Ethnic Identity, Interpretation And Reconstruction

Recording social forms and cultural features via video is becoming a pivotal way to record human history, since the time when Father of Documentary-Robert Flaherty shot the film-Nanook of the North. According to Marshall McLuhan, video is the medium brings more ways of expression to local communities. All that shines through in the academic research of Anthropology, and forms a brand new subject, say, Visual Anthropology. Although the completion of the subject is highly contradictive, video camera has become a vital tool to record and illustrate the basic structure of human society. The advent of various documentaries which connives anthropological significance adds more luster to the category of Visual Anthropology.However, Visual Anthropology is more used for the research of human society which is relatively'primitive'and at the brink of extinction. Videotaping is vital for anthropologists and film-maker to record and illustrate other culture. In China, various nations and cultures are recorded by camera, yet only a few can be listed as Visual Anthropology. In these videos, people's lifestyle, custom, and believes are recorded, and can be researched with anthropology. Through Hakka-related film and television works, this essay analyzes the group of people videotaped, the characteristic of and connections between these video works, and the association of Hakka's cultural identity.This essay contains the vision of anthropology, not only in the description of Hakka, but also in the analysis of its related video products. Besides, certain areas are chosen for field research in order to obtain a better conclusion. It probes into the Hakka community, makes conclusion, and then seeks connections through comparison between this conclusion and Hakka-related videos. Here is the main structure:Introduction:The identification of subjects and its key questions, the summary of research status of relative subjectsChapterl:the Hakka fervor of South China. It introduces the history of Hakka cultural identity, and the background of Hakka videos.Chapter2:Illustration of Hakka. It analyses videos of Hakka, from the angle of anthropology.Chapter3:the restructuring of Hakka. Through field research, it identifies and compares the difference between Hakka videos and the outcome of field research, and then analyzes the impact of these videos to its people.Chapter4:Conclusion.