Online Session C1

Imagining Futures : Technology, Dystopia, and Decolonization in Contemporary Media

Projecting China to the World: Cinity, Large Format Cinema, and the Future of Chinese Film Technology 

Xiao Yang 

Accompanying the increasing immersiveness of cinema in the past two decades, represented by the wide application of 3D technologies, large format screens, and experiments with high frame-rates, China developed its own projection technology called Cinity since the late 2010s. This paper examines the development of Cinity within the context of China’s global technological film aspirations, exploring Cinity’s important roles both in the history of immersive cinema in mainland China and the cooperation and competition between the Chinese screen technology and global film technologies. Despite China’s desire to export its film production, Cinity remains a domestic strategy for now. However, we argue that Cinity can be considered a product of China’s past and ongoing competition with Hollywood, not only in the realm of production but also in relation to film technology, which further suggests the participation of Asia and its potential ability to reshape the future of immersive cinemas.

Challenging Futurity: Exploring Techno-Orientalism and Dystopian Anxieties in Cyberpunk 2077 

Geoffrey Fernandez 

The inherent tautology of Techno-Orientalism is elucidated by the portrayal of Japan's contemporary technological prowess as culturally captivating due to Western interventions in the Eastern sphere. Western depictions construct an image of a hyper-futuristic Japan, paradoxically situating Japan as more Western than the West itself. This paradigm shift establishes Japan as a symbol of futurity, rooted in the West's constructed "Othering" of technology and Asia. However, this simulacrum challenges Western narratives of the West being the harbinger of the future. As illuminated by Ueno, this phenomenon materialises as a metanarrative that perpetuates misunderstandings and anxieties, both within the framework of Japanese self-identity and in Western perceptions of other cultures. 

This paper delves into these apprehensions through the lens of "Cyberpunk 2077," a video game characterised by Asian corporate dominance that extols capitalism over governmental authority, encapsulating dystopian anxieties. The paper underscores the convergence of Techno-Orientalism by investigating how traditional Japanese aesthetics, symbols, and characters are seamlessly intertwined with high-tech imagery in a portrayal that dehumanizes the culture. It critically examines the philosophical implications of these elements for world-building within the game's dystopian framework.

Magic Realism and Ambivalence: Decolonialisation of Hijras in Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand 

Sushree Routray

Even in the aftermath of India’s struggle for independence, the independent Indian state remained steadfast in its commitment to monitor and control the intricacies of gender and sexuality, largely relying upon the continuance of archaic colonial-era legislations, exemplified by the notorious Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which cast the shadows of criminality upon homosexuality until its subsequent annulment in 2018 (Bhaskaran, 2002; Gupta, 2006; Sanders, 2009). Against this backdrop of colonial and post-colonial legacies, Geetanjali Shree emerges as a formidable challenger of the foundations of colonization that have invariably shaped the contours of the imaginative realm. With audacious strokes, she wields the narrative tool of magic realism, unfurling the enigmatic persona of Rosie. This emblematic figure that embodies the marginalized and stigmatized existence of the Hijra community. Shree’s craftsmanship exposes the latent mechanisms of marginalization that form an unbroken thread of the colonial legacy. This continuum, relentless in its pursuit, imposes a constrictive and oppressive heteronormative lens, dictating the prisms through which gender and sexuality are apprehended. By effacing the boundaries that demarcate the realms of the real and the supernatural, Rosie subverts and disrupts the prevailing exoticization of hijras, thus carving out a discursive space to delve deep into the complexities of gender ambivalence. Drawing inspiration from decolonial theoretical frameworks and intellectual insights from the Global South, the paper aims to unravel the multifaceted process of decolonization vis-à-vis the Hijra community through Geetanjali Shree’s magnum opus, Tomb of Sand.