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Abstract:
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This paper explores tourism and space -making in modern China through the lens of Sixth Generation Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke . His film Shijie (The World ) features people whose lives play out in and around a Chinese theme park of the same name . Through its portrayal of theme parks and the social stratum who visit and inhabit them , Shijie depicts both the filmmaker’s opinion of China’s modernization project , as well as his evolving status within the Chinese international /national film system . As China’s interest in its global image is being transformed through its media products , its concept of global and local space is also changing . The Olympic Village created for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics can be seen as an attempt at physically and symbolically engineering China’s new global space . This paper will consider Jia Zhangke , The World , and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as several points along a continuum that leads toward a new envisioning of global space in China . |