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Browse Films
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A day on the Grand Canal with the emperor of China, or, Surface is illusion but so is depth (streaming, Kanopy)
World famous artist David Hockney invites the viewer to join him on a magical journey down a 72-foot-long 17th-century Chinese scroll. Hockney traces the Emperor Kangxi's grand tour of his southern domains. As Hockney compares this masterpiece to a Canaletto painting, he teaches us the differences between Western and Eastern artistic perspective.
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Celestial Empire: Land of Archaeology (Academic Video Online)
China's long history has provided countless fascinating archaeological findings in many facets of this science.
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An Army for the Afterlife (Academic Video Online)
The splendor of Quin Shi Huang Di's Terracotta Army.
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The Immortal Emperor (Academic Video Online)
Amazing footage of the dig to excavate the 2000-year-old tomb of Qin Shihuang, China's First Emperor. The famous terracotta army was only part of a spectacular find: the Imperial kitchen, the orchestral office, chariots and charioteers were all included to ease his journey to the afterlife.
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NOVA. Emperor's Ghost Army (Academic Video Online)
In central China, a vast underground mausoleum conceals a life-size terracotta army of cavalry, infantry, horses, chariots, weapons, administrators, acrobats, and musicians, all built to serve China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di, in the afterlife. Lost and forgotten for over 2,200 years, this clay army, 8,000-strong, stands poised to help the First Emperor rule again beyond the grave. Now, a new archaeological campaign is probing the thousands of figures entombed in the mausoleum.
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Guge : the last kingdom of Tibet (Academic Video Online)
In the barren landscape of remote western Tibet lies the ruins of a mysterious kingdom. A kingdom whose capital was 3600 meters high on the Tibetan plateau. A kingdom that offers archaeological treasures that compare with Italy's Pompeii. This kingdom once controlled the trade in gold, silk and spices between India and China. It was a kingdom of fabulous wealth and great religious significance. For two centuries it was the cradle of Himalayan Buddhism. Yet this spiritual and commercial hub, which prospered for seven centuries, vanished without a trace in 1630.
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Cities in China. Xian (Academic Video Online)
This wide-ranging documentary -- from the classic three-part "Cities in China Series" -- presents a cultural history of the ancient Chinese imperial city, once the greatest capital in the world and the Eastern terminus of the famed Silk Road.Just outside the city lies one of the world's most spectacular archaeological sites, the burial tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di, who unified the country and connected the Great Wall.
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The Emperor's Eye: Art and Power in Imperial China (Academic Video Online)
This spectacular film brings to light the priceless treasures of China's imperial art collection, relating them to the political climate of their time. It is an unforgettable glimpse into another culture and another age. Miraculously, the treasures survived the turbulence of war and revolution. When the Japanese invaded China in the 1930s, the precious works of art were spirited out of the Forbidden City. For years the collection was hidden all over China in caves, temples and school houses. Worth untold millions, it became the symbol of China s cultural survival.
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The Dragon Legacy (Academic Video Online)
Modern day Taiwan is in many ways a reflection of ancient China, preserving the cultural legacy of the world's oldest existing civilisation. While post-war mainland China went through its revolutionary turmoil, setting aside most of its traditions in the process, Taiwan chose to preserve them. The island has become one of the last havens of the sophisticated and secular Chinese lifestyle. THE DRAGON LEGACY brings to light some of these enduring traditions in art. It offers insight on how calligraphy, painting and opera have become highly refined as art forms over the centuries.
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On China. Contemporary Chinese Art (Academic Video Online)
Chinese Dissident Artist Ai Weiwei famously said, "The Chinese art world does not exist." In a country known for censorship and control, On China explores whether contemporary art has the freedom to be authentic in China.
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Chinese Contemporary Art (Academic Video Online)
While most westerners have some familiarity with traditional Chinese art, the isolationism and restrictive policies of the post war years have precluded a development of a contemporary art scene that would interest outsiders.
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Spirit of the Time: the World of Chinese Contemporary Art series (Academic Video Online)
They produce works that have reverberated round the world. From Beijing to Yunnan, a group of artists - variously called contemporary or avant-garde - are painting, sculpting, photographing, and installing images of China as they see it.
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Ju Ming (Academic Video Online)
Ju Ming is celebrated as one of today's greatest living Chinese sculptors. This is a story of a native Taiwanese sculptor who has made Chinese art visceral and accessible to people around the globe.
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The Emperor's Secret Garden (streaming, Academic Video Online)
In 2001, the Palace Museum and the World Monuments Fund partnered to conserve the magnificent 18th-century Qianlong Garden in the Forbidden City, choosing first to restore Juanqinzhai (the Studio of Exhaustion from Diligent Service), a unique building with some of the palace's finest surviving architectural interiors and decor. This film highlights the search for and use of disappearing traditional craftsmanship during the conservation.
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China's smart tower (streaming, Academic Video Online)
One of the first smart towers of its kind, the Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou, China, is an eco-friendly skyscraper that harnesses energy from the wind and the sun.
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A Pure and Remote View (UC Berkeley)
a lecture series by Professor Emeritus James Cahill - Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley
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Inside the Forbidden City: 500 Years of Wonder, History and Power (dvd)
Photographed in high-definition, this riveting historical documentary offers an epic account of the Forbidden City saga. The 3-disc,12-part program revisits the events that led to the construction of 980 buildings built by hand and occupying over seven million square feet of land in China; closely examines the artworks of the Ming and Qing dynasties; and provides stunning new footage of the Chinese Imperial Palace.
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Sand painting : sacred art of Tibet (streaming, Academic Video Online)
The ancient art of Tibetan sand painting has been preserved in the monasteries of India and Tibet for some 2,500 years. Traditionally practiced in seclusion, this unique art form has only been practiced publicly in the last decades. In this beautifully photographed and fascinating documentary, Tibetan monks from the Dalai Lama's personal monastery, Namgyal, create the mandala of Kalachakra, the most sacred of all Buddhist sand paintings.
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Ai Weiwei : never sorry (streaming, Kanopy)
This is a documentary that chronicles artist and activist Ai Weiwei as he prepares for a series of exhibitions and gets into an increasing number of clashes with the Chinese government. Follows Ai "from the close of the 2008 Beijing Olympics (for which he helped design the acclaimed 'Bird's Nest' stadium) to his arrest and 81-day detention in 2011"
