Writing the therapeutic waterscape: Bodies, memories, and nature in post-socialist Chinese texts

Abstract

This article takes an ecocritical approach that challenges the urban imaginary informing the notion of place and the identity of inhabitants in mainland China. It explores an alternative mode of imagination, symbolized by the flow and instability of water. The work of documentary filmmaker Dong Jun and renowned writer Su Tong can be seen as attempts to evaluate and revisit history and memories through a reconnection with water, whether it be the Yellow River in Dong Jun’s Flood or the river/water world in Su Tong’s The Boat to Redemption. Instead of commenting directly on the destruction of nature as a result of human development and cultural upheaval, both works use water as an indirect means to raise these issues.