Return to Confucianism? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Revolutionary History TV Drama In Those Passionate Days
LI, Luzhou
A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Philosophy
in
Communication
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
September 2009 ^k.,
'''niSiTY ^^I^BRAR/ SYSTEi^Z Thesis/Assessment Committee
Professor Joseph Chan (Chair)
Professor Saskia Wittebom (Thesis Supervisor)
Professor Anthony Fung (Committee Member)
Professor Radhika Gajjala (External Examiner) Abstract
This thesis aims at exploring the relationship between revolutionary history TV dramas and the social context in which these dramas occur. It uses the analytical framework of critical discourse analysis (CDA) proposed by Fairclough (1995) to analyze the revolutionary history TV drama In Those Passionate Days. The critical analysis of media discourse is the analysis of the relationship among three dimensions: text, discourse practice, and sociocultural practice. Discourse practice means the ways in which the text is produced and consumed. Discourse practice is important in the framework of CDA first because it is fundamental to the construction of the meaning of the text and second because it analytically mediates between text and sociocultural practice. This study emphasizes the analysis of text, audience, and a selective analysis of
the sociocultural practices. More specifically, it asks two questions. First, how is the
revolutionary hero Shi Guangrong constructed in the drama? Second, how do the 1980s
generation viewers interpret the meaning of the drama and how does the meaning become
manifest in the viewers' lives?
The answers to these two research questions are obtained through a detailed analysis
of discourse practice, that is, the ways in which the viewers talk about the drama.
Qualitative interviewing is conducted with twenty 1980s generation viewers and the
viewers' ways of sense-making are reconstructed through the analysis of interview
materials. The authorial reading of the text is based on viewers' interpretations following
the drama. The results show that the drama In Those Passionate Days is structured around the
Confucian five relationships of "ruler to minister", "father to son", "husband to wife",
"elder brother to younger brother", and "friend to friend." The hero Shi Guangrong is constructed as a benevolent person especially around the relationships of "ruler to minister" and "father to son." Closely associated with the theme of benevolence is qing
(conjugal love, fraternal love, friendship), growing out of the Confucian five relationships, especially the relationships of "husband to wife," "elder brother to younger brother," and
"friend to friend." Young people participating in this study incorporate Confucian values into the reading of the drama, and the viewing process provides a prominent occasion for viewers' construction, expression, and interpretation of sociocultural values they hold important.
A detailed account of discourse practice reveals the relationship between revolutionary history TV dramas and the social context in which these dramas occur. The study concludes that there is now a revival of Confucianism in China and this trend is
"textually enacted" (Fairclough, 1992, p. 206) in the drama In Those Passionate Days and this text influences/strengthens sociocultural values related to Confucianism.
This thesis then discusses the social context that enables the revival of Confucianism and maintains that the revival of Confucianism functions ideologically in contemporary
China. This study also makes small contributions to understanding CDA as a theoretical
framework. It questions the distinction between discourse practice and sociocultural
practice suggested by Fairclough. Submitted by LI, Luzhou for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Communication at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in September 2009
111 1995) CDA)
CDA
80
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80
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Acknowledgements
First and foremost, my deepest gratitude goes to my supervisor Saskia. In my life so far, she is one of the very few people who has had a tremendous influence on my intellectual development. She is an excellent supervisor. She has given me huge support and guidance in these two years, especially during the process of my thesis writing. I appreciate her kindness and patience of talking to me again and again to help develop my ideas and reading different versions of my thesis word for word. I also appreciate her rigorous scholarship, meticulous attitude to work, clear thinking, and strong sense of responsibility. She is an excellent teacher. The course Advanced Qualitative Research
Methods taught by her enabled me not only to get familiar with a different inquiry paradigm in social science but also to know the ongoing debates in academia. She is also a person with charming personalities. She cares about her students. She always encourages me to keep going and readily gives me any help she can provide. She has taught me to appreciate the beauty of difference and to embrace this world with an open and curious mind. I will never forget every talk I had with her either in her office or in
UC canteen in these two years.
I am also greatly indebted to my committee members, Joseph and Anthony, for their valuable comments at every stage of my thesis writing and for their various kinds of advices and supports to my studies in these two years. I especially appreciate the questions raised by them during the oral defense, which were very inspiring.
This thesis also owes much to the twenty interviewees who have participated in this
VI study and kindly shared with me their experiences. Without their generous assistance, this thesis could not be accomplished.
I would also like to thank other professors and staffs at the School of Journalism and
Communication. I will never forget the talk I had with Annisa in the corridor outside GA room on a rainy night in May and the big hug after my oral defense. Francis has given me great encouragement when I was feeling frustrated. Heidi has been so kind to answer various questions I have.
Last but not least, I give special thanks to Brahms, in his music I find serenity and calm.
vn TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT (in English) i
ABSTRACT (in Chinese) iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS viii
LIST OF TABLES x
CHAPTER
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research Question
1.2 Structure of the Thesis
2. HEROES IN COMMUNIST CHINESE HISTORY
2.1 A Brief Review on the Hero Literature
2.2 Heroes in Communist Chinese History
2.2.1 Yan 'an talk and the principle of socialist realism 16
2.2.2 Heroes in different stages of Communist Chinese history 20
2.2.3 The anti-Confucianism sentiment 29
3. METHODOLOGY 32
3.1 Data Collection 32
3.1.1 Interviewee recruitment 33
3.1.2 Interview techniques 36
Vlll 3.1.3 Selection of the texts 38
3.2 Data Analysis 38
4. ANALYSIS 41
4.1 Human Nature: The Benevolence 42
4.1.1 Ruler to minister: The loyalty 51
4.1.2 Father to son: The filial piety 57
4.2 Human Emotion: Qing 75
4.2.1 Husband to wife: The conjugal love 78
4.2.2 Elder brother to younger brother: The fraternal love 82
4.2.3 Friend to friend: The friendship 85
5. THE REVIVAL OF CONFUCIANISM 89
5.1 Why the Revival of Confucianism? 94
6. CONCLUSION 110
REFERENCES 127
APPENDIXES
A. The Interview Guide 144
B. List of Interviewees 145
C. Figure 1 and Figure 2 148
IX LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Market Share of Different TV Drama Genres in 2002 122
Table 2 Broadcasting and Rating of three Revolutionary History TV Dramas
in 2004 124
Table 3 Average Rating of the Top Three TV Dramas in 2002 125
Table 4 Average Rating of In Those Passionate Days in Major Cities in 2002..... 126 Return to Confucianism? A Critical Discourse Analysis
of the Revolutionary History TV Drama In Those Passionate Days
Chapter 1 Introduction
Confucius says that benevolent men will posses courage but brave men are not
necessarily benevolent. Shi (Shi Guangrong) is benevolent and therefore he is
courageous. He dares to bring Wu home during the Cultural Revolution.' This action
is motivated by his great benevolence and this great benevolence gives him great
courage.
This quote was generated during an interview with a Chinese 1980s generation
viewer of the drama In Those Passionate Days, the most successful revolutionary history
TV drama approved and produced by the Communist Party. This quote illustrates that the
viewer absorbs and mobilizes the most exalted Confucian virtue of benevolence ( to
interpret the central character of the drama, the revolutionary hero Shi Guangrong.
This Confucian meaning produced by the encounter of the viewer and the text does
not seem to be groundless. The rehabilitation of Confucianism is one of the most
significant and remarkable phenomena in post-Mao China (Bell, 2008; Bezlova, 2009;
Lam, 2008; Reed, 1995; Schell, 2008; Wasserstrom, 2008; Weber, 2000; Weiss, 2000;
Yang, 2007; Yu, 2008; Zhu, 2005, 2006, 2008). Confucianism is gradually gaining
prominence in the official discourse in today's China. The revival of Confucianism embedded in official agendas, for instance, in the agenda of ‘‘building a socialist
The Cultural Revolution in Communist Chinese history lasted from 1966 to 1976. harmonious society" initiated by Beijing's current leaders, has also been reflected in all
aspects of society, including media, arts, and education (Zhu, 2008).
Since the beginning of this century, a group of officially approved revolutionary
history TV dramas has dominated primetime television in China and won wide
popularity among the audience (see Table 1 and Table 2). The first drama of this kind
was the above-mentioned In Those Passionate Days, jointly produced in 2002 by the
Modern Drama Troupe of the General Political Department of the People's Liberation
Army (PLA), Modern Drama Troupe of the Shenyang Military Region, and Chang'An
Film and TV Production Limited Liability Company. This 22-episode serial drama has
achieved great success (see Table 3 and Table 4). For instance, the director of the
Beijing TV Station's Film/TV Drama Channel, Ms. Zhou, used the term ' miracle" to
describe the fever of In Those Passionate Days: "We have rebroadcast the drama for
five times upon the audience's request. The first broadcast received a 12% rating and the
rebroadcast rating was 4.7% on average. All these made a miracle in the history of the
Chinese TV drama.”2
In Those Passionate Days narrates the story of the revolutionary hero Shi Guangrong
(henceforth Shi) and his families across a period of thirty-seven years. The narrative of
the drama spans from the 1950s to the mid-1980s and covers Shi's family life after the
Chinese Civil War between the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang.^ The
2 See h11n://\'ii Ic.sohu.com/5 2/59/eailicIe 164575952.shtm 1 Ms. Zhou was interviewed in July 2002. 3 The Chinese Civil War began in 1927 and ended in 1949 when the Communists controlled most of mainland China and established the People's Republic of China (PRC). name of the character Shi is allegorical: In Chinese, Shi literally means a stone or a rock;
Guangrong literally means glory and honor. Shi is played by Sun Haiying, a
masculine-looking actor. The opening episode quickly introduces the ending of the war
in China and features Shi's first encounter with the cultural troupe actress Chu Qin
(henceforth Chu). Falling in love with Chu, Shi starts courting the young lady but is
refused. Later a marriage between Shi and Chu is arranged by the Communist Party, and
they begin decades of family life/ Coming from a peasant family with military
experience, Shi largely differs from Chu, who more or less possesses some bourgeoisie
sentiments, in terms of ways of life. The personal ill feelings caused by these differences
lead to their frequent quarrels over both trivialities such as planting trees and important
issues such as how to bring up their children. They raise three children: Shi Lin
(henceforth Lin), Shi Jing (henceforth Jing), and Shi Hai (henceforth Hai). Their first
child Lin decides to go to college and Chu has been very supportive of his decision.
However, Shi asks him to join the army. Finally Lin has to defer to his father against his
own will, but for over ten years, Lin does not return home from the army just to avoid
talking to his father. As time goes by, Shi, Chu, and their children learn to understand
each other. When Shi becomes ill, the family is reconciled and the relationship between
Shi and his spouse becomes more affectionate. In contrast to the previous media
construction of revolutionary heroes in which heroes were set either in battlefields or in
4 One of the mentionable news related to this drama involves the players of the two leading roles Shi and Chu: Sun Haiying and Lu Liping. This famous screen couple turned the on-screen romance into reality and married in May 2002, several months after the debut of the drama.
3 important historical turning points, this drama features a quintessential location in domestic life, for instance, the living room, the kitchen, the backyard. Most of the scenes take place in Shi's living room, which is decorated with an orange floor lamp, a cloth sofa with colorful flowers, some house plants, and an aquarium.
The spectacular success of In Those Passionale Days took the industry by surprise, and this inspired the production of other revolutionary history TV dramas. Among these,
The Loud War Song (2002), The Sky of the History (2004), Drawing the Sword (2005), and many others enjoyed nationwide popularity. However, In Those Passionate Days remains the most memorable one that enjoys high recognition in both media and public discourse. In December 2008 a "National TV Drama Gala" was jointly designed by the
National Radio and Television Program Production and Industry Association, the Anhui
TV Station, and the En-light Media to celebrate China's 30^'' anniversary of the reform and opening up. The organizers chose the thirty most influential TV dramas in the last three decades, according to a variety of factors, including the rating and media coverage of the drama during its first broadcast and the audience votes before the Gala night. In
Those Passionate Days was selected as one of the thirty, and it was one of the only two revolutionary history TV dramas that enjoyed this honor. Furthermore, the actor Sun
Haiying who played the character Shi and the actress Lu Liping who played the character Chu in the drama were chosen as two of the thirty most influential people in the thirty-year history of Chinese TV drama.
Since the reform and opening up in 1978 China has experienced a breaking away from the Maoist era that was characterized by systematic and exhaustive ideological indoctrinations anchored by Party-made revolutionary heroes. Under this circumstance, the emergence of the revolutionary history TV drama and its phenomenal success prompt the question why a genre with strong ideological connotations has regained its prominence in today's Chinese society after being silent for over two decades. Although media observers and critics (Chen, 2007; Chen, 2007; Hai, 2006; Li, 2004; Yu & Lin,
2006) have discussed the popularity of the revolutionary history TV drama as a cultural phenomenon of remarkable significance, little has been written about it in
Communication Studies.
This thesis aims to explore the relationship between revolutionary history TV dramas and the social context out of which these dramas grow. To accomplish this task, it will use the analytical framework of critical discourse analysis (henceforth CDA) proposed by Fairclough (1995) to analyze the drama In Those Passionate Days. Discourse analysis, including CDA, is often described as a theoretical perspective “containing both methodological and conceptual elements" (Nikander, 2008, p. 414). CDA ‘‘provides theories and methods for the empirical study of the relations between discourse and social and cultural developments in different social domains" (Jorgenson & Phillips,
2002, p. 60).
According to Fairclough (1995), the critical analysis of media discourse is the analysis of the relationship among three dimensions: text, discourse practice, and sociocultural practice: textual production
TEXT
textual consumption
DISCOURSE PRACTICE
SOCIOCULTURAL PRACTICE
A framework for critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1995, p. 59)
In this framework, the text can be the use of spoken language, written language, and other semi otic activities that produce meanings, for instance, visual images (photography, television, film) and nonverbal communication (Fairclough, 1995). In this thesis, the text refers to the drama In Those Passionate Days. Discourse practice is the process of textual production and consumption (Fairclough, 1995). To be more precise, it refers to the ways in which text is produced and consumed. This thesis conceives of discourse practice as the ways in which viewers talk about the drama In Those Passionate Days. Fairclough
(1995) defined sociocultural practice as “the social and cultural goings-on which the communicative event is part of (p. 57). Sociocultural practice can be at different levels of abstraction: "It may involve its (the communicative event) more immediate situational context, the wider context of institutional practices the event is embedded within, or the yet wider frame of the society and the culture" (p. 62). This study adheres to the third level of abstraction and regards the sociocultural practice dimension of the drama In
Those Passionate Days as the reviving Confucianism in contemporary China.
CDA conceives of the relationship between discourse and sociocultural practice as
mutually influential: discourse is both "socially shaped and socially constitutive"
(Fairclough, 1995, p. 55). Discourse practice mediates between text and sociocultural
practice (Fairclough, 1995). The properties of sociocultural practice first shape the
nature of the discourse practice, that is the ways in which text is produced and
consumed, through which it shapes the text (Fairclough, 1995). It is also through
discourse practice that the text contributes to the constitution of the social world
(Fairclough, 1995). Mainly, the text contributes to the constitution of three aspects of
society: "social identities, social relations and systems of knowledge and belief
(Fairclough, 1995, p. 55). The text can contribute to reproducing/maintaining them or to
transforming them (Fairclough, 1995).
When applying the analytical framework of CDA, attention can be paid to different combinations of the above-mentioned three dimensions (Fairclough, 1995). This study will emphasize the analysis of text, audience, and a ‘‘selective'’ (Fairclough, 1995, p. 62) analysis of the sociocultural practices.
Research Question
Mediated communication needs central character to anchor the meaning-making process (Hermes, 1999). Discourse is constructed around the central character and its relationships with other characters (Fiske, 1989). This is particularly true for television as television centrally focuses on the representation of people (Fiske, 1989). Therefore, a reading of central character and its relationships with others can unravel what kind of meaning the drama carries and what kind of discourse is embedded within the text.
Following this rationale, the thesis asks how characters who enact ideological connotations in the drama In Those Passionate Days are constructed. Specifically, the paper will focus on the character of the revolutionary hero Shi. It is the Communist tradition to exert "ideological controls of the hero characterizations, action and language by which the ideological 'message' is conveyed" (Sheridan, 1968 p. 47). Therefore the hero in the drama naturally becomes the central character who enacts discursive meaning.
The first research question grows out of these insights. It asks how the revolutionary hero
Shi is constructed in the drama In Those Passionate Days.
Simultaneously with the analysis of the text, it is necessary to examine how meaning is generated by the interaction between the reader and the text. Before Hall (1980), text was regarded as a powerful artifact that encourages audiences' identification with and incorporation into the dominant ideology that the text conveys (Rivera-Perez, 1996).
Hall's (1980) encoding/decoding model of communication challenged the ideological closure of television texts. It suggested three hypothetical interpretative positions for readers of a text: dominant reading, negotiated reading, and oppositional reading. The encoding/decoding model can be regarded as the earliest attempt to account for the revaluation of television texts. It signaled the active audience approach, and the focus of audience studies was shifted from text to audience interpretation. The active audience
8 theory involves a view of media use as a process of actively constructing the text. This perspective denies a fixed meaning residing in the text. Instead, text is seen as being subjected to various interpretations and the meaning is produced by the encounter of the reader and the text (Hermes, 1995; Morley, 1992). Therefore, analysis of the text cannot be separated from analysis of the text consumption because "analysis of the text on its own is never enough to reconstruct these meanings" (Hermes, 1995, p. 10). Although it is the consensus among advocates of the active audience approach that people could arrive at different interpretations when making sense of the same media text, not all of them hold the same opinion with regard to the interpretative freedom enjoyed by the audience.
Morley (1999) employed Hall's (1980) encoding/decoding model in his study of how people from different social classes interpreted a television program and found cross-class similarities in audiences' interpretations. He concluded that social class does not condition how people make sense of media texts. Fiske's notion of textual polysemy emphasized the potential multiplicity of meanings of texts and the radically productive ability of the audience (Rivera-Perez, 1996). Fiske's (1989) works drew considerable criticism. Condit (1989) argued that audiences are not free to make meanings at will and their interpretive ability is constrained by many factors of a specific rhetorical situation.
He also criticized Fiske's argument for its ignorance of the ideological influence of dominant culture patterns. McGuigan (1992) also suggested that "a notion of ideological domination in some form, however qualified by recognition of audience activity and popular pleasure, remains indispensable and, at least at the textual level, discernible"
9 (p.178). All these criticisms emphasized the influence of the sociocultural and structural constraints on audiences' interpretive freedom. They provided theoretical assumptions for the most recent development in the field of audience studies, reception analysis (Jensen &
Rosengren, 1990).
Reception analysis is the "empirical study of the social production of meaning in people's encounter with media discourse" (Schrader, Drotner, Kline, & Murray, 2003, p.
147). In this approach, researchers first obtain insights into the audience discourse through in-depth interviews or observation and then compare the audience data with the media discourse. The results of this comparison are interpreted with reference to the sociocultural practices (Jensen & Rosengren, 1990). The aim of this process is to examine
"How content structure - media discourses — come to carry specific meanings for recipients in a particular social context" (Jensen & Rosengren, 1990, p. 58). As such, this
"media-audience-society nexus" (Jensen, 2002, p. 169) in the approach of reception analysis dovetails with Fairclough's framework for a critical analysis of media discourse: the properties of sociocultural practice shape the nature of the discourse practice, through which it shapes the meaning of the text (Fairclough, 1995).
In Those Passionate Days has reached a vast audience (see Table 3 and Table 4). This study focuses on the generation viewers of the 1980s. The generation of the 1980s in
China refers to people born between 1980 and 1989. When individuals of the same age experience and participate in the same social and historical process, they can be regarded as belonging to the same generation (Mannheim, 1996). Compared with their father's
10 generation, individuals belonging to the 1980s generation share a "common generation location" (Mannheim, 1996, p. 133) in the social and historical process as they all grow up with the reform and opening up initiatives of the Communist Party and do not experience the intense ideological indoctrination of the Maoist era, especially during the
Cultural Revolution.
Some scholars maintain that the 1980s generation in China, as the first generation of the market, turns out to be individualistic. For instance, Zhao (1998) argued that the
1980s generation is "obviously uninterested in grand ideologies and moralities" (p. 54), be it "patriotism, socialism, Confucianism or Marxism" (p. 53). Particularly, in terms of family values, Zhao and Murdock ( 996) saw a "shifting balance between individualism and responsibility" (p. 34) and an "erosion of filial piety" (p. 34).
Under this circumstance, it is particularly interesting to examine the 1980s generation viewers' interpretation of the drama In Those Passionate Days, a text presumed to enact Confucian values. Now the second research question can be formulated as follows: How do the 1980s generation viewers interpret the meaning of the drama In Those Passionate Days and how does the meaning become manifest in the viewers' lives?
Critical discourse analysis carries a strong social constructionist epistemology, which sees social realities as being constructed by language. Social constructionists are interested in how people engage in meaning-making of the social world through language
(verbal or nonverbal) and how this process contributes to the (re)conslruction of social life. The inquiry aim is to understand and reconstruct the experiences and constructions
people hold of the social world (Cuba & Lincoln, 1994). In this process, what matters are
"meaning relations" (Meyer, 2001, p. 16) and "detailed documentation" (Meyer, 2001, p.
16), which largely differs from the received paradigm characterized by a generalization
ambition. Therefore, this study, informed by CDA, is interested in the 1980s generation
viewers' media experience of the drama In Those Passionate Days and how they resort to
Confucian tenets to make sense of and reconstruct the values they hold important.
Furthermore, CDA moves from the descriptive goal shared by other discursive
approaches to explanatory and critical to explore the dialectical relationship between
discourse and society (Fairclough, 1995; Teo, 2000). The adoption of an "explanatory
critique" (J0rgenson & Phillips, 2002, p. 64) orientation in this study will also prompt the
researcher to investigate "social determinations and effects of discourse" (Fairclough,
1985, p. 739). In any case, the objective of this study is not to offer generalized
observations and mine causality for explanation.
