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