Introduction:
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| Qing Dynasty women >>> early Modern women http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/usadoll2/ 11805118/395995/395995_640.jpg http://img.blog.163.com/photo/s1jMTzSZZy 3mN6T05nzODw==/5675098480441765929.jpg |
In Chinese tradition society, female’s
social position bends comparatively. They got married without love; they even
have never met their husband before. They were always treated as commodities
which were exchanged from one family to another.
In Modern China, especially at the beginning of the twentieth Century, there were great changes. At that time, the Qing Dynasty crumbled, the thought of democracy and equality was rising. Various new ideas constantly impacted on people’s mind.The slavery female status in feudal society had been changing under that situation of the modern society. This change is reflected in different aspects, one of them is film.
There is a saying that film is from yet beyond life. The major social changes and important customs in the modern history of China were shown in almost every film. Different thoughts and ideas were promoted, especially the idea of “women are inferior to men” which was typical representation of the mainstream thought about the relations between the sexes at that time.
Film is like a window through which people see various stories and changes of Chinese women’s social status. So, in this blog, I am going to talk about the representation of female characters in film during that special period in China, and the relationship between film and society.
Movies
at the beginning of twentieth century
At the beginning of the twentieth century,
female characteristics shaped by Chinese film were vulnerable groups with weak
personality and suffering miserable life. There were still some movies showing
that the protagonist eventually escaped from the misfortune disease and had the
happy ending, but almost all of them needed the material and spiritual support
from men, that is, women totally depended on men to start or end their miserable
life. If there was no man to give the support, it was very difficult for women
to save themselves only by their own ability. Films in this period showed that
women’s social status was still lower than men, and women were considered as
belonging or appendant to men.
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| http://img3.douban.com/lpic/s2855152.jpg |
Film, “An Orphan” directed by Zhang Huimin
in 1929, talks that a girl named Hu Chunmei is forced by her parents to marry a
wealthy guy who is a fool. She could not stand such a life and the pressure
from her family, so that she escapes from the wealthy guy’s house and is going
to end up her life. Luckily, a millionaire, Yang Dapeng rescues and keeps her
as a servant. However, she is expelled by Yang’s father cause she always makes
mistakes in work. When Yang comes back home, he doesn’t find Hu, so that he
goes out and tries to find her back. But at the same time, Hu has already been
taken into secret room by people from the family of the fool groom. Yang
follows those people and find the secret room, rescues Hu…
This story reveals that, under the effect
of feudal thoughts, family social status and fortune is the primary and the
only one standard for women’s marriage, women have no right and freedom to
marry the guy they love and even they have never ever had the chance to figure
out what love is. They just want a happy, easy life. But even this, it’s
impossible.
With the rapid development of Chinese industry, more and more workforce was
needed, which pushed women into the society. Compared with the “stay at home,
marry to a unknown guy and dead” form life, women had the chance to study,
connect with the whole society and make money by themselves, which indicates
women somewhat end up the life of totally depending on men, but there were
still some difficulties waiting for them.
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| http://www.eeloves.com/memorial /album/id/1627 |
This film shows the issues of female workers. Women, as a vulnerable group, not only were treated unfairly in the factory, but also beared the pressure from the poor living conditions and the society. During that period, female workers had not been widely accepted. People still had the thought that women should stay at home and they had no ability to do men’s work, so what women faced with is indignity, doubt and unfair treatment. Nevertheless, these unequal treatments laid the foundation for later women’s rebellion and the ideological improvement of the society.
