Reflections on Teaching Chinese Language Films at American Colleges

“Film Studies” has become one of the fastest developing disciplines at liberal arts colleges in the United States since the early 1990s. Many factors have contributed to the growth of this new teaching field, among which is the fact that new generations of college students are more accustomed than ever before to visual learning due to the influence of media technology. Also with the growth of global studies, “film” is widely used as “cultural text” through which students learn about other national histories, cultures, and customs in a visualized way that is different from conventional text-reading. Chinese language cinema, with perspectives and content distinctive from Western films, has become an innovative point in the development of Chinese studies curricula. China’s fast-paced economic development and the emergence of the Chinese cinematic movements (so-called “New Waves”) of the mid-1980s have also played critical roles in drawing increased attention to Chinese cinema in classrooms in the United States