ABSTRACT
When an externally introduced cultural or literary practice takes hold in a new culture, it is because the receiving culture has an existing capacity or tendency that the practice can serve and amplify; this is the case with Chinese reportage. All the different manifestations of reportage throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries serve as an artistic sounding board for leftist politics and a perceived need to talk back to mainstream media discourses. One may debate in many cases the degree to which artistic qualities are a concern, but it should be emphasized that style matters in all kinds of Chinese writing. The visual forms in particular lend themselves to transcultural cross-fertilization, where the conditions make it possible, such as through regional documentary film festivals in Yamagata, Pusan, Hong Kong, and Taipei, as well as international art and photography exhibitions.
