The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Cinemas

Carlos Rojas and Eileen Cheng-yin Chow (editors)

2013

Oxford University Press

What does it mean for a cinematic work to be "Chinese"? Does it refer specifically to a work's subject, or does it also reflect considerations of language, ethnicity, nationality, ideology, or political orientation? Such questions make any single approach to a vast field like "Chinese cinema" difficult at best. Accordingly, the handbook situates the term more broadly among various different phases, genres, and distinct national configurations, while taking care to address the consequences of grouping together so many disparate histories under a single banner.

Rojas, professor of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies and visiting associate professor Eileen Chow, present 33 essays by leading researchers and scholars that cover topics from the industry's beginnings in the 1920s up to its current forms in contemporary Hong Kong, Taiwan and the global diaspora.