China Seminar

October 16, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Mānoa Campus, Tokioka Room (Moore Hall 319)

Thursday, Oct 16, 12:00 noon

Tokioka Room (Moore Hall 319)

"Trials, Judges and Lawyers in Early Chinese Movies"

Alison Conner, Richardson School of Law, UH Mānoa

This presentation will analyze the ways in which trials, judges and lawyers are depicted in some of the most famous Chinese movies of the 1930s and 1940s, including Street Angel 馬路天使 , Goddess 神女, Long Live the Missus 太太萬歲, and Crows and Sparrows 烏鴉與麻雀. Despite the relative newness of their profession, lawyers make a surprising number of appearances in these early films, where they act in both criminal and civil cases, particularly divorce. Chinese filmmakers also used courtroom scenes to great dramatic effect, whether as a stage for an upright lawyer or as an intimidating venue for ordinary people lacking wealth or power. Of course, these movies are the product of their time and place, and they addressed the issues of an earlier age. But their broader legal themes—access to justice and the use of law by ordinary citizens—remain of great importance now. What insights might these classic movies offer as we consider legal developments in China today?

About the Speaker: Alison Conner is Professor of Law and Director of International Programs at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai`i/Mānoa, where she teaches courses on Chinese and comparative law. Before joining the University of Hawai‘i in 1995, she taught law in China, Singapore and Hong Kong for twelve years. She writes on modern Chinese law and Chinese legal history but maintains her broader interests in Asian history, art and cinema; recent articles focus on the Chinese legal profession and on the depiction of the legal system in Chinese movies. Recent articles include “Images of Justice (and Injustice): Trials in the Movies of Xie Jin” (2013), “The Lawyer Who Haunts Us: Yin Zhaoshi and the Bright Day” (2014) and “Trials and Injustice in Awaara: A Post-Colonial Movie on Post-Revolutionary Screens” (2014).


Event Sponsor
Center for Chinese Studies and Confucius Institute at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Mānoa Campus

More Information
(808) 956-8891, china@hawaii.edu

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