聂伟：The Entropy Change of the Sixth Generation

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聂伟 Wei Nie

Wei Nie is a professor of Film Studies at Shanghai University. His research interests include the Chinese film industry and culture, Asian films, and new media. He is the author of Chinese-Language Cinema and the Pan-Asian Practice (2010) and Exploring the Chinese Film Industry (2010–2020): The Perspective of Supply-Side Reform (2021), and the chief editor of Studies on the Six Generation Directors (2014) and Film Criticism: Image Codes and Chinese Interpretations (2010).

聂伟，上海大学电影学教授，博士生导师。主要学术领域包括中国电影产业文化、亚洲电影和新媒体研究。专著有《华语电影与泛亚实践》《中国电影产业十年探察：基于供给侧改革的视角》等，主编《第六代导演研究》《电影批评：影像符码与中国阐释》等。

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To Cite This Article:

Nie, Wei. "The Generation, Transformation, and Dissipation of the “Sixth Generation” Cinema in China: The Entropy Change of a Concept" Journal of Chinese Film Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, 2021, pp. 377-397. https://doi.org/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0033

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Abstract and Keywords

摘    要：中国电影版图中的“第六代”概念是一个后设命名。20世纪90年代出现至今，依次经历生成、转型与耗散三个阶段。1990—2003年为第一阶段，第六代导演依靠个体本真经验创作，强烈影响中国电影的摄影机权力格局与美学表达；2003—2008年为第二阶段，该群体进入“无代”叙事，向主流文化资本、主流市场资源与主流电影技术手段靠拢。此间“第六代”概念被市场过度消费，独立品格异化。2009—2010年为第三阶段，从主流制作到商业类型片，第六代电影积极谋求市场生存的诸种可能性。进入2011年，传统大银幕意义上的“第六代”概念自我解体。他们再次汇聚在新媒体平台上，其文化能量通过“微电影”制作或直接或间接地释放社会影响力。

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Abstract: Ever since its advent in the 1990s, the term “Sixth Generation,” as a postulated label, has so far run the course of three consecutive phases: generation, transformation, and dissipation. In the first phase (1990–2003), the Sixth Generationdirectors based their films on the authenticity of their individual experiences and significantly altered the structure of cinematic power and aesthetic expression in China. The second phase (2003–2008) witnessed the group’s entry into a period characterized by a “generation-less” narrative drawing closer to mainstream cultural capital, market, and filmic techniques. The market overexploited the label of the Sixth Generation, and its independent identity was corrupted. 2009 and 2010 constituted the third phase in which the Sixth Generation sought all the possibilities for market survival by shooting a wide range of films, from mainstream production to commercial films. Since 2011, the label “Sixth Generation” went through a process of self-dissolution. Nevertheless, these directors once again came together on the platform of new media, transforming their energy through microfilm and continuingto exert social influence directly or indirectly.

Keywords: six generation, Chinese film, entropy change, genre film, microfilm

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概念生成：个体经验的能量爆发（1990—2003）

The Generation of the Concept (1990–2003)

The end of the twentieth century witnessed the collective outburst of spontaneous creativity of the Sixth Generation who drew their initial inspiration and energy from the accumulation of raw personal experiences. These outcast heroes remained estranged from the Chinese film apparatus during the transformation era. Determined to record and interpret their memories in their own way, they chose to present their lived reality with an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical narrative. 

第六代导演最初自发的创作冲动集中爆发于上世纪末。他们的创作能量源自个体内心经验的累积，这些与转型期中国电影体制保持疏离关系的“电影游侠”秉承“我的记忆我做主”的心态，以自传、半自传式的口气讲述周遭生活世界。

In terms of techniques, the Sixth Generation is marked by low budget production curbed by capital size, excessive direct shots taken indoors or in natural light due to inferior equipment, and the directors’ penchant for exceptional, long takes marred by artistic immaturity. The alternative and authentic outlook presented in the films of the Sixth Generation, distinctive from the grand and fictional narrative of the Fifth Generation, tore a hole in the then dreary cinematic aesthetics of the Chinese mainland.

在技术层面，因资本规模限制不得已而采用的小制作方式，因技术条件简陋而偏重于内景或自然光下的直接拍摄，因艺术技巧青涩而偏重于长镜头摄影的叙事共性，“第六代”作品呈现出另类而率真的气质，迥然不同于第五代导演的宏大叙事虚构，将彼时沉闷的中国电影美学撕开了一个缺口。

From the spectator’s point of view, the Sixth Generation speaks to the multifaceted spiritual interests of the cultural communities of the young people in the reform era (Nie 2006). Their refreshing narratology differed from Hollywood’s conventional storytelling, while their artistic style was deeply influenced by the European avant-garde and neorealism, and their reflective camera work catered to the taste fostered by urban youth. These young filmmakers gathered under the banner of the Sixth Generation were uninterested in creating aesthetic spectacles with blockbusters. Instead, they dedicated themselves to pursuing China’s aesthetics of cinema verité while quenching the “spiritual thirst” yielded by an era of drastic transformation.

