Robert E. Wall Award Lecture

The 2023-2024 Robert E. Wall Award Lecture will be held on Monday, October 28, 2024, starting at 4:00 p.m. in the BCC Dogwood Room.  This event is open to all faculty, students and staff.

Lecturer: Professor Jiwei Xiao, PhD, Department of Visual and Performing Arts

Lecture Title and Overview: Running Towards the Raging Sea: Ann Hui’s Boat People and the Hong Kong New Wave 

“Running Towards the Raging Sea” is the literal English translation of the original title for Boat People (1982), the final film in legendary Hong Kong director Ann Hui's "Vietnam trilogy." It depicts the plight of the Vietnamese under Communist rule following the Fall of Saigon. This title evokes a searing scene near the end of the film: a person, engulfed in flames, runs towards the sea, where a boat packed with refugees is about to set sail into the dark ocean. In this presentation, I use “Running Towards the Raging Sea” also as a metaphor for the bold and innovative spirit of the Hong Kong New Wave that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Ann Hui and her peers confronted social turbulence and went against the grain of Hong Kong cinema’s commercial conventions, embracing a new but unpredictable approach to create film works that they believed could inspire meaningful change. An analysis of the indelible mise-en-scène in Boat People, marked by its oscillation between brutality and tenderness, drama and lyricism, demonstrates Hui’s strength as a New Wave filmmaker. The political controversies that surrounded the film’s release and reception, as well as its belated critical acclaim, attest to its enduring power and relevance. Ann Hui’s depiction of the growth of Boat People’s feisty, resilient female protagonist presages her own subsequent outspoken position and perspective as a feminist filmmaker.

This presentation is based on the research for my new book project on the Sinophone New Waves in world cinema.

For more information about the event, please contact PJ Jorgensen in the Office of the Provost at 203-254-4000, ext. 2360 or by email pjorgensen@fairfield.edu