Pet-animals In The Concrete Jungle: Tales Of Abandonment, Failures, And Sentimentality In San Hua And Twelve Nights

Abstract

When pet-keeping in the urban space is becoming a vogue as a sign of economic prosperity, stories about such human-animal relationship have illuminated the dialectics of alienation and intimacy of the city dwellers. At the same time, the “sentimental fabulations” (to borrow from Rey Chow) embedded in the life-and-deaths of these animal companions has triggered a critical reflection on the imagery of vulnerability in popular narratives. In light of the growing urban landscape of the concrete jungle, the ethics of caring is rethought when questions of affection and cruelty towards pet-animals (Tuan, 1984) are foregrounded, and the animal has emerged from the disappeared to the epitomized in the cosmopolitan everyday life. Pet-animals have triggered both the compassionate facet of the lonely urban humans as well as deterred the way these humans comprehend the limitations of affect. With the increasing concern with animal abuse and animal welfare by the local media and NGOs, there have been a rising number of films and microfilms (short films that are shown only on social media) on this subject in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the PRC in recent years. Through a comparative study of two independent documentaries (San Hua, 2010, and Twelfth Nights, 2014) in Chinese-language cinema, this paper attempts to map out the topography of an affective sphere mediated by the visual narratives between the animal-other and the human-self. It is found that images of abandonment and sentimentality about these hapless animals have often been used as tools to attract public awareness of animal rights. Under this didactic discourse wrapped in the glossy popular media, how do we critically reflect on the urgent need to examine the gloomy conditions of the abandoned pet-animals, and change this brutal scenario? What is the use of sentimental representations about pet-animals? Do the compassionate and sympathetic attitudes emitted from these cinematic representations transmit or impede enlightenment? This paper aims at provoking contemplation on the impact of speedy urban development on the wavering yet intimate relationship between animals and the human beings, as well as examining the potential susceptibility of such representations.