Ling Zhang presents "The Dual Journey of Long Live the Nation: Sounding Travel Documentary in Wartime China."
This talk is part of a book project on travel films in twentieth-century China. It arises from a chapter examining the experimental acoustic techniques of the wartime travel documentary Long Live the Nation (Zheng Junli, 1943), especially the entwinement of voice-over narrations, poetry recitals, and local folk songs, in relation to the overlapping journeys taking place both within and outside the diegetic world of the film. Attending to the soundscape in Nation with regard to the history of travel film, documentary aesthetics and wartime ideology, the talk excavates compelling ethnic and nationalist issues illuminated by the film’s acoustic dimensions and portrayals of transcultural encounters during the war of resistance (1937-1945).
Reception to follow @ 6pm in ENGL Faculty Lounge, FBH 135.