Chapter 5 The Cultural Politics of Affect: Villain Stardom

If the Red Star, the model film worker whose social performance aligns with their screen persona, was indispensable to shaping ordinary people’s imagi- nation of the New Socialist Person and modeling desirable behavior in the new China, villain stardom—film workers who thrived on notoriety—posed intriguing questions about the relationship between aesthetics and politics. If we understand stars as agents of the spectacle who reveal the dominant model and internal logic of life in a given society, then it is necessary to probe the sociopolitical function of villain stardom in socialist China. In the 1949–1966 period, actors like Chen Shu 陈述, Fang Hua 方化, and Ge Cunzhuang 葛存壮1 became household names because of their screen perfor- mance as “enemies of the people.” That category included Japanese “devils,” KMT intelligence personnel, and traitors of China. This chapter investigates the much-neglected topic of villain stardom in cinema of the early PRC with a case study of Chen Qiang (1918–2012), an esteemed actor best known for playing the evil and treacherous landlord. Rather than embodying the social- ist ideal, he was first and foremost associated with what the socialist ideology negates: the old feudal order and exploitative class relations. In 1962 when Mass Cinema launched the first Hundred Flowers Awards, over 100,000 readers voted Chen the Best Supporting Actor for his memorable performance of the archvillain in Xie Jin’s film The Red Detachment of Women (Hongse niangzi jun 红色娘子军, 1960).2 He clearly gave a convincing performance for when young moviegoers bumped into Chen in everyday life, some would openly show their distaste for this evil landlord!3 The representation-centered analytical model of stardom is apparently insufficient to account for Chen’s stardom since social

1 Chen Shu is known for his role as a KMT intelligence officer in Scouting Across the Yangtze River (Dujiang zhencha ji 渡江侦察记, 1954); Fang Hua made his name by playing a Japanese military officer in Guerrillas on the Plain (1955); Ge Cunzhuang has played various villains including landlords, Japanese “devils” and local ruffians in films that include The Song of the Red Flag (Hongqi Po 红旗谱, 1960), Little Soldier Zhang Ga (Xiao bing Zhang Ga 小兵张嘎, 1963), and Little Blacky Gets Married (Xiao Erhei jiehun 小二黑结婚, 1964). 2 Qi Yanming 齐燕铭, “Qi Yanming Zai Baihua jiang banjiang dianli shang de jianghua” 齐燕 铭在百花奖颁奖典礼上的讲话 [Qi Yanming’s talk on the Hundred Flowers Awards cer- emony], Dazhong dianying 大众电影 [Mass Cinema] 5/6 (1962): 8. 3 See Chen Qiang 陈强, “Jieshi fanmian renwu de choue xinling” 揭示反面人物的丑恶心 灵 [Revealing the negative characters’ despicable souls], Renmin ribao 人民日报 [People’s Daily], November 18, 1962.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004423527_007 122 Chapter 5 discourses about this remarkable actor largely revolved around audiences’ negative emotional responses, particularly, their hatred toward the landlord class, which was aroused and intensified by Chen’s performance. To under- stand the necessity and mechanism of villain stardom in the CCP’s political project of moulding socialist subjects, this chapter starts with a discussion of the Chinese conception of the villain in conjunction with Chen’s acting in spe- cific performance contexts. It then draws on recent critical theories of affect as well as Chen’s personal reflections on his performances to illustrate how villain stardom became part of the political pedagogy.

1 Negative Characters, Performance Context, and Production of Affect

Prior to performing on the silver screen, Chen Qiang received theater training at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in 1938 at the Chinese communist base Yan’an. For much of the 1940s he traveled with drama troupes and wartime service corps (zhanshi fuwu tuan 战时服务团), bringing agitational theater to soldiers and the rural masses in the border regions.4 It was not until 1948 that Chen made his screen debut in Save Him to Fight Chiang Kai-shek (Liuxia ta da lao Jiang 留下他打老蒋) as an old and sensible peasant. Between 1949 and 1966, as the new Chinese cinema that aimed to serve the workers, peasants, and soldiers gradually took shape, he played various types of roles in a dozen or so films, including bit parts in Marriage (Jie Hun 结婚, 1953), Searching for Evidence in the Shipyard (Chuanchang zhuizong 船厂追踪, 1959) and The Weather Woman (Gengyun boyu 耕云播雨, 1960). He also played lead roles: as a calculating middle peasant5 in an agricultural cooperative in No Mystery Three Years Ago (Sannian zao zhidao 三年早知道, 1958); an enthusiastic and expe- rienced factory worker who pushes forward technological innovation in Trial Voyage (Shihang 试航, 1959); and an overseas Chinese magician who returns to

4 Anonymous, “Dianying yanyuan Chen Qiang tongzhi” 电影演员陈强同志 [Film actor: Comrade Chen Qiang], Dazhong dianying 大众电影 [Mass Cinema] 23 (1959): 6. 5 The rich peasant, the middle peasant, and the poor peasant were class statuses conferred upon peasants in the work of land reform in rural China. According to Mao Zedong’s defi- nition, middle peasants may or may not own their own land. A middle peasant derives his income wholly or mainly from his own labor and as a rule he does not exploit others. See Mao Zedong 毛泽东, “How to Differentiate the Classes in the Rural Areas,” October 1933, from Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, vol. 1, accessed May 20, 2018, https://www.marxists.org/ reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_8.htm.