CHIN 055. Chinese and Sinophone Cinemas

(Cross-listed as LITR 055CH)
In the Chinese-speaking world, the film screen has been an important media device for social, political, and cultural transformation. This course invites students to examine Chinese and Sinophone film cultures from the silent era to the digital age. Traveling across mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong through the screen, students will learn essential tools for analyzing film images and sound. Students will also discuss how cinema took roots in China, how the critics took advantage of the attraction of the film screen to instigate political movements, and, most recently, how the digital screen introduced a set of new techniques in crafting and exploiting the self-image in the digital economy. This course will give students opportunities to engage with media production, such as making music videos and video essays, as a new mode of critical thinking and practice. Students are encouraged to use both old and new media technologies and experiment with unorthodox ways of looking at the world through their own lenses.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Eligible for ASIA, CPLT, ASAM, FMST
Fall 2025. Gao.
Catalog chapter: Modern Languages and Literatures: Chinese
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/chinese

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