Shi-nematic Afterimages: Semiocapitalism and Chinese cine-cities

Citation

Fleming D & Harrison S (2021) Shi-nematic Afterimages: Semiocapitalism and Chinese cine-cities. Journal of Chinese Film Studies, 1 (2), pp. 329-353. https://doi.org/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0015

Abstract
In this essay we revisit our interdisciplinary approach to the "becoming-cinema" of Chinese life and cities in the contemporary era, while critically revisiting our notion of "shi-nema" (which combines the Chinese concept of "shi" (势) with a detoured notion of “cinematicity") which we forward as a provocative "image for thought" that explodes the concerns of modern film studies. Revisiting our multi-scalar fractal method, on this outing we specifically engage with a nexus of new semiocapitalist images and urban sites/sights that foreground how rapidly the psychogeographic circumstances in post socialist Chinese cine-cities evolve and mutate. Our essay opens with a fresh film-philosophy conceptualisation of "afterimages," blending cinematic, city, and conceptual varieties before moving on to critically engage with a new constellation of interviews and images drawn from Chinese film, television, streaming platforms, social media, and commercial real estate apps.

Keywords
Chinese Urban Shi-nema; cinematicity; Country Love; Nothing But Thirty; real estate

Journal
Journal of Chinese Film Studies: Volume 1, Issue 2

People

Dr David Fleming

Senior Lecturer, Communications, Media and Culture