- Convenor:
-
Zhang Hai
(Research Centre for Visual Anthropology, Yunnan University)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Bao Jiang
(University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
- Discussants:
-
Bao Jiang
(University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Jingjiang Zhu (Minzu University of China)
Xueli Chen (Research Centre for Visual Anthropology, Yunnan University)
Jinghong Zhang (Southern University of Science and Technology)
Xun Xiong (Sun Yat-sen University)
Zhang Hai (Research Centre for Visual Anthropology, Yunnan University)
- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 7 March, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
David MacDougall proposed that Visual Anthropology should turn to social experience. Visual anthropology has rapidly developed in China. Many universities established courses of VA and ethnographic filmmaking. Life-world filmmaking is marked on the active cross-disciplinary practice of VA in China.
Long Abstract:
Visual anthropology took so called cultures as its object in the shadow of written anthropology in the 1970s. At the beginning of the 21st century David MacDougall proposed that visual anthropology should turn to social experience. Visual anthropology was initiated in China in the 1950s and it has rapidly developed in the past two decades. Many universities established courses of visual anthropology and ethnographic filmmaking. Two ethnographic film biennial festivals have been established. Life-world filmmaking is marked on the active cross-disciplinary practice of visual anthropology in China.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 7 March, 2023, -Bao Jiang (University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Paper short abstract:
The aim of ethnographic film is to expand and enrich the life-worlds of all the participants involved, including the filmmaker, the subject and the audience. This presentation shares the experience of teaching Ethnographic Filmmaking course on the theme of "filming the life-world of a schoolmate".
Paper long abstract:
This presentation shares the experience of teaching Ethnographic Filmmaking course on the theme of "filming the life-world of a schoolmate". The aim of ethnographic film is to expand and enrich the life-worlds of all the participants involved, including the filmmaker, the subject and the audience. At the heart of ethnographic filmmaking is the relationship between the filmmaker and the subject. The aim of the ethnographic filmmaking course is to provide students with a complete disciplinary vocation, ethics and basic technical training by guiding them through the independent production of a film.
Jingjiang Zhu (Minzu University of China)
Paper short abstract:
The Parade of Seven-Saints in Xiafang Village of Fujian Province of China is a local festival and still very popular in the live-world of local villagers. We attended this festival several years ago and made a film about the ritual and the people who took part in it.
Paper long abstract:
The Parade of Seven-Saints in Xiafang Village of Fujian Province of China is a local festival and still very popular in the live-world of local villagers. We attended this festival several years ago and made a film about the ritual and the people who took part in it. In the shooting process of the "Seven-SaintsTemple", its complicated cultural events, mysterious makeup process, complex clan relations, especially the exploration of its more complex and diversified belief origins, like Taoism, folk gods belief and maybe some relics of Zoroastrianism, make this shooting and research work full of challenges. It is the only way for visual anthropology to stand on and develop in the contemporary system of anthropology to build an academic connection between images and text, which is independent and dialectical, appealing to senses and exploring the field of life-world.
Jinghong Zhang (Southern University of Science and Technology)
Paper short abstract:
Based up teaching and research experiences with young students and informants, I discuss the up-to-date social contexts within which visual anthropology is situated in China. I argue that the Chinese visual anthropology crucially demands to engage with the surrounding new cultural and mediascapes.
Paper long abstract:
Visual anthropology is confronted with many unprecedented challenges in China’s new cultural and media landscapes. Within the discipline of Chinese academia, visual anthropology remains its marginal status; ethnographic film as a meaningful research outcome is yet formally acknowledged. Nevertheless, under the national discourses of preserving heritage culture, anthropological filming is exploited, from top down, as a tool of documenting and rescuing the so-called traditional customs. At the same time, visual anthropology in China is facing a difficult engagement with the general public, in that its style is not all appreciated by the younger generations who are making full use of new media and technology to represent their own understanding about everyday culture and social realities.
Based up teaching and research experiences with young students and informants in their twenties and thirties in China, I discuss the complex up-to-date social contexts within which the practices of ethnographic filmmaking and the education of visual anthropology are situated. I argue that the Chinese visual anthropology crucially demands to go beyond its old boundary to meet the challenges and to engage with the surrounding new cultural and mediascapes; but at the same time it deserves a serious scholarly rethinking about what is the core spirit of visual anthropology that shall be maintained and valued.
Xun Xiong (Sun Yat-sen University)
Paper short abstract:
This study takes the media transformation in recent years as the background, and takes the visual practice of a popular media group in China as a case to examine its visual production network development and the characteristics of visual production.
Paper long abstract:
This study takes the media transformation in recent years as the background, and takes the visual practice of a popular media group in China as a case to examine its visual production network development and the characteristics of visual production.
By considering different communication scenes and different levels of "front stage", on the basis of field work on contemporary video professional groups, the author analyzes the more complex internal and external aspects of the media industry in the context of media transformation. On the other hand, the ahthor describes the huge changes and flexible adjustments of the organization, process, products, and channels of visual production.
In that way, the paper reveals the connection and distinction between media discourse and corresponding production practices, and the contrast and tension between visual expression and written tradition.
This study adopts the research orientation of social and cultural traditions, relies on media anthropology methods, conducts long-term participatory observation and in-depth interviews in the visual production departments of the Southern Publishing & Meida Group , as well as "thick description" its production mechanism and transformation process.
Zhang Hai (Research Centre for Visual Anthropology, Yunnan University)
Paper short abstract:
Visual anthropology has been increasingly applied as a methodology to the practice of the revitalization of village culture. We held an individual images and videos exhibition in a village of Bulang ethnic group in southwest China, attempting to arise the personal memory and cultural consciousness.
Paper long abstract:
As a practical discipline, visual anthropology has been increasingly applied as a methodology to the practice of the revitalization of village culture. We held an exhibition of individual images and videos in a village of the Bulang ethnic group in southwest China, trying to present the twenty-year changes of an ethnic village from the perspectives of internal and external interweaving. In the process of arranging the exhibition, the active participation of the villagers has given us a great inspiration in the form and idea of the exhibition. At the same time, through the exhibition, the villagers' personal memory and cultural consciousness are awakened. The old people trace the past and the young generation’s cultural consciousness are aroused.