Abstract
This chapter considers xianchang as a corporeal process. Embodiedexperience has long been understood as critical to the practice. And yet, the question of whose experience is being embodied – that of the director or of the documentary subject – raises interesting questions concerning the ethics of documentary representation. Using Hu Shu’s Leave Me Alone, I first explore concerns that emerged in the early 2000s regarding the representation of the subaltern body in independent Chinese documentary. These worries focused on the unbalanced relationship between the filmmaker and the filmed subject, and how this could lead to images that were sensationalist and exploitative, rather than straightforwardly intersubjective. Such concerns were exacerbated by emergent digital video technology: lightweight digital hardware facilitated access to subaltern space, while ease of electronic duplication made control over the image harder to exercise.
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