The Reintegration of the Past as Self-Realisation: Zhao Tao in Jia Zhangke’s Films

Authors: Haotian Wu

Abstract:

This article examines the figure Zhao Tao in Jia Zhangke’s films in light of Carl Jung’s psychoanalytical theory. Zhao is a recurring aesthetic trope in Jia’s films, and the characters she plays often have an intimate relationship with the past. Nevertheless, this relationship has not been systematically investigated, especially its symbolism of the typical relationship between the past and the self in post-social China. To fill this research gap, the article will explore how Zhao’s characters discover, preserve, and adapt the past in I Wish I knew (2010), Mountains May Depart (2015), and Ash Is Purest White (2018). Through a Jungian lens, these three levels of engagement with the past will be demonstrated as corresponding with Jung’s psychoanalytical theory of self-realisation, which entails the confrontation with the shadow, the embodiment of the archetype, and individuation. Thus, by articulating a film-philosophy dialogue between Jia and Jung, this article will develop a philosophy of self-realisation based on the symbolism of Zhao. Through the reintegration of the past, the individuals can overcome the fragmentation of temporality and selfhood in the postmodern world and achieve self-realisation.

Keywords: Jia Zhangke, Jung, psychoanalysis, self-realisation.

References:

[1] Ash Is Purest White. 2018. (film) Directed by Z. Jia. Shanghai: Shanghai Film Studio and Xstream Pictures.
[2] Beauvoir, S., 2011. The second sex, New York: Vintage.
[3] Bergson, H., 1998. Creative evolution. New York: Dover Publications. pp. 4.
[4] Berry, C., 2007. Getting real Chinese documentary, Chinese postsocialism. In: Z. Zhang, ed., The urban generation: Chinese cinema and society at the turn of the twenty-first century. Durham: Duke University Press. pp. 116.
[5] Billson, A., 2019. Anna Karina, Catherine Deneuve: movies malign women by calling them muses. (online) the Guardian. Available at: para. 3-4. (Accessed 16 April 2021).
[6] Buchanan, I., 2018. A dictionary of critical theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp.387.
[7] Cheshire, G., 2016. Mountains May Depart movie review (2016) | Roger Ebert. (online) Rogerebert.com. Available at: para. 3. (Accessed 16 April 2021).
[8] Cui, W., 2020. Waiting and the duration of time: The critique of everyday life in Jia Zhangke’s Platform. China Perspectives, 2020(2).
[9] Hauke, C. & Hockley, L., 2011. Jung & film II the return: Further post-Jungian takes on the moving image, London: Routledge.
[10] Holtmeier, M., 2014. The wanderings of Jia Zhangke: pre-hodological space and aimless youths in Xiao Wu and Unknown Pleasures. Journal of Chinese Cinemas, 8(2), pp.148-159.
[11] I Wish I Knew. 2010. (film) Directed by Z. Jia. Shanghai: Shanghai Film Studio.
[12] Jameson, F., 1982. Postmodernism and Consumer Society. Manhattan: Whitney Museum. pp. 7.
[13] Jameson, F., 1993. Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism. London: Verso. pp. 16.
[14] Jung, C. G., 2002. The undiscovered self. London: Routledge.
[15] Jung, C. G., 2012. Four archetypes. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp.7&14-15&75.
[16] Jung, C. G., 2014. Collected works of C.G. Jung, volume 6. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp.561.
[17] Lu, T., 2008. Fantasy and reality of a virtual China in Jia Zhangke’s film The World. Journal of Chinese Cinemas, 2(3), pp.163-179.
[18] Mountains May Depart. 2015. (film) Directed by Z. Jia. Shanghai: Shanghai Film Studio and Xstream Pictures.
[19] Schultz, C., 2016. Memories in performance: Commemoration and the commemorative experience in Jia Zhangke’s 24 City. Film-Philosophy, 20(2-3), pp. 265-282.
[20] Shakespeare, W., 2006. Hamlet by William Shakespeare. London: Global Media.
[21] Still Life. 2006. (film) Directed by Z. Jia. Shanghai: Shanghai Film Studio.
[22] Wang, Y., 2015. Violence, wuxia, migrants: Jia Zhangke’s cinematic discontent in A Touch of Sin. Journal of Chinese Cinemas, 9(2), pp.159-172.
[23] Zheng, A., 2013. The realism of compositional documentary: Jia Zhangke’s “I Wish I Knew”. Pacific Coast Philology, 48(1), pp. 102-103.
[24] Zhu, P., 2011. Destruction, moral nihilism and the poetics of debris in Jia Zhangke’s Still Life. Visual Anthropology, 24(4), pp. 322.