GENERATIONS OF CHINESE FILMMAKING INTERVIEW WITH XIE FEI

Xie Fei (b. 1942) is a well-known Chinese filmmaker, teacher at the Beijing Film Academy and former Vice President of the Academy. He is known for his films A Girl from Hunan (1986), Black Snow (1990; winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival) and The Woman Sesame Oil Maker (1993; winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival). I met him in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan, at the Eurasian International Film Festival in the first week of July 2019, where he was Chairperson of the NETPAC Jury.

RD: Why is the history of Chinese filmmaking divided usually into ‘generations’ of filmmakers and not into ‘periods’?

XF: In China we have witnessed half a century of political and social change. You are asking me why Chinese filmmakers are divided into generations. I was Fourth Generation, that is, the generation before 1966 and the Cultural Revolution. Our generation did not see films from Hollywood. We could only see films from Soviet Union and other socialist countries. We saw the masters of Italian Neorealism and the New Wave from the USSR, that included masters like Tarkovsky. During the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, there was a complete hiatus. Only Madame Mao made Beijing Opera films. When I graduated, I was 22 years old. When I started making films and began teaching, ten years later, I was 32.

In the ’80s and ’90s we filmmakers of the fourth Generation made good films. I will mention Wu Tianming’s Old Well (1988) and Life (1984). The young directors of the Fifth Generation went to his studio and he supported them. Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige made Yellow Earth (1984) and Red Sorghum (1987). Fifth Generation is different from us. They did not finish their schooling. During the Cultural Revolution, young people like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige went to the countryside and worked as farm labourers. At that time 80% of the people in China lived in the countryside and these young students went deep into Chinese society. After the Cultural Revolution this generation went back to school to study.

In 1985, we had Yellow Earth and in 1987, Red Sorghum. These films got awards in international film festivals. There were important women directors, too, in the Fifth Generation: Zhang Nuanxin, whose Sacrificed Youth (1986) was shown in Cannes, in the Directors’ Week and Huang Shuqin who made Woman Demon Human (1987) on a Chinese opera actress who played the role of a man.

We, in the Fourth Generation, did not get a chance to go abroad. Very few of our films won awards abroad. Only my film got awards in Berlin. Fourth Generation films won awards in national film festivals. This was not the case with later Generations. The Fourth Generation was into Realism in depicting Chinese society. The Fifth did not much care for that. They were more into fantasy – in theme, colour and image. Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum exemplifies that. We see that in Chen Kaige’s Farewell, My Concubine (1993), too. But there was realism too as in  Zhang Yimou’s To Live (1994) and Tian Zhuanzhuang’s Blue Kite (1994).

Art films peaked in the1990s. In one year Chinese films got awards in three big international festivals. In 1992 –Yimou’s To Live got the Golden Palm in Venice; in February 1993, in Berlin, my film, The Woman Sesame Oil Maker along with Ang Lee’s Wedding Banquet got the Golden Bear; and Chen Kaige’s Farewell, My Concubine won the Palme D’or in Cannes a few months later. This never happened again. After that Chinese market became more commercial. Hollywood blockbusters started coming to China since 1995. Every year about ten big films come to China. Hong Kong films also come to China.

RD: Who, then, constituted the Third Generation?

XF: The Third Generation filmmakers were our teachers. Xie Jin, who made Hibiscus Town (1986), Two Stage Sisters (1965), and Xie Tieli’s Early Spring in February about intellectuals in the ’30s and ’40s. This film was made in 1964. Chairman Mao criticized this film, so it was not shown, but in 1979 it was shown in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section in Cannes. The Third Generation got their education before Liberation in 1949. They got a traditional education. Their education was different from ours, because they had seen films from everywhere, including Hollywood films that were released in Shanghai and Beijing. But their films were made after Liberation and so had to be socialist realist. Third Generation films were mostly propaganda films, although a few were good.

RD: And before that, was there any Second Generation?

XF: We call the filmmakers who worked in 1930s and ’40s the Second Generation filmmakers. The most important filmmaker of this period was Fei Mu (1906 – 1951) who made the classic Spring in the Little Town (1948). Wu Yonggang (1907 – 1982) who made the 1934 film Goddess, starring the well-known actress, Ruan Lingyu, was another eminent director of this period. The First Generation was the silent film period, following the first film that was made in China in 1905.

RD: Are there any differences in the cinema and style of the Sixth from the Fifth Generation filmmakers?

XF: The Sixth Generation, directors like Wang Xiaoshuai (b. 1966), Zhang Yuan (b. 1963), Jia Zhangke (b. 1970) were not affected by the Cultural Revolution at all. They got their education after the Cultural Revolution. They made films under the new economic reforms of the socialist system, under the market system. The Sixth Generation, I would say, was quite different from the Fifth Generation. In the Sixth Generation everyone wrote their films themselves, but Fifth Generation films were mostly adaptations from literature. Sixth Generation made films for themselves. Self-expression was important for them. Jia Zhangke was very special. Jia Zhangke’s first three films, Going Home (1995), Pickpocket (1997) and Platform (2000) were about the life he had seen at close quarters and his hometown, Fenyang in Shanxi province.

The Fifth Generation changed to commercial films in recent years. Zhang Yimou’s Hero (2002) was a box office hit in China, while his The Great Wall (2016), an international collaboration, bombed at the box office and with the critics, too.

RD: So where is the Seventh Generation?