Structure of the Thesis
Chapter Two will begin with a brief review of the hero literature and then sketch the
characterization of heroes in different stages of Communist Chinese history. Chapter
Three is on methodology. It will reiterate the major points of CDA and provide a detailed
description of the specifics related to data collection and analysis. Chapter Four is
dedicated to analyzing discourse practice, that is, the ways in which viewers talk about
the drama In Those Passionate Days. It aims to reveal the intersection between the media
12 discourse and audience discourse of the drama. This study draws upon audiences'
interpretations following the drama and bases the authorial reading on audience discussion. In Chapter Five, the analysis of the encounter of the viewer and the text is
interpreted with reference to the revival of Confucianism in contemporary China. It will discuss the social context that enables the revival of Confucianism in China. The study is
interpretive/critical in nature instead of prescriptive. Therefore, the focus of this section is to describe and analyze the current social trends and their relationships with the drama
instead of to make media policy recommendations. Chapter Six summarizes the findings
of the study, briefly discusses the contribution this study makes to understanding CDA as
a theoretical framework and the sociopolitical implications of this study, and its
limitations.
Chapter 2 Heroes in Communist Chinese History
A Brief Review on the Hero Literature
A large body of literature on heroes comes from the study of hero myths. Hero myths
have been analyzed mainly by scholars from psychology, mythology, and anthropology
(Hourihan, 1997). The three most influential scholars in analyzing the uniform pattern of
the hero myth are the Freudian psychoanalyst Otto Rank, the Jungian mythographer
Joseph Campbell, and the folklorist Lord Raglan who followed James Frazer (Segal,
1990). While scholars in this field are solely interested in the mythical heroes,
communication scholars pay more attention to heroes in a secular sense.
For the sake of definition, a hero in a secular sense is “one who is a central figure in
13 an important event or period who is subsequently honored for outstanding qualities; usually qualities of nobility, courage, and self-sacrifice" (Duffy, 2008, p. 207).
Generally, there are two approaches in the study of the hero in the field of communication: the media ecology approach and the discursive approach. Media ecology scholars see an intimate link between information and communication technologies and the development of heroes: different medium yields different hero and shapes our conceptions of the hero (Drucker & Cathcart, 1994; Drucker & Gumpert, 2008;
Meyrowitz, 2008; Strate, 1985; Strate, 2008).
The discursive approach sees hero as the product of a discursive construction. Duffy
(2008) argued that hero today is a mediated image which is constructed through
television and film. Hero of an earlier age can also be seen as an element within a text
that is discursively constructed. Campbell (1968) provided a lucid account in this regard:
...For we are concerned, at present, with problems of symbolism, not of historicity.
We do not particularly care whether Rip van Winkle, Kamar al-Zaman, or Jesus
Christ ever actually lived. Their stories are what concern us: and these stories are so
widely distributed over the word — attached to various heroes in various lands - that
the question of whether this or that local carrier of the universal theme may or may
not have been a historical, living man can be of only secondary moment. The
stressing of this historical element will lead to confusion; it will simply obfuscate the
picture message, (pp. 230-231)
To Campbell, what mattered is the process of meaning-making rather than the real
14 person in history.
Studies of the hero under the umbrella of the discursive approach are diverse and dispersive. Wallace (1994) examined how mass media uses rhetorical devices to construct
Charles Lindbergh and John Kennedy as a monomythical hero and a scapegoat hero, respectively. Shah and Nah (2004) suggested a significant role of the thematic narratives related to racial oppression in constructing Mandela as a hero in US newspapers. Duffy
(2008) observed that mass media identifies and constructs the heroic figures of 9/11 and war according to the traditional folkloric and mythic formulae. Besides nonfictional heroes, scholarly attention is also drawn to fictional ones. For instance, Labre and Duke
(2004) analyzed how the character Buffy in a video game is discursively constructed as a hero by conducting a detailed analysis of the text.
Although all these studies share the same epistemological perspective with this thesis
in terms of how to study hero, they do not directly address the subject of the construction of the revolutionary hero. For this thesis, the more informative literature comes from
scholars who have delved into the communication system in Maoist China, which was
anchored by Party-made heroes.
The image of the hero in Communist Chinese history was never fixed. Eid (2008)
suggested that:
They (heroes) appear within a dominant discourse among specific groups of people at
specific times, then disappear or at least are forgotten...As long as there are
continuous changes in the societal structures, in ways of thinking, in technologies,
15 and in needs and demands, the concept and characteristics of the hero will also
change, (p. 154)
Indeed, as the social milieu changes, the structural features that condition who can be regarded as a hero and what can be regarded as heroic change, and thus the hero changes
(Holden, 2008). This pattern also applies to the process of hero construction in
Communist Chinese history.
Heroes in Communist Chinese History
Van 'an Talk and the Principle of Socialist Realism
The Mao-led Communist Party waged systematic and exhaustive ideological indoctrinations to convey a new set of beliefs to guide people toward the socialist goal.
First, a systematic mass communication was developed to mobilize the population (Pool,
1973). Second, all kinds of literary and artistic forms, including novels, short stories, songs, dramas, films, operas, street-corner shows, and propaganda paintings, were used to serve the purpose of ideological indoctrination (Houn, 1961; Yu, 1964). For all these means of ideological indoctrination, be it mass communication or literary and artistic works, hero was an indispensable element. Various heroes were created to personify and convey the ideas and ideals favored and desired by the Party. Sheridan ( 968) observed that in Maoist China there was an "ideological controls of the hero characterizations, action and language by which the ideological 'message' is conveyed" (Sheridan, 1968, p.
47).
To review the hero characterizations in Communist Chinese history, it will first be
16 necessary to learn the central dogmas guiding the Party's ideological indoctrinations, namely Mao's Yan'an talk and the principle of socialist realism (Pollard, 1978).
The first dogma was conveyed in Mao's Talks at the Van 'an conference on literature and art in May 1942. In this talk, he asserted that literature and art must serve the interests and demands of the Party:
In the world today, all culture or literature and art belongs to a definite class and
party, and has a definite political line. Art for arts sake, art that stands above class
and party, and fellow-traveling or politically independent art do not exist in reality. In
a society composed of classes and parties, art obeys both class and party and it must
naturally obey the political demands of its class and party, and the revolutionary task
of a given revolutionary age; any deviation is a deviation from the masses' basic
needs. (McDougall, 980, p. 75)
The second dogma was the principle of socialist realism. Chen suggested that the official definition of "socialist realism" was found in a speech of Zhou Enlai, the first
Premier of the People's Republic: "Socialist realism is the combination of revolutionary realism and revolutionary idealism" (as cited in Zhang, 2004, p. 202). A newer version raised in 1958 defined "socialist realism" as the "combination of revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism" (Pollard, 1978, p. 99). These definitions appeared abstract yet self-contradictory due to the conflict between two radically differing artistic schools: "realism" and "romanticism" (Zhang, 2004). The principle of socialist realism demanded that the characters in literary and artistic works must be "romanticized" to
17 meet the needs of the Party (Huang, 1971, p. 331). When Zhou Yang, the Deputy Director and Minister of Culture in the Department of Propaganda during the period between 1949 and 1966, explained the principle of socialist realism in a speech in 1953, he advised that the people and stories told in the works of socialist realism should be in line with the
Party's policies. The heroes should be the ones the readers can wholeheartedly identify with and they should overwhelmingly overshadow the villains (Pollard, 1978).
Pollard (1978) observed seven taboos that literary and artistic workers faced when they were working under the guidance of the Yan'an talk and the principle of socialist realism: "the description of real people and real things" {zhenren zhenshi), ^
"psychological analysis", ‘‘human interest", "humanism", “love between the sexes which transcends class, or overshadows social issues, or reveals petit-bourgeois mentality",
“people in the middle ’/) "spontaneity" (pp. 100-102).
Zhang (2004, p. 202) compared socialist cinema (one of the major means of ideological indoctrination in the Maoist era) and pre-socialist cinema and discerned significant differences:
Aspect Socialist cinema Pre-socialist cineina
Ideology Class consciousness Confucian or • bourgeois virtues
5 In the light of socialist realism, the people and things in the literary and artistic works should be selected and interpreted to conform to the Party's policies. In any case, the heroes and the heroic deeds portrayed should reflect the Party's ideologies instead of being what it is in reality. "People ill the middle" refers to characters that are neither hero nor villain, neither good nor bad. They are "most often intellectuals neither positive enough to qualify as agents of revolution nor reactionary enough to represent the villainous force" (Zhang, 2004 p. 203). Under the guidance of the Yan'an talk and the principle of socialist realism, these characters were largely dismissed. The ideal is that when the audience reads the characters, the good from the bad is immediately discernable without uncertainty.
18 Heroes Workers, peasants, soldiers Petit-bourgeois intellectuals
Setting Factories, mines, villages, camps Domestic, private, personal spaces
Action Violent struggle Sentimental persuasion
Concern Public welfare, collective interest Personal frustration
Process Identification with the masses Individual fulfillment
Method Typification (good and bad) Ambivalence (middle characters)
Goal Political correctness (Party-state) Humanism (nation-people)
One impression obtained is that the features of the socialist cinema in Zhang's (2004) study share many similarities with the ideological taboos described by Pollard (1978): the denouncement of Confucian and bourgeois ideologies, the dismissal of middle characters, the suppression of humanism, and so on. These observed specific guidelines were all derived from the core ideas of the Yan'an talk and the principle of socialist realism. They guided the Party's ideological indoctrination including the creation of heroes in a concrete manner.
After reviewing the Yan'an talk and the principle of socialist realism, this study will turn to the hero characterizations in different stages of Communist Chinese history. Both
Yan'an talk and the principle of socialist realism stressed that the creation of heroes should serve the politics. The interests and demands of the Party varied from period to period. Therefore, the hero created in different stages demonstrated different characteristics.
19 Heroes in Different Stages of Communist Chinese History
The "warrior" hero. Jung (1969) defined the collective unconscious as “a part of the psyche which can be negatively distinguished from a personal unconscious by the fact that it does not, like the latter, owe its existence to personal experience and consequently is not a personal acquisition" (p. 42). Instead, the collective unconscious owes its existence to "heredity" (p. 42). He (1969) saw archetypes, such as the hero, as components of the collective unconsciousness. Campbell (1968) identified five archetypical heroes: hero as warrior, hero as lover, hero as emperor and as tyrant, hero as world redeemer, and hero as saint. Pearson (1998) also provided a classification for hero: the Innocent, the Orphan, the Wanderer, the Magician, the Altruist, and the Warrior. Both
Campbell and Pearson mentioned the heroic archetype “warrior.' The mediated construction of the hero is often closely associated with the archetype "warrior" (Labre &
Duke, 2004). The "warrior" usually possesses courage, discipline, and a desire to defeat its foes (Labre & Duke, 2004).
In the first few years of the People's Republic, the “warrior,’ hero who fought against the Kuomintang during the Chinese Civil War (1927-1949), the Japanese during the
Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945), and the Americans in Korea during the Korean War
(1950-1953) populated screens, literary and artistic works, and other media (Chang, 1979;
Hsia, 1963; Sheridan, 1968; Zhang, 2004). The courageous heroes with "unrelenting revolutionary spirit" (Zhang, 2004, p. 193) and "deep class consciousness" (Hsia, 1963, p.
121) were glorified. The "warrior" heroes demonstrated relatively simple
20 characterizations and were less bound by ideologies because all they needed to do was fight (Sheridan, 1968). Indeed, the most notable feature of the heroes at this stage was their bravery and self-sacrifice. When examining the two novels The Song of Youth by
Yang Mo and Red Sun by Wu Qiang, Hsia (1963) found both exalted the fighters on whom the Party relied to win its victory:
This mainstay force is a most distinguished Hero-unit. It is part of the New Fourth
Army, one of the mainstay regiments of the New Fourth Army, and very famous...
Our militia in the River Sha District is a militia of heroes with a glorious record of
struggle. Tomorrow night we shall join forces with the mainstay force, our elder
brothers, and capture Machiachiao! (as cited in Hsia, 1963, p. 129)
But he's a hero! He fights the enemy hand to hand with a bayonet! He climbs city
walls nine or ten feet high and hurls himself on the enemy! He swims across wide
rivers in the ice and snow, (as cited in Hsia, 1963, p. 130)
Fight a good fight...Be obedient to the Party...See the revolution through to the
end!7 (as cited in Hsia, 1963, p. 133)
Zhang (2004) regarded the "warrior" hero and the war/military genre in the early years of the People's Republic as an expectable response to the Korean War. He also reasoned that the newly established regime needed to resort to this type of hero to rewrite history and secure power.
The Stakhanov-type hero (the production hero). During and immediately after the
These are the final words from a martyr to his comrades.
21 period of the Agricultural Collectives (1953-1956), the Commune Movement (1958), and
o the Great Leap Forward (1958-1960), the Stakhanov-type hero was created (Sheridan,
1968). The Stakhanov-type hero can also be termed production hero. The production heroes included ordinary workers who excelled in the task of socialist construction and the enterprising and hard-working local Party officials (Chen, 1964; Sheridan, 1968). The ordinary workers were usually portrayed by the media as fast learners. Although never receiving any formal scientific training, they, through determination and persistence, could make technological innovations that immediately facilitated production (Chen,
1964). The local Party officials, on the other hand, were depicted as capable people of great resolution, responsible, providing prompt action, and highly approachable (Chen,
1964). All these were desired personal qualities that were conducive to the socialist economic development.
One of the major tasks for the government at the time was to mobilize the population for national reconstruction. So it is not surprising to see the immense popularity of the production hero during this period. Chen (1964) found that the dominant theme in the officially approved short stories published during the first half of the 1960s was to
increase production, which she regarded as an undoubted follow-up to the Great Leap
Forward (1958-1960). Chin (1979) held the same observation when outlining major
themes in earlier short stories in the People's Republic. The production heroes were
8 Stakhanov is a miner in the Soviet Union. He is praised for his superior work productivity and is promoted model to mobilize people to make contributions to the economic development of the Soviet Union.
22 extremely dedicated to work (Chen, 964; Chin, 1979; Sheridan, 968). Second, they often challenged their physical limitation by staying up late or all night and persisting in working regardless of fatigue, illness, or injuries, which was in sharp contrast to the negative characters who favored pleasure seeking (Chin, 1979). Third, besides sacrificing health for the sake of work, these Communist men were also characterized by their defiance of the obstacles brought about by nature (Chen, 1964). For instance, in one story, with the encouragement of the local Party official ‘‘How can it be that an able Communist now bows her head in the face of difficulties?," a group of young girls went against the suggestion of the elderly in the village, persistently experimented in planting cotton in the snowy wasteland, and finally succeeded (Chen, 1964, pp. 233-234).
In 1966, two production heroes drew national attention and put the Stakhanov-type hero to its extreme. They were the model worker "Iron Man" (Wang Jinxi of the Daqing
Oilfield) and the Party cadre Jiao Yulu (Sheridan, 1968). Both were portrayed by the media to possess the above-mentioned qualities. The following excerpt is illustrative of this:
Some of the comrades tried to ...get him (Jiao Yulu) to direct the work from
headquarters, for they knew he was having liver troubles. But he refused. He said:
"One can't eat bread chewed by others. 1 can't direct the work only from reports...."
During these months, the county secretary often took his meals while working
waist deep in water, or took "cat-naps" squatting in the wet fields. On one occasion
after days of heavy rain, when news came in that the floods had spread to all parts of
23 the county, Jiao Yulu said unexpectedly: "This is very important, it is just what we
need to see the floods at their worst." Rounding up several other members of the
team, he immediately left, stick in hand, to study the characteristics of the flood, (as
cited in Sheridan, 1968, pp. 63-64)
Heroes of this type were devoted to work at the expense of family and friendship
(Chen, 1964). Virtues, such as filial piety, started to disappear from public view (Hsu,
1979). Communist heroes of that time subordinated all their obligations toward home and family to socialist goals and they also had no close friends and informal social affiliations for relaxation (Chen, 1964). To some extent, they had no private life because every movement and every action was scrutinized by "public gaze" (Chen, 1964, p. 234). By and large, the audience cannot obtain insights into the personal life and thoughts of the hero. In fact, the heroes were not allowed to have any personal sentiments. The
"complexity of the inmost mind" (Pollard, 1978, p. 100) and "personal frustration"
(Zhang, 2004, p. 202) were dismissed as bourgeois inclinations:
Since the revolutionary goals aimed at greater identification with communal and
national well-being, the Communist government, through new art, literature, and
other public media, tried to lower romantic or sentimental fervor in the interest of
such goals. (Hsu, 1979, p. 275)
While there was a suppression of family values, friendship, and romance in the hero-making process, one humanistic value, concern for others, was stressed (Chin, 1979).
The production heroes, especially the local Party officials, were always helpful and
24 humane in their dealings with the general public (Chen, 1964). Chen (1964) said that in this regard she discerned a similarity between the Party-made hero and the Confucian moral man. However, she further suggested that “this point of similarity and cultural continuity must not be pressed too far, for the two roles are imbedded in fundamentally opposed types of social structure" (p. 239). Indeed, when a Communist man explained his voluntary contribution to other's well-being, he would say: ‘‘How can you call this help?
Comrade, who would be unwilling to contribute some work to over-fulfill our common goal?" (as cited in Chen, 1964, p. 237). In this case, a teleological consideration can be sensed. However, the true exercise of Confucian virtues should be originated by one's spontaneity instead of by the rational and utilitarian considerations closely associated with public opinions, legal provisions, and political party goals (Guo, 2005). Therefore, although some personal traits of the Party-made hero resemble that of an ideal Confucian man, they do not exactly practice the Confucian spirit.
The hero made for class struggle. The third type of hero was the embodimenl of the ideological struggle, or to be precise, class struggle. This is not to claim that the "warrior" hero and the production hero carried no connotation of class struggle. From the day of the establishment of the People's Republic and even earlier, class struggle has been repeatedly stressed. The "ideological correctness" (Chin, 1979, p. 301) was the taken-for-granted feature of the Party-made hero: political correctness conditioned all good qualities of a hero (Sheridan, 1968) and, "it is proletarian blood that predestines a hero's noble qualities" (Hsia 1963, p. 122). However, as class struggle gained more and
25 more importance, rising to a position of prominence by the mid-1960s and during the
Cultural Revolution, all efforts were concentrated toward attacks on class enemies.
Heroes were therefore created solely to meet the needs of education in ‘‘class struggle, revolutionary traditions, and proletarian internationalism" (Chang, 1979, p. 239). The class enemies were the exploiters of the old society, including the landlords, the capitalists, and those whose actions harmed the cause of revolution, and they were all labeled counter-revolutionaries after 1949 (Huang, 1971). The class struggle was also extended within the Party and the internal struggle was to eradicate bourgeois ideologies and practices (Yu, 1979; Zhang, 2004). This was usually seen as Mao's strategy to oust political opponents, therefore, Yu (1979) tended to treat the communication system in the
Maoist era as "no more than a seesaw fight over an instrument of power in power struggles" (pp. 41-42).
Yao Wenyuan, a member of the "Gang of Four" during the Cultural Revolution, grasped Mao's idea and determination of purging the counter-revolutionaries and stressed glorifying the socialist hero to intensify the class struggle (Pollard, 1978). The correct political thoughts, a high degree of loyalty to the Party, and the revolutionary traditions were emphasized when making heroes in this period (Pollard, 1978).
During the nationwide emulation campaigns in 1964-1966, such People's Liberation
Army (PLA) heroes as Lei Feng, Wang Cheng, and Ouyang Hai were put forward (Chang,
1979). These PLA heroes were young and their minds were regarded as being ready to be imprinted with Mao's words (Pollard, 1978; Sheridan, 1968). An excerpt from the diaries
26 of the heroes (Lei Feng dairy, July 1, 1961) was selected to illustrate that these young people became heroes not because of their courage on the battlefield or their contribution to socialist construction but only because of their firm adherence of Mao's thoughts
(Sheridan, 1968):
I felt particularly happy this morning when I got up, because last night 1 had dreamt
of our great leader chairman Mao. And it so happens that today is the Party's 40th
Anniversary. Today I have so much to tell the Party, so much gratitude to the party,
so much determination to fight for the party... 1 am like a toddler and the party is like
my mother who helps me, leads me, and teaches me to walk...My beloved party, my
loving mother, I am always your loyal son... (as cited in Sheridan, 1968, p. 52)
For the Party leadership who authorized the production of the hero like Lei Feng, the loyalty to Mao was the most direct demonstration of one's ideological correctness.
Heroes during the Red Guard period (August 1966—August 1967) carried on the Lei
Feng-type heroic tradition with some modification. The Lei Feng-type hero applied
Mao's thoughts in daily life, but the Red Guard in dangerous situations; the Lei
Feng-type hero illustrated the methods, whereas the Red Guard illustrated the spirit
(Sheridan, 1968). Overall, the Red Guard pushed the personality cult of Mao to extremes.
This can be shown in the extract selected from the story Drilling Team 32111 in which the hero was praising Mao at death:
Even when he was in a coma, he was still murmuring, "Chairman Mao, I'm always
thinking of you." When his pain got worse he shouted slogans: "Long Live Chairman
27 Mao; Long Live the Communist Party" to help him forget his pain, (as cited in
Sheridan, 968, p. 67)
After the Red Guard period at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, there was another transformation in the characterization of the hero, which was the hero appeared in the eight model plays created by Jiang Qing, Mao's last wife and the core member of the
"Gang of Four" during the Cultural Revolution. These eight plays included modern ballets and Peking operas The Legend of the Red Lantern, Taking Tiger Mountain by
Strategy, Sweeping the White Tiger Regiment, The Harbor, The White Haired Girl, Red
Detachment of Women, Shajiahang, and Song of the Dragon River. These heroes were made under the principle of “three prominences" (Chin, 1979; Pollard, 1978; Zhang,
2004): "give prominence to positive characters among all the characters, to heroes among the positive characters, to the principal hero among the heroes" (Zhang, 2004, p. 219).
