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Home › Forums › Summer Institutes › Exploring East Asian Visual Culture, Summer 2018 › Monday, 7/30, afternoon session - Michael Berry, UCLA
Helen Kang.
Kim LengWhat about Zhu Yu's Eating People? I still don't have the courage to Google that one yet.
Aileen LevelWhile the 6th & 7th grade China standards don't reach as far as the Cultural Revolution, we always discuss it in my classes. (How did it affect the preservation of artifacts and what was its impact on modern Chinese religious practice? What was the role of children the ages of my students?) I plan to use some of these pictures to show my students the contrast between the official, idealized propaganda posters and the somber imagery that came later.
It was also interesting to hear about the influence of China on current Hollywood productions. Since many of my students' families work in Hollywood, this connection may help them get past the "why are we learning about all this old stuff?" issue we inevitably face with kids. A friend and I recently saw "Rampage" with a preview for "The Meg" and wondered about many of the issues the professor raised, so it was helpful to hear his explanations of the connections between the two countries in the film industry.
Aileen LevelI agree with your comment, Carissa. He reminded me more of Charlie Brown, though I'm not sure if the students know that reference as well today.
Aileen LevelI googled it and regret it. It's images of people eating babies. It's obviously fake, but it's still disturbing.
Juan Liebana-MenaThe afternoon lecture about Mao and his legacy on Contemporary Chinese Culture was quite informative and enjoyable. Dr. Michael Berry’s knowledge and approach based on how to dissect movies with our students in the classroom make it very feasible. I really valued the way that he didn’t only gave us content, but ways we can embed this content in our lessons and instill curiosity in our students.
The section of the lecture about cartoons and photography was quite revealing about the importance of injecting government values into the art that society consumes. The posters and elements of propaganda portraying General Mao with this god-like presence or even his wife as a kind of cultural czar. I was really struck by the presence of Mao’s political ideology even in the school textbooks. His presence and admiration was present even an in science and math book, which tells you how aggressive his propaganda machine was during the time he ruled.
My favorite part of the lecture was the Chinese Cinema with Hollywood Characteristics. Dr. Berry described how Hollywood or European films had a minimal influence before 1978. It was after that year, when Deng Xiaoping enacted this second cultural renaissance that all these western films started to come through. It’s surprising that even though this Cultural Revolution happened in 1978, it took 15 years until Harrison Ford’s movie The Fugitive became the first official movie to be released in China in 1993.
It was also very interesting seeing and comparing how Chinese films infuse American talent, themes, settings and ideas in order to generate their blockbusters. I learned about how modern Chinese movies operate and how they can use Hollywood actors, talent, remake American movies, etc. to shoot their big hits. The idea of invisible Hollywood that Professor Berry described was quite revealing. It is idea of invisibly investment in Chinese movies in order to benefit from marketing and box offices in China. On the other hand, it was quite eye-opening learning how Chinese investment is in modern movies. This is what professor referred to as invisible China. I didn’t know how much Chinese companies are investing in modern day Hollywood movies. Movies such as Mission Impossible, Passengers, Star Trek, Kong, and Wonder Woman are being produced or invested on by Chinese companies. It was also interesting to know about the qualifications of productions and how a movie qualified as a co-production receives a larger amount of Chinese funding, talent, box offices, etc.
Jane ShenHi Midori
I have been teaching Mandarin Chinese in my own private school for around 10 years before I teach in LAUSD high School. As a 4th generation Korean who was born in China, I was educated in China and graduated from a medical school there. Due to my background I can speak both Mandarin and Korean, familiar with both sides culture, And of cause my own experience had been always included in my daily teaching. They made who I am now and are also part of the testmonies of the culture education in my curriculum.
Ruth HickmanProfessor Berry's lecture opened up for me the need to educate my students on the emergence of indigenous film industries across the world which have been seen by many as a threat to the influence of Hollywood on the movie scene. Students will look at the ideological influence of Hollywood on movies throughout the world. Furthermore, students will consider the Chinese, Indian and the Nigerian film industries. The three industries were chosen because of their popularity in their continents and some parts of the world, as well as their comparisons to Hollywood, for example, Bollywood, Nollywood.
I will focus on the theory of Cultural Imperialism and create assignments where students have to watch film clips, use analysis and critical thinking skills. I also want to teach students that China is different. "We have both big pockets and a big stomach," says Li Ruigang, head of China Media Capital (CMC), a private-equity firm that has partnered with Warner Bros., DreamWorks and Imax, among others. "China has money to spend on Hollywood and this incredible market at home.” My takeaway from Professor Berry, that the China-Hollywood connection will sustain itself for a very long time.
