Zhang Yimou, Chinese Contemporary Aesthetic Culture

From the cameraman of i Ge He Ba Ge in1983 to the director of 6 De Fu Qing Mu Qing?in 1999, Zhang Yi Mou has been in Chinese filmdom f@r nearly twenty years. During these years, the Chinese culture of aesthetics has changed tremendously, which provides the movie products of Zhang Yi Mou, who shows great interest in the changes, with the inevitable features of contemporary aesthetics. The elite culture, th~ folk culture and the masses culture are cleverly combined together, and this combination leads to the double success of Zhang Yi Mou rnbvies both in art and in economy. The success is a great enlightenment and is greatly significant to the development of today抯 Chinese movie. The particular life experience of Zhang Yi Mou and its historical background and the rebel lilies spirit and self-consciousness equipped him with a deep-rooted consciousness of the elite culture, which is shown in the theme level and aesthetic level of his movies. As to the theme, Zhang Yi Mou on one hand inspires the national spirit by raising high the flag of the spirit of Dionysus, or expresses directly the instinctive impulse of life by showing the primitive desire, on the other hand, he criticizes directly the feudal patriarchal chan system and feudal traditional culture in u Dou and a Hong Deng Long Gao Gao Gua. iu Ju Da Guan Si.nd ou Hua Hao Hao Shu&re to dLcuss the Chinese face-saving psychology and their notion of male off-springs, revealing the hypocrisy, absurdity and frailty of the ace psychology. Furthermore, from the seek of powerful national might inspiration of people spirit in ong Gao Liang to the conformity of the living state of conciliation and being content with one lot in uo Zhe, Zhang Yi Mou is extremly concerned over the national living state and thinks rationally about it. i Ge Dou Bu Neng Shao shows the backwardness of the education state in the Chinese country on one hand, and on the other hand, it reproduces the control of TV and money over the daily life in China society 90. The elitism of Zhang Yi Mou movies in aesthetics is primarily shown in his breaking away with the traditional notion of movies, his emphasize in the function of the movie itself language mode and his pursuit of a filmization. The folk culture feature of Zhang Yi Mou's movie products is represented in,. two levels, one is the folk culture feature in personality, ideologies and cultural features, the other is represented in the content and factors of the movies. As to the cultural standing, Zhang Yi Mou keeps a folk cultural standpoint. He neither support the government's dominant official culture, nor is against it; he neither stays as the spokesman of elite culture, nor gives up the.... deep-rooted elite consciousness. As to the cultural features, he avoids the mind pattern of politics, observes the reality from the folk people's point of view, ana pays more attention to the life style of the society in the country. At the same time, the adoption of the folkways, folksongs and craftsmanship shade Zhang Yi Mou's films in a deep color of folk culture. In his later movie products, Zhang Yi Mou parts with sublimity, turns from idealism to worldliness. The turn of his creative cognition from heavyheartedness and anger to dismiss with a laugh, his pursuit of worldliness in stead of elegance, the process from the challenge and struggle against the traditional notions of the film to the intentional approach of pauperization and commercialization, all show the effect of the masses culture to his creative...