Heidelberg University: Details of event: Film screening: The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (2006) directed by Ann Hui

Back to Events of Wednesday 26th June 2024

Wednesday
26
JUN

06:00 PM

Film screening: The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (2006) directed by Ann Hui

SYNOPSIS

We first meet Ye Rutang (Siqin Gaowa), the eponymous aunt of the title, when she picks up her nephew Kuankuan (Guan Wenshou) at the train station. Rutang is loud and brassy, and probably more than a little annoying to her embarrassed nephew. Kuankuan's stay with his aunt introduces both he and the audience to Rutang's unique existence. She lives alone, disdains her nosy neighbor Mrs. Shui (Shaw Brothers veteran Lisa Lu), owns a flock of birds that she sets free in the apartment daily. She eventually falls in love with and is swindled by an amateur opera singer (Chow) who steals her life savings. Ye is forced to abandon her neighborhood in Shanghai to return to her estranged husband and daughter in Anshan, Liaoning in Northeast China where she faces her painful past - as an intellectual youth during the Cultural Revolution (1966
1976).

SCREENING GUIDE

Postmodern Life is a tragic-comedy adapted from a novel called The Aunt’s Postmodern Life (Yima de houxiandai shenghuo 姨妈的后现代生活) by Yan Yan (燕燕 b.1955), first published in 2006. It is supposed to be based on a real woman, observed by her 12-year-old nephew who spends time staying with his aunt in Shanghai. Yan Yan states in interview, “The tragedies of the intellectuals [...] reflect that they are lost in order to acclimatize to the society” (Zhang 2005: 41). As such, Ye Rutang symbolizes the individual trajectory of an intellectual and how she is at odds with mainstream society and official state discourse. What is so postmodern about Mrs Ye’s life? Does the tragic-comedy reflect the decentring of the subject, random grazing and depthless relationships, lack of a meta-narrative, or a condition of late capitalism? How does this film visually imagine the story about this unlikely heroine?
Director Ann Hui, born in Anshan, where the second half of the movie you will watch is set, is one of the best-known Chinese female directors of the late twentieth and twenty-first century. Her Vietnam trilogy (The Boy from Vietnam/Lai Ke 來客, 1978, a television program; The Story of Woo Viet/Wu Yue de gushi 胡越的故事, 1981; Boat People/Touben nu hai 投奔怒海, 1982), the adaptation of the historical novel Love in a Fallen City/Qingcheng zhi lian傾城之戀 (1984), and Song of the Exile/Ketu jiuhen 客途秋恨(1990) are just a few of the titles that have gained acclaim for Hui, who has been based in Hong Kong for decades.

Address

Institut für Sinologie

010.01.05

Voßstraße 2

69115 Heidelberg

Homepage Event

https://www.zo.uni-heidelberg.de/sinologie/research/tls

Organizer

Institut für Sinologie

Homepage Organizer

www.zo.uni-heidelberg.de/sinologie

Contact

Institut für Sinologie

Alle Termine der Veranstaltung 'Taiwan Lecture Series 2024 ':

This year’s Taiwan Lecture Series is devoted to questioning Sinophone Authenticities from cross-sectional perspectives. Approaching the topic In Search for Home—Authenticity and Chineseness in Taiwan and the SinophoneWworld, it will consist of four sections, and offer views from art, politics, literature and gender studies. It will begin with a section “Contesting Home—Artistic Renderings” with Taiwan Sound and Visual Artist, FENG Chi-han (Taiwan/Hong Kong), a second section on “Post-Chineseness in Taiwan Politics” with SHIH Chih-yu (National Taiwan University), a third on “Travel Writing and Taiwan Identities” with LIN Shu-hui (National Taiwan Normal University), and a last on “Homing Feminism in the Sinophone World” with Paola ZAMPERINI (Northwestern University).

Tuesday 07th May 2024, 01:00 PM

Security community vs. Global South—Taiwan’s coloniality

SHIH Chih-yu

Wednesday 08th May 2024, 06:00 PM

An Ontological Security Dilemma—Beijing, Washington Taipei

SHIH Chih-yu

Sunday 12th May 2024, 06:00 PM

Israel in Egypt: Konzert/Projektion/Installation—Heimat? Auf der Suche

Chi-Han FENG & Junge Kantorei

Wednesday 15th May 2024, 06:00 PM

ASEAN, SCO, and Taiwan’s Desecuritization Options

SHIH Chih-yu