Ruins and Grassroots: Jia Zhangke’s Cinematic Discontents in the Age of Globalization

Abstract

This chapter argues that the films of Jia Zhangke approach the issue of globalization through a particular lens of ecological consciousness and a unique cinematic use of the spatial relationship between man and environment. He also frequently puts various types of ruins in the setting and focuses his camera largely on those people who have been discovered and characterized in China today as cao gen or “grassroots.” This cinematic maneuvering sends out a strong ideological message, directing one's attention to the edges of globalization as an historical monster and to the margins of China as a miracle of globalization, where the lines between the integrated and disintegrated are drawn in a most visible and yet complicated way.

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