The hero created under the principle of "three prominences" was the so-called
"high-great-complete" (Yu, 1979, p. 52) hero; that is, the writer should "start with a
'high' point in the life of the hero or heroine, emphasize the 'great' wisdom of the characters (so great as to be godlike), and deal with the 'complete' or 'whole' success of the characters" (Yu, 1979, p. 52).
Besides the model play, the principle of "three prominences" was extended to direct all the revolutionary films and other artistic and literary works during the Cultural
Revolution (Zhang, 2004). Zhang (2004) observed that the model plays and their film version pushed some of the previous theatrical elements to extremes: "the exaggerated
28 facial expressions (e.g., the hero's glaring look in a close-up), ritualized gestures (e.g., the clenched fist, the raised arm) and mannered postures (in a low-angle, frontal shot)" (p.
214). Furthermore, Zhang noticed that the hero was usually framed at the center, shot from a low angle, appeared large, and was immersed in warm colors against the villain who was framed at the fringes, shot from a high angle, appeared small, and was immersed in cold colors. The construction of the hero of this type was a tool for class struggle under Mao's directive of "continued revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat" (Ching, 1975).^
The Anti-Confucianism Sentiment
As discussed above, three types of heroes, namely the "warrior" hero, the
Stakhanov-type hero (the production hero), and the hero made for class struggle, were constructed in Communist Chinese history, and the choice of what kind of hero to promote was closely associated with the dominant agenda of the Party leadership.
There are scholars suggesting that the hero, whether fictional or nonfictional, embodies cultural values of a society, and who becomes the hero and what constitutes the heroic reflect cultural values (Duffy, 2008; Eid, 2008; Holden, 2008). Each culture has its heroes to represent the values it considers important. The values embodied in the hero might be similar across cultures, for instance, kindness, compassion, and courage (Duffy,
2008). However, hero is still a cultural-specific construct (Combs, 2008). For instance, the movie al Nasser Salah ad-Din (Victorious Saladin), directed by the Egyptian director
See hUn://\vw\vjiiar\isls.orp/subiect7cliinti/ix'kint>-revie\v/1975/PR 975-1 Sa.him
29 Youssef Shahin, is about Saladin who is honored as a hero for his efforts to liberate
Jerusalem (Eid, 2008). Eid (2008) observed that in this movie, the many Islamic values held important in the Islamic culture, such as justice, belief in Allah, and forgiveness, are reified in the mediated hero Saladin. Similarly, hero in the Western world manifests
Western culture's values of "courage, command and conquest in conflicts’ (Payer, 1994,
P. 24).
Contrary to the expectation that the hero in Chinese Communist history will embody
Confucianism from which the Chinese people derive most of their cultural values, the hero made under the Communist rule reflects the Party's decades' efforts to eradicate the influence of Confucianism in China.
Orthodox Marxist theory conceives society as a base and superstructure mode. The dominant material relationship conditions the ruling ideas (Marx & Engels, 1965). If
Marx is right, the desired social transformation should begin with the economic base. As the new relations of production are established, new consciousness will appear accordingly and the ideological indoctrination will become unnecessary (Chu, 1979a).
This was probably what guided the Chinese Communist leadership in initiating the Land
Reform in the early years of the People's Republic. The Land Reform was to destroy not only the landlord economy but also the deep-seated traditional social relations running through society (Chu, 1979a). However, the Party leadership underrated the influence of the values and beliefs embedded within these traditional social relations relying on which
Chinese people make sense of and act in this world (Chu, 1979a). Judging from the
30 following waged ideological indoctrination, the Party leadership started an organized effort to convey a new set of beliefs to guide people toward the goal of Communism, meanwhile demolish the old values and beliefs that could jeopardize this enterprise (Chu,
1979a; Solomon, 1965).
Not surprisingly, Confucianism was downplayed in the early days of the People's
Republic, and the Confucian virtues, particularly ren (benevolence/humaneness), were
rejected (Wilhelm, 1965). The anti-Confucian campaign reached its peak during the
Cultural Revolution, and it was seen as a continuation of the Communists' persistent
efforts to eradicate the influence of Confucianism since 1949 (Goldman, 1975).
Confucianism was not favored by the Communists because it "suppressed class struggle
and promoted ideological compromise" (Goldman, 1975, p. 454). In contrast to
Confucius' beliefs in the avoidance of conflict and the maintenance of social harmony
through the fulfillment of mutual benevolence between people, the message conveyed by
the Communist hero was about fighting, individual competition for contributing to the
socialist construction, and class struggle. Therefore, a villain in the Confucian sense may
become a Communist hero (Levenson, 1962). Although these three types of heroes
differed in characterization, they were all rendered as people possessing deep
consciousness of class struggle. As Hsu and Chu (1979) stated, "Only one thing is certain:
harmony is no longer an officially endorsed virtue; struggle is" (p. 403). To struggle
means to downplay the importance of family, friendship, and other social relationships of
the hero (Chin, 1979). The tradition and parental authority were questioned by sons and
31 daughters as the youth were officially encouraged to demonstrate their rights to rebel, to struggle against, and criticize parents, teachers, and the elderly (Chang, 1979; Chin,
1979). Family values, like filial piety, were eroded. For instance, the planning of a feast to celebrate the birthday of one's grandmother would be dismissed as rotten behavior
(Chu, 1979b). Family values were not the only ones in danger; equally under serious strains was friendship (Vogel, 1965).
To summarize, in the Maoist era heroes did not enact Confucian values. However, as mentioned in the beginning of the thesis, Confucianism has gained prominence in official, media, and public discourses since the 1980s, and this transformation has become particularly conspicuous since the Hu-Wen Administration in 2003. Under these circumstances, this study asks what the Party-made hero in the post-Mao China looks like.
It suggests that the hero constructed in the drama In Those Passionate Days enacts
Confucian values, an argument which will be supported with evidence from the field interviews and the analysis of the text.
Chapter 3 Methodology
Data Collection
This study uses the method of qualitative interviewing to study audiences' interpretations of In Those Passionate Days. Qualitative interviewing is the technique used by most influential audience studies, such as Morley's (1980) study of the
Nationwide audience, Radway's (1984) study of the romance readers, and Hermes's
(1995) study of women's magazine readers.
32 Schr0der et al. (2003) suggested that qualitative interviewing is used as a "discursive generator" (p. 143) to obtain insights into the knowledge and beliefs available to the interviewees when they make sense of a specific media text. A good reception interview is to make people speak about their experience of the text in relation to their lifeworld
(Schroder et al., 2003). In this study, most interviewees anchored readings in their personal experiences.
Interviewee Recruitment
This study focuses on the 1980s generation viewers in China. The recruited interviewees were born between 1980 and 1989 and are now between 20- to 29-years old.
Since reception analysis is concerned with how the viewers make sense of a specific media text, interviewees recruited were people who were regularly and/or frequently exposed to the text, most often due to their active and deep interests in the text (Schroder et al., 2003). One requirement for interviewee selection was thai recruits had avidly followed In Those Passionate Days and showed emotional attachment to the drama as a whole and to particular characters. Those who fit this category should have watched this drama at least once in 2002 when it was first broadcast, have actively rewatched this drama (e.g., purchasing and/or renting DVDs, searching and/or downloading video clips online) or watched less actively (e.g., watching whenever it was rebroadcast on TV), and have watched this drama at least once this year (China Central Television, China's state
TV station, rebroadcast In Those Passionate Days in February 2009). Interviewees recruited according to these criteria have usually watched this drama for five times on
33 average from 2002 to present. They were able to easily recall the scenes in the drama before the video clip was shown to them. Unlike many other TV dramas that have quickly faded into oblivion, my research shows that In Those Passionate Days has remained fresh in the memory of the audience.
Qualitative studies encounter inevitable quantitative challenges in terms of deciding on the number of the interviewees (Schroder et al., 2003), recruiting of which can be a
"potentially infinite process" (Schroder et al., 2003, p. 160). Schrader et al. (2003) recommended that the rule of thumb is to “aim for maximum diversity and continue one's series of interviews until the informant discourses start to resemble those of previous interviews" (p. 160). Therefore, the process of interviewee recruitment ceases once the interview materials reach saturation (Glaser, 1992), which means similar themes reoccur.
This study conducted two pilot interviews. Considering that some of the interviews of this study were going to be conducted through online chat software, such as ICQ and
MSN, the two pilot interviews were conducted online so that 1 could become familiar with a virtual interview method. Through the pilot interviews, the differences between the traditional face-to-face interview and the Internet interview were discerned and different interviewing techniques were used accordingly. Based on the pilot interviews, semi structured in-depth interviews were conducted with twenty interviewees.
The interviewees were recruited through an online discussion forum about In Those
Passionate Days hosted by Baidu Poster, the largest Chinese communication platform
will discuss the differences in the Interview Techniques section.
34 provided by Baidu, the largest Chinese search engine. The forum was established in 2004, two years after the drama was first aired, and although the forum missed the opportunity to witness the best moment of In Those Passionate Days, it has kept welcoming audiences from all over the country whenever the drama is rebroadcast by central or local
TV stations.
I started observing this forum in 2007. The major task in this early stage of the study was to analyze various information including articles, pictures, and videos posted by the viewers and pay attention to and get in touch with some potential interviewees (e.g., reading their blogs, conversing with them through online chat software, such as ICQ and
MSN). The reviews of In Those Passionate Days written and posted by various viewers were analyzed to obtain a rough impression of the audiences' interpretations of the drama, which helped in the development and design of the interview guide (see Appendix A).
Among the many constantly contacted potential interviewees, twenty of them eventually joined this study.
Instead of being from one or two cities, the interviewees were from provinces across the country: Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Beijing, Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Hubei,
Hunan, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Fuji an, Guangdong, Gansu, and Yunnan. 1 tried to achieve diversity in recruited interviewees in terms of demographic characteristics. The social characteristics considered in this study were those of age, gender, marital status, educational background, and whether the interviewee was a rural or urban resident (see
Appendix B). Audience studies have shown that the audience brings knowledge and
35 experience to viewing that they obtain through their social positions (Roscoe, Marshall,
& Gleeson, 1995). However, the aim of this study does not have so much to do with how audiences with different social experiences differ in the production of social meaning, but rather to analyze reoccurring themes in audience discourse in relation to media discourse—themes that transcend different audience demographics.
Interview Techniques
The interviewees who lived in Hong Kong (students from mainland China who were studying in Hong Kong at the time of the interviews), Shanghai, Shenzhen, and
Guangzhou were interviewed face-to-face. For those who lived elsewhere, the interviews were conducted through either telephone or online chat software, such as ICQ and MSN.
Face-to-face and telephone interviews took 60-90 minutes, and Internet interviews took three hours on average. Throughout the data collection process, changes and modifications were made to the interview guide and the interviewees were contacted once or twice for follow-up interviews.
In terms of the specifics of the interview techniques, the Internet interview differed from the face-to-face interview. Goffman (1982) proposed the concepts of "obligations" and "expectations" in social interaction, which may account for some of the differences between computer-mediated communication and offline communication. Obligations refer to how one is morally constrained to conduct him/herself in social interactions, while expectations refer to how others are morally bound to that person. In a face-to-face interaction, people are bound to a "system of etiquette" (McDevitt, Kiousis, &
36 Wahl-Forgensen, 2003, p. 456) that can keep them involved. However, due to the absence of nonverbal cues, such as voice volume, staring, touching, and gesturing, and the comparative anonymity (Kiesler, Siegel, & McGuire, 1984), computer-mediated communication to some extent breaks the etiquette. Therefore, compared with the
face-to-face interaction, the perceived level of involvement obligation is relatively lower
in the Internet environment. This was precisely the impression obtained from the Internet
interviews conducted for this study.
The relatively low level of involvement obligation in the Internet interview has both
advantages and disadvantages. Schroder et al. (2003) advised understanding the reception
interview as a "speech event." All speech events ‘‘have cultural rules for beginning,
ending, taking turns, asking questions, pausing, and even how close to stand to other
people" (Spradley, 1979, p. 55). The reception interview, as one type of speech event,
thus follows a set of rules (Schrader et al., 2003). However, the lower level of
involvement obligation in the Internet environment made the interviewee less aware of
the formality of qualitative interviewing. Therefore, in contrast to the face-to-face
interview in which the informal side of the interview was stressed to the interviewees to
ease the mood, throughout the Internet interview, the role of the interviewee and what
they were expected to do were continually emphasized to keep the interviewee's
involvement. The merit of the Internet interview was that the interviewees were more
relaxed, which turned the interview more into a friendly conversation. Furthermore, the
mode of online interaction provided the interviewee with more time to elaborate on their
37 experience of the media text. In this way, the interviewer only needed to strategically use the encouraging questions to stimulate long narrative sequences from the interviewee.
However, in the case of the face-to-face interview, especially in the case of interviews with less talkative interviewees, the conversation sometimes reached an impasse when the interviewee offered brief remarks and the interviewer's constant prompting failed.
When this happened, the interviewer stimulated some small talk on unrelated topics to establish a mood of natural conversation and returned to the original discussion at a later stage. Generally speaking, the face-to-face interview required a greater ability in controlling the entire conversation.
One unavoidable problem with the Internet interview was that characteristics, such as laughter, postures and facia expressions, and voice volume, could not be observed.
However, as these nonverbal cues were not the focus of this study, the absence did not pose a problem.
Selection of the Texts
The reading of the character was carried out with an analysis of several scenes selected from the 22-episode drama. As this study based the authorial reading of the text on the audience discussion, the analyzed scenes were those that the interviewees had chosen to talk about most frequently.
Data Analysis
Critical discourse analysis sees a dialectical relationship between sociocultural practice and text. The discourse practice mediates between the two. The properties of the
38 sociocultural practice first shape the nature of the discourse practice, that is the ways in which the text is produced and consumed, through which it shapes the text (Fairclough,
1995). It is also through discourse practice that the text contributes to the constitution of the social world (Fairclough, 1995). This study regards discourse practice as the ways in which the viewers talk about In Those Passionate Days. The viewers' ways of sense-making can be reconstructed through the analysis of interview materials. Analysis of discourse practice is fundamental to the construction of the meaning of the text. It can also reveal the link between sociocultural practice and text. When analyzing the interview materials at hand, the study focuses on two aspects: How do the 1980s generation viewers take the properties of sociocultural practice (that is the revival of Confucianism in this study) to make sense of the drama and how do the ways in which the drama is viewed help reinforce existing sociocultural practice?
This study uses the discourse analytical approach to analyze the interview materials at hand. The discourse analytical approach enables a close examination of the language the viewers draw upon to make sense of the text. This approach is selected because the whole study is informed by the analytical framework of CDA, which sees society as being constituted by language use. To begin with, this study first identified and marked the text fragments dealing with viewers' interpretations of In Those Passionate Days in the interview materials. Second, the text fragments dealing with the same subject (e.g., those focusing on the character Shi) were selected and edited together." Third, the study
“In the analysis, the notation “(...)” indicates that words are omitted. Also, the name of the viewer is presented after
39 examined the edited fragments and took viewers' lexical choices, including adjectives and nouns as units of investigation. This study is informed by discourse analysis, which focuses on the use of language as a means of social construction (Fairclough, 1995; Van
Dijk, 2007). Fairclough (1995) suggested that the analysis of discourse should include traditional forms of linguistic analysis like the analysis of vocabulary. Analyzing the
lexical choices would allow the critical discourse analyst an insight into the social reality that is constructed on the basis of the lexical choices that permeate the discourse (Teo,
2000). Therefore, this study will pay attention to viewers' ‘“lexicalization of media experience" (Schroder et al., 2003, p. 167). Fourth, viewers' lexical choices and their
elaborations (a description of the relevant scenes in the drama and/or a relation to their
personal stories) revolving around these vocabularies were interpreted to obtain themes.
In terms of the analysis of the text, the framework proposed by Fairclough (1995)
gives no concrete guidelines upon which followers can act step by step. The general
suggestion given is that attention should be paid to both meanings and forms of the text
(Fairclough, 1995). In the case of television, analysis of the text needs to pay attention to
how the visual components of the television interact with language in producing
meanings (Fairclough, 1995). Thereby this study will focus on the analysis of the
language (the dialogue between characters) conceived as social interaction, nonverbal
cues (e.g., the postures and facial expressions of the characters) related to the social
interaction, and visual components like setting, props, and the costumes and make-up of
each extract.
40 the characters. In terms of the analysis of the dialogue between characters in each scene, a sequence was selected, the actions in the sequence were characterized, the ways in which the characters package their actions were analyzed, and the identities and/or the relationships between characters were discussed (Pomerantz & Fehr, 2007).
An insight into the process of discourse practice is fundamental to the construction of the meaning of the text. It can also reveal the link between sociocultural practice and text.
As a member of the 1980s generation, 1 see myself as an ordinary viewer of In Those
Passionate Days and regard my own interpretation of the text as an integral part of the audience discourse.
Chapter 4 Analysis
For discourse analysts, an account "cannot proceed with a naYve text-context dichotomy" (Hodge & Kress, 1988, p. 8). It should at least begin with an examination of the messages that surround and guide the production of the text (Hodge & Kress, 1988).
For this study, the message that moulds the production of In Those Passionate Days can
be obtained through the drama producer Zhang Jizhong:
We wish to show the heroism of this era. (...) We wish to depict the hero and his
relationship to his families and his country from a humanistic and emotional
perspective. None of any dramas, films or other artistic works did this before. In
Those Passionate Days is a breakthrough. (...) It is always the emotion depicted in
an artistic work that moves the audience: the emotion between the husband and the
wife, between the father and the son, between the mother and the son, etc. (...) It is
41 these emotions that lay the foundation for the development of our nation and for the
life of every of us. (...) We all have the same understanding about the revolutionary
hero who has experienced the war: no proud words, no remarkable actions, and no
betrayal towards the human nature and human emotion. We used the
synchronous sound recording techniques to make the drama. In the shooting scene,
both the working staff and the spectators surrounding were often moved to tears by
what was under shooting. (Qian, 2002, pp. 204-205)
The words from the producer reveal the wider context of the production practice of which In Those Passionate Days is embedded within. This is relevant and conducive to understanding the drama. By saying "heroism of this era," the director explicitly hails a potential presence of a new hero different from its Maoist counterparts. In fact, the
"humanistic and emotional perspective" to some extent reminds the readers of the characteristics of the pre-socialist cinema mentioned in the second chapter: the hero as an embodiment of the Confucian and bourgeois virtues. This idea is stressed again by the producer when he spells out the consensus reached within the shooting team: "no betrayal towards the human nature and the human emotion."
The following part of this chapter will draw upon both the audience interpretation and the authorial reading to see how they resonate with the messages that surround and govern the production of the drama In Those Passionate Days.
Human Nature: The Benevolence
The Chinese pathway of human nature is largely shaped by Confucianism.
42 Confucianism is built on a humanistic basis:
(Confucius') interests are connected with how human beings could become better
and more humane human beings in human ways. He is concerned with establishing a
good person, a good society, a good human relationship, a good state, and a good
world; and good means benevolence, righteousness, decency and elegance, wisdom,
and trustworthiness as connoted by the concepts of virtues such as jen,^^ yi, //’ chin,
and hsing. (Cheng, 1991, p. 24)
The Confucian teachings were the most influential in Chinese history (Dahlsgaard,
Peterson, & Seligman, 2005). They directed the way people of ancient China survived,
lived, behaved, and acted. As the Chinese modern scholar Lin (1938) stated,
"(Confucianism) maintained its supremacy over the Chinese people for the length of two thousand five hundred years, with the exception of a few periods, and it always came back to its own stronger than ever" (p. 1).
In contrast to other philosophies that believe that people are born with sins, the
Confucianism-influenced Chinese culture holds to the belief that human nature is originally good. Being good means practicing ren (Cheng, 1991; Haberman, 1998; Yu,
1998). Ren ( translated variously as "benevolence," "humaneness," ‘‘kindness, and
"goodness" in different literature) is the most exalted virtue in Confucianism. Throughout
The Analects, the concept of ren permeates all others (Dahlsgaard, Peterson, &
12 Jen is the same as the "/-^/ “ that will be mentioned later. The Analects is also known as The Analects of Confucius. It records the Confucius teachings, which were carried out in the form of discussions between Confucius and his students.
43 Seligman, 2005). It is both an ethical/moral orientation and a practice in Confucianism
(Chong, 2007). It is the "loftiest ideals of moral excellence" (Lin, 1975, p. 185). Ren means "to love man" (Yu, 1998, p. 324). In The Analects, ren is ususally paired with ai
(love) (Do-Dinh, 1969; Hagen, 2002). The Analects consists of twenty short chapters, sixteen of which mention the word "love," and it uses the word "love" 107 times in total
(Chill, 1981). For instance, "Fan Chi'4 asked humaneness. The Master said, Love others"
(Watson, 2007, p. 84). Therefore, to Confucius, ren means love for all. Love in
Confucianism does not carry the meaning of romantic love or sacred love; instead it means more to care for others (Yu, 1998).
The viewers of In Those Passionate Days participating in this study expressed strong identification with the character Shi, especially with his quality of benevolence {ren), and used various adjectives including "benevolent" to characterize and evaluate this character.
As discussed above, ren is translated variously as benevolence, humaneness, kindness, and goodness, and ren means love for all; therefore, this study considers viewers' lexical choices of humane, kind, kind-hearted, good, good-hearted, and love as synonyms of benevolent.
The quality of benevolence is in fact also embodied in other characters. The viewer
Bai noticed: "It can be said that there are no bad people in this drama. Everyone appears to be so good and sincere." She was certainly not alone among the viewers
14 Fan Chi was one of Confucius' students. The interviews took placc in Chinese and the researcher herself did the translation. The translation may not always be correct grammatical English, in keeping with trying to maintain the meaning of what was said.
44 participating in this study in her belief that all the people in the drama are enacting the discourse of benevolence. Most of the viewers participating in this study believed that the
depiction of benevolence is a notable strength of the drama. For instance, the viewer
Yong, who claimed that this drama influenced him so much that he chose to attend a
university in northeastern China,said: "I like everyone in this drama. I like their words
and actions. I feel everyone in the drama is good and there is no gap between people."
