The Image Of China In The Films

In our century of increasing globalization and value of education, international communication and access to information, more and more people and organizations are involved in intercultural communication and research. With the increasing speed of life it is nowadays easier and faster to get all necessary information from the internet and movies, than from libraries and books.Films became the source of various information and from just the means of entertainment and leisure became also the tool of mass communications, as well as source of variable information about people, countries, events etc. Films, especially documentaries, sometimes can even be more reliable and helpful in understanding of some events, process or period in history than the books, because films speak more with the exact images, when books often only can describe, but every single reader at the end will have different image in mind after reading.For a long time China attracted attention of people from all over the world, first being closed, but containing large amount of treasures and hidden eastern wisdom, and after the reform of openness by revealing huge economic potential, as well as big social changes. Nowadays many people are trying to investigate and understand the reasons and mechanisms, but also the consequences of such a rapid economic and social transformation of China within last century, especially last 30-40 years.This work investigates some social changes in China within last 40 years through such films as"China"by M. Antonioni,"Young and restless in China"by Sue Williams ,"China from the inside"made by PBS,"Still life"by Jia Zhangke and"If you are the one"by Xiaogang Feng. The image of China captured by Italian film director M. Antonioni during the Cultural revolution is compared with image of a new China, described by mostly country's young generation representatives from the other movies. This paper reveals not only the change of image of the country, but also transformations of the society, values system, position of women and etc.