Ninth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate cinematic Xi’an, the capital city of Shaanxi province that represented in two urban films Back to Back, Face to Face [beikaobei, Lianduilian] (dir. Huang Jianxin, 1994) and Weaving Girl [Fangzhi guniang] (dir. Wang Quan’an 2009). As one of the most important economic, political and cultural centers of the north-west, cinematic representation of Xi’an has configured an alternative image of China in contrast to that of Beijing and Shanghai. It is broadly symptomatic of the contemporary economic, social and cultural situations of north-western China, which is economically dynamic but culturally inertial. This paper argues that the voice and image of this north-western city have long been marginalized by the more developed eastern coastal area due to its geographical isolation, economic backwardness and political intervention. My investigation will begin with a brief introduction of municipal Xi’an, the long-standing Xi’an Film Studio and the concept of Chinese western cinema, and show how the two directors have rejected the traditional ethnographical representation of north-western China and contextualized their realistic representation of a modern Xi’an. It will then focus on the two films to examine the cinematic city as an enclosed space of political inertia and a capsule of socialist China. Finally, I shall conclude that the representation of the north-west city can be seen as the opposite to cinematic Beijing and Shanghai in terms of both cityscape and the practice of everyday life.