“A Blind Orphan Girl” was a big sensation at that time; someone mailed a
letter to the film company, saying “it reflects the abuse of Chinese industry
system, especially the cruel treatment to female worker. All workers were
supervised with the unreasonable regulations. It said what we have no right to
say, let me thank you in the name of all female workers… ”
Discussion
Through films, we can see the overall image of women in traditional
China. In a male-dominated society, women had no equal economic rights and
social forces to really get the liberation. They were ruled by men, and no one
can escape from the tragedy of fate. However, these social phenomena enlarged
and shown on the screen in the form of film noticed all people to pay attention
on, and this is the power of film, reflecting the social issue by telling us
various stories. But films at the beginning of 20th century were not
just about the plight of women. We can see from the above two films that there
were always a happy ending waiting for our heroine, like marrying to a rich guy
and getting a happy life. Here, a rich guy no longer just means a rich guy,
but represents the hope of Chinese women’s future. Similarly, the representation of women in films is not only
the girl named Hu Chunmei or Li Cuiying, but also
the majority of women and the condition they live in. Society gives the meaning
of the image of women, while film accepts and espresses this meaning, and then
this meaning is spread into the society again. As the results, it will
reinforce the impression of the women social status, or stimulate the women’s
struggle for social and economic rights.
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Films are accepted widely and very popular
all over the world, because they are the reflection of society; they are
stories telling us what happened, is happening and would happen; they are
communication between society and every single person in this society; they are
friends sharing us some ideas about something. It is the sympathetic chord
struck in the hearts of audience that makes films be accepted. Meanwhile, this
sympathetic chord is produced by the acceptance of the meaning that characters
in film represent. As Stuart Hall (1996) pointed out, in “The work of representation”, “it is us- in society, within human cultures-who make things
mean, who signify”, which means the representation of women is mean by us. Since
the set-up of the patriarchal society, women had been in a weak social
position, they were not treated as equally as men, they didn’t have the chance
to go to school and no political rights…Gradually, men were used to dominant
women, and women were accustomed to obey men. By this reason, people consider
women as the representation of weakness and tragedy. So women roles in films
were given the same characteristic. However, “Meanings, consequently, will
always change, from one culture or period to another. There is no guarantee
that every object in one culture will have an equivalent meaning in another,
precisely because cultures differ, sometimes radically, from one another in
their codes- the ways they carve up, classify and assign meaning to the world”(Hall,1996).
I think there are three aspects in
this sentence: meaning is not fixed; meaning is changed by culture; meaning is
altered by period. Taking two above movies into consideration, both of them
were produced at the beginning of 20th century but at different specific times. The first one, “An Orphan”, tends to shape women into a tool of having
baby, a slave without working ability and a commodity for money; while the
second one gives women more identities, like a normal social person in nowadays that can go
out for working and a worker with unfair treatment, in addition to “tool”,
“slave” and “commodity”. If we
compare the women characteristics at the
beginning of 20th century with the women images in present Chinese
films, the difference would be more obvious. The present women are the
representation of beauty, freedom and wisdom. “Go LA LA Go!” directed by Xu
Jinglei in 2010, told a story about a girl who gets success in business with
her wisdom and efforts. This movie was called Chinese “The Devil Wears
Prada”(2006). Also, we can see that the women image shown on 2010 Chinese
screen has already been shown in 2006 western culture, which means when western
women became the representation of freedom and wisdom, Chinese women were still
seeking for their new meaning. As known, when western women had the feminist movement in 19th and early 20th centuries, women in China
still under the pressure from all sides of society. Because of the earlier
awakening and rebellion, western women were earlier than Chinese women to get
freedom and respect. But I want to emphasize that the reason why the social
status of Chinese women developed is the influence of the women images in
western movies. Those movies showed the same oppression that Chinese women were
standing, and taught Chinese women the methods to resist. Therefore, the representation of women in films is different
at different times in the same country, and different from different cultures
in the same period; there is interplay between cultures and cultures, movies
and society. In one sentence, representation is not fixed.
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Conclusion
Through analysing the movies at the
beginning of 20th century, we can find that the representation of
women is different from that of the present women. Women at that time were
weaker and had no social status. By comparing Chinese women images with western
women images, it shows that women’s representation is different from different
cultures and periods.
Film is a microcosm of society, it tells stories
from society. Film lets us know the past, the present and the future of society
and also gives us a way to try to solve problems or issues we are facing with,
just like some western movies taught Chinese women how to fight for their
rights. Therefore, film is drawn from society, which in turn affects the
society.
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| http://lcstudios.tv/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/image2-Film-production.jpg |
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