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30<br />
The debate was conducted in a<br />
major online film BBS forum in China,<br />
www.xici.net, and prompted about<br />
350 threads. In a sense, <strong>this</strong> sort of<br />
informal debate in film circles echoes<br />
a larger and more scholarly debate in<br />
poetry: the polemic between intellectual<br />
writing (zhishifenzi xiezuo) and popular<br />
writing (minjian xiezuo) in the years<br />
1998–2000. For a detailed analysis of<br />
the Intellectual-Popular polemic in<br />
Chinese poetry, see van Crevel (2006,<br />
forthcoming).<br />
are three major channels for underground film distribution in China: sales<br />
and circulation of pirated VCDs or DVDs—the most common channel—<br />
Internet downloads, and screenings in bars or universities organized by<br />
“unofficial film clubs” (minjian guanying zuzhi) in major cities. Yu is also<br />
quick to point out that underground films are still “invisible” in the sense<br />
that they are not screened on film in cinemas, although watching these<br />
films in the form of videos has become a noticeable part of urban youth<br />
subculture. The interest in these films culminated in a heated online<br />
debate, ignited by conflicting comments about Wang Chao’s Orphan of<br />
Anyang, in film critic circles in the summer of 2002. The debate included<br />
discussion on the mentality of intellectuals and the authenticity of mimicry<br />
and representation of subaltern lives, regional differences between the<br />
director’s origin and the film location, and the politics of films. 30 As film<br />
critic Hao Jian asserts in a different context,<br />
What is most interesting is that these filmmakers are able to<br />
augment their own cultural and economical status by shooting<br />
subalterns. It would be challenging, perplexing, and paradoxical<br />
to examine how these “migrant worker type of filmmakers,”<br />
taking advantage of both domestic film systems and international<br />
cultural operation modes, become cultural aristocrats and<br />
celebrities traveling around the world, providers of cultural<br />
productions to the white collar class, or filler in the glossy coffeetable<br />
magazines such as Trends Magazines, Avant-Garde Today,<br />
and Popular Music: Rock ’n Roll edition. (2005: 133)<br />
31<br />
As noted, the two leads’ speeches are<br />
full of expletives, which may convey<br />
masculinity or draw attention to their<br />
violent, nasty, and filthy environment.<br />
Still, to <strong>this</strong> anonymous poster, the<br />
uncensored words seem to be the<br />
language of the underclass city dweller,<br />
not of the rural peasant. See http://wjl.<br />
cn/bbs/simple/index.php?t15241.html,<br />
posted on 09/27/2005.<br />
Even a cursory review of these recent underground films would reveal<br />
problems of authenticity in the use of local languages, much like those<br />
encountered in Jia Zhangke’s films. Consider Blind Shaft: the two male<br />
leads play peasant murderers but speak the urbanized Mandarin varieties<br />
of the Henan cities of Zhengzhou and Kaifeng. As a viewer from Henan has<br />
commented, their city-bred accents are inappropriate for rural characters. 31<br />
Similarly, in Orphan of Anyang, although both the film title and the<br />
194 • The Rhetoric of Local Languages<br />
MCLC 18.2.indd 194<br />
12/20/06 2:01:40 PM