Dr Paola Voci

Office: Arts 3S1
Tel: 479 5994
Fax: (64 3) 479 8689
Email: paola.voci@otago.ac.nz

Programme Coodinator
Senior Lecturer

Paola Voci completed a B.A. Honour in Chinese Language and Literature, Venice University 1991, a Diploma in Film Theory and Practice, Beijing Film Academy 1991, a M.A. in East Asian Studies, Indiana University 1997, and a PhD in Chinese, Indiana University 2002. Her area of study combines East Asian Studies (in particular, Chinese language and culture), film and media studies, and visual culture. In particular, her recent research has focused on documentary film/videomaking in contemporary China and the media of the Chinese diaspora. She has published in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Senses of Cinema, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, and contributed to the Encyclopaedia of Chinese Cinema. Her work appears in several edited collections of essays. She has just published China on Video (Routledge 2010), a book that analyses movies made and viewed on smaller screens (i.e., the DV camera, the computer monitor—and, within it, the Internet window—and the cellphone display) .

Paola welcomes applications from research students who wish to work in the following areas:
Chinese Studies:
1. Chinese cinemas (Hong Kong, PRC, Taiwan, and the Chinese diasporas)
2. Chinese visual culture (video art, art video, computer-driven installations)
3. Chinese new media (digital moviemaking practices, soft(ware) cinema, web-based movies)
Film and Media Studies:
1. New cinemas: digital moviemaking practices, soft(ware) cinema, web-based movies
2. non-fiction/documentary film and video making
3. World cinema, third cinema
4. Italian cinema

Selected Publications

(a) Books

Voci, P. China on Video: Smaller-Screen Realities. London: Routledge, 2010.
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415464529/

Voci, P., and Leckie, J., eds. Localizing Asia in Aotearoa New Zealand, Wellington: Dunmore Publishing, 20111.

(b) Journal Articles

Voci, P. “Chinese Portable Movies” Bianco e Nero, Special Issue on Mobile Film, Forthcoming in 2011

Voci, P. "Multiculturalism’s Pitfalls on New Zealand TV: The Rise and Fall of Touch China TV" New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, vol.10, no. 1 (June 2008): 85- 107.

Voci, P. “From the Center to the Periphery: Chinese Documentary’s Visual Conjectures.” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, vol. 16, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 65-113.

Voci, P. “Quasi-Documentary, Cellflix and Web Spoofs: Chinese Movies’ Other Visual Pleasures.” Senses of Cinema, no. 41 (October-December 2006) http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/06/41/other-chinese-movies-pleasures.html

(c) Book Chapters

Voci, P. “‘Isn’t it great? They all speak English!’ Screen Representations of Asia and Asians in New Zealand” In Localizing Asia in Aotearoa, Paola Voci and Jacqueline Leckie, eds, Wellington, Dunmore Publishing, 2011), pp. 78-102.

Voci, P. and Leckie, J. “Beyond Nations and Ethnicities: Localizing Asia in New Zealand” In Localizing Asia in Aotearoa, Paola Voci and Jacqueline Leckie, eds, Wellington, Dunmore Publishing, 2011, pp. 7-24

Voci, P. “Blowup Beijing: the City as a Twilight Zone.” In Chris Berry, Lisa Rofel, and Lü Xinyu, eds. The New Chinese Documentary Movement. Hong Kong University Press, 2010, pp. 99-116

Voci, P. , “Rejecting words: illiteracy, silence and the visual” Cultural Transformations: Perspectives on Translocation in a Global Age. Ed. Vijay Devadas, Henry Johnson, and Chris Prentice. Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, 2010, pp. 105–34

Voci, P. “Multiple-screen Realities” In Olivia Khoo and Sean Metzger, eds. Futures of Chinese Cinema: Technologies and Temporalities in Chinese Screen Cultures, Portland, Or., USA: Intellect Books, 2009, pp. 265-276.

Donald, S. and Voci P. “Chinese Cinema: Politics and Scholarship.” In James Donald, Patrick Fuery, and Michael Renov, eds. Handbook of Film Studies, London: Sage. 2008, pp. 54-73.

Voci, P. “Extending the tale: An Analysis of The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions” in Adam Lam and Nataliya Oryshchuk, eds. How We Became Middle-earth: A Collection of Essays on The Lord of the Rings, Zollikofen: Walking Tree Publishers, 2007, pp. 327-345.