However, Shi, the central character, was the most admired by viewers participating in this
study. He was admired for his abiding faith in traditional virtues and many found his
genuine goodness and his exemplary sense of benevolence towards the people around
him inspiring.
The viewer Zhong saw an intimate link between the hero and good people:
The role of the hero and the role of an ordinary person can at times interchange.
When an ordinary person takes on the responsibility that most people are unable to
assume, he can be called a hero. When an ordinary person is loyal to the country,
filial to the parents, and dutiful to friends, he can be considered as a hero and he can
also be considered as a good man. Shi Guangrong is a hero, but he is also a good
person. He shows his goodness through his actions. He can get up in the middle of
the night to hold the umbrella for the squash. He is benevolent even to the squash, to
say nothing of the people.
From a starting point concerning the goodness of Shi, Zhong quickly extended the
The drama is set in northeastern China.
45 narrative beyond what was presented in the drama and made reference to his grandfather's daily practice to elaborate on his understanding of the meaning of being good:
My grandfather exactly resembles Shi Guangrong in this regard. Last time, when he
went to the market to buy vegetables, he saw an old man in his seventies selling
chairs on the street. He then bought a chair from the old man, although in fact he had
no need of it at all. Whenever he meets a beggar on the street, he will absolutely give
out some money, no matter if the beggar is cheating or not.'^
There are more illustrations showing viewers' subscription to Shi's quality of benevolence:
(...)He (Shi) doesn't give any bombastic speeches, but we indeed witness his loyalty
to the country and his kindness to all the people around him. So there are
fundamental differences between the 'just do but not say it, persons and the 'just say
but not do it, persons. (Le)
I like Shi Guangrong very much largely because of the way he conducts himself. He
is honest and frank. He is also sincere. The most important thing is that he is kind to
other people. He really possesses so many good qualities. (Squash)
I like Shi Guangrong because he is kind-hearted and loyal to the Party and the
country. (...) This drama teaches me to be humane to everyone around me. (Dai)
17 In recent years, "the fake beggar" has become a hot topic in China. As the media coverage reveals, there are people who take begging as a profession, pretend to be disabled or live in miserable conditions but in fact lead a decent life after working hours. Among them, there are also kidnapped and tortured children who are forced to beg and make money for their boss. These things make people hesitant to offer help because they do not know whether the beggars are truly in need of help.
46 From the very beginning, 1 feel Shi is an arbitrary person. But later I find he loves his
country and his families in his own way and from beginning to end he is steadfast to
his families and the country. (...) He is a qualified husband and father! (Ning)'^
He (Shi) owns great benevolence. (Jing)
I like the character Shi Guangrong most in this drama because all the things he does
are guided by great feelings of love. (Yong)
All these elaborations that were given under the headings of "benevolent,"
"humane," "kind," "kind-hearted," "good," "good-hearted," and "love" were considered to work toward legitimizing the theme of benevolence.
When elaborating on the theme of benevolence, viewers participating in this study made frequent references to the Mushroom Village plot. In the drama, Shi is born in
Mushroom Village, a remote and impoverished rural area. He is orphaned at eight years old and raised by the villagers, especially by his neighbor Aunt San. The Mushroom
Village plot (#08-10) features Shi's return to the Mushroom Village, and this village is mentioned again in episode 15 in which Shi takes risks to send food to the villagers when drought dwindles the crops in the village.
The viewer Dai said: "When he (Shi) returns the Mushroom Village, he kowtows to
Aunt San. Alas, facing this scene, 1 almost wept myself out." In fact, in the drama, Shi kneels down in front of Aunt San instead of kowtowing to her (#08: 35). Although Dai
Throughout the interview, the viewer Ming re-emphasized that he found Shi loves his country and his families in his own way.
47 remembered this scene incorrectly, it obviously caused her to be intensely emotional. Dai was not alone among the viewers participating in this study. Almost all of the viewers participating in this study revealed that they just could not help weeping when viewing this scene. There might be a variety of ways to express one's gratitude toward another, but the act of kneeling is the most reverent. The viewer Shu said:
He (Shi) visits the Mushroom Village with his daughter and kneels down in front of
Aunt San. I was deeply moved by this scene. We have an old saying that a drop
received in need will be repaid with a whole river. I think this is the most appropriate
to describe Shi's deeds.
The viewer Jing put himself in the place of Shi and vicariously participated in Shi's experience. By doing so, he came to realize Shi's benevolence. In his utterance, the term
"benevolent" signaled the discursive moment when the viewer Jing absorbed and mobilized the overarching notion of benevolence in Confucianism:
How kind-hearted he is towards the poor villagers from Mushroom Village! I am
unable to do so. If I make something big, I will not be so good to these poor villagers.
I probably can't stand their indecent habits and customs. I will feel awkward and
can't help avoiding them. This doesn't mean I am a bad person. I can only say that I
am not benevolent enough.
The Mushroom Village plot is mentioned again in episode 15 in which Shi takes risks to send food to the villagers to relieve the food shortage in the village. When recalling this scene, the viewer Zhong said: "During the Three Years of Natural
48 Disasters,'^ he sends food grains to the Mushroom Village in the risk of being dismissed.
At that time I really felt he is a person guided by great feelings of love." The viewer Xin expressed the same feeling: "When there is an accident in the Mushroom Village, Shi immediately offers help to the villagers although he clearly knows that it will probably cause him to loose the job. He is such a kind-hearted person!"
Ren ( benevolence) is a "comprehensive virtue" (Hagen, 2002, p. 220; Yu, 1998, p.
324). As an overarching notion in Confucianism, ren includes all the Confucian virtues
(Hagen, 2007; Yu, 1998). Berling (1996) argued that ren “is not any one virtue, but the source of all (Confucian) virtues.”As the source of all virtues, ren has many dimensions and properties (Chih, 1981). The Chinese character ‘‘ ''consists of two morphemes: ‘‘ ’ (person) and ‘‘ , (two), hence ren means "two persons" and the realization of ren depends on the relationships between people: One who is alone can never be regarded as humane and benevolent. The five basic human relationships {wulun) in Confucianism are: ruler to minister, father to son, husband to wife, elder brother to younger brother, friend to friend (Berry, 2003; Chih, 1981; Hung, 1979). Wulun emphasizes "reciprocity" and "mutual benevolence" (Hung, 1979, p. 419). The two parties involved in any of the five relationships should play their role well and fulfill their obligation toward the other in an appropriate manner. As Confucius said, "Let the ruler be a ruler; the subject, a subject; the father, a father; the son, a son" (Watson, 2007, p. 82).
19 This viewer used the time reference "Three Years of Natural Disasters" (also termed as the "Great Chinese Famine") that took place between 1959 and 1961 in Communist Chinese history. However, from the drama, it is deduced that this event happens in the early 1980s and the crops fails because of the drought. Therefore, the food shortage should be a normal occurrence instead of the Great Chinese Famine. 20 See http://\v\v\v2.kenyon.edii/l)epts/Reliaion/l-ac/Adler/Rcln27()/Berling-C\)iiruciai^
49 For instance, the "ruler to minister" relationship stresses both the benevolence of the ruler and the loyalty of the minister. Likewise, although the "father to son" relationship moulds the son's filial piety toward the father, the kindness in the father is also required. The principle of mutual benevolence permeates all five relationships (Berry, 2003; Hung,
1979). Confucius believed that only when the mutual benevolence in the five relationships is achieved can people live in harmony (Hung, 1979). In the five relationships, the "ruler to minister" and the "father to son" relationships are the most stressed, and, accordingly, loyalty and filial piety are considered among the greatest human virtues. The following section will discuss these two Confucian virtues under the theme of benevolence.
The theme of benevolence growing out of the audience discourse provided the starting point and a focus for viewers' following discussion. When the viewers participating in this study addressed Shi's quality of benevolence, although none were able to spell out all the five relationships, they were aware that the fulfillment of
benevolence arises from one's situation in relation to others and one is simultaneously in
different relationships with different people. For instance, when the viewer Zhong said
"when an ordinary person is loyal to the country, filial to the parents, and dutiful to
friends, he can be considered as a hero and he can also be considered as a good man," he
had in fact stated the relationships of "ruler to minister," "father to son," and “friend to
friend." And when Ning accounted for his attitudinal transformation toward Shi, he based
his argument on the fact that Shi loves his country and his families in a particular manner.
50 By saying "his country and his families," he made reference to the relationships of “ruler to minister," "father to son," "husband to wife," and probably "elder brother to younger brother." However, concerning the theme of benevolence, viewers participating in this study made the most frequent references to the relationships of "ruler to minister" and
"father to son", and therefore the virtues of loyalty and filial piety were the most addressed: “I like Shi Guangrong most. I like his loyalty to the army and his filial piety."
(Shu) In the following section, I will discuss these two Confucian virtues.
Ruler to Minister: The Loyalty
To construct a hero in Communist China, an unavoidable issue to deal with is the relationship between the hero and the Party/nation. The "hero to Party/nation" relationship can be regarded as a modern equivalent of the "ruler to minister" relationship and, accordingly, the most salient trait of a Communist hero is loyalty. In the interview with the viewer Hua, the conversation moved from the interpretation of the character Shi to the question of which categories of persons might stand as heroes of the nation. Hua expressed strong identification with Shi's status as a hero and his quality of loyalty: ‘‘He
(Shi) is of course a hero! He makes huge contributions to the country. How come he can
not be revered as a hero? A national hero, whether or not he has shortcomings in other
aspects, is worth being respected and exalted." To Hua, the most salient virtue of Shi
being a hero is his contribution and service to the nation. Concerning Shi's loyalty,
viewers participating in this study continually referred to two scenes in the drama: the
"national boundary stone" plot (#11: 03-08) and the "retirement" plot (#15: 23-29).
51 The opening episode of the drama In Those Passionate Days quickly introduces the ending of the war in China. Having no battles to display his selflessness and valor, Shi becomes a senior military cadre, the Chief of Staff. His experience of being Chief of Staff is marked by his repeatedly expressed desires to return to the battlefield. This is not a demonstration of belligerence but self-sacrifice for the notable enterprise, that is, to save the country in danger. Shi's ardent willingness to serve the country rests on his first child
Lin. Shi forces Lin to join the army as he did: "You were born in the army. You are the descendent of a military man and you are destined to sacrifice yourself for the country and obey orders!" (#10: 27). The "national boundary stone" plot that the viewers made references to refers to the scene in which Shi visits the boot camp where Lin is and finds that Lin is slouched and idle in posture yet haughty and supercilious in attitude. The irate
Shi drags Lin to the national boundary stone that stands in the vast borderland of endless skies and open fields (see Figure 1 in Appendix C). In front of the national boundary stone, Shi sternly admonishes Lin for his slack behavior in the boot camp: "You cannot be my son, but you must be the Chinese military man guarding this country!" (#11: 06).
Shi then asks Lin to kneel down in front of the national boundary stone.
The viewers found this scene impressive. For instance, Le stated:
He (Shi) asks Lin to kneel down in front of the national boundary stone and what he
says to Lin is so powerful yet unmannered. (...) He doesn't give any bombastic
speeches, but we indeed witness his loyalty to the country.
The viewer Xin regarded this scene as one of the most touching in the drama:
52 For me, one of the most touching scenes is the one in which LaoShi^' asks Lin to
kneel down in front of the national boundary stone. This scene shows me a military
man's responsibility. I think Lao Shi is correct. Being a military man, one should
make his deeds match his title. One should be faithful to the country and the army.
In this occasion, Shi can be labeled in either of two ways: a father or Chief of Staff.
According to Sacks (1992), in a specific situation different membership categories are mutually exclusive: the application of one means an abandonment of the other. By saying
"you cannot be my son, but you must be the Chinese military man guarding this country,"
Shi identifies himself as a military man and stresses his obligation to the country. The application of this identity overshadows the connection of father and son. In this specific situation, the costume and make-up of Shi begin to work together with the props in the setting to produce meaning. Shi wears the old style Chinese army uniform with jacket, pants, and cap in bright greenish brown. This color distinguishes him from the Navy
(dark blue) and the Air Force (bright sky blue). The costume helps to conjure up a heroic
image with tough masculinity. When Shi spells out the moral agenda of a faithful military man, what appears in the shot is the national boundary stone. Engraved in the top of the national boundary stone is the national emblem and under the emblem is the Chinese character "China". The national boundary stone turns out to be a significant prop in the
setting. It helps comprise a setting showing national dignity and enhance Shi's loyalty to
LaoShi is Shi Guangrong's nickname. Some of the viewers used this term when they talked about Shi’ which some extent shows their strong identification with this character.
53 the Party/nation. Other supporting connotative elements in this scene include the background grand symphonic music full of seriousness and nobility, the dark and solemn color tone of the frame, and the long shot showing distance. These acoustic and visual expressions signal national nobility and dignity in this specific situation.
Another plot repeatedly mentioned by viewers involves Shi's retirement from the army. When Shi retires from the army, he suddenly loses himself. In Hai's words, "After he (Shi) takes off his military cap, he locks himself up in the room without eating and drinking and refuses to talk to anybody." (#15: 23). When Jing finally persuades Shi to open the door, he is found sitting in front of a large Chinese territory map hanging on the
wall and smoking. This time he wears the Chinese army uniform with shoulder boards
embroidered with gold stars and wreathes and with all his insignia down the front. Jing
brings him samshu^^ and invites him to drink together. This is a scene without much
verbal exchange between characters. As Shi suffers from bouts of lethargy and depression
caused by retirement, the situation is not at all conducive to a warm conversation between
father and daughter. Therefore, the meaning-making process largely depends on
nonverbal cues of the character. When Shi raises the enamel wine cup, he begins to wail
loudly and tremble. Then he drains the cup and utters: "For the military man" (#15: 29).
The viewer Squash regarded this scene as one of the most touching in the drama:
When LaoShi retires from the army and bursts out crying with Jing, I was deeply
moved. What touched me is the deep feelings and love he holds for the army and the
22 . Chinese liquor distilled from rice.
54 country. When he leaves the army, he just looks like a child who leaves his home.
The metaphorical expression is an important indicator of an interviewee's discursive construction of social reality (Schnzfder et al., 2003). In his narration, Squash used a metaphor by equaling Shi's feelings toward the army and the country to one's love toward the family, which shows Squash's huge acknowledgment of Shi's loyalty. The viewer Xin adopted the same rhetorical strategy:
Do you still remember the scene in which LaoShi retires from the army and drinks
together with Jing? He just looks like a child leaving his own home. As a child would
have strong emotional attachment to its home, in LaoShi' heart, the army is his
home.
The viewer Ning was also greatly impressed by Shi's act of wailing: “When he retires from the army, he cries with grief. This scene is very touching. At that moment I
felt that he is faithful to his country all his life."
Shi's loyalty is a desirable embodiment of the fulfillment of the ethical obligation of
the "ruler to minister" relationship. In Chinese society, a "perfect man" {junzi) in the first
place is the one who shows loyalty to the ruler, the personification of the nation. And
these "perfect men" are regarded as the moral guide of the society. The character Shi
portrayed on screen is such a person who is first faithful to the nation. By doing so, he
practices one of the most important Confucian virtues.
In the "ruler to minister" relationship, both the loyalty in the minister and the
benevolence in the ruler are expected. In relation to the Party/nation, Shi is the "minister"
55 and accordingly his loyalty is emphasized. In the other case, the identity of Shi transforms from the "minister" to the "ruler" and he renders benevolence to his subordinate. During the Cultural Revolution, public meetings were held to criticize and denounce suspected counter-revolutionaries, and Shi's previous underling Wu unfortunately becomes one of the targets. Shi's situation appears relatively safer than Wu.
However, he is still unable to save himself from severe political oppression. He is delegated to a lower level unit and appointed a temporary post. One day, he receives a letter from Wu in which he learns of Wu's difficult situation. He falls into silence for a whole day. At night, he tosses and turns and then gets up to smoke in the living room.
These nonverbal cues show his concerns over Wu. Later when Chu wakes from sleep in the middle of the night, she is unable to find Shi at home. In the following days, Chu makes up different lies to tell Shi's colleagues for fear that Shi's disappearance will instill doubts in higher authorities. This highlights the very unfavorable political climate at that time. At midnight on the third day after Shi's disappearance, a car carrying Shi and Wu surreptitiously drives into the military compound where Shi lives. In the drama, Shi lives in northeastern China, whereas Wu lives in Sichuan province in southwestern China, so
Shi has made a significant effort to meet Wu. Most viewers commented that Shi's deed of sheltering Wu is admirable, particularly when taking into account the specifics of the pessimistic social milieu. For instance, the viewer Yong said:
I was especially moved by the scene in which Wu is persecuted and Shi tries to
protect him. Under that circumstance, usually people would feel to have no time in
56 which to avoid unnecessary risks! However, he (Shi) could walk that far just for one
of his underlings and bring him home!
It was almost the same feeling that moved the viewer Niiig to admire both Shi and
Chu's benevolence in this scene:
In spite of the fact that it may get himself involved, LaoShi still brings Wu home by
himself. Chu is also tolerant enough and doesn't say anything about it. Both
LaoShi and Chu care much about Wu. I felt that they are all very kind people. 1
admire their courage of sharing hardship together.
The viewer Ming's interpretation directly addressed the Confucian tenet and began with a quotation from The Analects:
Confucius says that benevolent men will posses courage but brave men are not
necessarily benevolent. Shi is benevolent and therefore he is courageous. He dares to
bring Wu home during the Cultural Revolution. This action is motivated by his
great benevolence and this great benevolence gives him great courage.
Father to Son: The Filial Piety
In the Confucian "father to son" relationship, the filial piety in the son is stressed,
and this is considered as the first virtue in Confucianism. In The Analects, Confucius
regarded filial piety {xiaoti) as the starting point of practicing ren (Chih, 1981; Chong,
2007). To exercise filial piety is to "respect, love and care for one's parents and elders"
(Chih, 1981, p. 349). There are two pairs of "father to son" relationships in the drama: the
relationship between Shi and his father-in-law and the relationship between Shi and his
57 son Lin.
The relationship between Shi and his father-in-law. Being orphaned at eight years old and lacking parents to love, Shi treats his father and mother in-law as his own parents. As the viewer Dai put it, "He (Shi) loses his parents at an early age, so in his heart he has regarded Chu's parents as his own." When the viewers addressed Shi's filial piety, they continuously made references to the scene in which Shi takes care of his dying father-in-law (henceforth FL). In episode 8, Chu's father is sent to hospital for a heart problem. In the hospital, Shi persuades Chu and his children to go home first and he stays behind attending FL. A conversation between Shi and FL ensues.
Extract 1: "My son-in-law is even better than my own son."
In Those Passionate Days, #08: 21
1 FL: I have a charmed life. My son-in-law is even better than my own son. He
2 serves me when I am alive and can give me a proper burial after my death.
3 How can I demand more?
4 Shi: Pa, pa, let me feed you some porridge. It was made by Chu Qin and tastes
5 nice. Pa, lie down and have some porridge, {{feeds FL spoon by spoon
carefully, smoothes the bed sheet at whiles to make FL feel more
7 comfortable, wipes the lips for FL, and looks at him quietly after several
8 spoons))
9 FL: {{his lips slightly move and murmurs in a feeble voice)) Gu Ye.^^
It means "son-in-law" in Chinese.
58 0 Shi: {{bends over and answers in an equally low voice)) Uh, pa, what are you
1 looking for?
2 FL: Bring me some water and wipe my hands.
3 Shi: Ok, ok, wait, wait, {{walks to the basin to wet the towel, wipes FL's
4 hands hack and forth, and then goes to the end of the bed and begins to
5 wipe and rub FL's foot to keep him warm)) Let me rub your foot.
6 Foot-rubbing must work. During the war years, when we felt
7 uncomfortable in the army, we just rubbed our feet. It indeed worked.
8 FL: Gu Ye, don't waste your time.
9 Shi: {{continues rubbing))
20 FL: ((m a serene smile)) Your mother and I have things to eat and drink in our
21 old age. It all relies on you.
22 Shi: Pa, don't say so. Your words make me feel not quite well.
23 FL: When your mother was dying, I was besides you. I watched all you did.
24 Really, even my own son is unable to finish all those things. That people
25 die is just like the light goes out. 1 entrust Chu Qin to your care. If you can
26 lead a happy life, your mother and I will then feel at ease after death.
27 spoiled Qin from her childhood. Now though she is already the mother
28 of three kids, she is still not sensible enough. Gu Ye, you try to take on
29 more responsibilities for her, ok?
59 30 ShiShi : {{walks hack to the head of the bed and seems lost in thoughts)) Pa...
31 FL: Gu Ye, I wanna smoke a pipe.
32 ShShii : {{his brows go up in surprise and he wishes to speak hut not to do so on a
33 second thought)) The tobacco, I bring it with me. I roll it up for you. I roll
34 it up for you. Pa, I roll it up for you. Smoking...((m'/?//^ he is rolling the
35 cigarette, his voice starts trembling, and his face hvitches. Later, he sobs
36 out))
When Shi finishes rolling the cigarette, lights it, and places it on PL's lip, he finds FL doesn't response. He throws the cigarette away, loses composure, and then shouts for the doctor. The doctor comes in, confirms his father's death, and leaves. Shi stands for a while and suddenly looks up and cries out. Later, he holds PL's body and starts howling.
This scene has left a lasting impression on most of the viewers participating in this
study. The viewer Tao easily offered a detailed description of this scene:
The scene in which Shi's father-in-law is dangerously ill is very touching. Chu
accompanies his father for a while. Shi asks her to go home and have a rest and he
himself stays behind tending his father-in-law all night long. Later, before his
father-in-law's death, urn, that is probably what we call a "lightning before the
death," he seems perfectly sober and asks for a smoke. Shi rolls up the cigarette for
his father-in-law, lights it, and sends it to his father-in-law's lip. His father-in-law
has a heart-to-heart talk with Shi. He (FL) says a lot of things with emotion. I can't
remember all of them, but generally he says that Shi is as filial as his own son and
60 this makes him feel very satisfied. Through this scene, I see a filial Shi Guangrong.
