Introduction

Abstract

The century-long debate scrutinizing China's cultural heritage and the road to wealth and power (modernization) reached a crescendo in 1988 with the publication of a best-selling book, performances of a six-part series on national television, and soul-searching discussion culminating in the banning of He shang (River elegy, or Deathsong of the river). Cutting to the heart of the emotional issues pertaining to assessment of Chinese tradition and the West, the debate provides insight into the cultural and political conflicts of the era and the democratic movement of 1989 that it helped shape.     

Introduction

John King’s introduction to this section surveys the development of Latin American film studies in the UK over the past 25 years. All three papers explore the interplay between local and global factors in the development of Mexican cinema. Andrea Noble introduces the work of Carlos Monsiváis and discusses the role that early and Golden Age cinema played in the processes of modernisation in Mexico. Carlos Monsiváis pays particular attention to the image of the city in recent Mexican cinema, exploring the use of language and the depiction of sex. Geoffrey Kantaris offers a number of theoretical pathways into an exploration of contemporary cinema in Mexico, analysing how ideas of place and identity are disrupted by the crisis of the nation state in a globalised, postmodern world.