Abstract
This research examines the medical support activities in film propaganda system in the former Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. The focus is on Junkaieisha, that is the mobile film projection unit active in rural areas. This research reveals how a colonially national film propaganda project was aimed at the ordinary people in rural area which accounted for more than 90% of total population by combining medical support and film screening activities. The research also aims to clarify how the Japanese authority organized the medical support activities with film screening to provide a tangible experience of modernity as well as a visualized image of modernity to ordinary people. This study analysed the data from internal publications of the Manchukuo government, PR magazines, Manshu Eiga, published by the Manchurian Film Association. These sources were examined to establish the context of medical support for the projection tours while the films themselves were subjected to detailed experience of modernity. The research discovered that the film propaganda campaign in Manchukuo utilized medical support to modify the representations of screened films in audiences' mind, which created a mediating environment where colonial ideology intended to conflate the meaning of modernity and colonialism in audience's mind. This suggests that context helps determine the reception of film text and correlation between modernity and colonialism.
Author Information
Le Wang, The University of Tokyo, Japan
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