ARCHIVORIENTÁLNÍ84,2016 • 349 Shangri-la Deconstructed: Representations of Tibet in the PRC and Pema Tseden's Films Kamila Hladíková 1. INTRODUCTION The actual history of Tibetan cinematography only began during the 2000s, with the appearance of the first feature films by Pema Tseden (Tib. Pad ma Tshe brtan, Ch. Wanma Caidan ^7f"H, b. 1969).1 He was the first Tibetan director to graduate from the Beijing Film Academy and start to make movies in the People's Republic of China with a Tibetan crew and in the Tibetan language (Amdo dialect). Before that, only a few films could be considered to be "Tibetan" in the proper sense. It has to be noted that there are several filmmakers of Tibetan origin living in the diaspora, and "Tibetan films" (mostly documentaries) started to emerge in India or other countries as early as the 1980s.2 However, because of the different conditions under which the films of these filmmakers were produced, and with regard to the different focus and target of these works, they will not be included in this study. Another large group of Tibet-related films, which are not going to be discussed, include the films by directors from the West. Although many of the directors cooperated with Tibetans, used Tibetan actors, who sometimes spoke Tibetan, and a minority of them even shot their films in Tibetan areas (but usually not in the PRC), these films represent a specific category, which in general presents the Western image of Tibet, something that is not the focus of this study. Thus, the aim of this article is to compare the cinematic representations of Tibet in films that were made within the PRC, regardless of the degree of Tibetan participation in the production process, with the first three feature films of Pema Tseden. First, it will be necessary to define the terms "Tibetan film" and "Tibet- 1 In this article the Wylie system of transliteration is used for Tibetan and the international pinyin transcription for Chinese. Tibetan personal names are always used in the customary form preferred by their owners (so that the names are easy to find on the internet and in other publicly accessible sources), with the Wylie transliteration in brackets along with important alternative forms of particular names (i.e., Chinese). 2 Probably the most prolific and internationally acclaimed director from the diaspora is Tenzing Sonam (b. 1959), who lives in India and works closely with Ritu Sarin. He has produced several Tibet-related documentaries and a feature film, Dreaming Lhasa, directed by Tenzing Sonam and Ritu Sarin. India/UK, 2005. Other directors, such as Ngawang Choephel (b. 1966), the author of the feature-length documentary Tibet in Song, directed by Ngawang Choephel, USA, 2010; and Tashi Wangchuk, are currently based in the USA. There are also a number of well-known directors from Bhutan (Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche [b. 1961], Neten Chokling [b. 1973]). ArOr- Issue 84.2 ISSN 0044-8699 © 2016 Oriental Institute (CAS), Prague 350 • kamila hladíková related film." Following this, I will provide a brief overview of the most influential Tibet-related films, during which I will focus on several aspects: 1. The degree of Tibetan participation in the project; 2. The level of "knowledge about Tibet" that is evident, as well as the historical and ethnographical "accuracy" of the representation; 3. The ideology; 4. The use of stereotypes and cliches. In the second part of the article I will introduce Pema Tseden and his filmography and will also provide a more detailed analysis of his first three feature films. The director has always emphasized his desire to "capture the reality of contemporary Tibet as perceived by Tibetans themselves."3 It is true that even some of the Chinese directors who met Pema Tseden as teachers during his studies at the Beijing Film Academy have stressed the importance of "authenticity" or the "genuine Tibetan perspective" in his films.41 would like to demonstrate that these films should be regarded as intentional and self-conscious attempts to fight back against the earlier representations of Tibet within the PRC, as well as to show Tibet in a way that breaks away from the so far marginalized Tibetan perspective. As pointed out by Francoise Robin, many important motifs in Pema Tseden's early films can be interpreted as a "performance of compassion" (Tib. snying rje), "a key virtue in Tibetan Buddhism."5 She mentions, for example, the tshe thar ritual ("the liberation of life"), which appears in Pema Tseden's short film, The Grassland,6 and again in The Silent Holy Stones.7 The same theme occurs in relation to the popular Prince Drime Kunden (Tib. Dri med kun Idan), a character in one of the most well-known Tibetan operas. Quite lengthy parts of the opera are shown in The Silent Holy Stones, and it also plays the key role in his next film, The Search} F. Robin argues that it is a "counter-hegemonic" move,9 which can be interpreted on several levels: Primarily, it is an attempt to find an alternative to the "performance of backwardness," which was, according to Robert Barnett,10 until quite recently "the only accepted See, for example, Pema Tseden, "Filmmaker Pema Tseden (Wanma Caidan): Tibetan Films for Tibetan People" or the short portrait of the director for the Chinese State television station, "Wanma Caidan he ta de Zangyu dianying." For example, Huang Jianxin in the short portrait of Pema Tseden for the CCTV 6 station said that: "We would never be able to shoot it like that, we can only use our own perspective to interpret the Tibetan life ... while his expression is totally natural, goes directly from his heart..." "Wanma Caidan he ta de Zangyu dianying." Francoise Robin, "Performing Compassion: A Counter-Hegemonic Strategy in Tibetan Cinema?," 37-38. The Grassland, dir. by Pema Tseden, 2004. The Silent Holy Stones, dir. by Pema Tseden, 2005. The Search, dir. by Pema Tseden, 2009. Francoise Robin, "Performing Compassion," 37-38. Robert Barnett, "Beyond the Collaborator-Martyr Model: Strategies of Compliance, Opportunism and Opposition Within Tibet," 34. Quoted in Francoise Robin, "Performing Compassion," 43. Shangri-la Deconstructed: Representations of Tibet in the PRC and Pema Tseden's Films • 351 type of public