Il mio corpo che cambia. Tra costruzione e smantellamento, lo spazio suburbano come paesaggio fisico, sociale e psicologico della Cina nel cinema di Jia ZhangKe = My body is changing. Between construction and destruction, the urban space as physical, social and psychological Chinese landscape in Jia ZhangKe’s cinema"

Abstract

My body is changing.Between construction and destruction, the urban space as physical, social and psychological Chinese landscape in Jia ZhangKe’s cinema. It is certainly true that cinema has always dialogued with architectural urban space, highlighting, depicting and investigating the multiple landscape transformations. In order to explore how cinema reflects upon marginalization process provoked by the organization of urban space, in the present essay I will take into account Jia ZhangKe’s cinema, which explores and traverses China’s post-socialist alterations, as well as personal, collective, private and public mutations. Revealing the several layers, voices and levels concerning Chinese history the films discussed shed a light on the urban transformation in a global landscape. The World (2004), Still Life (2006), 24 City (2008) and I Wish I Knew (2010) reflect upon marginalization, deterritorialization and alienation process caused by the production of urban space through a superimposition of imaginaries which trace Chinese history and cultural evolution.