Those details on screen look more impressive. What I describe is not as vivid as they
are.
Indeed, as Tao made clear in the end of her narration, this scene is filled with meaningful cues that help conjure up Shi's filial piety. In this sequence, FL casts his mind back to his whole life with great satisfaction by saying “I have a charmed life" (line 1).
He continues elaborating about this satisfaction (lines 1 & 2). During this process, he reveals his presage about his coming death (line 2). However, by using a rhetorical question "how can I demand more?" (line 3), he seems to have no fear about imminent death. After FL finishes speaking, Shi as the recipient does not address his speech. This is in fact an intended refusal to talk about the fact that FL is dying. Instead, he starts feeding
FL (see Figure 2 in Appendix C) to keep him alive (lines 4-8). The spoon feeding is an inference-rich nonverbal act of communication in this scene. Spoon-feeding usually refers to the act of feeding someone (as a baby) from a spoon. However, in this situation, spoon feeding is the regurgitation of the young to the old. In Chinese culture, regurgitation of the young is regarded as an act specific to filial piety. Reverently rubbing
PL's hands and feet is another effort made by Shi to keep FL alive (lines 13-17). This is another meaningful nonverbal act of communication in this scene that carries the same connotation as spoon feeding. This is also Shi's second intended refusal to face the coming death of FL. FL persuades him to stop doing so (line 18) but Shi continues (line
19). PL's facial expression shows that he enjoys Shi's care (line 20). Later, FL mentions
61 Shi's filial deeds again (lines 20 & 21). This can be seen as a direct response to Shi's prior acts, like spoon feeding and foot rubbing. Shi does not offer an acknowledgment
(line 22), and this implies that Shi's caring about his father and mother-in-law is what he should do. FL goes onto display his appreciation (lines 23 & 24). He mentions the scenario of his wife's death but does not offer specific details (in fact the death of Shi's mother-in-law does not appear throughout the drama). Instead, FL uses the extreme case formulation "all" (line 23) indicating that Shi has done everything he should do. After that, FL compares Shi with his own son^"^ (line 24). This is a reused comparison (see line
1). The comparison in itself is already a convincing exhibition of Shi's filial piety. The replication provides a double dose. Furthermore, the formulation "really" (line 24) and
"even" (line 24) highlight PL's appreciation toward Shi's filial piety. The viewer Le stated:
"He (Shi) treats his father and mother-in-law as his own parents and everyone can feel his true respect and love for them." There is not only one action being performed within this turn (lines 23-29). After displaying his appreciation, FL mentions his imminent death again (line 25). Knowing that he would not live long, FL makes clear to Shi his last will
(lines 25-29). Shi's response is somewhat ambiguous at this point (line 30). In contrast to his previous intended refusals to confront PL's possible death and his previous attempts to keep FL alive, he does nothing this time. It means that he has come to terms with this bitter truth. Therefore when FL raises a somewhat unreasonable request of smoking a pipe (line 31), Shi, although hesitating, agrees in the end (lines 32 & 33). He realizes that
FL does not have sons in real life.
62 it will probably be his last opportunity to serve his father-in-law. The way in which Shi decides on agreement is particularly noteworthy. He repeats "I roll it up for you" (lines 33
& 34) three times. This apparently goes beyond the range of sheer expression of agreement. It implies more an incoherent speech driven by a seemingly intense emotional instability. This impression is enhanced by Shi's trembling voice, twitching face, and his sobs (lines 35 & 36). Later, his nonverbal communication of holding PL's body and howling implies greater and more unmanageable sorrow. Facing this scene, the viewer
Squash said:
When LaoShi is rolling the cigarette his hands are shaking and when he finds his
father-in-law passes away he is howling. A man who would rather shed blood in the
battlefield is crying at that moment. I think he gives the first tear in his life to his
father-in-law. The filial piety is demonstrated so thoroughly in him.
Compared with his Maoist counterparts who completely gave themselves to the battlefield, to the socialist construction, and to the Maoist ideology, Shi enacts the
Confucian virtue of filial piety. In the Maoist era, filial piety as a virtue was reserved for the interests of the Party/nation, and the Communists aimed to shift the loyalty toward the family to the Party/nation (Solomon, 1965). Now, seemingly, the Communist Party discerns an intimate link between loyalty to the country and filial piety to the parents, which were long considered as potentially conflicting: ones' filial piety toward parents can serve as a model to ones' loyalty to country (Chih, 1981). After all, how can a person who is cold to his families show loyalty to his country wholeheartedly? The viewer
63 Ming's observation was pertinent in this regard:
The emotional attachment to the family is universally shared by the whole
humankind and even the biological world. In many Western movies, for instance,
The Rock, Face Ofj\ and A History of Violence, no matter what noble enterprises the
central characters undertake, their motivations always come from the family.
The relationship between Shi and his son Lin. The discourse of filial piety is constructed not only between FL and Shi but also between Shi and Lin. In the latter relationship, Shi's identity is transformed from a son to a father and Lin takes on the role of a son. In this relationship, the construction of filial piety appears more complicated.
One of the dramatic conflicts in this story is generated over the issue of Lin's life choice: joining the army or attending college. On the first day of the National College Entrance
Examination, Chu tries to help Lin sneak out of the house to attend the examination but is stopped by Shi. This leads up to a family dispute between Shi and Chu/Lin. Shi shouts at
Lin: "If you dare to step out, do not call me 'father' any more!" (#10: 25), indicating that
Lin's refusal to join the army is a challenge to fatherly authority and in defiance of the virtue of filial piety. Therefore, for Lin, this is a conflict between filial obedience and individual fulfillment. Although Lin eventually concedes to his father's will, a rift between father and son emerges. To Confucius, a filial son should in the first place understand his parents and follow the wishes of his parents (Cliih, 1981). However, Lin's petty ill feelings towards Shi reveal his rebellious sentiments. At this moment, the discourse of filial piety seems to be tarnished. Starting from episode 11, no direct
64 confrontation between Shi and Lin is depicted on screen. However, as the story goes on, it moves into the phase of resolution: keeping the disruption or regaining stability? In the story, the reconciliation of the conflict between Shi and Lin is achieved through Lin's increasing awareness of the importance of filial obedience. Again set in the hospital; however, this time, the one lying in the sickbed is Shi instead of FL. The scene starts with
Lin's asking for forgiveness: "Pa, for all these years I was hoping that you could call me home. But you didn't. I thought you would never forgive me" (#22: 15). This is not only an action of seeking forgiveness but also an action of acknowledging his mistakes. Lin goes on confessing to Shi: "Pa, after I myself become a father, I come to know that all you did is for my sake. But when 1 know all these, you are getting old" (#22: 16). This can be regarded as Lin's elaboration on his mistake; he blames himself for not understanding his father and missing the chance of taking care of him. When Lin is preparing the family reunion dinner in the kitchen, he tells Jing and Hai: "Father is actually like a big book. How many sons and daughters truly understand this book? Only after we grow up and reopen this book, we learn to know what a father is" (#22: 25).
Understanding parents is the starting point of exercising filial piety. Having understood his father, Lin immediately assumes filial obligations.
The "ideological operation" (Ma, 2001, p. 147) of the text achieved consonance in the reception level. Instead of presenting an oppositional reading that regarded Shi's asking Lin to join the army as suppression of individualistic values and considered Shi as arbitrary and tyrannical, the viewers participating in this study incorporated the
65 Confucian value of filial piety into the reading. When doing so, most viewers were able to incorporate their personal experiences with the stories on screen.
The viewer Jing stated:
I know that if I were Shi Guangrong, I would not force Lin to join the army. But he
does. Is there anything wrong? Lin is his son! What he does is good for him! Shi
wants Lin to continue his way of life. He wants Lin to become a useful person. He in
fact loves Lin most among the three children.
To begin with, Jing used a rhetorical question "Is there anything wrong?," which shows that he regarded Shi's act as correct. This position was validated first by his identification with the unquestionable fatherly authority over the son in the family ("Lin is his son" with an emphasis tone) and second by his interpretation of Shi's act as an expression of fatherly love. This pro-Shi sentiment was common and conspicuous throughout the audience discourse. Many of the viewers participating in this study made the judgment that Shi's act was an expression of fatherly love. Although the viewers were presumably conscious of Shi's arbitrariness in this matter, they drew on a variety of rhetorical strategies to convince the listener and probably also themselves that Shi in fact loves Lin very much. The following extracts are presented to illustrate this point:
It's just because sometimes his ways of expressing affection are a little unacceptable
to others. He thinks that joining the army is the best choice and doesn't consider
Lin's feelings. This is dogmatic. But in fact he loves Lin very much. (Zhong)
He (Shi) loves Lin very much in fact. It is just because his love is deep and it is
66 difficult for him a military man to express it. (Ning)
Uh, well, in fact I think most of the time it is because he (Shi) is not good at
expressing his love and his ideas to others. (...) In the case of Lin, in fact he cares
about his son very much. (Tao)
Shi is a father who puts his love to Lin at the bottom of his heart. He doesn't express
it, and probably he doesn't even know how to express it. The relationship between
father and son is always like this. It is always difficult for the father to express the
love to son with ease. (Le)
Some viewers tended to make a comparison between the nature of fatherly love and motherly love in order to naturalize the former. Some examples:
Both fatherly love and motherly love are holy. But they have different modes of
expression. The motherly love is thorough, whereas the fatherly love is deep. Shi's
love to Lin is a very typical fatherly love. (Jiu)
The fatherly love is like a mountain. The mountain is hard and steady, on which
people can rely. However it is not as tender and gentle as motherly love. (Ming)
Viewers' identification with fatherly love consequently led to the agenda of understanding the father, the starting point of practicing filial piety. The viewer Xin said that he in fact liked the character Lin most because Lin shows understanding toward his father in the end. And Lin's metaphorical expression that likens father to a book was repeatedly cited by the viewers. Some examples:
When Shi falls sick, Lin hurries to the hospital. I think this is the most touching
67 scene. Every time I watch this scene, I will cry. How many young children really
understand the father? I think only when we become parents by ourselves can we
really understand. (Bai)
Father is really like a book. Only when we grow up and become parents by ourselves
can we truly understand our parents. (Xin)
Shi Lin says that father is like a book. It is true. (Le)
The notion of filial piety never encourages blind submission and sacrifice on the part of children. Understanding parents' intention and following it accordingly are the desired and admired deeds (Cliih, 1981). Therefore, understanding is the foundation for one to truly respect and love one's parents. By identifying with fatherly love and assigning importance to understanding the father, viewers participating in this study mobilized the value of filial piety to viewing.
The notion of filial piety was given sufficient prominence when viewers voiced a comparison between the individualistic orientation of independence and the collectivistic notion of obedience. The viewer Jiu's view illustrated such an instance:
I know that we Chinese have a much stronger notion of family and filial obligations
than Westerners. Though probably someone is not doing quite well, they still turn out
to be much better than Westerners of strong consciousness of independence.
The use of the pronoun "we" indicates a clear in-group/out-group distinction. There is literature about the use of personal pronouns and its role in the construction of social identities and social relations (Koller & Mautner, 2004). Viewers' use of personal
68 pronouns was not the focus of attention when the interview data were analyzed. However, it can be seen here that the pronoun "we" was used to highlight how Chinese differ from
Westerners and to contruct the speaker's identity as Chinese.
Xin was one of the viewers who articulated the Confucian implication of the Shi-Lin conflict:
I think we are all raised up in a patriarchal family. In this kind of family, father has
absolute authority and children should obey the father. This sort of centralization of
authority is also the ruling idea of all the dynasties in Chinese history, as well as the
work units {danwei) and the companies nowadays. This is a very Confucian view of
family and the state.
When being asked about the reasonableness of this family-state model, Xin commented that whether or nor it is sound depends on the effectiveness of the model:
If it is good for people, it can be said to be sound. I think, if those in power are able
to gain benefits for the people, the advantage of the centralization of authority still
outweighs its disadvantage. In Shi's family, though Shi forces Lin to do something he
dislikes, Shi in fact brings him to a good direction and the outcome turns out to be
very pleasant.
Xin's narrative involved not only his identification with the mode of patriarchal family but also his evaluation of this mode. His positive appraisal toward the patriarchal family, which largely operates around the notion of filial piety, apparently justified and probably reinforced his recognition of this mode.
69 That the viewers participating in this study incorporated the value of filial piety into the reading shows that the text does not exert its power on its own. The viewers have learned and practiced filial piety for a long time. For instance, the viewer Jiu said: "I understand my parents and I also know the importance of being filial to my parents before I watch this drama, otherwise I will not be able to make sense of the drama."
The value of filial piety is in the first place maintained by the practices of everyday life of the viewers. The viewer Bai's story can be illustrative:
I never use an alarm in the morning. It is always my father who wakes me up. Even
though have graduated and started working now, my father still takes good care of
me. He will do something especially for me. Just like a moment ago, 1 would like to
have soup but my mother didn't prepare it. My father went out and bought it for me.
In fact we are all good children. Many people think that the 1980s generation is
arrogant and has no sense of responsibility, but 1 always feel that I am not like what
they have described. When my parents don't pay attention to their health, I will be
more worried than them. I really care about my parents more than myself most of the
time.
Her narrative intertwined both her father's love toward her and her understanding and love toward her parents. This mutual benevolence is not established in a single day.
Instead, it is formed, delivered, and accomplished through everyday life practices.
Second, the viewers' sense of filial obligation can also be said to be a deeply ingrained sense instilled by their parents. For instance, the viewer Jing recalled: ‘‘Ever
70 since 1 was a child, my mother has taught me lo be a filial person and told me what a filial person should and should not do." The viewer Zhong also said: "Our parents were taught by their parents and they again teach us this way. (...) I am always doing so, so it is hard to tell if this drama has made big impacts on me. I would rather call it resonance.“
However, the drama can be said to at least reinforce the value of filial piety. The viewer Ning stated:
After watching this drama, I feel that being a parent can be hard work. Our parents
have had a hard life and it's time they eased off a bit. We should learn to take care of
them. When people are getting old, they will feel lonely. We should try to understand
their heart. (...) This drama makes me understand my father more. 1 am not as willful
as I used to be. Now I am learning to understand him. I think 1 am becoming more
considerate now. 1 will often put myself in my father's shoes. Now when my father
scolds me, I will not talk back to him. I know that all they are doing is good for me
but just in an inappropriate way.
Xin had the same feeling:
After this drama, feel I understand my father more. I am not as stubborn as I
used to be. Now I think of him more. I now look at myself more from his perspective.
When we grow up, our parents turn out to be old. I think we should try to accomplish
what they haven't accomplished. We don't have the chance to accompany the first
half of their life, but we are able to accompany them for the second half.
71 The viewer Shu recalled that during his rebellious high school years, he did not really understand his parents' good intention and expectation holding toward him. This drama enabled him to deeply understand his parents and the efforts they made for him:
Now I know that what they have done is all for me. They wish to turn iron into steel.
Now I know this. Now they advise me to take the Graduate Entrance Examination. I
will do so and I have already been preparing for it. I will try hard to do something to
bring them a good name. At least, I will let my parents know that I am trying.
The term "understanding" also cropped up in the cases of other viewers. For instance, the viewer Bai said: "Understanding is a process. After this drama, I feel I understand my father more." Likewise, the viewers Cai told: "This drama makes me understand my father more. The more I grow up, the more I come to understand the drama. And the more
I understand the drama, the more understand my father."
That the drama reinforced viewers' sense of filial piety became more conspicuous in the medical student Le's story. After the National College Entrance Examination, Le and his father could not reconcile their differences with regard to a major selection: “1 lay awake all night long. In the end I listened to my father because I felt it would be cruel to hurt his feelings. But I really don't like medicine, so sometimes I felt that my parents owed me something." Le's story was almost a less dramatic version of the Shi-Lin story.
His experience counters to Weber's (2002) observation that “they (the young) are less likely to continue to defer to parents wishes when their personal desires remain unfulfilled" (p. 356). Just as Lin was angry with Shi in the beginning, sometimes Le also
72 felt that his parents owed him something. However, this sentiment was immediately denied as an absurd idea in Le's narrative:
After watching this drama, I begin to examine my relationship with my parents. It is
absurd for me to claim that my parents owe me something. They owe me nothing. 1
think it is time for me to be considerate of them. I can't always consider my own
feelings. Parents are getting old very soon and 1 have no rights to only think about
my own interests. So now I tell them I have become interested in medicine very
much, though in fact I still don't like it. Now when I call home I no longer talk to
them in loud voice, though at times even I repeat two or three times they still can't
understand what am saying.
Le's understanding of his parents, pleasing his parents by pretending to have a growing interest in medicine, and talking to them softly and patiently showed his identification with the tradition of sacrifice for the family, especially the parents, in preference to one's independence and personal interests.
As discussed above, on one hand, the viewers participating in this study incorporated the value of filial piety that they had learned and practiced for a long time into reading.
On the other hand, the viewing of the drama reinforced the value of filial piety. Therefore, as Hermes (1995) observed, it is very difficult to take this separation theoretically: does the belief in certain cultural values lead to a specific way of viewing or does the way of viewing reinforce the construction of the cultural values held important by people?
Probably the two work simultaneously and it is almost impossible to separate them
73 (Hermes, 1995). In this regard, television viewing can only be regarded as what Saenz
(1992) termed "generative symbolic practice" (p. 38). It provides an occasion for the viewers to revisit their social knowledge and beliefs and this process in turn enables them to interpret, reconstruct, and reinforce these social knowledge and beliefs. Just as the viewer Xin put it, "To watch TV drama is to learn other people's stories and then reflect on ourselves. At times I feel that things done by the characters on screen are just what 1 should do in the real life." However, these social knowledge and beliefs the viewers resort to are not obtained from television viewing. TV drama itself acts merely as
"material used in making meaning and action" instead of as "strict cause of social life"
(Saenz, 1992, p. 37).
Furthermore, my study shows that the participants in this study tended to rely on
Confucian values to produce meanings. There is evidence to suggest thai the viewers of this drama participating in this study are not as “uninterested in grand ideologies and moralities" (Zhao, 1998, p. 54) as some scholars have observed. As the viewer Bai put it,
"many people think that the 1980s generation is arrogant and has no sense of responsibility, but 1 always feel that I am not like what they have described." This statement is interpreted to include two arguments. First, this feeling generated from a
member of the 1980s generation indicates that it is a common trend to depict the 1980s
generation as lacking a sense of responsibility and filial obligation. Second, the “1 always
feel that 1 am not like what they have described" offers a counterargument to the ongoing
stereotypical impression imposed on the viewer as a member of the 1980s generation.
74 However, Bai did not generalize. By using the personal pronoun 'i" instead of alternative options like "we" or “the 1980s generation," she argued for herself instead of the whole group. Some scholars have described the 1980s generation in China as “spoilt, self-centered, willful, extravagant, and sometimes 'despotic'" (Zhao, 1996, p. 642).
However, experiences of young people participating in this study show that these scholarly observations may have been overgeneralized.
Human Emotion: Qing
The theme of benevolence ( )is closely associated with the theme of qing. Qing in
Confucianism means human emotion (Ng, 1998). To Confucius, a sound emotional life constitutes an indispensable part of everyday living (Ng, 1998). Furthermore, Confucius suggested that emotion is the natural expression of supreme morality: "Only those who are endowed with ren can love or hate others" (as cited in Ng, 1998, p. 173). Therefore, emotion shares an unbreakable relationship with benevolence {ren): the good nature of humans can give rise to human emotions. Therefore, emotion can be regarded as “a transcendent expressive quality of humaneness" (Ng, 1998, p. 183). As discussed earlier, the benevolence {ren) means “to love man" (Yu, 1998, p. 324) and the realization of benevolence mainly depends on the five basic human relationships: ruler to minister, father to son, husband to wife, elder brother to younger brother, friend to friend.
Therefore, the attainment of mutual benevolence between husband and wife forms the qing between husband and wife, which is the conjugal love (Chih, 1981). Similarly, the attainment of mutual benevolence between elder brother and younger brother forms the
75 qing between brothers, which is "fraternal love" (Chih, 1981, p. 361). The attainment of mutual benevolence between friend and friend forms the qing between friends, the
"friendship" (Chih, 1981, p. 382).
Almost all of the viewers participating in this study agreed that the qing constructed
in the drama is rich and inspiring. The wide acceptance of this theme across the audience discourse is presented in the following extracts:
This drama is my favorite. It is really very touching. It uses different ways to show
the qing belonging to that era. That is very touching. (Bai)
I find the qing in this drama very touching, including the qing between that old
couple,25 between LaoShi and Lin, and many others. (Ming)
Among all the classical dramas I ever watched, the qing conveyed in this drama is
the most touching. Shi's qing towards the army, towards the villagers who brought
him up, the qing between Shi and Chu, the qing between Shi and Wu, the qing
between Shi and Lin, and the qing between Shi and Hu,^^ and so on. All are
touching. Because of these qings, 1 can feel the sincerity of all the people in the
drama. (Li)
I feel this drama has very detailed and touching description of the qing between
father and son, father and daughter, mother and son, mother and daughter, and
husband and wife. To tell you the truth, for many times I was just unable to control
It refers to Shi and Chu. Hu is Shi's best friend in the drama.
76 myself and wept out when 1 was watching this drama. (Jiu)
The qing between Shi and Chu, between father and son, mother and son, between
the friends...all are particularly touching. Compared with those Korean dramas and
the youth idol dramas, the qing portrayed in this drama is more touching. It makes
people feel the beauty of life. I think we need to seek neither great stormy
excitement nor a solemn pledge of eternal love. Only these simple and true qings
are enough. They are just like the dishes Shi Guangrong favors: four taels of samshu
and stewed chicken with mushroom. They are not as luxury as a sumptuous feast,
but they own a faint scent. (Cai)
The most important thing is thai there is qing among all the characters in this drama.
