Introduction

The introduction examines Raymond Williams’s notion of “Structures of feeling” and how it has been theorized. Then, it reviews the history of class in China, the changes made to the Chinese class structure during the Maoist period (1949 to 1978), and the use of class figures in Chinese visual culture to advertise political changes, criticize institutions and attitudes, and inspire the populace. It concludes by examining the effects that China’s market reforms adopted in the Reform Era (beginning 1978) has had on Chinese society.

The Peasant and the Mingong: From Empathy to Sympathy to Looking Back

Chapter 2 examines the representation of the figure of the peasant and its contemporary incarnation as migrant workers (mingong). It analyzes the structures of feeling of empathy and hope that concretize around the mingong figure in these films, but also explores the sense of precariousness related to this figure in the more recent films, and how the figure has been made subaltern, wretched, and rootless. It examines two cinematic forms associated with this figure – the point-of-view (POV) shot and the observational shot – positing that the POV evokes empathy while the observational shot creates sympathy. Then, it focuses on the mingong mass that replaces the individual mingong, arguing that the mingong have been commodified and made expendable. It concludes with a cinematic form associated with this group – the mingong gaze, which exists as a reminder, watching and, in its presence, remaining, demanding that the viewer acknowledge the mingong and their current state.

The Entrepreneur: From Crook to “New Reform Model”

In chapter 5, the book concludes by analyzing the contradictory representations and structures of feeling associated with the entrepreneur figure. In many of Jia’s films, this figure is a threatening criminal who represents and evokes the anxiety surrounding market reforms in the early Reform era, and produces a structure of feeling that embodies the confusion, economic abuses, and fear of changing to a market economy. However, some of the films also present the figure of the rushang, who is a businessperson imbued with traditional Confucian characteristics, who is depicted as philosophical, friendly, and inspirational, and is tempered by traditional Confucian values, such as filial piety, patriotism, and anti-materialism, making it a figure to be lauded, not feared. These benign entrepreneurs have adapted to the new economy and are thriving because of it, but are also altruistic towards the common people and thus serve as inspirational models. This rushang is not the “New Socialist Human” that was the aspiration for the previous Maoist period, but is rather a “New Reform Human” for the Reform era – the resulting construction from the destruction of the Maoist state.

The Intellectual: Power and the Voice

Chapter 4 analyzes the intellectual, as primarily found in the documentaries Useless and Dong. It examines this humanitarian figure and the structures of feeling that are associated with it, which include patriotism, altruism, and a sense of mission, and the desire to save the nation and its people. This chapter is based around the voice – the power of the voice, the class that has it, and its effects. It also examines the “voice” of the camera, which is interpreted as the voice of another intellectual, that of Jia Zhangke, and how it switches from a passive “observatory lens” to an engaged “exploratory lens” when it breaks its orbit around these figures to examine other people and environments. It argues that, in the Reform era, the intellectuals have resumed their traditional role and moral obligation of speaking for the masses and serving society, arguing that this in effect “Others” them, and therefore emphasizes the intellectual’s power in the Reform era in that, although they speak for the masses, they do not share their problems.

The Soldier: From Degraded Reproduction to Avenging Hero

Chapter 3 analyzes the figure of the soldier. It examines the positive structures of feelings of honor and bravery that were associated with this figure during the Maoist era, which emphasized the army’s spirit of “serving the people” and the benevolent protection of the state, and argues that the absence of this lauded figure serves as a potent reminder of the disappearance of these noble qualities and feelings in contemporary society. It then examines the figure’s “appearance” in simulacra in the films – the police officers, security guards, and entertainers who dress up as soldiers – and argues that these imitation and substitute figures are degraded in the films, thus emphasizing the loss of these noble Maoist qualities in the Reform era. It concludes by analyzing the soldier wuxia (martial arts) hero in A Touch of Sin, arguing that this heroic, vengeful figure symbolizes the immediate need to address social and economic disparity, and heralds a shift in Jia’s oeuvre from mourning the demise of the Maoist classes to demanding redress for their plight.

The Worker Class: From Leader to the Margins

Chapter 1 analyzes the representation of the worker figure. This was the class that was created in the Maoist period to develop the nation and serve as the “vanguard” of the Maoist state, but now its members are wretched and are in the process of being replaced by migrant workers (mingong) without the former worker figure’s previous status, skills, or power. It examines the feelings that the figures stimulate in the films, which range from pride to shame, adulation to pity, development to ruin, and progress to decay, and notes how their previous status as “builders” of the nation is juxtaposed with the films’ depictions of the ruin, a motif that is attached specifically to this class. It argues that the film 24 City commemorates the factory and the worker class through its use of “portraits in performance” and “memories in performance,” arguing that, although they commemorate the factory and its members, they produce a structure of feeling of nostalgia that ultimately elegizes this group’s irreversible decline and disappearance in the Reform era and resigns them to the past.