When feminism encounters New Documentary Movement: an uncompleted academic discussion
LU Xinyu
ABSTRACT This article starts with the “encounter” between feminists in the “International Symposium on Chinese Women and Visual Representation” and Chinese documentary filmmaker Xu Tong’s Wheat Harvest, explores the viewpoints and standpoints of feminism activists. With the analysis of the similarities and differences between the independent documentary perspective and the feminist stance, the author elaborates more deeply on why Chinese female directors do not have the consciousness of “feminism.” China’s independent documentary shows how the issue of feminism in China is intertwined with China’s various complex socio-political issues. The question raised is precisely how to promote the development of feminism and documentary together to work for an equal and just society itself.
KEYWORDS: Feminism; Wheat Harvest; Independent Documentary; the Lowest Rung
Notes on contributor
Lu Xinyu is professor and dean of the School of Communication, ECNU (East China Normal University), where she also serves as senior research fellow. Her research is focused on the relationship between visual culture in China, mass media and the social development. Her many writings include Documenting China: The New Documentary Movement (Beijing, SDX Joint Publishing Company, 2003), Writing and What It Obscures (Guiling, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2008), The New Chinese Documentary Film Movement: For the Public Record, (as two chapters author and co-editor, Hong Kong University Press,2010), Academic, Media and Publicity (Shanghai, East China Normal University Press, 2015).