Macau

Date:

  • 17 September 2008

Location:

  • Macau Ricci Institue

Time:

  • 18:00 to 21:30

Cost:

  • Free

Languages:

  • English

Speaker

Mao Sihui 毛思慧

Mao Sihui 毛思慧 is Professor of English and Comparative Cultural Studies, Chairman of English Language Teaching and Research Committee, Director of MPI-Bell Centre of English, Macao Polytechnic Institute and Vice President of Sino-American Cultural Studies Association of China. He is also Honorary Professor of Comparative Literature of Hong Kong University and PhD supervisor for Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. He received his M.A. from Department of English, University of Lancaster, and his PhD (Comparative Literature – Film Culture) from the University of Hong Kong. He taught for many years at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and then at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. His publications include Technologising the Male Body: British Cinema 1957-1987 (1999), New Perspectives: Contemporary Literary and Cultural Studies (2000), Decoding Contemporary Britain (2003), and Literature, Culture and Postmodern Transformations: 8 Case Studies from William Shakespeare to James Bond (forthcoming) and also over 50 journal papers / book chapters in language and translation studies, literary and cultural studies. He is editor-in-chief of New Topics in Contemporary Cultural Studies Series (6 books) published by Sun Yat-sen University Press (2007-2008) He is currently working on the project Representations of Macao in Contemporary Cinema.

Introduction

Under this topic, the speaker will be using film clips of his own choice such as scenes from Jia Zhangke's "Xiaowu" (1997), "Platform" (2000), "Still Life" (2006), Wang Xiaoshuai's "Beijing Bicycle" (2001) and "Shanghai Dreams" (2005), Li Yang's "Blind Shaft" (2003), Yang Yazhou's "Loach is Fish too" (2004), Qi Jian's "The Forest Ranger" (2006) and Zhang Yang's "Going Home" (2007). These films represent the real truth-seeking spirit of these "younger" directors which is extremely valuable in contemporary China and can be a very good channel to explore the deep social, psychological and cultural implications of a fast rising China in the age of "glocalisation" (the dual process of globalisation and localisation).