ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Hongxiang/Red Elephant (1982), a collective debut of a few key figures in the Fifth-Generation of Chinese filmmakers. It is concerned with not only the Dai children’s relationship with elephants and the forest in particular but also ethnic minority children’s relationship with animals and nature in general, within mainland cinema. It also explores the significance of this film to the later development of Fifth-Generation directors in the mid 1980s. This chapter argues that the Dai children in Red Elephant have, in a sense, become the surrogates of the Fifth-Generation filmmakers who aspire to explore the art of film in a manner that is divergent from the Chinese cinematic tradition, in the same spirit as the Dai children in nature, by being admirably wild, spirited, pioneering, courageous, and persevering. If the children’s spirit is embodied in the film narrative, the effort of the filmmakers is best illustrated in the film narration: the various innovative cinematic techniques and artistic expressions they employ to convey their message.