performance for Tibetans in the face of Chinese hegemony."11 As such, it is meaningfully oriented, both inwards towards the Tibetan community ("endo-compassion"), where it confirms the "self-ethnotype" that (certain) Tibetans have themselves created, based on this key Buddhist virtue, and outwards, towards the Chinese ("exo-compassion"), where it seeks to change the image of Tibetans as a "backward" and "fierce" "minority," thus approximating the former president, Hu Jintao's, notion of the "harmonious society" (Ch. hexie shehui ^Diifi^), that was promoted in the PRC during the first decade of the third millennium. Although Pema Tseden later focused on other aspects of Tibetan life, diverting his attention away from religion, which has become one of the most powerful stereotypes characterizing Tibetan society, he has still continued to make films which represent Tibet from the perspective of ordinary and marginalized people living in contemporary Tibet. This includes nomads (as in The Grassland), whose lives have been the subject of turbulent change in recent decades, to the only recently urbanized city-dwellers, who are portrayed in his later works. F. Robin writes: "... [Independent Tibetan cinematographic discourse can be successfully called counter-hegemonic within the space imposed by the state."12 This is in accordance with my own "reading" of Pema Tseden's films. I argue that they (at least The Grassland and the first three feature films) should be understood as the first cinematic contributions to be made to the modern Tibetan identity-discourse. They introduce the first genuine Tibetan voices to be heard in the PRC cinema, contesting the image of Tibet, its history, its culture and its people as represented in the officially supported media and mainstream popular culture. Thus, his films may be interpreted in terms of the minority process of "becoming-other," which is characteristic of the postcolonial "minor cinema" introduced by G. Deleuze when developing his earlier concept of "minor literature."13 Pema Tseden's films have initiated a new and specifically Tibetan cinematic "minority discourse" within the PRC, based on the struggle "to define itself through the forces of domination and exclusion that occludes it."14 So far, all of Pema Tseden's films have been well received at international film festivals, both in China and abroad, and he has been awarded numerous prizes.15 The films have also been positively evaluated by Tibetan audiences,16 especially Ibid., 43. Ibid., 47. In Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Kaflm: Toward a Minor Literature. David N. Rodowick, Gilles Deleuze's Time Machine, 153. For a full list of nominations and awards see "Pema Tseden. Awards," IMDb, accessed April 25, 2016. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2120871/awards. As claimed by Pema Tseden in an interview with La Frances Hui (Asia Society, New York), April 10, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYCQHuJE-bo (last accessed April 25, 2016). 352 • kamila hladíková among educated Tibetan circles within the PRC, where the example of Pema Tseden has set off a huge wave of interest in film art. This has resulted in more Tibetans enrolling at the Beijing Film Academy in the last ten years and tens of (semi) professional and non-professional DV films emerging since then, as witnessed by a number of scholars and the director himself.17 At the same time, he has gained a good reputation among the Tibetan diaspora, and many Tibetan intellectuals in exile have published positive reviews of his films, interpreting them from the nationalist perspective and focusing on his more or less open criticism of certain negative social aspects (for example, Tsering Shakya and Tenzing Sonam).18 Owing to the short history of cinema in Tibet, until quite recently limited academic attention has been paid to this phenomenon. It appears that only two Western scholars have systematically examined the development of Tibetan cinema from its early beginnings: Robert Barnett, whose research focuses on Tibetan performance art and media in general,19 and Francoise Robin, a scholar with an interest in modern Tibetan literature and, more recently, film.20 As all Tibet-related films within the PRC are included in the broader category of so called "minority films" (Ch. shaoshu minzu dianying ^W^W^iW), a number of studies exist which are dedicated to this general category. However, only Vanessa Frangville has systematically analyzed the changing representations of Tibet in the PRC cinema since the 1950s until now.21 So far, several conference events and panel discussions on Tibetan film and media have been organized,22 and a special film issue of the Latse Journal has been published by the Trace Foundation, organized by Francoise Robin as guest-editor.23 17 See Pema Tseden's article "A Brief Introduction to New Student Short Films in the Tibetan Language," and Robert Barnett, "DV-made Tibet: Domestic Videos, Elite Films, and the Work of Pema Tseden." 18 Tsering Shakya, "Old Dog (Khyi rgan), directed by Pema Tseden and The Sun Beaten Path (Dbus lam gyi nyi ma), directed by Sonthar Gyal"; Tenzing Sonam, "Quiet Storm: Pema Tseden and the Emergence of Tibetan Cinema." 19 See, for example: Robert Barnett, "The Secret Secret: Cinema, Ethnicity and Seventeenth Century Tibetan-Mongolian Relations"; "DV-made Tibet." 20 See, for example: Francoise Robin, "Performing Compassion." 21 See, for example: Vanessa Frangville, "Tibet in Debate"; "Minority Film and Tibet in the PRC." 22 For example, the panel "Modern Tibetan Culture: Visual Representations and Film, TV, Internet, and Music" on the Eleventh Seminar of IATS, Bonn, Germany, 2006; the panel "Tibetan Cinema. Discovering a New Political and Cultural Language," which took place in 2008 in Naples as a part of the conference series "Tibetan Arts in Transition: A Journey Through Theatre, Cinema, and Painting" (see http://www.asia-ngo.org/en/images/eas/handbook%20arts.pdf), or an "International symposium on Pema Tseden's Films, Fictions, and Translations" in Hong Kong in October 2014 (see http://www.tran.hkbu. edu.hk/EN/Event/Int'lSyrnPemaTseden_Handbill.pdf). 