Juan Liebana-MenaHi Zoey! I agree with you that the idea of adding "Look! What do you see?" to a library would be quite useful. I'm thinking of using it when teaching Greek and Latin roots and common cognates between English and Spanish. Are you thinking about any particular way or lesson to use it with? How do you think it would work best?
Akunna UkaHi Ruth,
My father is from Nigeria, and I agree that it is an under-studied country considering its population, expat influence in the US, and economic power within West Africa. I would love any resources that you have on the subject. [email protected]
Nira SunI was really surprised to find out from Prof. Berry’s lecture that these many movies were produced by Chinese companies. My students always love to talk about popular movies in theatre. I’m thinking that I can have my students do a little research on recent-year movies and their production companies to see how many of them were Chinese companies. I believe that my students would be as surprised as I was. With class discussion, we can also talk about the surprising parts or plots that they find challenging to understand and whether they have anything to do with having Chinese productions.
Nira SunHi Kim,
I love the idea of collaborating with an Art teacher. What about me joining your collaboration with our Art teacher? I can help with explaining the structures of Chinese characters and how it can be done. With the help of the art perspectives, we can organize a school-wide event to introduce this interesting and wonderful art where students learn to design their own “Chinese names” with their own names hiden in. The decoding and designing parts will attract lots of young teenagers. I think this will be a great opportunity to build a unique school culture which exposes our students to art concepts and Chinese culture as well as finding connection with their own cultural backgrounds.
clay dubeZoey and others raise great ideas on using Xu Bing's and other works in a "look closely" activity .
Here are some useful links on Xu Bing. The first is a Washington Post profile.
Asian Art Muse video https://youtu.be/mQ1mpKlIxhQ
Bloomberg TV https://youtu.be/jxHWJjaUDQg
Natali RamonCarissa,
The idea that there is a “cultural imbalance” also resonated with me. I think this speaks to how closed minded many Americans can be. In my opinion, part of the reason Chinese audiences are far more open to US cinema than US viewers are to Chinese cinema is imperialism. Through a long history of invasion, Americans and white Europeans have long established themselves as the norm and/or the epitome of beauty and sex appeal. After all, a lot of commercial movies sell themselves on the participation of actors that are attractive. Additionally, I also think English has been established as the unofficial (or maybe even official) language of popular culture that is exported to the world. I believe not being open to cinema in another language is also a factor that keeps English speaking audiences from being receptive to Chinese cinema. Chinese companies as expanding their stake by producing a lot of films, however in producing films that have white and English speaking audiences is not really helping to open audiences to films in Chinese and artists of Asian backgrounds. It would be incredibly helpful to see more commercials and previews of Chinese film more often. At least for me, that would pique my interest in checking out more international film. I don’t think Chinese films get enough exposure to appeal to a larger audience.
Natali RamonAs I listened to Professor Berry’s lecture on Mao’s Legacy on contemporary Chinese culture, I was most struck by Liao Bingxiong for two reasons. The first reason I was most surprised by Bingxiong was that he was able to look beyond the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers and he was able to see that it was the Japanese government and the business people who were truly behind the atrocities committed in the Sino-Japanese War. Talk about analytical thinking! I don’t think most people have the capacity to think that critically when they are suffering such suffering. Secondly, upon seeing Bingxiong’s work I was reminded of one of Mexico’s most famous illustrators, José Guadalupe Posada. This page shows a lot of his works and it also explains the social commentary of his works:
https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-calaveras-of-jose-guadalupe-posada/
Similarly to Bingxiong, Posada used imagery to express his critique of the elite and the “progress” and infrastructure that was brought about with technology in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. I would want my students to examine both Bingxiong’s work and Posada’s work to see the role of images in providing social commentary. Additionally, it would be worth seeing what parallels existed between China and Mexico.
Kim LengThat’s a great idea, Nira! Let’s make this happen. I think this project will introduce students to an artist that they may have never heard of. I can begin this project with both of your classes first. I can work on gathering some images of the Square Art Calligraphy, for students to decode, followed by a quick introductory video here: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/wallach/exhibitions/Xu-Bing.html.
I also like this site https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/73325 as it contains the Square Art Calligraphy alphabet, to help guide students in decoding the text, as well as creating their own text.
We can then aim this project as a school-wide event for the month of May, during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. By then we can have several Square Art Calligraphy from both classes on display in the library as examples. I think this project is doable. Let’s meet with the art teacher this semester to work out a plan.