The Adolescent: Traces of Chinese Experimental Film and Video

This book is a scholarly monograph by Cao Kai, a media art curator and experimental filmmaker, on Chinese experimental film and video art. It comprises a selection of articles from approximately fifteen years, spanning from 2005 to 2020. Most of these articles were previously published in various professional academic journals, conference proceedings, and exhibition catalogs. Due to various objective reasons, these articles had been abridged to different degrees in their previous publications. This book will restore the articles to their complete form, publishing them in full.

Cao Kai has been involved in the historical development of Chinese video art since 1998, later expanding into the broader fields of media art and film, including experimental film and animation. In 2006, he first outlined the historical trajectory of Chinese experimental film, establishing a framework for observing the development of Chinese experimental media in the digital age from the perspective of experimental film. In recent years, Cao Kai has launched the "Ying Yan Chang" academic column in Chinese art journals, entering a new prolific period of writing.

The academic scope of this book covers experimental film, independent animation, video art, and broader new media art. The book focuses on mainland China as its primary research subject, while also considering the wider Chinese-speaking regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as East Asian cultural spheres such as Japan and South Korea. This book uses Taiwan as a vantage point for examining experimental film in Asia, meticulously investigating the origins and current trajectories of experimental film and video in various Asian regions. It comprises a substantial volume of writing in the form of specialized essays, artist discussions, interviews, and records of important forums, analyzing numerous contemporary visual media, film history, cultural exchange contexts and influences, local policy differences, and social changes. It is undoubtedly a representative monograph on experimental film in the Asian region.