Jia Zhangke’s cinematic vision of urban dystopia in contemporary China

This chapter examines Jia Zhangke’s cinematic vision of urban dystopia in contemporary China in three sections – devoted respectively to his rendition of conceptual dystopia in terms of mobility, liminality, and spectrality, his projection of visual dystopia onto debris, ruins, and walls, as well as his intensification of emotional dystopia by way of estrangement, escape, and exile. Rather than taking dystopia merely as cautionary tale or pessimistic scenario, I conclude in favor of conceptualizing critical dystopia as artistic intervention that demands justice and preserves hope.