Cinematic Guerrillas

Jie Li’s research on Maoist cinema as a spirit medium reveals the constant struggle to keep revolutionary enthusiasm high after the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949. Her research on mobile projectionists brings out the complexity of working with rural audiences who sought the entertainment value in films meant to be understood ideologically. This book is a fine contribution to the study of cinema under socialism. -- Wendy Larson, author of <i>Zhang Yimou: Globalization and the Subject of Culture</i> Li offers us a cultural history at its best. Not only does it provide an engaging account of an indicative culture of the young and aspiring PRC, but it also lays out an impeccable method to study socialist culture, straddling media studies and political economy to critically analyze some fundamental features of its very effective propaganda. -- Laikwan Pang, author of <i>The Art of Cloning: Creative Production during China's Cultural Revolution</i> Cinematic Guerillas is both a bumper research harvest and a thrilling read. The memories of Mao-era mobile projectionists and audiences make us understand and feel how the cinema enchanted its audiences with revolutionary spirit – and how it made them willing to pay the heavy price of utopian dreams. -- Chris Berry, coeditor of <i>Chinese Film Festivals: Sites of Translation</i> Cinematic Guerrillas offers an ingenious exploration of Mao-era China. Jie Li considers state messages conveyed in film, embedding them in a physical mediascape of itinerant projectionists who hauled equipment, cash-strapped collectives who paid for local screenings, and villagers who flocked to open-air showings for entertainment and respite. Perceptive, hilarious, and heartbreaking. -- Gail Hershatter, author of <i>The Gender of Memory: Rural Women and China's Collective Past</i>