23 Latse Journal 7 (2011-2012). Shangri-la Deconstructed: Representations of Tibet in the PRC and Pema Tseden's Films • 353 2. "TIBET-RELATED" AND "TIBETAN" FILM During the second half of the twentieth century Tibet became the object of many and various representations in art and popular culture. However, until quite recently very little has been heard from Tibetans themselves. As for the cinema, apart from a number of recent works representing the Tibetan diaspora, Tibet has been represented either through the perspective of the Chinese "civilizing project,"24 in which propaganda and/or various strategies of "othering" have always played an important role, or through the eyes of people from the West for whom Tibet has quickly become just a piece of a colorful imaginary landscape, serving as an attractive setting for big Hollywood-style movies. But, how many of such works actually deserve the epithet "Tibetan"? As Robert Barnett writes in his article on the film The Secret History of the Potala Palace15 (dir. by Zhang Yi b. 1963), Ning Ying (t'SIl, b. 1959) and others. Basically, their style and approach inspired Pema Tseden, a member of the same generation, while he was studying at the Beijing Film Academy. For an analysis of this generational conflict in modern Tibetan literature, see Riika Virtanen, "Development and Urban Space in Contemporary Tibetan Literature." Shangri-la Deconstructed: Representations of Tibet in the PRC and Pema Tseden's Films • 371 from this stereotype. The film follows the dealings of the two protagonists with a Han Chinese "businessman" in relation to their old dog, a Tibetan mastiff, the most precious possession of the family. The son wants to take the opportunity of the rich urban Chinese "craze" for such dogs, and plans to sell the dog for a huge sum of money. However, his father stubbornly rejects the idea of selling the dog under any circumstances. While the father's character can well be considered as representing the "old generation," the image of the son as a representative of the "new generation" of modern Tibetans is quite disturbing. Visually, a Tibetan macho-type with long hair who is seen riding his motorbike, the son is soon exposed as an impotent husband who is incapable of giving his father the desired offspring and one who refuses to admit the fact or to undergo medical treatment. He is portrayed as a drunkard who physically attacks his young wife." The growing sense of absurdity in the film stems not only from the dialogues between the father and the son and from their meetings with the Chinese businessman, but is also tightly connected to the environment, where the scenes take place, and to the overall atmosphere. Basically, there are two different settings, i.e., spheres, which can be, in a certain sense, characterized by opposing qualities, such as "home" and "town." On many occasions, the camera follows the protagonists, either the son on his motorbike, or the father on his horse, slowly moving along the muddy road of a Tibetan township, passing numerous construction sites where Chinese "Tibetan-style" buildings made of concrete rise up from a mixture of mud, dust and dung. Other images include inappropriately lofty government buildings, with piles of garbage, young boys playing billiards in the street, and goats, pigs and stray dogs roaming around. The scenes associated with the "dog deal" take place at a "scrapyard where mastiffs are chained to the rusting remains of hulking tankers."100 But even the sphere of "home," a small house on the grasslands, is not a pleasant or comfortable place. A dusty road lined with metal fences leads across the green grasslands, divided up into sections by even more fencing, towards a small house, where the family of three lives. The most dominant element of the interior scenes is a big flat-screen TV, watched in silence by family members. In one sequence, there is an absurd scene where the family is sitting together watching an aggressive Chinese commercial, when the Again, as in Xiu Xiu, the Sent-down Girl, the symbolical "emasculation" of a Tibetan male character appears. It resonates with the representation of masculinity in many contemporary Tibetan films, as pointed out by Robert Barnett, who calls these films "Tibetan tales of failed manhood." Robert Barnett, "DV-made Tibet," 150. However, in this case it can be interpreted more specifically as how impossible it is for Tibetans to pass on their traditional culture, as well as their vulnerability in a Chinese-dominated world. Tenzing Sonam, "Quiet Storm," 42. 372 • kamila hladíková TV signal is suddenly interrupted. In one shot, we observe through a glass door how the daughter-in-law, after a while, leaves the scene as tension mounts, soon to be followed by the son who comes to turn off the TV even though his father is still sitting in front of it. Social life in the township strictly follows the rules set by the Chinese, as is evident from the scenes where both the son, and later the father, needs to search for their relative, who is an officer in the local police station, in order to negotiate with the Chinese businessman about the price of the dog. Without these "guanxi" (connections) their ability to speak basic Chinese is of no use. And again, when the son's wife needs to go to the local hospital for a health check-up, the family has to ask her sister, a teacher at the local school and the policeman's wife, to accompany her. In exchange, they invite the policeman for a meal and supply his family with fresh butter. The ordinary Tibetans, nomads and herders, have thus become strangers in their own homeland, as their social abilities and general orientation is not sufficient to deal with everyday challenges of urban life and a Sinicized society. The image of contemporary life in Tibet in the Old Dog is even more depressing, because, as pointed out by Tenzing Sonam: "There is none of the solace of religion or extended family life that infused Pema Tseden's earlier films."101 In fact, there was hardly a great deal of this in The Search. I view this fact as a rather natural consequence of the author's evolution and maturation. His first two films, the short film The Grassland, and The Silent Holy Stones, both strive to capture the role of religion in the everyday life of Tibetans. As one of the constituent parts of