Title:		中国电影欣赏：霸王别姬 Watching the Movie and Learning Chinese: Farewell My Concubine (+ 1 DVD)
Author / Editor:		王向晖  Wang Xianghui,  余文青  Yu Wenqing
ISBN:		9787561923153
Series:		中国电影欣赏 Watching the Movie and Learning Chinese
Publisher:		北京语言大学出版社 (Beijing Language and Culture University Press)
Annotation Language:		English
Date of Publication:		2009.05
First	Edition
Number of pages:		89
Dimensions:		260 x 185 x 7 mm
Binding:		Paperback

Target Audience: For Chinese learners who have mastered 3,000 most commonly used words
Level: Advanced/Intermediate
Category: Chinese Textbooks for Adults - Language Skills

Description

The movie FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE won the Golden Palm Award for best movies in the 46th Cannes Film Festival. It explores Chinese traditional culture, observes and meditates on the state of living and human nature, and reproduces Chinese history in half century with the touching stories of the characters, so it is a good learning material for intermediate and advanced TCFL audio-visual classes.

This book selects 8 excerpts from the movie, adds detailed historical, cultural and language annotations and provides diversified exercises based on the audio-visual materials. The accompanying DVD contains 2 versions of the movie: a complete version to be watched for appreciation, and a reedited version for use in the classroom.

The book is best suited for learners of Chinese with a vocabulary of 3000 words, and can be used for class as well as for self study.


Background

The movie is set in 1920s – 1970s in Beijing. Cheng Dieyi is sold to a Beijing opera troupe to learn the performance of “nandan” (a female character acted by a male performer) since he is very young. As he always acts female on the stage, he gets confused about his true identity as a male in daily life. He has deep affection for his brother apprentice Duan Xiaolou and they win immediate fame in the circle after their excellent joint performance of Ba Wang Bie Ji (Farewell My Concubine). Cheng gets more and more attached to Duan, but Duan marries Juxian (a prostitute). And during the Cultural Revolution, the two brothers are forced to betray each other. In the end, Cheng feels so lost in his pursuit of love and art in the upheaval of the society that he commits suicide when rehearsing on the stage with Duan Xiaolou.
This film won the Golden Palm Award for best movies in the 46^th Cannes Film Festival and some other awards. It explores Chinese traditional culture, observes and meditates on the state of living and human nature by featuring culture-loaded Beijing opera and the life of its performers. With the portrayal of the complex relationship between the characters, the movie also presents the drastic political changes in China in the first of the 20th century.


About the Author(s)
 
Both Wang Xianghui and Yu Wenqing are teachers of the College of Intensive Chinese Training, Beijing Language and Culture University.