Having Searched for a New Way for Creation in History - The History of Chinese Cinema from 1984 to 1989 -

The Chinese cinema from 1984 to 1989 was certainly different from that of the previous period based on the conventions of classical revolutionary realism which had remained dominant in the context of Chinese films until the beginning of the period. It is Deng Xiaoping���s open-door policy of the late 1970s that is the underlying reason for the change. The policy gave rise to a revolution in the classical revolutionary realism which had been formed throughout the Cultural Revolution after the Communist take-over in 1949. It criticized Mao Zedung���s ideology and revolutionary class struggle. It also had a significant influence on the arts and culture policy of the time and raised radical changes. From the late 1970s director-centered filmmaking gradually appeared. As a result, a variety of themes, historical evens, and modernized figures of China came to move into the centre of Chinese arts and culture. Among others, it is the Roots movement that exemplified the changes. The Roots movement is a cultural and literal movement to search for Chinese identity and roots emphasizing local and minority cultures and began in about the year between 1982-1984. It underlaid the Chinese cinema from 1984 to 1989. Therefore, many of the Chinese films of this period reflected the reconstruction of that identity that the movement searched for. Especially, many of directs of the time paid attention to contemporary literature and painting which was not only inspired by the Roots movement. They mainly adapted ideas and narratives from the literatures, and the visual method of the paintings of the time. Their efforts was to restore the Chinese own identity and aesthetic ideas and forms that had been destroyed and forgotten. They came to go beyond the conventions of classical revolutionary realism and began to look at the Chinese history and present from the various perspectives. They were new films which had not been able to be shown in the history of Chinese cinema until the time. This new way of filmmaking was opened by a series of directors who are grouped into the Fifth Generation, Zhang Jinzhao, Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, Huang Jianxin, and Tian ZhuanZhuang. The cinema of the time, however, were shaped not only by the Fifth Generation directors, but also by the Fourth Generation directors, such as Wu Ziniu, Ling Zifeng, Huang Jianzhong, Wu Tiangmin, Xie Jin, and Xie Fei. Their works cannot be excluded when examining the Chinese cinema of this period. It is a limited and narrow perspective to devote the Chinese cinema of the period to the Fifth Generation. This essay examines the underlying reasons for overcoming the viewpoint of representing the history of Chinese cinema from 1984 to 1989 as the Fifth Generation