Abstract
The fear of contracting HIV rests on a conception of touch as a lethal and abject transgression of corporeal boundaries. Chinese social beliefs that HIV/AIDS is the consequence of unsafe, indulgent, and delinquent lifestyles pre-empt narratives of compassion – emotionally ‘touching’ stories. China's most successful HIV/AIDS themed commercial film to date, Love for Life (Gu Changwei, 2011) re-narrativizes the social identity of the disease through the compassionate aesthetics and cultural technologies of melodrama, what could be termed the ‘touching’ politics of the film. Love for Life is also the first Chinese narrative film to address China's recent history of illegal blood-selling in rural villages. Representations of a forgotten place echo the film's representations of neglected bodies, inviting spectators to inhabit and experience both through cinesthetic touch. As the blood of villages flows into cities (in literal and symbolic ways), narratives about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in China similarly reveal the limits of modernization and urbanization. Touching films, like Love for Life, invoke an embodied ethics of a compassionate spectatorship necessary to make sense of Chinese modernity and its often cruel promises.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
