We are excited to announce that distinguished scholar Lu Xinyu of Fudan University will address the next meeting of the Modern China group on Monday, Apr. 27 in Building 1A, Room 308 at 2:00pm. Her lecture will be entitled, “The Pain of Our Society: On the Contemporary Chinese New Documentary Movement.
The New Documentary Movement has emerged as an important medium by which to examine some of the social, political, and historical disjunctions in contemporary China. In fact, the New Documentary Movement can be seen as integral parts of those social developments and also as part of a historical movement, which use their own style to maintain a dialogue with society. This dialogue includes investigation, interpretation, and intervention. The significance of the New Documentary Movement lies in the activist engagement of the filmmakers with the emotional and living conditions of Chinese people in all walks of life in contemporary China.
Lu Xinyu is Professor and Chair of the Broadcasting Department, School of Journalism, Fudan Univisersity where she also serves as senior research fellow. Her many writings include the publication Documenting China: The New Documentary Movement (Beijing, SDX Joint Publishing Company, 2003). Her research is focused on the relationship between Chinese Visual Culture, mass media, and the social development. Her new book named Writing and What It Obscures was published by Guangxi Normal University Press, 2008.
Originally trained in literature, she joined the faculty of Fudan University in 1993, shortly after completing the university’s PhD program in Western Aesthetics. Professor Lu will spend a year as a visiting scholar in the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University.
This is a rare opportunity and we hope that the members of the Modern China group and the academic community at large will come out and show their support.