Tibetan identity, it was a natural choice in his first attempts to represent Tibet from a Tibetan point of view. At the same time, it provided an element typically associated with Tibet in the eyes of outsiders from China and the West, thus allowing the film to be more in accordance with their expectations. But, following The Search (which was made after another story about a monk had been rejected for filming by the authorities, as mentioned by the director in an interview102), a film that arouses more questions concerning the role of Buddhism in contemporary Tibetan society than it provides answers, a more realistic and less symbolic theme appeared. This allowed more space for the exploration of future perspectives of Tibetans within the PRC and bespeaks the growing self-confidence of an author who is willing to depict Tibet from the "Tibetan perspective" rather than by accommodating the expectations of Chinese and Western audiences. However, the Old Dog invites its viewers to apply a variety of metaphorical and allegorical meanings. One of the most evident metaphors is the 101 Ibid. 102 Pema Tseden, "Filmmaker Pema Tseden (Wanma Caidan): Tibetan Films for Tibetan People." Shangri-la Deconstructed: Representations of Tibet in the PRC and Pema Tseden's Films • 373 metaphor of fences, which in Tsering Shakya's words "become a metaphor in the film for confinement and for state encroachment on local lives."103 If we continue with allegorical interpretations, we might be tempted to view the story of the old Tibetan man stubbornly refusing to sell his old dog to the Chinese for a huge amount of money, as hiding a covert nationalistic message. It speaks not only of the "national character" of Tibetans, but also about their fate in a contemporary commercialized Chinese society. 4. CONCLUSION There are several thematic elements in Pema Tseden's films that can be seen as important aspects through which the Tibetan-ness is expressed. This is in contrast with the dominant and officially proclaimed Chinese perspective of Tibet, as is represented in various cultural products that effectively blend the official ideology with market forces. Among them, the most notable are: the relationship between the past/the present, religion, the environment, character stereotypes, and the emphasis on/absence of "ethnic harmony," in the sense of peaceful co-existence and cooperation between Han Chinese and Tibetans.104 As a rule, within the PRC it has always been problematic to work on themes that reflect contemporary society. This is the same for any type of art, including the medium of film. Particularly in certain periods (such as the beginning of the 1990s, after the 1989 Tian'an men massacre), many artists have been forced to give up contemporary themes and turn to history, through which they have sometimes been able to speak out in an allegorical form. In the case of Tibet, the scope of "forbidden topics" is even wider, as is evident from the available material. In Tibet-related cinematography, contemporary themes are extremely rare. But, as an exception, all of Pema Tseden's films are stories set in contemporary Amdo. Although the director himself has mentioned the problem of censorship in several interviews, where he has also described the complicated process of approval in relation to film topics, he has obviously been much more successful in this process than have many others.105 With his films he has gained a unique opportunity to Tsering Shakya, "Old Dog (Khyi rgan), directed by Pema Tseden and The Sun Beaten Path (Dbus lam gyi nyi ma), directed by Sonthar Gyal." Such representations started with the "liberation of Tibetan serfs" by the Red Army in The Serf. Many of the more recent films depict encounters or even love affairs between Han Chinese and Tibetans (the best example is the Red River Valley), but such motifs have so far not appeared in any of the Tibetan films from Tibetan production teams, as also noted by Robert Barnett, "DV-made Tibet," 151. Interviews: Pema Tseden, "Filmmaker Pema Tseden (Wanma Caidan)"; or idem, "Tharlo (Orizzonti)." 374 • kamila hladikova provide an insider's perspective on the lives of ordinary people in contemporary Tibet, and has become the first director to focus on Tibet who is considered "authentic," both in the PRC and in the West. Although it is quite evident that he always walks a thin line, he has again proven his desire to portray Tibet "from the Tibetan point of view" with his last film, Tharlo, which demonstrates a profound knowledge of Tibetan culture and society and his informed understanding of contemporary problems - something which, more or less, all Chinese production Tibet-related films have failed to achieve. Religion, or in particular Buddhism, has always been seen by Tibetans themselves as one of the most important factors that determine their Tibetan identity, and this is especially so since the second half of the twentieth century, when the need for self-determination has been more urgent.106 For decades, it has also been inseparably connected with Western representations and images of Tibet,107 and it has always had a specific place in the Chinese visions of Tibet, where the evaluation of religion has roughly oscillated between the belief that it is the most evil cause of Tibetan backwardness and a position where it is regarded as pure spirituality, the source of wisdom and life energy for the "over-modernized Han," as previously shown by V. Frangville.108 Despite this ideological ambiguity in the representation of Tibetan Buddhism in China, there are only a small number of religious motifs with positive connotations in the Tibet-related Chinese films discussed above. Most of these motifs can be associated with cruelty and "barbaric customs," or at least with ignorance and backwardness. In several post-Cultural Revolution films we can see scenes of bloody religious rituals, for example in Red River Valley, as well as in two older films mentioned by V. Frangville.109 In The Third Goddess {Di san nushen H^j^I^, dir. Liu Yuhe )([[3l>bJ, 1982) and The Snow Lotus from the Icy Mountain (Bingshan xuelian /7JCU_[If jiM, dir. Xiang Lin [tOf|, 1978), young girls are brutally killed either for the amusement of local landlords or as a sacrifice to gods.110 Some films show scenes from the so called "sky burial,"111 where human bodies are offered to vultures (it is an 106 See, for example, DawaNorbu, "'Otherness' and the Modern Tibetan Identity," 10-11. 