Voci, P. “From Middle Kingdom to Middle Earth and Back: Chinese Media/Mediated Identities in New Zealand” In Brian Moloughney and Henry Johnson, eds. Asia in the Making of New Zealand, Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2006, pp. 163-184.

Voci, P. “Zhongguo jilupian: yingxiang Zhonggguo wenhua (Chinese Documentary: Changing Film Culture in China)” In Ping Jie, ed., Lingyan xiangkan: haiwai xuezhe ping dangdai Zhongguo jilupian (REEL CHINA: A New Look at Contemporary Chinese Documentary), Shanghai: Shanghai Wenhui Publishing House, 2006, pp.103-113.

Voci, P. “Dal grande al piccolo schermo: nuovi sviluppi del documentario cinese (From silver screen to small screen: new developments of Chinese documentary).” In Marco Mueller and Ellena Pollacchi, eds. Ombre Elettriche. Cento anni di cinema cinese 1905-2005 (Electric Shadows: 100 Years of Chinese Cinema 1905-2005). Venezia: Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, 2005, pp. 158-167.

Voci, P. “Un intento sincero e dei metodi onesti: Riflessioni sul documentario Cina di Antonioni e il nuovo documentario cinese (A sincere purpose and honest means: Rethinking Antonioni’s documentay ‘China’ and the new Chinese documentary)” In Maurizio Scarpari and Tiziana Lippiello, eds. Cher Maître…Scritti in onore di Lionello Lanciotti per l’ottantesimo compleanno. Venezia: Ca’ Foscarina, 2005, pp. 1234-1248.

Voci, P. Encyclopaedia contribution. In Yingjin Zhang and Zhiwei Xiao, eds. Encyclopedia of Chinese Cinema. London: Routledge, 1998.

(d) Invited Presentations

Voci, P. “DV and the animateur cinema” Workshop on DV-Made China: Digital Objects, Everyday Subjects, New York University, Dec. 17-18 2010

Voci, P. “Chinese Portable Movies: Redefining Film Spaces and Theories.” (Invited talk) Indiana University Bloomington, October 27 2010

Voci, P. “China on Video: the (un)bearable lightness of seeing”. (Invited talk) University of Chicago, Mass Culture Workshop, 20 October 2010.

Voci, P. “Second Life documentary aspect of the new media artist Cao Fei.” In conjunction with the exhibition Cao Fei: Utopia, a joint project by ARTSPACE Auckland and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. April 18 2010 (Public Lecture)

Voci, P. "Ceci n'est pas un documentaire: Truths, Lies and Online Videos" New Media and the Documentary Impulse Colloquium sponsored by the Luce Foundation. East Asian Institute, University of California, Berkley, December 5, 2008. (Invite talk)

Voci, P. “Chinese cinemas: aesthetics, politics and society. A Celebrate China 2008 event” at the Dunedin Art Gallery. 30 March 2008

Voci, P. "Sex, Lies, and Pandas: Multiple-Screen Realities" Media: Policies, Cultures and Futures in the Asia Pacific, Perth Australia. 27-29 November, 2006 (Invited keynote presentation)

Voci, P.“Chinese Cinema and Visual Culture: Not Just Martial Arts...Fiction Films, TV Documentaries, Flash Animation and Video Art” at the Otago Museum in conjunction to the museum’s photographic exhibition. Rediscover China, 25 March 2006 (Public Lecture)

Voci, P. “ MediAsian- NewZealand , New Asians, New Media” A Division of Humanity’s Public Lecture sponsored by Asia New Zealand Research Cluster, 7 October 2005. (Public Lecture)

(e) Other

Voci, P. "Big and Small Nation(alisms): A view from Aotearoa-New Zealand" In Kate Merkel-Hess, Kenneth L. Pomeranz, and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, eds. China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance. Lanham (Maryland): Rowman and Littlefield, 2009, pp. 184-185 (also available at: http://thechinabeat.blogspot.com/2008/08/big-and-small-nationalisms-view-from.html

Voci, P. "Bloody Morning: excerpts"[Translation and Introduction] Renditions, 71 (Research Centre for Translation of The Chinese University of Hong Kong), Spring 2009, pp. 76-97.

Voci, P. “Washing the Sand” In AsiaMedia, http://venus.unive.it/asiamed/cina/schede/waves.html