Il Fiume Azzurro e la sua (fantasmatica) presenza sugli schermi italiani

Against the backdrop of the very limited distribution of Chinese film in Italy, this essay discusses how the representation of the Yangzi river in some recent cinema has intertwined with the history of Chinese rapid development. In particular, by examining the work of Jia Zhang-ke and Wang Bing - whose films have been presented at major international film festivals, notably the Venice Film Festival - this discussion highlights how the depiction of the Yangzi river enables the creation of alternative narratives that contrast the state-sanctioned narrative of China’s economic success. Although the river itself remains sometimes an invisible element, its resonance in the representation of the human and geographical space carries a value that goes beyond its immediate documentary evidence, thus constituting a sort of informal visual archive of certain spaces. Not incidentally, the approach adopted by both Jia and Wang recalls that of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Chung Kuo - China, which in 1972 first crafted contrasting narratives of China through cinematic representations of its social and geographical spaces, including those along the Yangzi river.