Sino-Enchantment

The Fantastic in Contemporary Chinese Cinemas

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Edited by Kenneth Chan and Andrew Stuckey

Type

Studies

Subject

Genre > Fantasy

Keywords

fantasy, China

Publishing date

2023

Publisher

Edinburgh University Press

Collection

Edinburgh Studies in East Asian Film

1st publishing

2021

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 304 pages
6 ¼ x 9 inches (16 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-1-4744-6085-9

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Book Presentation:
Although Chinese film audiences have always maintained a foundational cultural interest in the fantastic, this trend has dramatically increased over the last decade. Sino-Enchantment is the first work in English to approach this recent explosion of fantastic film in Chinese cinemas, where each re-envisioning of the form is determined by cultural, economic, political and technological factors to produce fresh inventions and creative reinventions of familiar narratives, characters and tropes. With case studies of films such as The Assassin (2015), Monster Hunt (2015) and The Great Wall (2016), this novel approach uses the framework of ‘Sino-enchantment’ as a new theoretical lens through which readers can engage with elements of the fantastic in Chinese cinema.

About the authors:
Kenneth Chan is Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Northern ColoradoDr Andrew Stuckey is an independent scholar.

Press Reviews:
China’s haunted screens boast a rich legacy of uncanny, bizarre, grotesque, horrific, mystical and paranormal tales dating back to the silent era. Emerging from a period in which the supernatural ran afoul of censors in the Peoples’ Republic of China, the resurgence of films rooted in "superstition" merits serious critical attention. This anthology provides penetrating insight into this re-enchantment seen in films by auteurs such as Zhang Yimou (PRC), Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan), and Tsui Hark (Hong Kong) as well as in reimagined classics such as Journey to the West in its multiple manifestations on screen. ― Gina Marchetti, University of Hong Kong

See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press