River Space in Contemporary Chinese Cinema

River Space in Contemporary Chinese Cinema examines how filmmakers use river imagery to explore themes of home, displacement, and belonging in an era of rapid modernization.

Using the term “river space” to describe geographical areas created by rivers or existing alongside them, the author shows how these areas figure in films as alternative, oppositional, or contradictory sites. The book is divided into four parts, discussing waterscape in Chinese cinema, homesickness and homelessness, rivers in the urban space, and a final comparative reading of Chinese, international, and Hollywood homecoming narratives. Bridging ecocriticism with spatial theories, she explores how rivers function as sites of moral reflection and ethical commitment, offering viewers alternative frameworks for understanding locality, homesickness, and the meaning of home in contemporary globalized society.

This book will be particularly appealing to scholars and students of Chinese cinema, East Asian studies, ecocinema, migration, and cultural studies.