107 Different aspects of the Western, as well as Chinese, perception and representation of Tibet are discussed, for example, in Thierry Dodin and Hanz Rather, Imagining Tibet: Perceptions, Projections and Fantasies, or Shen Weirog, Wang Liping, "Background Books and a Book's Background." 108 Vanessa Frangville, '"Minority Film' and Tibet in the PRC," 17. 109 Ibid., 13. 110 However, it should be noted that in the Red River Valley the human sacrifice is carried out not by Tibetans, but by a Han Chinese (?) community. 111 The so called "Sky burial" (Tib. bya gtor, or "scattering to the birds," Ch. tian zang ;7vfp) is a funeral practice that is wide-spread in Tibet, during which the dead body is cut into pieces and offered as food to vultures. Shangri-la Deconstructed: Representations of Tibet in the PRC and Pema Tseden's Films • 375 important motif in both "root-searching films," The Horse Thief and Xiu Xiu, the Sent-down Girl). But in general, little attention is paid to Buddhism or to the everyday religious practices of Tibetans in any of the above mentioned Tibet-related Chinese films, apart from The Horse Thief and Ye she Dolma. Tibetan films authored by native Tibetans provide a very different picture of religion and its place in everyday life. The first films by Pema Tseden, including the short film Grassland, are specifically focused on this topic, as has been demonstrated in the previous chapter. The key notion here is the notion of compassion, as demonstrated by such motifs as the tshe thar ritual or the motifs connected to the story of Prince Drime Kunden. The notion of Buddhist compassion is in direct opposition to the brutal motifs shown in Chinese films about Tibet, and is intended to show Tibetans as a peaceful and humanistic nation in contrast to the Chinese representations of Tibetans as "fierce and barbarous." In these films, Buddhism is shown as a part of the everyday life of the ordinary people, but it remains as just one of the many aspects of contemporary society, and is not over-stressed. In Pema Tseden's later films (The Old Dog, Tharlo), religion is no longer present and the directorial attention has turned to other aspects of Tibetan life, departing completely from the originally Western cliches associated with Tibetan spirituality, and this has become a notable part of the self-presentation of the Tibetan exile community in relation to the West.112 One of the most important visual elements in all of the Tibet-related films is the "majestic" landscape - the snowy mountains, the vast green grasslands, the blue lakes. Only a small number of such films depict the urban environment and human settlements are often represented in the form of nomad tents, dark primitive cabins, and the huge stone-built manor houses of the aristocracy. In contrast, in Pema Tseden's films we almost never see Hollywood-style grand images of the pristine Tibetan wilderness. The visualization of Tibetan landscapes serves to illustrate Pema Tseden's evolution as a director, moving from more conventional depictions of high plateau grasslands in his earlier films (Grassland, Silent Holy Stones) to images that show the penetration of Chinese-style modernity into the Tibetan countryside, so typical of his later films, especially the Old Dog. If there is an open landscape, it is often dominated by a new blacktop road (or metal fences), and the view is blurred by clouds or fog. The most common picture, as presented in The Search and the Old Dog, is that of a shabby village or township lined with garbage piles or a bleak and desolate township full of mud, dominated by unattractive construction sites. Obviously, this is a picture of today's Tibet and not a marketing brochure produced by a tourism authority. In accordance As suggested, for example, by Toni Huber, "Shangri-la in Exile: Representation of Tibetan Identity and Transnational Culture." 376 • kamila hladíková with this approach, the people represented in Pema Tseden's movies are not beautiful young girls and proud, self-confident macho men, singing and dancing in colorful costumes, but ordinary people - young and old monks, school children in uniforms, policemen, herders, drunken young men, and so on. As is evident from this comparison, as the first Tibetan director in the PRC, Pema Tseden has assumed the role of a realist critic, whose main aim is to "demystify" Tibet, to de-construct the "myth of Shangri-la" that has been misused in the name of colonialism and propaganda so many times in recent decades - both Western and Chinese. This image has now lost its power and the marginalized voices have started to be heard. The evolution of Pema Tseden as a director, from the colorful, spiritually tuned short film Grassland to a social "drama of absurd," Old Dog (and recently a bitter black-and-white social exploration in the form of Tharlo), shows that his art can be viewed as a knowledgeable and intentional process of maturation, through which he has challenged the established picture of Tibet, both in China and in the West. 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Frontieres de Timaginaire: La Problematique de Tidentite culturelle dans la litterature tibetaine d'expression chinoise en PRC. Ph.D. diss. Langues'O INALCO, 2006. Norbu, Dawa. "'Otherness' and the Modern Tibetan Identity." Himal, May/June 1992: 10-11. Pema Tseden. "Trace Foundation Interviews director Pema Tseden." Latse Library, New York, August 19, 2010. Accessed October 4, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvtmMV40Jgg. —. "Filmmaker Pema Tseden (Wanma Caidan): Tibetan Films for Tibetan People." Interview by La Frances Hui. Asia Society, New York, April 10, 2010. Accesssed October 4, 2015. https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=pYCQHuJE-bo. —. "Tharlo (Orizzonti)." Press Conference of the Premiere of Tharlo at Venice Film Festival by RAI, Venice). September 4, 2015. Accessed September 20, 2015. http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/ programmi/media/ContentItem-22f3 96dc-43ab-4b7f-8666-287620bb88eb.html. —. "A Brief Introduction to New Student Short Films in the Tibetan Language." Latse Journal, no. 7 (2011-2012): 58-63. Robin, Francoise. "Performing Compassion: A Counter-Hegemonic Strategy in Tibetan Cinema?" In Tibetan Arts in Transition. A Journey Through Theatre, Cinema and Painting. Seminar Proceedings. Rome and Naples 2008-2009, edited by Andrea Dell' Angello, 37-50. Rome: Asia Onlus, 2008. —, ed. Tibetan Film - Special Issue. Latse Journal, no. 7 (2011-2012). Rodowick, David N. Gilles Deleuze's Time Machine. Durham and London: Duke UP, 1997. 