The Interplay of Affect and Power Structures in Mountains May Depart

  • Liuxuan Yan Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Malaya (UM), 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • Marlenny Deenerwan Department of Drama, Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Malaya (UM), 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • Raja Farah Raja Hadayadanin Department of Drama, Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Malaya (UM), 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Keywords: Jia Zhangke's Film, Affective Theory, Power Structure

Abstract

In recent years, affective theory has gained significant attention in Western film studies and gradually influenced Chinese cinema research. However, its application in Chinese film studies remains superficial, particularly in the lack of in-depth exploration of the political nature of affect and its interaction with power structures. As a representative of China's ‘Sixth Generation’ directors, Jia Zhangke is not primarily known for political narratives, but his works centre on social realities, implicitly revealing the oppression and influence of social power on individuals through the depiction of ordinary lives. This study applies affective theory to analyse the interaction between affect and power structures in Jia Zhangke’s Mountains May Depart. The analysis focuses on three dimensions: affect as the embodiment of power, affect as the physical manifestation of power, and affect as a means of resistance and self-rescue. Through specific analyses of the film texts, the study demonstrates that affective movement is both an important medium for emotional expression and a key to the operation and resistance of power in film narratives. The study finds that Mountains May Depart fuses individual emotions with social power through the multidimensional expression of affective movement. The affective movement not only demonstrates the implicit operation of power, but also expresses the individual's resistance to social oppression and the reconstruction of subjectivity through the transformation of emotions.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Ahmed, S. (2014). The cultural politics of emotion. Edinburgh University Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748691142

Bryant, L. (2016). Deleuze and cinema: The aesthetics of movement and affect. Bloomsbury Academic.

Brecht, B. (2014). Brecht on Performance: Messingkauf and Modelbooks. https://www.amazon.com/Brecht-Performance-Messingkauf-Modelbooks-Books-ebook/dp/B00NIKGVH0

Bordwell, D. (2013). Narration in the fiction film. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315002163

Boccagni, P., & Baldassar, L. (2015). Emotions on the move: Mapping the emergent field of emotion and migration. Emotion, Space and Society, 16, 73–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2015.06.009

Clough, P. T. (2008). The affective turn. Theory Culture & Society, 25(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276407085156

Cheung, E. M. (2015). Between Demolition and Construction: Performing Drifting Identities in Jia Zhangke's Films. In Asian Cinema and the Use of Space (pp. 44-58). Routledge.

Coëgnarts, M. (2017). Cinema and the embodied mind: metaphor and simulation in understanding meaning in films. Palgrave Communications, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2017.67

Chion, M. (2019). Audio-Vision: Sound on screen. Columbia University Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.7312/chio18588

Córdova, C. (2024). Ennui, sovereignty, revolt: The Politics of Negative Affect in Pascal and Heidegger. The Comparatist/Comparatist, 48(1), 36–56. https://doi.org/10.1353/com.2024.a940108

Deleuze, G. (2019). Cinema I: The Movement- Image. Columbia University Press.

Deleuze, G. (2019b). Cinema II: The Time- Image. Columbia University Press.

Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. University of Minnesota Press.

Del Río, E. (2008). Deleuze and the Cinemas of Performance. Edinburgh University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748635269

Feng, W. (2018). Visualizing Affect: Power, Body, and Space in Chinese Cinema. Asian Film and Media Quarterly, 10(3), 120-138.

Foucault, M. (2008). “Panopticism” from Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Race / Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, 2(1), 1–12. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/252435/pdf

Foucault, M. (2019). Power: the essential works of Michel Foucault 1954-1984. Penguin UK.

Fuchs, T., & Koch, S. C. (2014). Embodied affectivity: on moving and being moved. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. Article 508. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00508

Gunning, T. (2000). The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, Its Spectator, and the Avant-Garde. In The Cinema of Attractions Reloaded (pp. 56-62). Amsterdam University Press.

Grodal, T. K. (2009). Embodied visions: evolution, emotion, culture, and film. Oxford University Press.

Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2005). Multitude: war and democracy in the age of empire. Choice Reviews Online, 42(05), 42–3066. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.42-3066

Jia, Z. (Director). (2015). Mountains May Depart [Film]. Xstream Pictures.

Jia, Z. (Director). (1998). Xiao Wu [Film]. Xstream Pictures.

Lo, D. (2021). The Authorship of Place: A cultural geography of the new Chinese cinemas. Hong Kong University Press.

Legault, L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In V. Zeigler-Hill & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences (pp. 2416–2419). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1139

Liu, M. (2018). Affect, Memory, and Power in Mountains May Depart. Asian Film and Media Quarterly, 11(3), 203-215.

Manning, N., & Holmes, M. (2014). Political emotions: A role for feelings of affinity in citizens’ (dis) engagements with electoral politics? Sociology, 48(4), 698–714. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038513500103

Massumi, B. (2002). Parables for the virtual: movement, affect, sensation. Choice Reviews Online, 40(04), 40–1946. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.40-1946

Massumi, B. (1995). The autonomy of affect. Cultural critique, 31, 83-109. https://doi.org/10.2307/1354446

Marks, L. U., & Polan, D. (2020). The skin of the film: Intercultural cinema, embodiment, and the senses. Duke University Press.

Mello, C. (2019). The Cinema of Jia Zhangke: Realism and memory in Chinese film. Bloomsbury Academic.

Markwica, R. (2018). Emotional Choices: How the logic of affect shapes coercive diplomacy. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198794349.001.0001

Nummenmaa, L., Glerean, E., Hari, R., & Hietanen, J. K. (2013). Bodily maps of emotions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(2), 646–651. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1321664111

Nie, W. (2021). The generation, transformation, and dissipation of the “Sixth generation” cinema in China: the entropy change of a concept. Journal of Chinese Film Studies, 1(2), 377–397. https://doi.org/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0033

Neale, S. (2005). Genre and Hollywood. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203980781

Plantinga, C. R., & Smith, G. M. (1999). Passionate views: film, cognition, and emotion. Choice Reviews Online, 37(04), 37–2077. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.37-2077

Royce, E. C. (2009). Poverty and power: the problem of structural inequality. Choice Reviews Online, 47(02), 47–0986. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.47-0986

Roseman, I. J. (2013). Structure of Emotions. In R. A. Dienstbier & E. Harmon-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of approach and avoidance motivation (pp. 343-366). Psychology Press.

Shaviro, S. (1993). The cinematic body. University of Minnesota Press.

Spinoza, B. (2016). The Collected Works of Spinoza, Volume II. Princeton University Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400873609

Tan, E. S. (2013). Emotion and the structure of narrative film: Film as an emotion machine. Routledge.

Thornton, E. (2020). On Lines of Flight: The Theory of Political Transformation inA Thousand Plateaus. Deleuze and Guattari Studies, 14(3), 433–456. https://doi.org/10.3366/dlgs.2020.0411

Wang, Y. (2018). Affect, Memory, and Politics in Jia Zhangke's Mountains May Depart. Journal of Chinese Cinema Studies, 9(2), 145-158.

Zhang, Y. (2007). Jia Zhangke’s Cinema of Social Realism: The Politics of the Marginalized in Contemporary China. Asian Cinema, 18(1), 76-89.

Published
2025-01-26
How to Cite
Yan, L., Deenerwan, M. and Raja Hadayadanin, R. F. (2025) “The Interplay of Affect and Power Structures in Mountains May Depart”, Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (MJSSH), 10(1), p. e003221. doi: 10.47405/mjssh.v10i1.3221.
Section
Articles