River Elegy

River Elegy

"River Elegy" (Chinese: 河殇; Pinyin: "Héshāng") was a People's Republic of China documentary series co-authored by Su Xiaokang, shown in China Central Television in the late 1980s. The six-part documentary announcing the death of traditional Chinese civilization, which aired on China Central Television during the summer of 1988,Gifford, Rob. "No Longer Relying on Heaven." "China Road". 166-167.] was extremely controversial. Su became a wanted man after the Tiannamen Square Massacre and went into exile.

The film asserted that the Ming Dynasty's ban on maritime activities alluded to the building of the Great Wall by China's first emperor Ying Zheng. China's land-based civilization was defeated by maritime civilizations backed by modern sciences, and was further challenged with the problem of life and death ever since the latter half of the 19th century, landmarked by the Opium War.

"River Elegy" caused immense controversy in Mainland China due to its negative portrayal of Chinese culture. Rob Gifford, a National Public Radio journalist, said that the film used images and interviews to state that the concept of "the Chinese being a wonderful ancient people with a wonderful ancient culture was a big sham, and that the entire population needed to change." Gifford said that the film's most significant point was its attack on the Yellow River, a river which was a significant element of China's historical development and which symbolizes ancient Chinese culture. Using the ancient Chinese saying that "a dipperful of Yellow River water is seven-tenths mud," the authors of the film use the river's silt and sediment as a metaphor for Confucian traditions and the significance of the traditions which the authors believe caused China to stagnate. The authors hoped that Chinese traditional culture would end and be replaced by Western culture. The film symbolizes Chinese thinking with the "yellowness" of the Yellow River and Western thinking with the "blueness" of the ocean. The film also criticized the Great Wall, saying that it "can only represent an isolationist, conservative, and incompetent defense," the imperial dragon on the Great Wall, calling it "cruel and violent," and other Chinese symbols. The ending of "River Elegy" symbolized the authors' dreams with the idea of the waters of the Yellow River emptying out of the river and mixing with the ocean. Gifford said that "River Elegy" reveals the thoughts of young intellectuals post-Mao Zedong and pre-Tiananmen Square and the freedoms that appeared around 1988.

Gifford said that while the film did not openly criticize the Communist Party of China; instead it contained "not-so-subtle" attacks on Chinese imperial traditions that therefore would also criticize the contemporary political system. Conservatives in Mainland China attacked the film.

After the events of Tiananmen Square some of the staff members of "River Elegy" were arrested and some staff members Mainland China; two of the main writers who fled to the United States became evangelical Christians.

Resource

"Deathsong of the river: a reader's guide to the Chinese TV series Heshang" by Su Xiaokang and Wang Luxiang; introduced, translated, and annotated by Richard W. Bodman and Pin P. Wan (Ithaca, N.Y. : East Asia Program, Cornell University, 1991)


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • River Elegy — [Heshang] Television serial River Elegy (Heshang) was a six part television documentary series broadcast in 1988 that presented a damning critique of Chinese culture and led to heated social, intellectual and political debate about the… …   Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture

  • River Cam — The River Cam is a tributary of the River Great Ouse in the east of England. The two rivers join to the south of Ely at Pope s Corner. The Great Ouse connects the Cam to England s canal system (via the Middle Level Navigations and the River Nene) …   Wikipedia

  • Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 — Tiananmen Square as seen from the Tiananmen Gate in 2004. The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese[1] (in part to avoid confusion with two prior Tiananmen Square protests), were a series o …   Wikipedia

  • Han — Chinese are China’s majority ethnic group, consisting of 92 per cent of the mainland’s population. Regarded as descendants of the inhabitants of the Yellow River basin, they are traced to the earliest years of any identifiable Chinese culture, as …   Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture

  • Li Zehou — b. 1930, Hankou Philosopher, intellectual Li Zehou is arguably the most distinguished and influential modernist philosopher of the last fifty years and one of the very few intellectual figures whose work has acquired an audience outside China.… …   Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture

  • Hai jin — (linktext|海|禁 literally ocean forbidden ) was a ban on maritime activities during China s Ming Dynasty and again during the Qing Dynasty. It is commonly referred to as Sea Ban . Intended to curb piracy, the ban proved ineffective for that purpose …   Wikipedia

  • List of Chinese dissidents — This list consists of these activists who are known as Chinese dissidents. There are also a large number of Chinese who claim to be dissidents and seek to defect, usually to USA, Canada, UK, Australia or New Zealand. To support their application… …   Wikipedia

  • cars and taxis — Despite the newfound prominence of the private sedan in post socialist China, the history of the motorized vehicle in China has been one marked by scorn, rejection and opprobrium. If the slick, latest model cars of the 1990s and the new… …   Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture

  • Cheang Shu-lea — b. 1954, Tainan, Taiwan Film and video filmmaker, multi media and net installation artist From community based video to ‘art porn’ film to high tech digital installations, Cheang Shu lea’s brilliant international career defies easy… …   Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture

  • crazes — China’s 1978 reform opened the door of a formerly repressive and isolated society. The ensuing loosening of state control and influx of new information induced waves of crazes in urban areas, especially in the 1980s. The crazes can be categorized …   Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”