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Lu, Xiaoning (2017) 'Chinese Film Satire and Its Foreign Connections in the People’s Republic of China (1950-1957): Laughter without Borders?' In: Wesoky, Sharon and Tam, King-fai, (eds.), Not Just a Laughing Matter: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Political Humor in China. New York: Springer Nature, pp. 57-74. (The Humanities in Asia)

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Abstract

This chapter examines the emerging comedy film culture in the early People’s Republic of China (PRC) from 1950 to 1957 by paying specific attention to the importation of film comedies from the Soviet bloc and their dynamic interaction with Chinese cinema. Through a comparative study of the Soviet comedy Did We Meet Somewhere Before and the Chinese film satire The Man Who Doesn’t Bother about Trifles, the chapter reveals paradoxical practices and contested discourses pertaining to the film comedy in the early PRC. On the one hand, importation, exhibition and translation of foreign comedies dismantled national and linguistic borders to welcome laughter as a transnational binding force for socialist communities. On the other hand, the boundary of “appropriate laughter” was reinforced in the process of Chinese filmmakers’ comic experimentation and by film reviews and criticisms. Overall, these practical and discursive efforts highlight the complexity involved in the management of laughter for the purpose of constructing hegemony in the early PRC.

Item Type: Book Chapters
SOAS Departments & Centres: Departments and Subunits > Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures
Legacy Departments > Faculty of Languages and Cultures > Department of the Languages and Cultures of China and Inner Asia
ISBN: 9789811049583
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4960-6_4
Date Deposited: 10 Sep 2017 17:59
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/24503

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