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Digitalizing Xianchang: documentary experiments on Shanghai COVID lockdown

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Title: Digitalizing Xianchang: documentary experiments on Shanghai COVID lockdown
Authors: Zeng, Jinyan
Contributors: Lund University, Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology, Departments, Centre for Languages and Literature, Section 6, Division of Chinese Studies and Japanese Studies, Chinese Studies, Lunds universitet, Humanistiska och teologiska fakulteterna, Institutioner, Språk- och litteraturcentrum, Sektion 6, Avdelningen för japanska och kinesiska, Kinesiska, Originator, Lund University, Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology, Departments, Department of History, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, Lunds universitet, Humanistiska och teologiska fakulteterna, Institutioner, Historiska institutionen, Centrum för öst- och sydöstasienstudier, Originator
Source: Studies in Documentary Film. :1-22
Subject Terms: Humanities and the Arts, Arts, Film Studies, Humaniora och konst, Konst, Filmvetenskap, Other Humanities, Cultural Studies, Annan humaniora och konst, Kulturstudier, Social Sciences, Sociology, Social Anthropology, Samhällsvetenskap, Sociologi, Socialantropologi, Media and Communications, Media and Communication Studies, Medie, kommunikations, och informationsvetenskaper, Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap
Description: This article explores the expanded indexicality of documentary image and audio in the digital era. It analyzes the awarded Chinese documentary The Memo (2022) responding to the Shanghai COVID lockdown. The documentary reconstructs a digital xianchang (lit. the present and the site of happening, being there) of personal witnessing, collective testimony, trauma healing, and conceptual thinking during the Shanghai lockdown. The documentary exemplifies confined xianchang, instant archived xianchang, digital mapping of censored xianchang, AI-generated audio xianchang, multi-dimensional imaginary xianchang, collective testimonial xianchang, and healing xianchang. Limited production conditions due to deepening authoritarianism have encouraged innovative digital technology interventions, rhetoric, and modes of filmmaking. By providing first-person witnessing and collective testimony, showing the speechless close-ups of faces of ordinary people, and using cinematic irony, the filmmakers’ cinematic interventions weave a humanistic veil to counter the cruelty and dehumanization of the Shanghai COVID lockdown. This article highlights how digital technology has activated, enhanced, and altered the indexicality of audio-visual materials. Thus, the concept of digital indexicality alters the epistemology of xianchang in truth-claiming.
Access URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/17503280.2025.2462526
Database: SwePub
Description
Abstract:This article explores the expanded indexicality of documentary image and audio in the digital era. It analyzes the awarded Chinese documentary The Memo (2022) responding to the Shanghai COVID lockdown. The documentary reconstructs a digital xianchang (lit. the present and the site of happening, being there) of personal witnessing, collective testimony, trauma healing, and conceptual thinking during the Shanghai lockdown. The documentary exemplifies confined xianchang, instant archived xianchang, digital mapping of censored xianchang, AI-generated audio xianchang, multi-dimensional imaginary xianchang, collective testimonial xianchang, and healing xianchang. Limited production conditions due to deepening authoritarianism have encouraged innovative digital technology interventions, rhetoric, and modes of filmmaking. By providing first-person witnessing and collective testimony, showing the speechless close-ups of faces of ordinary people, and using cinematic irony, the filmmakers’ cinematic interventions weave a humanistic veil to counter the cruelty and dehumanization of the Shanghai COVID lockdown. This article highlights how digital technology has activated, enhanced, and altered the indexicality of audio-visual materials. Thus, the concept of digital indexicality alters the epistemology of xianchang in truth-claiming.
ISSN:17503280
17503299
DOI:10.1080/17503280.2025.2462526