University of Scranton’s Asian Studies Film Festival to Explore Roles of Women in Modern China
The 2014 comedy, “Women Who Flirt,” is among the three films shown on Thursdays Nov. 3, 10 and 17 as part of The University of Scranton’s Fall 2016 Asian Studies Film Festival. Each film begins at 6 p.m. in the Pearn Auditorium of Brennan Hall and are shown free of charge and open to the public.
The University of Scranton’s Asian Studies Program will present the Fall 2016 Asian Studies Film Festival on three Thursdays in November. The theme of this year’s festival is “Chinese Women in the 20th Century and Beyond: Traditions, Transformation & Modernization.”
Three films will be screened Nov. 3, 10 and 17 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in the Pearn Auditorium of Brennan Hall on campus. Each film will be followed by a question and answer session.
Admission to the films is free and open to the public, and includes light refreshments. Co-sponsors are the University’s History Department, Women’s Studies Program and Multicultural Center.
The series begins Thursday, Nov. 3, with 1997’s “The King of Masks,” director Tianming Wu’s poignant tale of fate, suffering and the power of love. Set in the 1930s, the film revolves around an old magician (Zhu Xu) who buys an 8-year-old orphan named “Doggie” (Zhou Renying) with intentions of passing his skills onto the child. However, when Doggie’s secret identity is revealed, the two embark on a journey to find a new male heir, with disastrous consequences ensuing. The film has received more than 25 top honors at film festivals throughout the world.
On Thursday, Nov. 10, the series will present “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress,” director Sijie Dai’s 2002 adaptation of his semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. In the film, two bourgeois college students are sent to a remote mountain mining village in China’s Sichuan province for three years of re-education during the Cultural Revolution. There, they both fall in love with a beautiful local girl known as the Little Seamstress. The film explores themes of youth, love and freedom during a particularly dark period of Chinese history, yet also has a great deal of comedy. It was nominated for best foreign language film at the 2003 Golden Globes, the Golden Tulip at the 2003 Istanbul International Film Festival and best Asian film at the 2004 Hong Kong Film Awards.
The series concludes Thursday, Nov. 17, with the 2014 comedy, “Women Who Flirt.” Directed by Pang Ho Cheung, the film centers on Zhang Hui (Zhou Xun), who has a crush on her longtime friend and co-worker, Xiao Gong (Huang Xiaoming). When Xiao Gong returns from a business trip with a new girlfriend, Zhang Hui enlists her friends to help teach her the art of flirting. Her new talents entice Xiao Gong, forcing his girlfriend to take measures of her own.
For more information on the film series, contact Dr. Shuhua Fan at shuhua.fan@scranton.edu, or call the Asian Studies Program at 570-941-7643.