在观众层面，他们的作品真切地感应到时代变革中青年文化群体的多元精神需求，其不同于好莱坞庸俗模式的叙事思维、深受欧洲先锋派和新现实主义感召的艺术风格和内省式的镜语方式，恰好与都市青年小众艺术/精英文化趣味相投合。这批青年观众聚集在“第六代”的旗帜之下，不是为了分享商业大片的审美奇观，而是要在时代急遽转型导致的虚空中“解思想上的渴”，寻找中国电影自身的真实主义美学。

概念消费与能量转化（2003—2008）

The Exploitation and Transformation of the Concept (2003–2008)

The overwhelming power of the early works of the Sixth Generation derives from the rawness and authenticity of individual experiences drawn out by the disorganized creative impulses. The cultural capital accumulated by the community of the Sixth Generation filmmakers neared its peak within a decade at the turn of the new century. Meanwhile, external forces shaped the creative work of Sixth Generation filmmakers with the invisible hand of the market. By the end of 2003, as “the ban was lifted,” these directors gradually outgrew the chaotic state in which each of them fought their own battles alone and entered a period of organized development when they consciously took advantage of mainstream market resources, cultural capital, and techniques. 

以无序化的创作冲动爆发出个体生命的内在经验，构成了第六代导演早期作品打动人心的能量之源。新世纪前后，第六代电影群体的文化资本积累几乎抵达近十年的最高阈值，而外部力量也适时介入进来，借助市场之手实现对第六代电影创作的强力引导。2003年底之后，第六代导演集体“解禁”，从各自为营的无序状态，转向自觉利用主流文化资本、主流市场资源与主流电影技术手段的有序发展。

It is interesting to notice that by the time the Sixth Generation was officially embraced by the administrators, the dissolution of the “the generation rooted in the crack” also got started; the term Sixth Generation has since then begun to be used in the past tense, a historical concept which gives off “the anxiety of implications.” More young filmmakers swarmed into the domestic and international film market and branded themselves as the Sixth Generation, propelling its evolution into a hybrid concept. When the coherence within the generation is limited to the market value of a shared brand, the new era of Chinese film history characterized by the “generation-less” narrative came about in the new century (Jia 2006).

有趣的是，该群体终获“验明正身”的那一刻，恰恰启动了“夹缝一代”概念的解体——“第六代”由此进入过去式，成为一种不断向后释放“影响的焦虑”的历史名词。越来越多的青年影人竞相投身国际、国内电影市场，全方位地消费“第六代”品牌，使之演变为成分庞杂的“混种性”概念。当维系“这一代”的属名仅仅在商业品牌的市场意义上具有相似性的时候，也开启了中国电影新世纪以来的“无代”叙事。

能量置换与类型实践（2009—2010）

Energy Transformation and Genre Film Practice (2009–2010)

In the year 2009, when “Shanzhaiism” went rampant nationwide, the transformation of the Sixth Generation kicked off again. This time they were leaning on genre film and made “high copies” of the Hollywood commercial films and the mode of mainstream filmmaking. However, films such as Da Da’s Dance (Dada,2008), Chongqing Blues (Rizhao Chongqing, 2010), I Wish I Knew, Driverless (Wurenjiashi, 2010), and Apart Together (Tuanyuan, 2010) were accused of “a halfway transformation and an unalterably stubborn temper.” As exemplified in the extreme case of Zhang Yuan’s new feature Da Da’s Dance, which constantly reflects the films of He Jianjun’s Postman (Youchai, 1995), Zhang Ming’s In Expectation (Wushan yunyu, 1996), and Wang Chao’s Luxury Car (Jiangcheng xiari, 2006). Da Da’s Dance is like a narrative and aesthetic return to the early works of the Sixth Generation focused on urban youth: featuring a predetermined fate of running away, a banal plot dominated by the salvation of the peeper, and an everlasting and depressing dream of adolescence. The sluggish pace, together with the lack of nondiegetic music and the stage manners of the nonprofessional actors, makes it difficult for the mass market to embrace and digest its aesthetics. The lack of experiences of the Sixth Generation directors was thus fully exposed, and the following question came naturally: why is it so difficult for the Sixth Generation directors to step out from the initial stereotype of coming-of-age stories based on their memories and experiences to stride into the new creative space and establish a more intimate aesthetic that could connect with a broader audience?

在国产电影“山寨风”甚嚣尘上的2009年，第六代导演再度启动转型之旅。这一次他们借重的资源主要是类型片模式、“高仿”好莱坞商业片与主流电影制作。不过，《达达》、《日照重庆》、《海上传奇》、《无人驾驶》、《团圆》依然没有摆脱“转型不彻底、难免老脾气”的风格惯性。作为一个极端的例证，张元的新作《达达》依稀闪现《邮差》、《巫山云雨》、《江城夏日》的影子，更像是对早期“第六代”都市青春题材叙事美学的“返祖”：一个出走与寻找的情节宿命，一套偷窥与救赎的陈旧逻辑搬演，一段长久压抑始终无法苏醒的青春梦魇。影片节奏缓慢拖沓，缺乏无声源配乐，非职业演员的精神特质距离普通大众的审美趣味依然遥远。至此，导演创作经验的匮乏暴露无遗：为什么第六代电影人离开个人记忆原型的第一步成长故事，大多迟迟无法迈入新的艺术空间，难以和观众群体建立更为密切的情感与美学关联？