XF: In the future. Within the last 40 years, there has been no big political or societal change. All the previous Generations saw such big changes and challenges: Liberation, Cultural Revolution.

Every script has to go through the censors. They storyline has to be passed. When you finish the film, you need to pass through censorship again. If like South Korea we cancel censorship and give filmmakers the freedom to express themselves, then at that time the Seventh Generation may appear (laughs).

RD: Is Beijing Film Academy the only film school in China?

XF: Before the Liberation in 1949 there was no film school. The Third Generation studied in the drama school. The Beijing Film Academy was set up in 1956, though the film school was established in 1953. We used to invite filmmakers from the Soviet Union, from VGIK in Russia to teach. The BFA is supported by the government so there is good equipment and infrastructure. The Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Generations have graduated from this school.  Till the mid-80s there was only one film school. Over the last thirty years, however, many courses on filmmaking, acting and related disciplines have been set up. There are now lot of drama schools and art schools and universities. But the Academy has a long history. In the ’80s the Youth Film Studio was set up in Beijing. My films, like Black Snow,  A Girl from Hunan were made by this Studio.

RD: Are you still teaching and making films?

XF: I graduated in 1965 and after the Cultural Revolution started teaching. I consider teaching to be my first job and directing my second! I have made nine features and two TV dramas of twenty parts each. This was at a time at the end of 90s when the TV market was huge. My students were going into this industry and I needed to have experience to open courses for them.

A lot of filmmakers from the Fifth and Sixth Generations made TV dramas. I was Vice-President of the Beijing Film Academy from 1982 – 1988.   I stopped directing films after 2000. In 2012 I retired, although I still go to the film school every week to supervise the research of my PhD students and give advice and suggestions.

RD: After Liberation and till the ’80s, films were all produced by government studios. How has this changed after liberalization?

XF: Yes, after the Revolution all films were financed by government. Mid-90s the film market in China slumped and there was reform. Audiences were taken up with television. The market was flooded with illegal, pirated cassettes, CDs, DVDs. The government realized that the film market may be completely destroyed. They started allowing private companies to produce films and allowed collaborations. In 2003 there was a policy reform. Foreign companies can now collaborate easily with Chinese producers. New policies were formulated for the release of films. The traditional, old halls were huge for 1000 to 5000 spectators. Those were broken down. Modern cinema halls were built, many in malls. We have more than 60000 screens in China. Not all are owned by the government. Many are private. Government supported China Film Company is a public company. The China film market is still half government controlled with the other half market assisted. In television private players are forbidden. Television is completely government controlled. No foreign funding is possible.  Every province, every city has television and broadcast stations.

RD: What is the percentage of independent and government supported cinema today?

XF: Most film production is independent now. The top two private producing companies are Huayi Brothers who has made many box office hits and Baoli Bona Film Company which has also made good films.

RD: Is there any difference between commercial and art cinema? Have the audiences returned to cinema theatres?

XF: There is no distinction between art and commercial cinema. Audiences have changed. Art films have no market. Maybe people in the 20s to 30s age group in the big cities would watch art films. School children have to spend all their time studying, so high school children rarely go to the cinema. They have no time! School kids and teenagers do not prefer going to the cinema. Middle-aged and older people still like to go to theatres to see films or watch TV dramas at home. Jia Zhangke made more than ten films but only three made it to the theatres. The government wants art films to be made.

RD: Are there no dedicated art film theatres as they have in some European countries?

XF: Over the past few years the government is trying to support art films screenings in theatres. There are no separate theatres for art cinema.  Nobody wanted to see Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist (2011 / France). The Lebanese film, Capernaum (2018), however,  in which a little boy goes to court  and sues his parents for giving birth to him was a big hit at the box office.

China has three important internet channels, with Ten Cent and Ali Baba as the leading internet companies. They buy a lot of films. They are legal.  Festival films land up on the internet very quickly after about three months with Chinese subtitles, and we do not know whether they are legal or illegal.

RD: What are the new film festivals in China focusing on?

XF: Before the 1990s it was forbidden to have film festivals. Shanghai International Film Festival was the only one permitted. Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festivals are national festivals that focus on new Chinese cinema. Over the past thirty years many independent film festivals have come up in many cities.

We have two very good film festivals: First Youth Film Festival in Xining, Qinghai Province held its 13^th edition this year. They invite very famous jury members like Wong Kar Wai, Ann Hui, etc. The focus is on new Chinese filmmakers and the festival is held towards the end of July.

The other one is run by Jia Zhangke. He has also started a festival in 2017 near his hometown in Pingyao. The second edition was held last year.  Marco Mueller helps Jia Zhangke and they support young filmmakers. The good films from this festival are then shown in Paris and in Europe. Jia Zhangke is now very famous in China. The government supports him. Shanxi Province has also supported him because through him they got international prominence.

RD: Why are Bollywood films from India so popular in China?

XF: From 2000s only Hollywood and Hong Kong films had dominated and the market needed new kinds of films. We get two to three films from Bollywood every year, like Aamir Khan’s films. Russian films, too, and South Korean and French. In Shanghai film festival every year they show nearly 400 films and masters of world cinema in the non-competition sections. These are all commercial films. Art films are only shown at film festivals. Tickets are sold out in a matter of minutes at the festivals.

Prof. Rashmi Doraiswamy

MMAJ Academy of International Studies

Jamia Millia Islamia