Montage in motion: Exploring Chineseness and transgenerational trauma through filmmaking practice

This thesis is a meta-commentary accompanying a portfolio of artworks, films, and animation created throughout this research project investigating methods of montage in search of sentiments of transgenerational trauma. The transgenerational trauma that I witness comes from previous generations’ experiences of past events. Such transgenerational trauma is a contributing factor in the evolution and ambiguity of Chineseness as a cultural matter. The analysis focuses on narrative cinema and autoethnographic filmmaking, referencing Lu Xun’s ‘Mr. Fujino’ to explain a comparative textual, visual montage practice. Moreover, the central outcomes (four films) examine how assembled footage from Shanghai’s remaining historical buildings interweave images with first-person narratives such as voice-overs to reflect on tangible objects and past traumas. Furthermore, it endeavours to reveal the significance of autoethnographic films of interlacing (my experience of my family’s) personal history in this context linked with the events in Tiananmen Square and the Cultural Revolution. Aiming to highlight that montage can be used not only as a technical tool but also as a strategy, allowing for a persuasive visual commentary process that helps us better understand the many layers involved in depicting Chineseness. By doing so, I suggest we can gain insight into the traumas that have been carried across generations and how past collective traumatic experiences may still be present today in narratives found in contemporary China.

Overall, the discussion revolves around an important question: how can we identify montage as a creative method in understanding the concept of Chineseness today? This dialogue also provides the necessary theoretical tools to comprehend the underlying reasoning, preoccupations, and concerns behind the submitted work. It presents supplementary information about the films created as the central part of this research, suggesting some fresh perspective on cultural assumptions of Chineseness for those involved in social and cultural studies.