378 • kamila hladíková Schiaffini-Vedani, Patricia. Tashi Dawa: Magical Realism and Contested Identity in Modern Tibet. Ann Arbor: UMI, 2002. Shakya, Tsering. "Old Dog (Khyi rgan) directed by Pema Tseden and The Sun Beaten Path (Dbus lam gyi nyi ma) directed by Sonthar Gyal." TibetWrites (online), November 1, 2011. Accessed September 21, 2015. http://www.tibetwrites.net/701d-Dog-Khyi-rgan-directed-by-Pema. Shen Weirong, and Wang Liping. "Background Books and a Book's Background: Images of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism in Chinese Literature". In Images of Tibet in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Vol. 1, edited by Monica Esposito, 303-27. Paris: Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, 2008. Sonam, Tenzing. "Some Thoughts on PemaTseden's The Search." Phayul (online), June 19, 2010. Accessed September 21, 2015. http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=27529&t=l. —. "Quiet Storm: Pema Tseden and the Emergence of Tibetan Cinema." Latse Journal, no. 7 (2011-2012): 36-47. Virtanen, Riika J. "Development and Urban Space in Contemporary Tibetan Literature." InModern Tibetan Literature and Social Change, edited by Lauran Hartley and Patricia Schiaffini, 236-62. Durham and London: Durham University Press, 2008. Weise Bfife. Xizangjiyi B^iStt [Forbidden Memory]. Taibei: Dakuai wenhua, 2006. Wen Pulin ^mtlrfr Mangmang zhuanjing lu ftlftlWMi?|r [Boundless Circumambulation Path]. Lhasa: Xizang renmin chubanshe, 2000. Zhang Yingjin, ed. Encyclopedia of Chinese Film. London, New York: Routledge, 1998. Zhaxi Dawa JLHii^t. Xizangyinmi suiyue ^WM-^h^ H [Tibet: Mysterious Years]. Wuchang: Changjiang wenyi chubanshe, 2001. Zheng Xuelai ^§5^, ed. Shijie dianying jianshang cidian (Si pian) ^^-^M^M.'m^M: [An Appreciation Dictionary of World Films]. 4 vols. Fuzhou: Fujian jiaoyu chubanshe, 2003. Websites 56th International Film Festival for Children and Youth. "About Film: River (2015)." Accessed September 12, 2015. http://www.zlinfest.cz/en/film-detail?id=5590. Baike. "Songzan Ganbu" fy^-f^U [Sontsen Gampo]. Accessed April 25, 2016. http://www.baike. com/wiki/%E3%80%8A%E6%9D%BE%E8%B5%9E%E5%B9%B2%E5%B8%83%E3%80 %8B. IMDb. "Pema Tseden. Awards." Accessed April 25,2016. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2120871/ awards. Xizang zizhiqu renmin zhengfu iSil [=| Yn EA^J^/f?. "Xizang zizhiqu huajutuan juxing jiantuan 50 zhou man qingzhuhui" Bit g?fiEi^lJK^fT^K50j^J±}Jt# [The Theatre Group of Tibetan Autonomous Region Celebrates its 50th Anniversary], December 27, 2012. Accessed April 25, 2016. http://www.xizang.gov.cn/whys/63217.jhtml. Films The Gold and Silver Riverbank (Ch. Jinyin tan Tfzffi)I|, Tib. Gserdngul thong). Dir. by Ling Zifeng /Jl^FM- China, Changchun Film Company, 1953. 104 min. In Chinese. Accessed June 8, 2016. http s: // www.y outube. com/watch? v=fznl 6E 5RPkY. The Grassland (Tib. Rtswa thong, Ch. Caoyuan IpLJjpf). Dir. by Pema Tseden (Padma tshe brtan, Ch. Wanma Caidan). Tibet (China), 2004. Short fiction. 22/25 min. In Amdo Tibetan with English subtitles. Accessed June 8, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx6O0DT_Kaw. Horse Thief (Ch. Dao ma zei Tib. Rta rkun ma). Dir. by Tian Zhuangzhuang EBtttt- China, Xi'an Film Studio, 1986. 84 min. In Chinese. Shangri-la Deconstructed: Representations of Tibet in the PRC and Pema Tseden's Films • 379 Love Song of Kangding (or A Tibetan Love Song, Ch. Kangding qingge 0 ^fjflK)- Dir- by Jiang Ping China, China Film Group Corporation, 2010. 103 min. In Chinese. Milarepa (Tib. Mi la ras pa, Ch. Milariba H E). Dir. by Sonam (bSod nams). Tibet (China), Taiwan, 2006. 96 min. In Kham Tibetan with English subtitles. Mountain Patrol (Ch. Kekexili dJ öJMJS, Tib. A chen gangs rgyal). Dir. by Lu Chuan f^j I f. China, China Film Group, Huayi Brothers, and Taihe Film Investment, 2004. 85, 90, and 98 min. versions. In Chinese, with English subtitles. Old Dog (Tib. Khyi rgan, Ch. Lao gou ^ffi}). Dir. by Pema Tseden. Tibet (China), 2011. 93 min. In Amdo Tibetan with English subtitles. Accessed June 8, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=pDaEzspxOBE. Once Upon a Time in Tibet (Ch. Xizangwangshi MISctSiK Tib. Bodkyi sngon byunggtam rgyud). Dir. by Dai Wei. China, Beijing Gelan Haikuo Culture andMedia, Co., et. al., 2010. 215 min. In Tibetan/Chinese. Accessed June 8, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XUSgzAd53c. Prince of the Himalayas (Ch. Ximalaya wangzi llJ^jif f^Hi-f", Tib. Hi ma la ya 'i rgyal sras). Dir. by Sherwood Hu (Hu Xuehua ij^S-W)- China, Shanghai Film Studio and Shanghai Hushi Culture and Media, 2006. 108 min. Versions in Tibetan and Chinese, with English subtitles. Red River Valley (Ch. Hong he gu tT)^^, Tib. Rong chu dmar po). Dir. by Feng Xiaoning ^J3j/J\^p. China, Shanghai Film Studio, 1997. 115 min. In Chinese. River (Tib. gTsangpo, Ch. He >d]"). Dir. by Sonthar Gyal (Tib. Zon thar rgyal). Tibet (China), 2015. 94 min. In Amdo Tibetan with Chinese and English subtitles. Sacred Arrow (Tib. Gyang mda, Ch. Wucai shen jian Sl^lu). Dir. by Pema Tseden, Tibet (China), 2014. 96 min. In Amdo Tibetan, with English subtitles. The Search (or The Soul Searching, Tib. 'Tshol ba, Ch. Xunzhao Zhimei Gendeng If-JicW^tf lt^). Dir. by Pema Tseden (Padma tshe brtan, Ch. Wanma Caidan). Tibet (China), 2009. 112 min. In Amdo Tibetan, with English subtitles. Accessed June 8, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Tqhj tB J7rvA. The Secret History of the Potala Palace (Ch. Budala gong de mi shi ^JOJlllf fi^f$5^, Tib. Po ta la 'i gsang gtam). Dir. by Zhang Yi 5fe—'• Tibet (China), Emei Films, 1989. 140 min. In Chinese. Not publicly released. The Serf (Ch. Nongnu $c#X, Tib. Zhing bran). Dir. by Li Jun 2^f|t, China, 1st August Film Production Studio, 1963. 