Chung Kuo, Cina
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Chung Kuo, Cina'' (, " Zhongguo,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
") is a 1972 Italian television
documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
directed by
Michelangelo Antonioni Michelangelo Antonioni ( ; ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor. He is best known for his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents", ''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and '' ...
. Antonioni and his crew were invited to China and filmed for five weeks, beginning in
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
and travelling southwards. The resulting film was denounced as slanderous by the
Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
and the
Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...
.


Release

''Chung Kuo'' was scheduled to be shown on at the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
on December 26, 1972, as part of a series of films made for RAI, but the film was not ready for public showing. The film was aired on Italian television in three weekly parts in from January 24 to February 7, 1973.


Reception

Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (, ; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Russian origin. He is widely considered one of the greatest directors in cinema history. Works by Andrei Tarkovsky, His films e ...
considered it a masterpiece and named it one of the 77 essential works of cinema. ''Chung Kuo'' was well received in Italy, provoking discussion on "Antonioni's China" as well as screenings and airings in other countries. The film was also well-received when previewed by Chinese diplomats in Italy. John J. O'Connor, writing in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', compared ''Chung Kuo'' (truncated to two hours for American television) favorably to the
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
-produced special ''The Forbidden City'', commenting that the former "reaches a degree of sophistication that would appear to be beyond the capabilities or experience of most American television". A screening of the film at the 1974 Venice Film Festival was met with angry protests by Italian communists. A police cordon was created to protect the screening venue.
Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
leaders interpreted the film as
reactionary In politics, a reactionary is a person who favors a return to a previous state of society which they believe possessed positive characteristics absent from contemporary.''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'' Third Edition, (1999) p. 729. ...
and anti-Chinese for showing what they considered to be the embarrassing blemishes of everyday life. In their view, the film failed to show the transformations in China after its revolution. Interpreting the film through the principles of the Yan'an Talks, particularly the idea that there is no such thing as art for art's sake, party leadership construed Antonioni's aesthetic choices as politically-motivated efforts to humiliate China and as an "imperialist way of seeing."
Jiang Qing Jiang Qing (March 191414 May 1991), also known as Madame Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and political figure. She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman of the Communis ...
criticized Premier
Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...
's role in Antonioni's invitation to China as not only a failure but also treasonous.A year after the initial broadcast, the ''
People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' ( zh, s=人民日报, p=Rénmín Rìbào) is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP in multiple lan ...
'' published a scathing editorial titled ''A Vicious Motive, Despicable Tricks'' ( zh, 恶毒的用心, 卑劣的手法), denouncing the film and accusing Antonioni of creating "viciously distorted scenes" in order to "slander China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and insult the Chinese people". The editorial was followed by a mass anti-Antonioni campaign, with activities including televised denouncements, written criticisms from around the country, and schoolchildren being taught anti-Antonioni songs. The campaign was later attributed to the
Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes due to th ...
. Antonioni was rehabilitated by the ''People's Daily'' in 1979. ''Chung Kuo'' was screened publicly for the first time in China in 2004 at the Beijing Film Academy. The film is generally well-regarded by contemporary Chinese audiences for its depictions of a simpler time.


References


Further reading

* Rey Chow, ''China as documentary: Some basic questions (inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni and Jia Zhangke'', European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2014, 17, 16–30, doi:10.1177/1367549413501482 * Xin Liu, ''China’s reception of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Chung Kuo'', Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies, 2014, 2, 1, 23–40, doi:10.1386/jicms.2.1.23 1 *
Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian Medieval studies, medievalist, philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular ...
, ''De Interpretatione, or the Difficulty of Being Marco Polo'', Film Quarterly, 1973, 30, 4, 8–12 doi:10.2307/1211577


External links

*
''Chung Kuo, Cina'' with English subtitles
at YouTube {{Michelangelo Antonioni 1972 films 1972 documentary films 1970s Italian films 1970s Italian-language films 1970s Mandarin-language films Documentary films about China Films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni Italian documentary films