CHIN247

This course focuses on the ways in which contemporary fantasy films from the Chinese speaking world reemploy traditional folk, fairy and mythological tales to visualize the otherworldly (monsters, immortals, and the supernatural). A key question to ask is how the human and humane is understood in traditional tales as well as in digitally made fantasy films. It touches on issues such as the imaginative space of early China, the revamp of traditions for a modern and globalized world, the transformative power of popular culture in shaping collective sub-consciousness, and questions about the human species as reflected in eco-cinema.