of public opinion and social movements during the Cultural Revolution, as well as the construction of public space and citizenship in contemporary China. A vigorous public sphere of film communication promotes the development and poliferation of Chinese film. On the other hand, the public sphere of Chinese film suffers its recession when only one power, no matter political or commercial, monopolizes in its public sphere. Encountering these issues highlighted in the development of Chinese film away from the structural discourse of the public sphere helps to humanize and plant the understanding of "publicity" in the consciousness of ordinary people. Therefore, by employing the concept and values of public sphere, we interrogates and re-evaluates Chinese film as public sphere and its components, including ideology, capital and people's economic, social and cultural rights. To establish a sound public sphere of Chinese film, we need to recognize that the communication space of Chinese film is a public space in social life and build up it as an area with the capacity of and opportunity for citizens to engage in public life.