South China Urban Cinema: Polylocality and a satellite vernacular in 1980s Guangzhou

Current scholarship on 1980s Chinese mainland cinema has concentrated predominantly on the films about Northwestern rural China, while the diversification of cinematic localities, particularly urban representations, remains underexplored. This article calls for a polylocal reconfiguration of Chinese film historiography by investigating South China Urban Cinema, a series of films focusing on the urban context of Lingnan, produced by the Pearl River Film Studio in Guangzhou since the mid-1980s. Drawing on archival research encompassing film journals, magazines, and symposium records, it first situates South China Urban Cinema within the broader proliferation of regionally specific cinematic concepts advanced by state-owned studios in this period. Through analysis of Yamaha Fish Stall (1984), the article further contextualizes these films within Guangzhou’s urban and economic transformation, demonstrating how South China Urban Cinema and its street-level documentations functioned to shape new social norms and promote market reforms. Additionally, the article comparatively examines the presence of Hong Kong popular culture and characters in Yamaha Fish Stall and Swan Song (1985), to argue that South China Urban Cinema exemplifies what I term “satellite vernacular”, a mode which mediates the sensory experiences and critical reflections of modernity drawing from a translocal mediascape between Guangzhou and Hong Kong.