It shows us the sincere friendship, the loyal love between lovers, one's faithfulness
towards the country, the family love, etc. (...) I feel the qing portrayed in this drama
is the most eternal and greatest. (Ning)
The most obvious characteristic of the lexical choice in the above extracts is the repetition of the noun “c/ing”, which shows viewers' identification with the qing depicted on screen. It can also be seen from the above extracts thai the different types of qing mentioned by viewers by and large grew out the five relationships. When the viewers elaborated on the theme of benevolence, they made the most frequent references to the relationships of "ruler to minister" and "father to son." However, with the theme of ^mg, the relationships of "husband to wife," "elder brother to younger brother,and “friend
“"Brother" means "sibling" here, so the relationship of "brother to sister" is also included in this.
77 to friend" were most frequently referred to by viewers and therefore conjugal love, fraternal love, and friendship were the most addressed. In the following section, I will discuss these three Confucian qings. Fraternal love and friendship are less portrayed than other relationships in the textual level and they are accordingly less conspicuous in the audience discourse.
Husband to Wife: The Conjugal Love
The binary opposition of Shi and Chu is one of the most dramatic elements in the beginning of the story. The binary opposition here is only seen as the working of the identity politics of difference instead of as deep structural meaning (Ma, 1999). The viewers were aware of the differences between Shi and Chu. For instance, the viewer Hua said: "In the very beginning, there is a wide gap between Shi and Chu in terms of family background and they don't share much common language." The viewer Ming put it more concretely: "Chu shows interests to things which appeal to highbrows only and has a petite bourgeoisie taste. Shi is totally different. He treats Chu's interests with contempt."
In the drama, Chu often frowns on Shi's indecent table manners: a ravenous appetite and a horrible slurpy chewing noise. Shi argues that people with no experience of war and starvation are unable to recognize the pleasure of eating. Chu has a ruthless attention to hygiene; she has to mop the floor at least once a day, and Shi cannot understand it: 'This floor is so clean. Why do you mop it?" (#07: 16). Shi is not used to brushing his teeth before going to bed and washing his hands before dinner, and Chu cannot tolerate this.
Chu has some bourgeois tastes, including dancing and reading. She is in the habit of
78 reading the Chinese classic novel Dream of the Red Chamber before going to bed; however, in Shi's eyes, these literary works are all sentimental twaddle. He thinks that the writers of these works lead a materially comfortable life and are blind to the suffering of the starving people. The opposition between Shi and Chu is visibly shown in the following point made by Shi when he confides to his best friend Hu: "Sometimes she criticizes me for not brushing my teeth, sometimes for my bad table manners, and sometimes blames me for not appreciating the moon with her. Is it interesting to appreciate the moon? 1 said it would be better to appreciate a baked cake. A cake can allay the hunger, what can the moon do?" (#05: 03).
Having introducing the differences between Shi and Chu at the beginning of the story, the drama uses the remaining time to follow the process in which Shi and Chu constantly negotiate to establish a firm conjugal love. This "ideological operation" (Ma, 2001, p.
147) of the text turns out to be discernible by how the viewers perceive it; instead of questioning the legitimacy of the arranged marriage, viewers claimed they were deeply impressed by the love between Shi and Chu:
It seems that the marriage between Shi and Chu is the one without love. From the
very beginning, we can only see the somewhat arbitrary love of Shi towards Chu, but
we can't tell whether or not Chu loves Shi. At times I feel she does not care for Shi at
all. It seems that she just acts under the orders of the Party to live with LaoShi.
However, when Shi prepares to attend the Korean War, Chu asks how many scars
does he bear and Shi says eighteen. Chu then tells Shi almost in a peremptory tone
79 that if he dares to return with one more scare she will never forgive him. This scene
makes me realize that Chu actually loves Shi and her love is very deep indeed.(...)
This scene makes me deeply feel the love existing between Shi and Chu. (Tao)
The scene recalled by Tao also cropped up in the narrative of the viewer Yong:
"When Shi is going to fight the Korean War, what Chu says to Shi after she knows that he bears eighteen scars of war makes me feel the love between them."
Another scene the viewers considered affection-loaded happens when Shi becomes ill and lies in his sickbed in the last episode. The viewer Ning stated:
Though the marriage between Chu and LaoShi is somewhat arranged, it appears to
be very perfect. In the last episode, in the operation room, Chu tells LaoShi that they
have undergone hardship all their life and she hopes them never to be separated. This
kind of qing is too rare. And in the last scene of this drama, LaoShi tells Chu that if
there is an afterlife he will still wait for her at where they first met. This remark is the
most touching one. Though their marriage is arranged but it appears to be perfect.
The viewer Shu offered a similar interpretation:
One of the most touching scenes for me is in the last episode in which Shi lies in the
sickbed and Chu accompanies him. The love between them moves me deeply. Uh,
though they quarrel with each other throughout the life, they in fact dearly love each
other at heart. This love is not revealed in a conspicuous way in normal times.
However, at that moment, it breaks out.
The story between Shi and Lin begins with an awkwardly arranged marriage and
80 ends with a strong emotional bond. The forty years Shi and Chu spend together are filled with extensive efforts to make this transformation possible. With a sense of attachment and harmony developing in this couple, the viewers not only discerned a steadily growing love between Shi and Chu but also tended to believe that the love established between them is love of the most steadfast type—"love me little, love me long". For instance, the viewer Cai said: "The love between Shi and Chu accumulates over time and undergoes sunshine, wind, and rain. This love should be the firmest. It can go deeper and richer as time goes by." The viewer Yoiig also admired the lifelong love between Shi and Chu:
"Though they never dated each other before getting married, they remain loyal to each other till their dying day. Though they often quarrel with each other, I never believe they will really break up." Yong found fickle love unpalatable and expected a love lasting to the end of time: “People around me, my friends and my classmates, go from getting together to breaking up and again together. I feel this repeated on-and-off relationship is not worth talking about. I will find myself a lifelong companion!" The viewer Ning also characterized the love between Shi and Chu as a steadfast one:
After such a long time, this couple remains faithful to each other. This type of love is
the most beautiful. 1 think the Chinese traditional view on love is good. Nowadays
many people are slatternly in a relationship. (...) 1 think one should remain faithful to
its lovers and assume the responsibility it is supposed to assume in a relationship.
The viewers' belief in faithful and lifelong love indicates a Chinese traditional love value, as the Confucian view of the relationship between husband and wife does not
81 emphasize passionate and romantic love (Chih, 1981). Therefore, in this study, viewers' interpretations of the "husband to wife" relationship in the drama were contrary to the expectation that the 1980s generation viewers may favor spontaneous and intense passion.
Elder Brother to Younger Brother: The Fraternal Love
In addressing fraternal love, viewers repeatedly recalled a scene involving little Lin and his younger sister Jing. Lin once leads his neighboring peers to drive away with a truck owned by the logistic department of the army and runs away from home. In the evening, he hides himself in a cement pipe. The following dialogue ensues when Jing goes out to look for his elder brother.
Extract 2: "You are the elder brother. Of course you should carry me."
In Those Passionate Days, #07: 30
1 Jing: {{holds some clothes and food and looks for his brother in a pile of cement
2 pipes)) Brother, brother, brother, brother, brother, brother...
3 Lin: {{leans out of one cement pipe in the second layer)) Hey, I am here. Come
4 here.
5 Jing: {{happily runs towards Lin)) Brother.
6 Lin: {{jumps down)) How do you know I am here?
7 Jing: Because once you brought me here playing.
8 Lin: Anything to eat?
82 9 Jing: {{gives the jacket and the food to him)) Here.
0 Lin: {{puts the jacket on and starts devouring the food))
1 Jing: You must not return home. Dad was so angry that he broke the cups. If he
2 catches you, you will get a sound spanking.
3 Lin: How is mom?
4 Jing: She was quarrelling with dad at home.
5 Lin: Then you go home.
6 Jing: No, 1 won't. They are quarreling at home. Nobody will look after me. I
7 won't go home.
8 Lin: Then come up. {{carries Jing in his arms and puts her in the cement pipe))
Cold?
20 Jing: Urn. Cold.
21 Lin: {{takes off' his jacket and dresses Jing))
22 Jing: Brother, what shall we do tomorrow?
23 Lin: I have considered this problem. Go to find Uncle Wu and join the army.
24 Jing: I wanna go too.
25 Lin: What can you do? If a war is on, you still need me to carry you.
26 Jing: 1 don't need you to carry me.
27 Lin: That's what you say. Everytime we go out, you say the same thing. But in
28 the end, who carries you home? Me!
83 29 Jing: You are the elder brother. Of course you should carry me.
The viewers found the fraternal love portrayed in this scene touching:
The scene in which Lin and .ling decide to run away from home touches me a lot.
The night when they are running away looks pretty cold. Though Lin is still a kid, he
knows to look after his younger sister. Jing is even younger than Lin, but she knows
to bring her brother clothes and food when she goes out to look for him. You can see
that very few of today's children can take care of others. They are all extremely
self-centered. (Yong)
Likewise, the viewer Hua maintained:
When Jing is looking for her elder brother, she brings him clothes and food. Even
such a little kid knows to worry about her elder brother. Though Lin often makes fun
of Jing, he still takes good care of Jing at that time. When Jing is going to fall asleep,
he holds Jing tight in his arms for fear that she may catch cold. It is very touching!
Indeed, a strong feeling of brotherhood is invoked in this scene. On one hand, Jing shows sufficient concern over her elder brother. She dares to go out to look for Lin at night by herself. She knows the place where Lin will hide, which shows that Jing knows her brother well (line 7). She thinks that Lin might be cold and hungry in the evening; therefore she brings Lin's jacket and food with her. Lin's asking for food (line 8) as soon as he sees Jing shows his familiarity with Jing's thinking about his needs. Then Lin starts devouring the food without any expression of appreciation (line 10). Lin's conduct can be seen as a bid for defining their relationship, which is the relationship between brother and
84 sister. It is desirable for Jing to be considerate of Lin, and Lin does not need to have her consideration appreciated. In Chinese culture, this type of brotherhood characterized by an unconditional love is cultivated and nurtured in everyday life as siblings live and play together, eating the same food, and sleeping in the same room (Chih, 1981). Jing also worries about Lin being scolded by their father, so she persuades Lin not to go home
(lines 11 & 12). Although this is a somewhat childish suggestion with potential negative consequences, her intention is undeniably benign. On the other hand, in this sequence,
Lin formulates his actions in the most concise and simple manner and in a tough tone
(lines 3, 8, 15, 18, & 19), which helps conjure up an image of Lin with brotherly authority.
Meanwhile, he shows brotherly warmth towards Jing. This brotherly authority and warmth intertwine in Lin's speeches and acts. The imperative sentence "then come up"
(line 18) conveys the authority, whereas the nonverbal communication of carrying Jing in his arms and putting her in the cement pipe (line 18) reveals the warmth. The expression
"cold?" (line 19) indicates the brotherly authority, whereas placing his jacket around Jing
(line 21) shows the brotherly warmth. In lines 27 and 28, Lin implies that he often brings
Jing to play outdoors and everytime he carries Jing home. In this turn, Lin's action is not so much a complaint as an emphasis of his ability and responsibility of being an elder brother. Jing replies by reiterating the traditional social expectations of an elder brother:
responsibility and care (line 29). As both Jing and Lin care about each other, a fraternal
love is initiated in this scene.
Friend to Friend: The Friendship
85 It is common knowledge that true friendship arises from trust, fidelity, and deep
understanding of each other; to Confucius, these are also the desired qualities nourishing
friendship (Chih, 1981). Vogel (1965) suggested that there was a decline of friendliness
and a rise of comradeship in Maoist China. The transformation arose from the fear that
private conversations in a domestic setting would be revealed and brought to the attention of the authority and incur unnecessary troubles and even political persecution (Vogel,
1965). However, it can be seen from the above analysis that the producers of this drama
have succeeded in putting the relationships between different characters in the context of the social matrix of family and conjugal bonds. The relationship between Shi and his
friend is no exception. In this drama, the friendship “as a relation of confidence and
personal commitment" (Vogel, 1965, p. 46) regains its prominence. Shi's best friend Hu
is the commander of another regiment during the war, therefore in the strict sense, Hu is
Shi's battle companion. However, throughout the drama, the conversations between them
seldom address war-related issues. Instead, Shi frequently invites Hu to his home to cook.
When a bickering between Shi and Chu rises, Shi asks for advice from Hu and at times
goes to drown his frustration in alcohol with Hu. They bare their hearts to each other and
are completely sincere with each other. The viewer Bai regarded Hu as Shi's bosom
friend to whom Shi could confide his innermost soul. The viewer Ning described the
relationship between Shi and Hu as also capturing the essence of friendship:
The friendship between Shi and Hu is also touching. In the last episode, they are
having some farewell drinks in LaoShi's house. After that, they are in fact thinking of
86 embracing each other. But in the end they choose to salute each other. At that time
they must know they will have very few chances to meet each other again. Though
they are unwilling to part with each other, they are not showing this emotion. The
friendship between them is really touching.
Ning also said about the impact of this on-screen friendship on him:
I think I become more and more mature in handling social interaction issues. To
make true friends, we all need to pay something, to learn to listen to others, and at
times to patiently endure something. Only in this way can we lead a wonderful
and unregretful life.
The character Hu does not occupy much of the play. He makes strategic appearances in the drama by showing up at important moments in Shi's life; for instance, Shi's marriage, first-time-father day, and retirement. However, the presence of the character Hu in the drama signals an indispensable Confucian qing.
Summary
The above analysis reveals the process of discourse practice, that is, the ways in which the 1980s generation viewers talk about In Those Passionate Days. As the analysis of discourse practice is fundamental to the construction of the meaning of the text, the above analysis first reveals the meaning of the text. The drama In Those Passionate Days is structured around the Confucian five relationships of “ruler to minister", ‘‘father to son", "husband to wife", "elder brother to younger brother", and "friend to friend." The hero Shi is constructed as a benevolent person especially around the relationships of
87 "ruler to minister" and "father to son." Closely associated with the discourse of benevolence is qing (conjugal love, fraternal love, friendship) growing out of the
Confucian five relationships, especially the relationships of “husband to wife," "elder brother to younger brother," and "friend to friend." The benevolent hero provides a sharp contrast to the heroes in the Maoist era. This transformation was discerned by most viewers. For instance, the viewer Fei thought that Shi does not possess characteristics of the "high-great-complete" hero of the Culture Revolution and the viewer Wu pointed out that Shi overthrows the previous model of a ‘‘high-great-complete’ hero. In a word, the hero enacts the discourse of benevolence in this drama. A state of harmony can be achieved when people practice mutual benevolence to each other (Hung, 1979). Thus the ideological meaning conveyed in In Those Passionate Days, in this regard, largely differs from that in the media texts of the anti-Confucianism days when class struggle and social conflict were touted (Chang, 979; Chin, 1979; Hsu & Chu, 979). Furthermore, conjugal love, family ties (including fraternal love), and friendship are no longer criticized as detrimental elements. In the drama, the emotions and affections (the qing) are nurtured among family members and extend to friends. To Confucius, as the society is an enlargement of a family, the emotions and affections nourished in the family and between friends will also extend to the larger society (Chih, 1981; Yu, 1998).
The examination of discourse practice also suggests a dynamic process in which the
1980s generation viewers participating in this study bring prior social knowledge and experience (e.g., Confucian values) to viewing, and viewing this drama, in turn, provides
88 a prominent occasion for the viewers' construction, expression, and interpretation of the cultural values they hold important. In this latter sense, it can be said that this drama makes its own small contribution to maintaining and reinforcing Confucian values.
Chapter 5 The Revival of Confucianism
The Communist Party seems to have readjusted its anti-Confucian stance. The rehabilitation of Confucianism is one of the most significant and remarkable phenomenon in post-Mao China (Bell, 2008; Bezlova, 2009; Lam, 2008; Reed, 1995; Schell, 2008;
Wasserstrom, 2008; Weber, 2000; Weiss, 2000; Yang, 2007; Yu, 2008; Zhu, 2005, 2006,
2008). Confucianism is gradually regaining prominence in official, media, and public discourses in today's China.
In the early 1980s, Deng Xiaoping, the successor of Mao and the core of the second generation of the Communist Party leadership, suggested that reform and opening up must adhere to the principle of "doing two jobs at once and attaching equal importance to each.”28 The “two jobs” referred to the construction of the socialist material civilization and the construction of the socialist spiritual civilization. The socialist spiritual civilization repeatedly emphasized by Deng Xiaoping throughout the 1980s could be regarded as Beijing's earliest effort to restore the influence of Confucianism in China.
McLaren argued that the socialist spiritual civilization campaign, under the light of
Confucianism, emphasized "an essential national character, ritual issues, the importance of tradition, culture and family and the subtle demonizing of the West as immoral and
See http://\vvv\v.china.org.cn/ermlish/8732.htin
89 decadent" (as cited in Weber, 2003, p. 277). In 1989, the then Secretary General of the
Communist Party Jiang Zemin, who later became the successor to Deng Xiaoping, suggested that "we must thoroughly study his (Confucius) fine ideals and carry them into the future" (Chan, 1993, p. 20).
The ancient wisdom of Confucius has gained more and more prominence in official discourses since the beginning of the new century. The former Premier Zhu Rongji proposed the "citizens' code of conduct" in the 2002 Government Work Report in which he required people to maintain the basic virtues of ‘‘courtesy and honesty; solidarity and friendship; diligence; frugality and self-improvement; and devotion and contribution"
(Sole-Farms, 2008, p. 19). These terms explicitly refer to Confucianism. In the same year, the agenda of "building a socialist harmonious society" was announced (Sole-Farras,
2008). The concept of harmony incorporated into this official discourse has obvious
Confucian connotations. Building a socialist harmonious society later became the new priority of the Hu-Wen Administration, which officially took over in 2003. Just as
Confucius maintained that the state of harmony can only be achieved when people practice mutual benevolence to each other (Hung, 1979), Beijing's new leader Hu Jintao advised that a high moral standard was the foundation of a harmonious society; to build up such a society, virtues like sincerity, honesty, justice, and fraternity should be promoted.29 Furthermore, the agenda of "building a socialist harmonious society" was included into the Constitution of the Communist Party at the 17th Chinese Communist
See http://eimlish.peopledail\.coin.cn/2()()50()/27/ena2005()627 192495.html
90 Party National Congress in October 2007 (Sole-Farras, 2008). In March 2006, Hu Jintao developed a set of moral codes titled "eight honors and eight shames"^^ to be followed by Chinese citizens, especially by Communist Party officials:
1 "To love our motherland" is honorable; “to jeopardize her" is shameful
2 "To serve the people" is honorable; “to betray them" is shameful
3 "To advocate science" is honorable; "to be ignorant" is shameful
4 "To labor" is honorable; “to be lazy" is shameful
5 "To unite and help each other" is honorable; "to harm others to benefit oneself is shameful
6 'To be honest to keep one's word" is honorable; “to forget integrity to seek personal gains" is shameful
7 "To obey disciplines and laws” is honorable; "to disobey disciplines and laws is shameful
8 "To persevere" is honorable; "to be extravagant and dissipated" is shameful.
These eight items stated what a good citizen should regard as an honor and as a shame. Again, the attempt to redefine socialist morality by using traditional Confucian virtues was conspicuous.
The revival of Confucianism embedded in official discourses has also been reflected
30 Sec hltp://\vvvw.xinhiianet.com/politics/zt2()()60320/ There are two versions of the translation of the "eight honors and eight shames'". One is offered by the Chinese Government's official website, and it can be retrieved at hnp://\v\v\v.oov.cn/cnglish/2()()6-()4/()5/conicni 245361 .htm. The other is offered by the Western Returned Scholars Association of China, and it can be retrieved at http://vv\v\v.cocsa.cn/inro/conlcnt.slnml7ld= 1316. 1 studied and learned from these two versions and developed a new translation.
91 in all aspects of society, including media, arts, and education (Zhu, 2008). TV drama has always been considered as one of “the most powerful and modern tools for the purpose of educating and inspiring the Party, the army, and the people of all nationalities to build a socialist material and spiritual civilization" (Huang, 1994, p. 236). It has remained active and powerful in reviving Confucianism. As Confucian revivalism gains prominence in official discourse, the SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film and Television) has required that all primetime TV dramas should advocate good human nature and virtuous elements (Zhang, 2007). Under this guidance, TV dramas in China, whether they narrate the past or feature contemporary settings, have tended to celebrate Confucian values, and these stories are popular among mainland Chinese audiences (Zhu, 2008).
For instance, the Chinese domestic drama as a genre clearly promotes Confucianism that sees family and family life as a foundation of a government and a society (Zhu,
2008). In the family saga drama^' Grand Mansion Gate, aired in 2001, the leading character Bai Jingqi is a man who conforms to and updates traditional Confucian tenets
(Zhu, 2008). In the pink drama^^ Falling in Love, aired in 2004, the construction of sexuality and gender roles also firmly obeys Confucian ethical codes (Zhu, 2008). The dynasty drama The Great Emperor Hanwu, aired in 2005, focuses on the Han dynasty
Emperor Hanwu who promoted Confucianism as China's state philosophy. Zhu (2008) suggested that this historical figure is deliberately chosen for screen and this drama
31 The family saga drama is a popular subgenre of the Chinese domestic drama (Zhu, 2008). “The pink drama is a genre that depicts the life of single women in urban China. The most popular production of this type is the 2004 drama Falling in Love, which is widely regarded as the Chinese version of Sex and the City (Zhu, 2008). ‘
92 dovetails into the revival of the Confucianism endorsed by the Communist Party. Besides the TV drama, in 2006 China Central Television's popular primetime program Lecture
Room invited the professor of Beijing Normal University Yu Dan to lecture on The
Analects and discuss how to relate the ancient wisdom of Confucius to modern life. Later,
Yu Dan published Yu Dan's Reflections on The Analects of Confucius based on the notes of the lectures, which sold millions of copies throughout the country (Melvin, 2007).
There are a variety of other notable practices with regard to the revival of
Confucianism. For instance, the Beijing Art Biennale in 2003 attempted to address
“humanistic concern" and develop "harmony between art and the public, harmony between people, and harmony between man and nature" (Zhu, 2008, p. 13). Since 2004, there has been a lavish yearly memorial ritual commemorating Confucius at the
Confucian temple in the city of Qufu in Shandong province, the birthplace of the Master.
