CAUGHT BY THE TIDES (风流一代) is an ambitious, genre-blending film from acclaimed Chinese director Jia Zhangke. Spanning over two decades, the film interlaces newly shot scenes with archival footage, fragments from Jia’s earlier films, and documentary-style material to create a haunting portrait of love, memory, and transformation in modern China.
The story follows Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao), a dancer and club performer in early-2000s Datong, whose lover, Guo Bin, abruptly leaves to seek fortune elsewhere. Her quiet, persistent search for him unfolds against the sweeping changes of the nation—from mass displacement during the Three Gorges Dam project, to rapid urbanization, to the isolating years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
POST SCREENING PANEL DISCUSSION
Our distinguished panel will delve into the film’s themes and its broader cultural, historical, and cinematic contexts. The discussion will consider how CAUGHT BY THE TIDES reflects on China’s transformation, the interplay between personal stories and national history, and the ways cinema can blur the lines between fiction and documentary.
SHUJEN WANG, Ph.D
Professor of Media Studies, Emerson College; Research Associate, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University
Shujen Wang is the author of Framing Piracy: Globalization and Film Distribution in Greater China (2003), and her research spans media globalization, platformization, film distribution, piracy, and global copyright governance. She has contributed to multiple anthologies and published in leading journals including Cinema Journal, Film Quarterly, and International Journal of Cultural Studies. Former president of the Chinese Communication Association, Dr. Wang has served as a research associate at Harvard’s Fairbank Center since 2002 and sits on the editorial advisory boards of several peer-reviewed journals. Her work has been translated into Portuguese and Chinese, reflecting her global scholarly influence.
CATHERINE YEH, Ph.D.
Professor of Chinese & Comparative Literature, Boston University
Catherine Yeh’s scholarship examines 19th- and 20th-century Chinese literary, media, and visual culture, with particular attention to the role of entertainment, literature, and “marginal” figures in driving modernity. Her books include Shanghai Love: Courtesans, Intellectuals, and Entertainment Culture, 1850–1910 and Performing the ‘Nation’ (co-edited, 2008). She has written extensively on Shanghai courtesan culture, the political novel, the entertainment press, and the rise of modern Chinese star culture. A recipient of numerous fellowships and research grants, Professor Yeh’s work illuminates the intersections of art, politics, gender, and urban modernity in China’s cultural transformation.
Moderator:
XUEPING ZHONG, Ph.D
Professor of Modern Chinese Literature, Chinese Culture, Film, Tufts University.
Xueping Zhong is the author of the Masculinity Besieged?: Issues of Modernity and Male Subjectivity in Chinese Literature of the Late Twentieth Century.
