Going to the Video Hall : A Sensory Encounter with a New Urban Space in Post-Mao China

Yiyang HOU

doi:10.1353/cj.2025.a951186

Going to the Video Hall : A Sensory Encounter with a New Urban Space in Post-Mao China

Yiyang HOU^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Digital Arts and Creative Industries

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

Abstract

Against the rising tide of marketization sweeping across China in the 1980s and 1990s, many people sought profitability by opening up private video exhibition sites to showcase bootleg videotapes. By drawing on a wide range of written sources and material artifacts—including interviews, fictional works, and photographs—this article pays special attention to how the experience of going to the video hall was remembered by the video-goers. Through an investigation into Chinese people's multisensory encounters with the video hall, this article calls for a contextualized reevaluation of such a prominent urban space against post-Mao China's turn to market reform.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	56-77
Number of pages	22
Journal	Journal of Cinema and Media Studies
Volume	64
Issue number	2
Early online date	9 Feb 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2025.a951186
Publication status	Published - 2025

Bibliographical note

I thank Michael Berry and Emilie Yueh Yu Yeh for their continued support and guidance. An earlier version of this article was honored at the SCMS Writing Award in 2023, and I would like to thank the committee members who provided feedback on that submission. I also wish to express my gratitude to Caetlin Benson-Allott, my JCMS mentor, and the JCMS editors for their insightful comments and suggestions. Last but not least, I want to acknowledge the contributions made by Yan Hou and Wei Li to this article. Their enduring passion for video-going in Nanjing began before I was born.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025, Michigan Publishing. All rights reserved.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

Access to Document

10.1353/cj.2025.a951186

Cite this

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title = "Going to the Video Hall : A Sensory Encounter with a New Urban Space in Post-Mao China",

abstract = "Against the rising tide of marketization sweeping across China in the 1980s and 1990s, many people sought profitability by opening up private video exhibition sites to showcase bootleg videotapes. By drawing on a wide range of written sources and material artifacts—including interviews, fictional works, and photographs—this article pays special attention to how the experience of going to the video hall was remembered by the video-goers. Through an investigation into Chinese people's multisensory encounters with the video hall, this article calls for a contextualized reevaluation of such a prominent urban space against post-Mao China's turn to market reform.",

author = "Yiyang HOU",

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doi = "10.1353/cj.2025.a951186",

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AB - Against the rising tide of marketization sweeping across China in the 1980s and 1990s, many people sought profitability by opening up private video exhibition sites to showcase bootleg videotapes. By drawing on a wide range of written sources and material artifacts—including interviews, fictional works, and photographs—this article pays special attention to how the experience of going to the video hall was remembered by the video-goers. Through an investigation into Chinese people's multisensory encounters with the video hall, this article calls for a contextualized reevaluation of such a prominent urban space against post-Mao China's turn to market reform.

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DO - 10.1353/cj.2025.a951186

M3 - Journal Article (refereed)

SN - 2578-4900

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EP - 77

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JF - Journal of Cinema and Media Studies

IS - 2

ER -

Going to the Video Hall : A Sensory Encounter with a New Urban Space in Post-Mao China

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

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