Some directors try to attain creative transformation by recounting a widely-known history. City of Life and Death (Nanjing, Nanjing, 2009) and Cow (Dou niu,2009) demonstrate the missions national history can confer to the films. As are markable synthesis of individual innovation and shared memory of national history, Guan Hu’s Cow serves as a riposte to the popular view that the Sixth Generation “is inept in presenting the grand history.” In A Thorough Understanding of Life excerpted from Chuang Tzu, a good craftsman is portrayed as one who pays no attention to rewards and gains, and refuses to be distracted by critics, so the match between his natural disposition and the natural disposition of the object can be achieved. In the same way, the director of Cow remains faithful to the raw experiences of individuals and locates the juncture that fits the pursuit of the authenticity of the national history into his spiritual agenda.

重述历史热点也是第六代导演尝试的创作求变之路。《南京！南京！》与《斗牛》证明了国族历史之于当下电影创作的使命意义。尤其是管虎的《斗牛》以其个性化创作与民族历史记忆的内化合一，回答了观众对第六代导演“不擅长讲述大历史”的普遍质疑。正如《庄子·达生》所言，心中不怀“庆赏爵禄”，不怀“非誉巧拙”，达到“以天合天”的物我合一，导演不仅忠于个体的本真经验，而且也把求索民族历史真相内化为自身的精神需求。

电影“微时代”与“微现实”（2011年及以后）

The “Micro-era” and “Micro Reality” of the Film (2011 and Later)

From the online video, podcast to the trendy microfilm, the “micro-era” media context seems to be nourishing for the multifaceted extension of the Sixth generation in its grass-roots narrative and “Aesthetics of the People.” [...] Even so, the Sixth Generation directors are still racing to acclaim and celebrating the coming era of microfilm in the 10th year of the twenty-first century, just like their warm embrace of DV in the 1990s. Compared to traditional film, microfilm bears the advantages of lower budget, richer themes, fewer limitations, faster spreading, and a more casual mood of the creators (Sun 2011). This gives the new media overflow effects in its value (Levinson 2009/2011). After tens of millions of online sharing, forwarding, or comments, the production process has already created a huge crowd of onlookers in the virtual world. While the reform of the film rating system is still indefinitely delayed within the current traditional film apparatus and the segmentation of the market greatly boosts a burgeoning business, the directors do count on microfilm, as the virtual imagined community, to promote the effective development and collective sharing of the video market of new media.

从网络视频到播客，乃至当下盛行的微电影，“微时代”的媒体语境似乎为第六代导演念兹在兹的底层叙事与“人民美学”进一步孕育出多元生长的创作土壤。但这种土壤本身蕴含的理性能量有待商榷。…… 尽管如此，第六代导演依然像20世纪90年代热烈拥抱DV那样，在21世纪的第十个年头竞相欢呼微电影时代的到来。相比传统电影，微电影制作成本更低廉、“题材更丰富、局限更小、传播速度更快更广泛、创作心态更轻松随意”，上述特点形成了新新媒体的价值溢出效应。经由数以千万计的共享、转发、评论，微电影的制作过程自身俨然营造出虚拟世界数量庞大的集体围观。在现存传统电影体制下分级制改革尚付阙如、分众消费市场情绪高涨的情势下，他们希望借助微电影这一虚拟的“想象的共同体”，完成新媒体视频市场的高效开发与社区分享。

With a toolkit endowed by the new media, countless “migrant-worker filmmakers” try to register the delicate alterations in epic time with their “vagrant film” (Han 2006).While seeking beyond the grand discourse to find the most comfortable form of audiovisual expression, they accomplish narratology from what Benjamin acknowledged as the “interior space.” The microfilms that populate virtual communities on the internet cultivate the defensive posture and try to create aspace temporarily cut off from the world. However, as Benjamin put it, “the space disguises itself,” though it maintains “unconscious retention of a posture of struggle and defense” (Gunning 2003), ultimately the interior cannot withstand the exterior; it can only transform the nature of its looming invasion optically.

无数的“电影民工”经由新新媒体，以“游民电影”的形态描述大时代的细微变动，在宏大话语的背面寻找适合自身言说的“微时代”影像表达，进入了本雅明意义上的“内部世界”叙事。流传于网络虚拟社区的微电影以自我保护的姿势将自身构建成与外在世界暂时隔绝的空间，然而又如本雅明所说的，“空间伪装自身”，“无意识地维持着一种斗争和防御的姿势”，但最终内部世界无法抗拒外在空间，它仅仅改变了外部世界犹如海市蜃楼般的视觉侵略性。

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Journal of Chinese Film Studies

《中国电影研究》

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编辑：莫珺茹

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The Generation, Transformation, and Dissipation of the “Sixth Generation” Cinema in China: The Entropy Change of a Concept

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