Government officials, intellectuals, descendants of Confucius, and people from all walks of life attend the ritual. Furthermore, the Confucian schools that imitate the ancient private teaching institute sishu in China are established throughout the country to recruit full-time students (Yu, 2008). Officially sponsored Confucius institutes are also set up around the world to communicate Chinese culture and traditions (Lam, 2008). There was a time in Communist Chinese history when Confucianism was denounced in university courses on the history of Chinese philosophy (Wilhelm, 1965). At present, the once-cancelled courses on Confucian classics are once again included in school curriculums. Daniel A. Bell, a professor of Tsinghua University in Beijing, thinks that
93 these courses may replace some compulsory ones in Marxist-Leninism in an effective manner." Courses on Confucianism are also included in MBA/EMBA programs.And the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Shanghai, one of the most renowned business schools in China, has a Humanities Committee led by the leading Confucian scholar Tu Wei-Ming.35 The book market has been flooded with various kinds of analyses and interpretations of the Confucian classics, including The Analects. The
Beijing 2008 Olympic opening ceremony also explicitly conveyed Confucian values. It began with a famous Confucian saying "Friends have come from afar, how happy we are. ,36 And the Confucian theme became particularly conspicuous in one sequence of the ceremony in which the Chinese ideogram he meaning "harmony" was displayed.
Drawing upon these official, media, and public discourses, there is evidence to suggest a revival of Confucianism in contemporary China. The revolutionary history TV drama In Those Passionate Days, produced in 2002, can be seen to exemplify this trend as the centra character of the drama, the hero Shi, enacts the discourse of benevolence and embodies Confucian virtues.
Why the Revival of Confucianism?
Scholars and China observers have made various attempts to interpret and investigate the social context that assists the revival of Confucianism in China. Different people have
“See hUp://\v\vvvjn'times.com/2()09/()5/12/oDinion/12il-il-edhcll.hlml The press release of the Tsinghua University EMBA Program. Sec htlp://\veh.sem.tsingluia.eduxn/emhayShovvNe\vs.aspx'?ld==1674&Tld=15 Introduction of the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business EMBA program. See http://en.ckgsb.coivi/EMBA/edue.aspx "See http://nc\vs.xinlnianet.con-i/ent>lish/2()08-()8/08/content 9()53273.hlm
94 different interpretations.
Some scholars suggest that the revival of the Confucianism endorsed by the
Communist Party leadership is an ideological solution designed to address the crisis of morality brought about by the reform and opening up and to strike a balance between rapid economic growth and its moral outcomes (Bezlova, 2009; Reed, 1995; Weber, 2000;
Yu, 2008; Zhu, 2005, 2006, 2008).
Scholars have been writing extensively on the crisis of morality in China. In 1995,
Rofel observed that China faced perhaps the most serious moral crisis since 1949. The intervening decade was characterized by a collective perception of the moral crisis (Ci,
2009). Overseas observers and China analysts have also noticed signs of a decline in morality and tradition in China (Bezlova, 2009; Chou, 2003; Ci, 2009; Mihalca, 2004;
Reed, 1995; Schell, 2008; Weber, 2000; Yu, 2008; Zhu, 2005, 2006, 2008).
Weber (1989) maintained that the Protestant ethic, an ethic "in the sense of an inner moral attitude" (Friedman, 2006, p. 22), is the force that enables the rise of the capitalistic economy. Friedman (2006) further argued that economic growth not only benefits from moral impetus but also brings positive moral consequences. Although there is probably a rich interplay between morality and economic development in Western societies, it turns out not to be the case in China. Chou (2003) maintained that “material prosperity has contributed to China gaining a reputation as a society lacking basic humanity and morality" (p. 42). Confucian scholar Jiang also attributed the moral crisis in China to two decades of corrosion brought about by a market economy. He thought
95 that the end of the Cultural Revolution led to the burial of the Maoism that once integrated the society, the Chinese people have failed to find the value system guiding individual actions, and the market economy has further exacerbated the situation (as cited in Eberlein, 2008).
On the conceptual level, the moral crisis in China, according to Ci (2009), consists of four dimensions. First, "everyday norms of coexistence and cooperation - be they moral, legal, or regulatory — are breached on an alarming scale" (Ci, 2009, p. 20). Second,
"everyday sector of society, including officialdom and the academic community, is implicated in a big way, with no single institution or profession able to maintain a semblance of moral respectability" (Ci, 2009, p. 20). Third, “the norms that are violated by so many in every walk of life are very elementary ones indeed, not ones that require altruistic acts or the adoption of perfectionist conceptions of the good” (Ci, 2009, p. 20).
Fourth, "this state of affairs has become increasingly normal" (Ci, 2009, p. 20). Ci (2009) argued thai China's moral crisis is first a crisis of justice, and the crisis of justice is
largely caused by a crisis of the good {ren).
Moral crisis appears to be a heavy, grand, and abstract term, even when looking at the four specific dimensions proposed by Ci (2009). In the following section, I will
address some specific aspects that may be considered indicators of the so-called "moral
crisis" in a broad and general sense. These aspects grew out of audiences' interpretations
of In Those Passionate Days. A more social analysis of the viewing process will be
discussed in the next section to evaluate how the audience readings were informed by the
96 wider social milieu in which they live. These interpretations revolved around the decline of virtues, especially the virtue of benevolence, as seen by the public, and the human relationships that are transformed by market forces.
In terms of declining virtues, the viewer Jiu said:
• 3 7
I admire and envy people of that generation. Today's people lose too many good
virtues, for instance, thrift and economy, adherence to belief, etc. People nowadays
make no distinction between right and wrong, and they generally lack the sense of
Justice. This is probably caused by the over-fast economic growth in China. The
economic development makes people become utilitarian and extravagant. Shi
Guangrong embodies all the desired virtues a good person should possess; however,
today's people can't even maintain the basic moral standards. This has a lot to do
with China's rapid economic development. So money is not a good thing, but we
can't live without money. There is no way to satisfy both sides in this world.
The viewer Li held the same opinion:
As the economy is booming, we will inevitably lose something. Virtues like sincerity
and benevolence are doomed to be in danger. Who ever remain good will find it
difficult and almost impossible for them to live in this society; they will be fooled by
others. So I really respect those who are still striving to keep their good nature in
such a society. They have the ability to survive their good nature in such a
society. I wish to, but I am too stupid. So I have to pretend. It refers to the generation of Shi.
97 With the decline of the virtues such as benevolence, it is no surprise that the viewers discerned a human relationship experiencing an unpleasant transformation.
Se, who grew up on a military compound, offered a comparative account to illustrate the transformation of the social milieu she has experienced. One particular observation addressed the increasingly alienated human relationship:
When I was little, the compound where I lived was really like that portrayed in this
drama. Now it is still the same compound, but my feeling totally changes. People are
not as close and friendly as before. Previously, there was an open-air cinema in the
compound and everyone would carry a wooden stool to watch movies out of doors.
Sometimes we children played with very cheap stuffs like shuttlecock, and the adults
played basketball and badminton. At that time, we were poor but people could feel
the warmth. Now people become rich. Everyone in the compound has bought a car.
There are too many cars here so that the parking lot is overcrowded. So we of course
have nowhere to play.
Se described the transformation of relationships from intimacy to alienation and implied that the disintegration of the human bonds based on community is largely caused by an abundance of material possessions. In another narrative sequence, Se mentioned that the clothes worn by children in the compound become more and more expensive, and they are often seen playing with expensive things like mobile phones, mp3, mp4, and
PSP.38 Furthermore, the little girls dress more and more maturely. She wondered, “Where
PSP stands for Play Station Portable and it is a video game machine.
98 has the child's simplicity gone? Though they have mobile phones and PSP, I bet their childhood is not as happy as ours." This narration indicates that Se lives in an environment that favors a relatively hedonistic and materialistic lifestyle, and she herself shows aversion to it. Her narration was also characterized by a nostalgia and yearning for the good old days when human relationship was more intimate. This was a sentiment commonly shared by other viewers participating in this study.
Compared with Se, other viewers' perception of changing human relationships turned out to be more intense. The viewer Li started his narrative with a lucid account of the
Mushroom Village plot and went beyond this scene to provide a particular perspective concerning human relationships in today's society:
During the period of famine, Aunt San true-heartedly takes care of Little Stone.^^
When Little Stone grows up, he doesn't forget her kindness of bringing him up. This
type of relationship is rare nowadays. Either the giver is reluctant or the receiver is
ungrateful. In contrast, in that era, the relationship between people doesn't involve
any other things; therefore it is more unforgettable and touching.
By saying "in that era, the relationship between people doesn't involve any other things," Li implied that the relationship between people today involves other things. In another narrative sequence, he made it clear: “Now the interests always come first. (...) I think this has a lot to do with economic development." Therefore, contrary to the previous human relationships that were established on a basis of mutual benevolence and
Little Stone is Shi's pel name.
99 appeared harmonious, today's human relationships are characterized by cold and interest-oriented exchange instead of by affection.
Xin, who has just finished college studies and started his career in a bank in
Shenzhen, Guangdong province, discussed some of the specifics of the interest-oriented relationship, like "string-pulling," and attempted to naturalize them in an instrumental sense:
Now almost all the college students are criticizing social corruption, the back door
dealing, and the "string-pulling," but after they start working they will find it normal.
Wherever there is a need, there will be people who will satisfy this need. There are
different people in different needs in this society, therefore there will be people
falling oil their knees.
Xin concluded his narration by saying: "Both the army and the school are good places. I do envy those who haven't left the campus. The age of school years was really an age of innocence." This indicates his actual aversion toward the prevailing reliance on interest-oriented relationships. However, as a member of a specific occupational community, he seemed to be learning to accept the rule of the game against his own will.
The following extracts provide other examples of how the viewers stated the issue of interest-oriented relationships that are increasingly tainted with "instrumental considerations" (Gold, 1985, p. 666):
I feel at that time the relationship between people was simple and honest. People
nowadays are always reluctant to be frank with each other. They are also very selfish
100 and some appear to be too shrewd, making me feel tired and even scared to deal with
them. (Ning)
Compared with today's people, they"^® are so kind. Today's people are always on
guard against one another. There is a huge distance between different hearts—it is
hard to tell what's going on in the minds of other people. I have lots of first-hand
experience. I don't want to mention these things; it is uncomfortable to recall. This is
an interest-sovereignty society. The interest is the premise and basis of the
relationship between people. I admire the era portrayed in the drama, but it is
impossible for me to be back then. (Yong)
Once the personal relation is tinged by money and interests, things will certainly become complicated. Therefore the viewer Bai said with a tinge of sadness and regret in her voice: "Nowadays, it is really difficult to find an intimate friend. The society has changed. The relationship between people is much more complicated than before." Bai's feeling worked in consonance with Le's: "People and the relationship between people in the past were simple and unsophisticated." He further suggested that that type of simplicity and lack of sophistication can be regarded as virtues in today's society.
One viewer's personal story is particularly relevant with regard to increasingly interest-oriented and instrumental human relationships. Zhong, an undergraduate student from Shaanxi province, claimed to be an idealist but the reality greatly disappointed him.
Earlier this year he bought a copycat Sony MP4 at Taobao.com, China's most popular
It refers to the characters in the drama.
101 auction site. After two weeks, he found there was something wrong with the machine and tried to negotiate it with the shop owner. Zhong recalled: "Compared with the time when
I was buying the machine, the attitude of the shop owner completely changed this time!"
The shop owner asked Zhong to send the broken machine to him for repair. “According to his requirement," Zhong said, “I even had to pay the postage myself and I even had to attach the return postage in the envelope!" After three weeks, the shop owner sent Zhong the repaired machine, but it broke again after several days. In this story, the attitudinal transformation of the shop owner indicated that his previous warmth to Zhong was apparently interest-oriented. The shop owner related himself to Zhong through a “cash nexus" (Gold, 1985, p. 662). And Zhong's lexical choice “even" showed that the shop owner's attitudinal transformation was unexpected and even a little unacceptable to him.
It also showed Zhong's palpable indignation about a personal relationship based on material interests. This experience largely influenced his reading of In Those Passionate
Days:
For our father' generation, they like this drama probably because they have direct
experience with that historical period. They can recall the time of their youth. For
me, 1 didn't ever experience that lime, but 1 like it and I also yearn for it. Regardless
of the political movement, like the Cultural Revolution, although the era Shi
Guangrong lives was materially poor, people were simple, the relationship between
people was harmonious and the society was naive.
The actual experiences of the 1980s generation viewers participating in this study
102 highlighted another sociocultural practice in China: materialism. Deng Xiaoping's aphorism "it does not matter whether a cat is black or white one as long as it can catch mice" is a widely prevailing sentiment in post-Mao China. This sentiment is in favor of alternative ways to "catch mice," enabling materialism to replace former ideologies and become dominant in China. It is also this sentiment that makes people become "more concerned with materialistic pursuits" and "less concerned with the consequences of their actions" (Chou, 2003, p. 42). Therefore, there is a trend that is characterized by a decline of virtues in public morality and increasingly interest-oriented human relationships. In this case, I speculate that the overarching Confucian virtue ren (humaneness/benevolence) that assumes the human nature is originally good and promotes mutual benevolence between people to achieve social harmony is reiterated in the drama In Those Passionate
Days to counter this trend.
In this thesis 1 also speculate that the second aspect that enables the revival of
Confucianism in official, media, and public discourses is closely associated with government corruption, including acts such as dereliction of duty, abuse of power, and bribery. The discussion of this topic will again begin with the audience discourse, particularly Zhong's story of the MP4. Zhong was so annoyed by the shop owner that he decided to report this Shanghai-based shop to the Shanghai Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC). He found the telephone number in the SAIC official website and called, but no one answered. Then he found the telephone number of the Shanghai 3.154'
March 15 is the World Consumer Right day and is also a consumer's day in China.
103 Association online. This was even more annoying as the number was no longer connected.
"An official number is a dead number! I can't image how such a bureaucratic institution is able to protect consumers' rights," Zhong said, "Similar things are everywhere in everyday life." His anger about the bureaucratic corruption of the SAIC and the Shanghai
3.15 Association was explicit. Zhong thus held a very critical view of officialdom: "What is the aim of the Communist Party? It is said to be 'serving the people wholeheartedly, eliminating exploitation and social polarization.' What is the reality then? We are living in such a society full of contradictions."
The viewer Dai, who grew up in rural Shaanxi province, provided information on corruption at the basic level: "I feel the society of that time"^^ was very naive and people were nice to each other. I think that was a real harmonious society. I don't think today's society is harmonious, especially at the local grass-roots level. It is very corrupt and dark."
There is widespread public perception and knowledge of the government corruption in China. The corruption in officialdom has appeared rampant since the autumn of 1983, and the media at that time was flooded with stories of “cadre malfeasance" and
"unhealthy tendency" (huzheng zhifeng) (Gold, 1985, p. 661). In recent years, there are scholars and social critics in China arguing that China's practice of “socialism with
Chinese characteristics" is straying toward crony capitalism^ (Safire, 1998; Walkom,
42 It refers to the era portrayed in the drama. 43 Crony capitalism refers to a capitalist economy marked by “a balance of power among a small and stable set of government and business elites" (Kang, 2002, p. 3). This type of "money politics" (Kang, 2002. p. 3) can easily bring about massive corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency (Kang, 2002).
104 2009; Wang, 2005; Wu, 2003). Under these circumstances, businessmen in China make fortunes through their connections with the Communists. As many of the scandals in recent years reveal, these dealings and the profit-making processes involve unethical manipulations. Taking the poisonous milk scanda|44 and the collapsed school building incident during the Sichuan earthquake"^^ in 2008 as examples, both these scandals go beyond the issue of social responsibility and moral consciousness of the milk powder corporation or the school builder. They involve institutional corruption and the corrupt government officials and Communist Party secretaries. Associate Professor Chen
Jingming from the Biochemistry Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong discerned the collusion between businessmen and government officials and pointed out that in this situation, it is always the ordinary people who suffer: "They don't understand the situation of the people and only care for their own profitable gains.”46 To understand the revival of Confucianism in China in the context of the crisis of the legitimacy that the
Communist Party is facing, it can be speculated that the media characters, including the
Party-made heroes who enact Confucian benevolence, are designed to act as moral exemplars, restore the image of the Communists, gain the moral authority of the
Communist Party, and thus legitimize the leadership.
The Mushroom Village plot in In Those Passionate Days is again notable in this
44 In September 2008, it was found that the milk powder produced by China's biggest milk powder producer, the Sanlu Group, contained melamine, a chemical substance used to produce plastics. Later, this chemical was found in most of the dairy products produced in the country, which turned the SanlAi incident into an industry-wide scandal. It caused three baby deaths and thousands of cases of infant kidney stone disease. 45 In May 2008, the Sichuan earthquake of 7.8 magnitudes killed a large number of school children. In spite of the government's denial, il is widely believed that the man-made calamity of building failure accounts for more of the fatalities than the natural disaster in this case. See htt|r//insidcchinatodavjict/2()08/()9/26/pois()ivmilk-po\vdcrM-evoals-coniiiiiin^
105 regard. When the hero Shi is informed of the drought-induced famine in the village, Shi thinks that he has the responsibility to prevent the villagers from begging for a living, otherwise "it is not only a shame of the cadre but also a shame of the Party" (#15: 20).
When he sends the food to the villagers without explicit approval from the higher authority, he says: "I probably need to take off this military uniform. But I guess things won't go worse than that at the worst. This military uniform is as important as my life. I use my life to exchange the food for the people. It is worth it." (#15: 21) As indicated in the analysis section, the viewers participating in this study read "benevolence" into Shi's selfless acts. In this way, the Party spares no effort to convey a message to the public that
Party officials are still on a mission to serve the people. This type of effort is embodied not only in the Party-approved media characters but also in Beijing's current leaders' self-image construction.
In the Confucian political philosophy, de (moral suasion) and de zheng (rule by benevolence) outshine the hard power of coercion (Schell, 2008). Beijing's current leaders, the President Hu Jintao and the Premier Wen Jiabao, appear to act as practitioners of the notion of de and de zheng. The Hu-Wen Administration is said to win popularity from people through a populist "going to the people" and "close to the people" approach
(Cho, 2004, p. 68), an approach that differs from the "sophisticated, urban-oriented one of Jiang Zemin" (Cho, 2004, p. 69). Wen Jiabao apparently succeeds in presenting himself as a considerate and kind-hearted "People's Premier" by such displays as weeping over coalmine accidents and tearfully comforting AIDS children. His typical and
106 habitual nonverbal communications include a polite bow and a humble smile, which are often cited by the media to show his respect toward the traditional etiquette. Although the populist strategy is an "image project" without making substantial political changes (Cho,
2004, p. 80), it indeed seems to have effect. There is a widespread belief in China that high-ranked leaders in the Central Government, like Hu and Wen, are benevolent, whereas the corrupt local officials are the unwelcomed hindrance. Therefore, the emphasis on Confucianism can be seen as an effort of the Communist Party to “preserve communist rule" (Zhu, 2008, p. 132) in China.
The beautification of the Party-made heroes and the Party leaders in a Confucian way not only bears significance to the present condition of rampant corruption but also works towards legitimizing the Communist history, which is filled with painful violence and inhumane suppression. In fact, the drama avoids direct depiction of many important but controversial historical events in Communist Chinese history, for instance, the anti-Rightist Movement, the Great Leap Forward, Three Years of Natural Disaster, the
Cultural Revolution, and so on. Ironically and interestingly, when coming to the depiction of the Cultural Revolution, the drama, except in giving a brief sketch of Wu's circumstance, devotes much of the play to narrating Jing's life in the army and her story with her first lover. The drama deliberately makes the purity and innocence of that otherwise disastrous age prominent by using romantic elements. In this way, it succeeds in erasing the atrocities of the past. It can be regarded as a rewrite of Chinese history; however, it also signals the rise of private and personal emotions in history that have long
107 been overshadowed by the grand discourse. Undeniably, these private and personal emotions are always part of the history, and this drama has successfully reached this part of history. Therefore, I speculate that the Communist Party sees the value of tapping human nature and human emotions to help disguise the unpleasant side of its own history.
As the many sufferings and contradictions in Communist Chinese history are omitted in the drama, the year 1978, a liberating moment from the ten-year calamity of the
Cultural Revolution, turns out to be of less significance to the characters in the drama.
Therefore, the finishing stroke to the drama is given in 1984, the 35''' anniversary of the
National Day of China. In this scene, Shi dresses up in the ceremonial uniform of the
Chinese army and sits in front of the television to watch the national leader Deng
Xiaoping parading the troops. Later, Shi strolls around the street with Chu to reminisce about their first encounter thirty-seven years ago. This discursive scene is characterized by the camera's sweep over crowds of people carrying national flags and posters bearing political slogans, such as "Long Live the Great China Communist Party" and ‘‘Contribute to the Socialist Construction of Modernization" (#22: 18). This scene echoes the scene of the opening episode when the victorious People's Liberation Army gain control of mainland China and enter the urban areas. In this way, the nation's great ambition of
"modernization" in the 1980s and the passion of the State establishment in the early
1950s mesh without any intervening rifts. This move again legitimizes the authority of the Communist Party in China as it claims itself to be the only capable force that would lead Chinese people to fulfill the centuries-old dream of national resurgence.
108 In this thesis I also speculate that the Confucian view of the family and its emphasis on the patriarchal authority lend another occasion to legitimize the single-Party dictatorship of the Communist Party in China. A brief analysis of the spiritual relationship among Shi, Lin, and the Party/nation in the drama can illustrate this. The relationship between Shi and the Party/nation is discernible whereas that between Lin and the
Party/nation is less impressive. On the textual level, Lin first accomplishes his identification with the patriarchal authority by realizing fatherly love: "Pa, after 1 myself become a father, 1 come to know that all you did is for my sake." (#22: 16) As he acknowledges Shi's fatherly authority, he agrees that Shi's asking him to join the army and serve the Party/nation is correct. In this way, Lin sets up his relationship with the
Party/nation and renders his obedience and loyalty to this abstract construct. When Lin kneels down in front of Shi who lies in his sickbed, he says: "I only kneel down in front of my country and my parents, so I am not afraid of being laughed at by others." (#22: 4)
This narrative sequence indicates a transferrable loyalty between the family and the state.
