Revolutionary Becomings: Documentary Media in Twentieth-Century China

In Revolutionary Becomings, Ying Qian explores how documentary film was a "eventful medium" that played a significant role in China's twentieth-century revolutionary movements. She argues that early media practitioners intermingled with rival politicians, warlords, civic and business organizations, and that documentary media played a bridge between Marxist theories and Chinese historical conditions. Qian also traces the dialectical relationships between media practice, political relationality, and revolutionary epistemology in the years after the Communist Party came to power, providing a groundbreaking assessment of the significance of media to the historical unfolding and actualization of revolutionary movements.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 29 February 2024
Publisher: Columbia University Press

The twentieth century in China was marked by a series of revolutionary upheavals, from the fall of the Qing Empire in 1911 to the political campaigns and mass protests of the Mao and post-Mao eras. In her book, Revolutionary Becomings, Ying Qian examines documentary film as an "eventful medium" that was deeply embedded in these upheavals and serves as a prism to investigate the intertwined histories of media and China's revolutionary movements. Qian conducts meticulous historical excavation, paying close attention to intermedial practices and transnational linkages. Through her analysis, she reveals how early media practitioners at the turn of the twentieth century interacted with rival politicians, warlords, civic and business organizations. She also highlights the foundational role that documentary media played in the Chinese Communist Revolution, serving as a bridge between Marxist theories and Chinese historical conditions.

In exploring the years after the Communist Party came to power, Qian traces the dialectical relationships between media practice, political relationality, and revolutionary epistemology. She examines production campaigns during the Great Leap Forward, the "class struggles" during the Cultural Revolution, and the reorganization of society in the post-Mao decade. By examining a wide range of previously uninvestigated works and intervening in key debates in documentary studies and film and media history, Revolutionary Becomings provides a groundbreaking assessment of the significance of media to the historical unfolding and actualization of revolutionary movements.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231204477