On the Margins of Realism: Tracing Alternative Aesthetics in a Century of Chinese Cinema

Realism has been endowed with a certain orthodox status as the aesthetic counterpart of China’s modernization, and studies of Chinese film history have largely accepted a master narrative of realism as the guiding aesthetic of mainland Chinese cinema. This book argues, however, that alternative aesthetics to realism have always existed in Chinese cinema throughout its history, from the early silent era to the new century.

The alternative aesthetics are closely linked to the indigenous Chines...