88 min. In Chinese. Accessed June 8, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=pQYVd-22moA. The Silent Holy Stones (or The Silent Moni Stones, Tib. Lhing jags kyi ma ni rdo 'bum, Ch. Jingjing de manishi ff- ff- fi^fi^JSE)- Dir. by Pema Tseden (Padma tshe brtan, Ch. Wanma Caidan). Tibet (China), 2005. 95/120 min. In Amdo Tibetan with English subtitles. Accessed June 8, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=LXCH8gxjt5Q. Snow Flower (or Ganglamedo, Ch. Gangla meiduo Klüfte, Tib. Gangs la me tog). Dir. by Dai Wei WiPp- China, China Film Group, Tibet TV et al., 2008. 93 min. In Tibetan or Chinese. Songtsen Gampo (Tib. Srong btsan sgam po, Ch. Songzan Ganbu föl^-p^). Dir. by Lobsang Tsering (Tib. Bio bzang tshe ring, Ch. Luosang Ciren ^rfjl^jll), Phurbu Tsering (Tib. Phur bu tshe ring, Ch. Pubu Ciren ^^^JH), and Tendzin (Tib. Bstan 'dzin, Ch. Danzeng^i!1). Tibet (China), 1988. 160 min. In Chinese. The Sun Beaten Path (Tib. Dbus lam gyi nyi ma, Ch. Taiyang zong zai zuobian ^vPH^ftäiÜ). Dir. by Sonthar Gyal (Tib. Zon thar rgyal, Ch. Song Taijia fAMUl)- Tibet (China), 2010. 89 min. In Amdo Tibetan with English subtitles. Accessed June 8, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=yx-RPuvMORg. 380 • kamila hladíková Tharlo (Tib. Tharlo, Ch. Taluo $§}^r). Dir. by PemaTseden. Tibet (China), 2015. 123 min. In Amdo Tibetan with English subtitles. "Wanma Caidan he ta de Zangyu dianying Tj^^MfDftfiÖ'iJMI^^i^" [Pema Tseden and his Tibetan films]. Short portrait of the director by CCTV6. Beijing, 2009. Accessed October 4, 2015. http://tv.cntv.cn/video/C 14360/d9dfcf9246f84f4d82b7c887d9761 f35. XiuXiu, the Sent-down Girl (or Celestial Bath, Ch. Tianyu Dir. by Joan Chen (Chen Chong $k749- Hong Kong, USA, Taiwan, Stratosphere Entertainment, 1998. 99 min. In Chinese. Ye she Dolma (or Song of Tibet, Ch. Yixi Zhuoma filS^E^, Tib. Ye shes sGrol ma). Dir. by Xie Fei ilf Tibet (China), Shangdong Film, Bejing Film Studio, and Beijing Siji Changqing Film and Culture, 2000. 104/108 min. Versions in Chinese and Tibetan. ARCHIV ORIENTÁLNÍ 84, 2016 religious with the political. Furthermore, they also reflect the deep-seated anxieties of Hindu Right politics regarding female free will, the subversive potential of love, pliable and ambiguous religious identities, and syncretic socio-religious practices, all of which continue to exist in different forms. KEYWORDS conversions I love I desire I Muslims I Hindus Adina Zemanek 317-347 Daughters of the Motherland and (Wo)men of the World. Global Mobility in Shishang (Trends/Cosmopolitan), 1993-2008 The present paper undertakes a discourse analysis of Shishang (the PRC edition of Cosmopolitan) and assesses the extent to which this magazine promotes Western consumerism instead of strengthening a local national character, as Chinese scholars impute. I explore the evolution of Shishang''?, approach to globalization, as reflected in articles from 1993 to 2008, and focus on global mobility as a dimension of the image of women constructed in the magazine. Throughout this period, Shishang seeks to stimulate the imagination of its readers (in Arjun Appadurai's terms) by presenting them with experiences, attitudes and life scenarios that increasingly conform to John Tomlison's concept of cosmopolitanism and Aihwa Ong's idea of flexible citizenship. The PRC's Cosmo women "link up with the tracks of the world" by actively pursuing career development and self-fulfillment in a global context while opportunistically employing available resources, a process accompanied by a growing openness to and understanding of other cultures. Shishang not only depicts them as women of the world, but also strongly emphasizes their Chineseness, thus doubly complying with the ideological task of the media in the PRC. My study thus proves the above-mentioned criticism to be largely unfounded, but not entirely so - Shishang's recent issues promote a model of lifestyle whose overt rejection of materialism in favor of spiritual values are built upon the consumption of expensive global tourism experiences. KEYWORDS Shishang | woman image | global mobility | cosmopolitanism | flexible citizenship | nationalism Kamila Hladíková 349-380 Shangri-la Deconstructed: Representations of Tibet in the PRC and Pema Tseden's Films The aim of this article is to compare the cinematic representations of Tibet in Chinese Tibet-related cinematography with the first three films made by the Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden (Tib. Pad ma Tshe brtan, Ch. Wanma Caidan TjJ^TTJiL) in an attempt to define "Tibetan films" in contrast to "Tibet-related films," which are a broader category ARCHIV ORIENTÁLNÍ 84, 2016 including films made with no direct or only partial Tibetan participation. I argue that Pema Tseden's first three feature films should be understood as the first cinematic contributions to be made to modern Tibetan identity-discourse. They present the first genuine Tibetan voices to be heard in the PRC cinema, contesting the images of Tibet, its history, its culture and its people, that have appeared in the officially supported media and mainstream popular culture. Pema Tseden has thus successfully de-constructed the "myth of Shangri-la" that has been misused so many times during recent decades in the name of colonialism and propaganda - both Western and Chinese. KEYWORDS Tibet I China | Tibetan film | Tibet-related film | minority film | Chinese cinema | Tibetan cinema | Pema Tseden | Pad ma Tshe brtan | Wanma Caidan | identity | representation of Tibet Rostislav Berezkin 381-412 Precious Scroll of the Ten Kings in the Suzhou Area of China: with Changshu Funerary Storytelling as an Example This paper examines the connections to be found between the cult of the Ten Kings of the underworld and the practice of baojuan storytelling ("telling scriptures," or scroll recitation) in the Suzhou area of Jiangsu province. In some places, notably the city of Changshu, the stories devoted to the Ten Kings are recited during funerary services for the dead and are combined with the ritual actions aimed at salvation of the dead soul (i.e., with the object of obtaining a better form of rebirth for the