Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Digitalizing Xianchang: documentary experiments on Shanghai COVID lockdown

Zeng, Jinyan LU (2025) In Studies in Documentary Film p.1-22
Abstract
This article explores the expanded indexicality of documentary image and audio in the digital era. It analyzes the awarded Chinese documentary The Memo (2022) responding to the Shanghai COVID lockdown. The documentary reconstructs a digital xianchang (lit. the present and the site of happening, being there) of personal witnessing, collective testimony, trauma healing, and conceptual thinking during the Shanghai lockdown. The documentary exemplifies confined xianchang, instant archived xianchang, digital mapping of censored xianchang, AI-generated audio xianchang, multi-dimensional imaginary xianchang, collective testimonial xianchang, and healing xianchang. Limited production conditions due to deepening authoritarianism have encouraged... (More)
This article explores the expanded indexicality of documentary image and audio in the digital era. It analyzes the awarded Chinese documentary The Memo (2022) responding to the Shanghai COVID lockdown. The documentary reconstructs a digital xianchang (lit. the present and the site of happening, being there) of personal witnessing, collective testimony, trauma healing, and conceptual thinking during the Shanghai lockdown. The documentary exemplifies confined xianchang, instant archived xianchang, digital mapping of censored xianchang, AI-generated audio xianchang, multi-dimensional imaginary xianchang, collective testimonial xianchang, and healing xianchang. Limited production conditions due to deepening authoritarianism have encouraged innovative digital technology interventions, rhetoric, and modes of filmmaking. By providing first-person witnessing and collective testimony, showing the speechless close-ups of faces of ordinary people, and using cinematic irony, the filmmakers’ cinematic interventions weave a humanistic veil to counter the cruelty and dehumanization of the Shanghai COVID lockdown. This article highlights how digital technology has activated, enhanced, and altered the indexicality of audio-visual materials. Thus, the concept of digital indexicality alters the epistemology of xianchang in truth-claiming. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
keywords
Chinese independent documentary, COVID documentary, Digital indexicality, Documentary experiment, Video diary, Shanghai lockdown, China studies
in
Studies in Documentary Film
pages
1 - 22
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • scopus:85217864094
ISSN
1750-3280
DOI
10.1080/17503280.2025.2462526
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
aec6612d-d29c-4360-a637-b97913e8bc4c
date added to LUP
2025-02-10 19:36:14
date last changed
2025-04-04 13:55:39
@article{aec6612d-d29c-4360-a637-b97913e8bc4c,
  abstract     = {{This article explores the expanded indexicality of documentary image and audio in the digital era. It analyzes the awarded Chinese documentary The Memo (2022) responding to the Shanghai COVID lockdown. The documentary reconstructs a digital xianchang (lit. the present and the site of happening, being there) of personal witnessing, collective testimony, trauma healing, and conceptual thinking during the Shanghai lockdown. The documentary exemplifies confined xianchang, instant archived xianchang, digital mapping of censored xianchang, AI-generated audio xianchang, multi-dimensional imaginary xianchang, collective testimonial xianchang, and healing xianchang. Limited production conditions due to deepening authoritarianism have encouraged innovative digital technology interventions, rhetoric, and modes of filmmaking. By providing first-person witnessing and collective testimony, showing the speechless close-ups of faces of ordinary people, and using cinematic irony, the filmmakers’ cinematic interventions weave a humanistic veil to counter the cruelty and dehumanization of the Shanghai COVID lockdown. This article highlights how digital technology has activated, enhanced, and altered the indexicality of audio-visual materials. Thus, the concept of digital indexicality alters the epistemology of xianchang in truth-claiming.}},
  author       = {{Zeng, Jinyan}},
  issn         = {{1750-3280}},
  keywords     = {{Chinese independent documentary; COVID documentary; Digital indexicality; Documentary experiment; Video diary; Shanghai lockdown; China studies}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  pages        = {{1--22}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{Studies in Documentary Film}},
  title        = {{Digitalizing Xianchang: documentary experiments on Shanghai COVID lockdown}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17503280.2025.2462526}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/17503280.2025.2462526}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}