Hattiesburg -- A book written by a University of Southern Mississippi professor and one of his former graduate students examines the portrayal of China’s Cultural Revolution by three of that country’s top filmmakers.

Dr. Mazharul Haque and Dr. Ming-May Jessie Chen’s book, “Representation of the Cultural Revolution by the Fifth Generation Filmmakers,” published by Mellen Press, is an account of movies focusing on the disruption of China’s society by communist leader Mao Tse Tung, including those by filmmakers Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang.

China’s Cultural Revolution brought about widespread social, political and economic change during the 1960s and 1970s, and was considered a result of a power struggle within the country’s Communist Party.

“Some of these filmmakers had direct experience with the Cultural Revolution and witnessed the impact it had on all aspects of Chinese life,” Haque said. “So their work, culturally, is extremely important.

“In a way, they take on the role of historians, although they are people who did not seem themselves as such. But they wound up being historians through their films.”

Yimou and Kaige, in particular, have won praise by American filmmakers as being two the best in their field. “Those two are considered among the best storytellers through filmmaking,” Haque said.
 
"The authors ably demonstrate how the intersection of history and cinema in the work of Chinese Fifth Generation Filmmakers can be discussed in terms of the generic and narrative categories of tragedy, comedy and irony,” writes Dr. Phillip Gentile, Haque’s colleague in the School of Mass Communication and Journalism, in the book’s foreward.

Dr. Chen, who received her doctoral degree in mass communication from Southern Miss, is currently a member of the faculty of Providence University in Taiwan.

Dr. Chris Campbell, director of the Southern Miss School of Mass Communication and Journalism, said Haque and Chen’s book is further evidence of the strength of the international component of the school’s graduate program.

“The world really is a ‘global village,’ and our program recognizes that and is making significant contributions to scholarship about international media,” Campbell said.  “Dr. Haque is well-respected as a major international scholar, and this book is an important contribution to that scholarship by him and Dr. Chen.”

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