Sam Ho Presents: Negotiating Modernity–Mainland China and Hong Kong | #1 Between City and Village

A Summer at Grandpa’s (1984), directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien

Wednesday 15 February, 6:30pm

Venue: IB Lecture Hall

Speaker: Sam Ho何思穎, Hong Kong-based curator, researcher and writer

Moderator: Andrew Field, Associate Professor of Chinese History, Duke Kunshan University

This event is organized by Center for the Study of Contemporary China, and co-sponsored by DKU Film Society and DKU Student Film Club.

When a young brother and sister spend a pivotal summer away from home, they are changed. Ting-Ting and Tung-Tung (Wang Qiguang) are children of the city, but when their mother is struck ill, they must leave Taipei, Taiwan, behind and spend the summer with their grandfather and grandmother (Mei Fang) in the country. As they wile away the days at play, the elder Tung-Tung is garnering glimpses of adult responsibility and is slowly growing to realize what it means to be a grownup.–IMDb

About the Series

Film is one of the most important forms of expression of our time. A largely commercial enterprise constantly seeking connections with the mass audience, it is a medium through which key concerns of the people are negotiated. It is also a medium of artistic expression, with powerful capacity for inspiration and emotional resonance.

This program aims at examining several important issues that concern modern day China through the screening of films. It will consist of nine screenings, most of them made in Hong Kong, each followed by a lecture and discussion. Highly business oriented, Hong Kong films often exercise interactions with the public through market mechanisms, addressing cultural, social and historical issues in meaningful ways.

The nine screenings will be presented through three themes, each dealing with a different aspect of modern life and how it relates to the Chinese people.

The first theme, titled “Between City and Village,” focuses on the relationship between urban and rural sensibilities in modern times, manifested in alternately conflicting and harmonious ways.

“Between Men and Women” is the title of the second theme, which examines gender issues, on the way changing relationship between men and women in Hong Kong are captured on film by the informal negotiations conducted through the medium’s commercial enterprises.

“Between Mainland China and Hong Kong,” the third theme, looks at the relationship between China and Hong Kong as depicted by Hong Kong filmmakers during the colonial era.

About the Curator, Sam Ho何思穎

Sam Ho何思穎 is a curator, researcher and writer. Based in Hong Kong and the United States, he specializes in the study of Hong Kong cinema but has also written extensively on various aspects of cinema while also curating dozens of programs on various aspects of international cinema. Devoted to the international promotion of Hong Kong cinema, he has given many lectures and speeches all over the world.