In this way, the humble reverence to parents transcends the private domain of the family.
That is why this drama is not considered a naive family melodrama, although it is filled with "melodramatic repertoire" (Rofel, 1995, p. 302), including quintessential domestic settings, difficulties of family union, emotions and conflicts, and plots pushed forward by coincidences (Li, 1986; Rofel, 1995).
This thesis suggests that there are a variety of other aspects that can account for the revival of Confucianism in China. For instance, Confucianism that stresses the right place
109 and the right role of every individual in a society might help to relieve the social injustice and social disorder prevailing in China today. Only if social order is achieved and maintained can there be social stability that is conducive to economic development, the foremost task of the Communist Party. To achieve and maintain social order, the hard power of strict law and the soft power of moral suasion are both necessary. As substantial improvements in democracy and legal system in China are still far beyond reach due to deeply ingrained habits and probably fear on the part of Beijing's leaders that radical political reform will incur social instability and thus threaten the Communist Party leadership, Confucianism may, after all, be accepted as an experimental solution. Schell
(2008) stated a possibility that the Confucianism nowadays in China can provide a basis for "a new and more morally convincing, although probably not completely democratic, form of governance”, This argument works in consonance with Zhu's (2006) prediction that China's modernization will develop in the direction of the Singapore model in which
"a controlled capitalist economy is coupled with the selective application of Confucian principles. 48
Chapter 6 Conclusion
The concluding section will first summarize the major findings of this study. It then discusses the theoretical critique and contribution this study has made to CDA and the sociopolitical implications. Finally, it discusses the limitations of the study.
This study was designed to explore the relationship between revolutionary history
See http://\v\v\\.thenation.coni/doc/2()()81()2()/schcH See litlp://w\v\v.asiiimedia.iicla.edu/article.asp'?parontid=38580
110 TV dramas and the social context in which these dramas occur. It used the analytical framework of critical discourse analysis (CDA) proposed by Fairclough (1995) to analyze the revolutionary history TV drama In Those Passionate Days. The critical analysis of media discourse is the analysis of the relationship among three dimensions: text, discourse practice, and sociocultural practice. Discourse practice means the ways in which the text is produced and consumed. Discourse practice is important in the framework of CDA first because it is fundamental to the construction of the meaning of the text and second because it analytically mediates between text and sociocultural practice. This study emphasized the analysis of text, audience, and a selective analysis of the sociocultural practices. More specifically, it asked two questions. First, how is the revolutionary hero Shi constructed in the drama? Second, how do the 1980s generation viewers interpret the meaning of the drama and how does the meaning become manifest in the viewers' lives?
Through a detailed analysis of discourse practice, the study answered the two research questions. The results show that the drama In Those Passionate Days is structured around the Confucian five relationships of "ruler to minister", "father to son",
"husband to wife", "elder brother to younger brother", and "friend to friend." The hero
Shi is constructed as a benevolent person especially around the relationships of "ruler to minister" and "father to son." Closely associated with the theme of benevolence is qing
(conjugal love, fraternal love, friendship), growing out of the Confucian five relationships, especially the relationships of "husband to wife," "elder brother to younger brother," and
111 "friend to friend." The 1980s generation viewers participating in this study incorporated
Confucian values into the reading of the drama, and the viewing process provided a prominent occasion for the viewers' construction, expression, and interpretation of the sociocultural values they hold important. Although not all of the viewers participating in this study explicitly mentioned the term "Confucianism" or directly cited The Analects, their discussions of "loyalty", "filial piety", "conjugal love", "fraternal love", and
"friendship" pointed to a sociocultural lens through which the participants interpreted the text.
In this study, this sociocultural lens was largely shaped by Confucianism. For instance, although the importance of respecting and caring for one's parents is universally recognized, the notion of filial piety, exalted as the first virtue in Confucianism, means something specific to Chinese people. The experiences of young people in this study indicate that they have a strong identification with the tradition of sacrifice for the family, especially the parents, in preference to one's independence and persona! interests. In some circumstances, they are likely to defer to parents wishes and let their personal desires remain unfulfilled. Similarly, the culturally specific interpretations took place when the viewers came to make sense of "loyalty", "conjugal love", ‘‘fraternal love", and so on. Like all people, participants in this study exist in webs of sociocultural, moral, and ethical relationships, which influence how they see the world and interpret media texts.
Therefore, their interpretations of "loyalty", "filial piety", "conjugal love", and "fraternal
love" bore the deep imprint of Confucianism. Thus, to understand audience discourses of
112 the drama In Those Passionate Days within the Chinese context, it can be said that the discursive moments in which the viewers talked about the drama addressed Confucian values instead of human values in the universal sense.
A detailed account of discourse practice revealed the relationship between revolutionary history TV dramas and the social context in which these dramas occur. The study concluded that there is now a revival of Confucianism in China and this trend is
"textually enacted" (Fairclough, 1992, p. 206) in the drama In Those Passionate Days and this text influences/strengthens sociocultural values related to Confucianism.
Confucianism has been experiencing rehabilitation in today's China. The efforts this study has made were not merely to reiterate the revival of Confucianism as a phenomenon. Scholars from disciplines like sociology and linguistics have shown that major social and political processes would generally have linguistic-discursive properties
(Fairclough, 2007); the revival of Confucianism is no exception. This study thus focused on the role of media played in the revival of Confucianism. It specifically examined how
is the revival of Confucianism "textually enacted" (Fairclough, 1992, p. 206) in the drama In Those Passionate Days, especially through the central character, the revolutionary hero Shi. This is perhaps the first time that the revival of Confucianism has been viewed through the prism of mediated communication in the broad perspective of constant social and political changes in contemporary China.
Critical discourse analysis of the revolutionary history TV drama In Those
Passionate Days contributed to understanding CDA not only as a methodological but also
113 as a theoretical framework. CDA provides a framework to analyze the interrelationship between sociocultural practice, discourse practice, and text. Although it was continuously emphasized by Fairclough that an analysis of the text necessarily and inevitably calls for an analysis of discourse practice, he himself paid little attention to the latter in actual researches. Fairclough's works focused more on media text and context (J0rgenson &
Phillips, 2002; Kuo & Nakamura, 2005). He stated that "my emphasis will be upon linguistic analysis of texts...! am not concerned ...with direct analysis of production or consumption of texts" (as cited in Schrader, 2002, p. 108). Schroder (2002) considered this as one of the main limitations of CDA. Haig (2004) saw the exclusion of audience as the most unjustifiable weakness of CDA.
This study has emphasized discourse practice. It not only sees the analysis of textual consumption as integral when applying the analytical framework of CDA to analyze
media discourse, but also suggests a rethinking of the place of discourse practice in
Fairclough's three-dimension model, which serves as a starting point to further question the three levels of analysis that CDA proposes and their interrelationship.
Fairclough defined discourse practice as the ways in which the text is produced and
consumed and saw discourse practice as mediating between sociocultural practice and
text. This study argues that Fairclough's definition of discourse practice appears vague.
Following the discourse analytical approach, this study sees discourse practice as the
ways in which the 1980 generation viewers talk about the drama. Practice is something,
be it content or form, that continuously takes place in a consistent manner throughout
114 audience discourses, for instance, types of talk. When talking about the drama In Those
Passionate Days, viewers participating in this study made frequent references to
Confucian tenets. Those patterns took place in a repeated and consistent manner and 1 described those patterns as discourse practice. During the process of talking, participants in this study expressed and enacted sociocultural values, therefore, discourse practice is fundamental to the construction of the text and the sociocultural norms and values. In this sense, it can no longer be seen as a mediator between sociocultural practice and text.
Instead, discourse practice is sociocultural practice. People enact sociocultural values in discourse. This stance was made lucid in Halliday's work:
By their everyday acts of meaning, people act out the social structure, affirming their
own statuses and roles, and establishing and transmitting the shared systems of value
and of knowledge. (Halliday, 1978, p. 2)
Critical discourse analysts prefer to make a distinction between discourse practices
and other types of sociocultural practices and suggest a dialectical relationship between
the two as they find it analytically useful (Wetherell, 2001). Indeed, for analytical
purpose, it may be useful to distinguish between the two. However, this study disagrees
with such a distinction on the conceptual level. It is also empirically difficult to locate the
line of demarcation between them. A separation between discourse practice and
sociocultural practice is in fact in a "box system" (Weiss & Wodak, 2003, p. 10) view of
the society an idea involving a view of symbolic practices as taking place within a
self-contained entity called society (Weiss & Wodak, 2003).
115 The following section will address the sociopolitical implication of this study. The critique of how discourse plays a role in the maintenance and reproduction of unequal power relations is at the heart of the explanatory endeavor of CD A (Fairclough, 1995). In
Chapter Five, the revival of Confucianism has been described as being an attempt to counter the trend of the increasingly prevailing materialism, as well as being a political project to restore the image of the Communists and disguise the atrocities in Communist history for legitimizing the Communist Party leadership, and a means of maintaining the social order. Critical discourse analysts see ideology as means of establishing and maintaining unequal power relations (Weiss & Wodak, 2003). In this sense, the revival of
Confucianism functions ideologically in contemporary China.
Since 1978, the Communist Party has gradually shifted its central task from class struggle to economic development. The reform and opening up encouraged the proliferation of unofficial media and the dissemination of pro-democracy messages from foreign news agencies and broadcasting to China, which greatly threatened the Maoist ideological indoctrination model during the 1980s (Chan, 2007). Generally speaking, there has been a decline in ideological indoctrination since 1978 in the country. Instead, materialism, consumerism, and the accompanying popular culture are sweeping over the country. However, Latham (2000) argued that "the Party's paranoia for control has not waned" (p. 653). Although nowadays the Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is still officially stated as the guiding ideology in China, it has turned out to be inadequate to maintain the
Communist Party leadership. In this situation, Confucianism has been appropriated to fill
116 the "ideological vacuum" (Bezlova, 2009). Therefore, the revival of Confucianism in
China today can hardly be regarded as a real and sincere return to the old wisdoms of
Confucius. The value of Confucianism is marketed to serve politics.
The revival of Confucianism neither means a definite and explicit slogan officially spelt out by the Communist Party. Although the Communist Party's intentions and practices of utilizing Confucianism or Confucian tenets in media as well as other social domains are obvious, Confucianism does not enjoy one seat in official discourses as
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism does. Seemingly, the Communist Party has no intention of raising Confucianism to the status of an explicitly and systematically defined and stated state ideology.
Furthermore, to understand the so-called phenomenon of revival of Confucianism in the wider context of constant social and political changes in today's China, it is important to clarify that there is no such a clearly-delineated and unchangeable entity as
Confucianism that the Communist Party relies on. The Party merely strategically incorporates and assimilates specific Confucian notions such as harmony into its existing ideology. However, this kind of practice has become conspicuous and many to the extent that it requires abstract terms to denote the content of this specific phenomenon. Fung
(2009) theorized it as "a soft or banal nationalism that is naturally ‘flagged, in the media through symbols, language and icons that have taken on a more acceptable and modern form" (p. 186). No matter what terms are used, what matters are the ideological consequences of this phenomenon and the role of the media, as the ideological state
117 apparatus, within it.
Although the Party leadership markets the value of Confucianism through mediated discourse, it is difficult to predict whether or not intimacy between the Communist Party and Confucius will persist. As Bell (2009) stated, "In China at the moment, the spirit of experimentation is prevailing.""^^ However, no matter what status Confucianism enjoys in
Communist China and no matter what "ism" is propagated by the Party, the Party-made hero is always one mediatized symbol that carries strong ideological meanings and offers these meanings to an audience that reorients itself in the context of constant social changes and searches for a meaningful life.
In this study, the revolutionary history TV drama In Those Passionate Days is used to cement the political and ideological leadership. Central to this drama is the revolutionary hero Shi. This drama creates a new way to construct the Communist hero by resorting to
Confucian values, human nature, and human emotions. In this way, it transforms "the hero into a more human and believable force" and “that symbol of the impossible into something more probable" (Gumpert, 1994, p. 59). In Chapter Two, I suggested that there were three types of revolutionary heroes in Communist Chinese history: the "warrior" hero, the production hero, and the hero made for class struggle. Although these three types of heroes differed in characterization, they were all rendered as people possessing deep consciousness of class struggle, and the importance of family, friendship, and other social relationships of the hero were downplayed. In a sense, these efforts were made to
See http://\v\v\v.aliines.com/alimes/China/KF03Ad()l.hlinl
118 create an individualistic hero of command and conquest in conflicts. In contrast, the revolutionary hero Shi portrayed in the drama In Those Passionate Days grows out of human relationships characterized by a dynamic harmony. This is the Chinese heroic tradition. Fung (2009) termed this type of heroism as "heroism with collectivism" (p.
187). Judging from audience discourses, this new type of heroism is becoming hegemonic in the sense of winning widespread acceptance. In this sense, it turns out to be more "indirect, flexible, and subtle" in achieving propaganda effectiveness (Chan, 2007, p. 547) in relation to the Maoist heroism.
The following section will briefly discuss the limitations of this study. First, although the study has briefly taken into account the insights of the producer that surround and guide the production of the drama In Those Passionate Days, the attention paid to textual production appears to be insufficient. The rationale of choosing to focus on textual consumption instead of textual production in this study is as follows. First, this study was originally inspired by the tremendous popularity of the drama In Those Passionate Days among the audience, especially among the 1980s generation viewers. The spectacular success of In Those Passionate Days among the audience took the industry by surprise and encouraged the production of other revolutionary history TV dramas. Therefore, this study is grounded in the assumption that insights into the relationship between revolutionary history TV dramas and the social context in which these dramas occur can be obtained through the eyes of the audience. The study thus focused on the social production of meaning from the viewpoint of the audience as it maintained that these
119 meanings are fundamental to the understanding and reconstruction of the social context.
Second, limited time and budget made it difficult to explore both textual production and textual consumption.
However, this study does admit that a detailed analysis of textual production focusing on how the drama In Those Passionate Days is influenced by the social milieu in which it is produced, distributed, and preserved can be a very meaningful study in the future (Peterson, 1994). The analysis can be carried out at the levels of personal interaction, organizational and institutional environment, and the workings of the entire society (Peterson, 1994). To obtain insights into the relationship between revolutionary history TV dramas and the social context in which these dramas occur, a societal level analysis of the cultural production can be conducive.
Another limitation of this study arises from the fact that this study focuses on 1980s generation viewers who have had active and deep interests of the drama In Those
Passionate Days and were frequent visitors to the online discussion forum, which in itself can be seen as a discursive forum of forming ideas and interpretations. Therefore, it is possible that young people in this study may have had some "preformed" experiences of the media text informed by group discussions before they participated in this study. This
is the limitation of the design of this study. However, it also signals an opportunity for
future studies. Production of social meaning is an ongoing process and it is very difficult to locate the line of demarcation between the so-called "pre" and "after" and trace the
process of meaning formation in a definite and distinct way. To try to regard meaning
120 production as a process and obtain insights into it, scholars who are interested in the topic of revolutionary history TV dramas or specifically in the drama In Those Passionate
Days can investigate issues such as how viewers engage in group discussion about those dramas, how group discussion intertwines with everyday life practices of the viewers, how the discussion contributes to the formation of an unanimous interpretation and to grouping processes in general, and how this process further contributes to the construction of social, cultural, and political identities.
121 Table 2
Market Share of Different TV Drama Genres in 2002 50
Ranking Genre Market share Number of
dramas aired
Criminal case drama 16.6 98
Daily life drama 12.5 67
Urban life drama 11.6 98
Reform drama 9.8 51
Legend drama 8.8 53
Military and revolutionary history 8.7 44
drama
Romance drama
Youth idol drama
Historical drama
Martial arts drama
Ancient chivalric drama
Drama on time change
Action drama
Sitcom
Data source: CVSC-Sofres Media (CSM)
122 15 Children drama
16 Gods-and-ghosts drama
123 Table 2
Broadcasting and Rating of three Revolutionary History TV Dramas in 2004^^
TV drama Number of channels airing the drama Average rating (%)
Forest and Snow 26 4.37
Diamond in Fire 22 9.5
The Soldier Zhang Ga 10 12.44
“Data source: CVSC-Sofrcs Media (CSM)
124 Table 2
Average Rating of the Top Three TV Dramas in 2002^^
Ranking TV drama Number of channels Average rating (%)"
airing the drama
1 In Those Passionate Days 43 4.5
2 Betray 45 3.0
3 Never Give Up 40 2.5
”Data source: CVSC-Sofres Media (CSM) 53 An average rating of 4.5% can demonstrate the popularity of a drama in China. Here the figure is interpreted by comparing it with the average rating of the nationwide news program, Ximven Lianho. Ximven Lianho is a daily primetime news program produced and aired by China Central Television, making it one of the country's most watched television programs since 1978. According to CSM's (2007) statistics, the average rating of Ximven Lianho in 35 major cities of China, from January to May 2006’ is 5.6%. This means there are 72,800,000 people watching this program every day. The rating of the drama In Those Passionate Days is close to that of Ximven Lianbo, which shows its popularity in the country.
125 Table 2
54 Average Rating of In Those Passionate Days in Major Cities in 2002
Ranking City Channel airing the drama Average rating (%)
Yinchuan Public Channel of Ningxia TV Station 19.
Dalian Channel 1 of Dalian TV Station 15.8
Changsha Hunan Economic TV Station 12.9
Qingdao Channel 1 of Qingdao TV Station 5.7
Shanghai News Channel of Shanghai TV Station 5.5
Beijing Channel 4 of Beijing TV Station 5.1
Shenyang Channel 1 of Shenyang TV Station 4.7
Urumqi Channel 6 of Xinjiang TV Station 3.7
Nanjing City Channel of Jiangsu TV Station 2.8
Chengdu Entertainment Channel of Chengdu TV 2.5
Station
Data source: CVSC-Sofres Media (CSM)
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143 Appendix A
The Interview Guide
About the drama
What do you think of the drama as a whole?
Why do you love this drama so much? What aspects of the drama make you like it?
Why do you think this drama was so popular?
About the character
Which character in the drama do you like most and why?
Do you like the character Shi Guangrong? Why do you like him?
What is your feeling about Shi's family life?
About the impressive scenes in the drama
Which scenes in this drama do you find touching and why?
What do you get from these touching scenes? Do you have these things in your life?
About the era depicted in the drama
What do you think of the era portrayed in the drama? How will you describe that era?
If there is a chance, will you be willing to go back to that era?
About the influence of the drama
What do you get out of watching this drama?
Do you think your views (about yourself, your parents, your family, your friends, and your country, etc.) are influenced by the drama?
Does your daily life change after watching this drama?
144 Appendix B
List of Interviewees
Any information that may reveal interviewees' identity has been removed.
SE (20, female, single) is a college student in a university in Guangzhou, Guangdong
province. She was born and grew up in the city of Guangzhou.
TAO (20, female, single) is a college student in a university in Wuhan, Hubei
province. She was born and grew up in rural Hubei province.
HUA (21, female, single) is a college student in a university in Shenzhen, Guangdong
province. She was born and grew up in the city of Changde, Hunan province.
DAI (23, female, single) is a college student in a university in the city of Xi'an,
Shaanxi province. She was born and grew up in rural Shaanxi province.
YAN (23, female, single) has finished her college studies in a Shanghai university and is
now pursuing her graduate studies in Hong Kong. She was born and grew up in
Shanghai.
BAI (24, female, single) has just graduated from a Shanghai university and started
working in this city. She was born and grew up in Shanghai.
FBI (25, female, single) has finished her college studies and is now working in the city
of Tianjin. She was born and grew up in rural Hebei province.
WU (27, female, single) has finished her college studies in a Shanghai university and is
now pursuing her Ph.D. in the same school. She was born and grew up in rural
Jiangsu province.
145 SHU (20, male, single) is a college student in a Beijing university. He was born and
grew up in Beijing.
SQUASH (20, male, single) is a college student in a university in the city of Lanzhou,
Gansu province. He was born and grew up in rural Gansu province and moved to
Lanzhou when he was fourteen-years old.
NING (21 male, single) is a college student in a university in the city of Kunming,
Yunnan province. He was born and grew up in the city of Dali, Yunnan province.
YONG (21, male, single) is a college student in a university in the city of Harbin,
Heilongjiang province. He was born and grew up in rural Shaanxi province.
ZHONG (22, male, single) is a college student in a university in the city of Xinyang,
Henan province. He was born and grew up in the city of Xinyang.
CAI (23, male, married but has not had children) dropped out of high school and is now
running his own business in Xiamen, Fujian province. He was born and grew up in
the city of Zhangzhou, Fujian province.
XIN (24, male, single) has just finished his college studies and started his career in a bank
in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. He was born and grew up in rural Guangdong
province.
LE (26, male, single) is a medical school student in a university in Luzhou, Sichuan
province. He was born and grew up in rural Hebei province.
JING (27, male, married and has a 3-months-old child) said that he became an immigrant
worker when he was sixteen-years old and has been working in factories since then.
146 He now lives in the city of Linyi, Shandong province. He was born and grew up in
rural Shandong province.
MING (27 male, single) finished his college studies in 2006 and is now working in
the city of Shenzhen, Guangdong province. He was born and grew up in rural
Heilongjiang province.
LI (29, male, single) was a technical secondary school student majoring in railway
technology. He was assigned to a state-owned enterprise in the city of Shenyang,
Liaoning province after graduation and has been on business trips for six years.
During these six years, he went around China to test the equipment of local
railway stations. He returned to the headquarters in Liaoning province last year. He
was born and grew up in rural Liaoning province.
JIU (29, male, single) finished his high school studies years ago and has started
working in the city of Shenyang, Liaoning province since then. He was born in
rural Liaoning province and moved to Shenyang when he was ten-years old.
147 Appendix C
Figure 1
Figure 2
148
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