deceased in the next life). These practices and related narratives have local specifics. They have been known since the 19th century, but rarely have been documented in historical sources. This paper is largely based on the results of the author's fieldwork in several areas of Suzhou, where this storytelling has survived until the present, in addition to materials preserved in libraries. It focuses on discussion of the origins, special features, and religious affiliation of these funerary performances, taking the Changshu tradition as an example. The author also analyzes the meaning of this ritualized storytelling in comparison with funerary rites and performances in other areas of China and applies to it universal ritual theory. Funerary baojuan performances constitute a part of the complex "ritual event" that involves several groups of religious specialists and texts and rituals of different origins, and that has important social functions in the communities in which they are practiced. KEYWORDS baojuan (precious scrolls) | Chinese Buddhism | folk beliefs | storytelling | rituals | folklore 460 • ARCHIV ORIENTÁLNÍ 84, 2016 RAJNI SINGH is an Associate Professor at Indian School of Mines, Jharkhand, India. She has published considerably in the domains of Indian English Literature, Feminist Criticism and Cultural Theory. She is engaged in major research guidance and her fields of inquiry include feminist writings, e-mail: rajnisinghl8@gmail.com AMRITA BASU is an Assistant Professor at Savitri Girl's College, West Bengal, India. She has major publications in fields of Narratology and Literary Theory. She is engaged in research guidance and project work. Her research interests include Indian Writing in English, Critical Theory and Narratology. e-mail: 2009amrita@gmail.com CHARU GUPTA teaches history at the University of Delhi. She is the author of The Gender of Caste: Representing Dalits in Print (Delhi: Permanent Black, India & Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016) and Sexuality, Obscenity, Community: Women, Muslims and the Hindu Public in Colonial India (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2001 & New York: Palgrave, 2002). e-mail: charu7@hotmail.com ADINA ZEMANEK is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Middle and Far Eastern Studies, the Jagiellonian University, Krakow. She graduated in Sinology at the University of Bucharest and obtained her PhD degree in cultural anthropology at the Jagiellonian University. Her research interests focus on texts of popular culture, which she approaches within the frameworks of discourse analysis and grounded theory. She has been awarded a Taiwan Fellowship, conducted research as a Visiting Scholar at the Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology (February-October 2014) and is currently working on a project concerning the construction of Taiwaneseness and national identity in contemporary popular culture (tourist souvenirs, comic books and films). She has written about the image of women in mainland Chinese popular culture (fashion and lifestyle magazines, TV series); her recent publications include the monograph Córki Chin i obywatelki šwiata. Obraz kobiety w chiňskich czasopismach o modzie [Daughters of China and Citizens of the World. The Image of Women in Chinese Fashion Magazines, in Polish], Krakow: Ksiegarnia Akademická, 2013. e-mail: adina.zemanek@gmail.com KAMILA HLADÍKOVÁ studied Sinology at Charles University in Prague, and completed her PhD in 2011 with the thesis The Exotic Other and Negotiation of Tibetan Self: Representation of Tibet in Chinese and ARCHIVORIENTÁLNÍ84,2016 • 461 Tibetan Fiction of the 1980s, which was published by Palacký University Press in Olomouc in 2013. Since 2007 she has been teaching Chinese literature in the Department of Asian Studies at Palacký University in Olomouc, where she is currently employed as an Assistant Professor. She has published several scholarly articles on Chinese and Tibetan modern literature in academic journals, both in the Czech Republic and abroad. Recently, she has published her translation of Tsering Woeser's Notes on Tibet (Xizang biji) into the Czech language (Praha: Verzone, 2015). e-mail: kamilahladikova@centrum.cz ROSTISLAV BEREZKIN obtained his PhD degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. He is an associate professor at the National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Fudan University (Shanghai). His main fields of research are religious storytelling and popular religion in late imperial China, precious scrolls (baojuan) in particular. His publications in Russian include a book on the function of precious scrolls in Chinese culture, with the Baojuan about the Three Rebirths of Mulian as an example (Dragotsennye svitki v dukhovnoy kul 'ture Kitaya: na primere Baots'ziuan' o trěkh voploshcheniyakh Muliania. Saint Petersburg: Saint Petersburg Centre for Oriental Studies, 2012). His English articles have been published in T'oung Pao, Late Imperial China, Asia Major, Monumenta Serica, Journal of Chinese Religions, Minsu quyi (Journal of Chinese Theatre and Folklore), CHINOPERL (Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature) and other authoritative journals, e-mail: rostislavberezkin@yahoo.com MICHAEL RUDOLPH has studied Chinese Studies, Japanese Studies, and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Heidelberg. He is specialized in comparative social and cultural studies with a focus on Greater China. His research focuses on postcolonial identity construction in Taiwan as well as on psycho-cultural adaptation problems of ethnic minorities in Taiwan's rapidly modernizing Han society. He has written books and articles on ethnic relations and social movements, as well as on the dynamics of rituals in Taiwan. Currently, he is researching the formation of new ethnic groups on the island in the new Millennium and the impact of the "travel" of concepts and theories to Taiwan. His teaching work at the University of Southern Denmark comprises courses in Chinese society and culture, intercultural communication and negotiation skills with a focus on China, as well as courses in the Chinese language, e-mail: rudolph@sdu.dk Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.