Intellect

Authors:  Haomin Gong 
DOI: 10.1386/jcc.3.3.193/1

Keywords
postsocialist condition, commercial films, cultural intervention, critical edge, negotiation

Abstract
This article investigates Feng Xiaogang's (b.1958) film-making in the new millennium. Drawing upon his three films, Yi sheng tanxi/A Sigh (2000), Shouji/Cell Phone (2003), and Tianxia wu zei/A World without Thieves (2004), I examine how the uneven postsocialist situation in China fundamentally shapes his film-making and how his films are broadly symptomatic of the current condition and politics of Chinese cinema. I argue that, in the postsocialist condition, Feng's cultural intervention is strategically embedded within its apparently commercial form. My investigation begins with an analysis of the social space in postsocialist China as represented in his films. It then deals with the major focus of his films – common people's everyday lives, and it ends with an examination of the most intriguing aspect of his films and the most powerful weapon of his cultural intervention: his humour.