A Study of Xu Xu's Ghost Love and Its Three Film Adaptations THESIS
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Allegories and Appropriations of the ―Ghost‖: A Study of Xu Xu‘s Ghost Love and Its Three Film Adaptations THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Qin Chen Graduate Program in East Asian Languages and Literatures The Ohio State University 2010 Master's Examination Committee: Kirk Denton, Advisor Patricia Sieber Copyright by Qin Chen 2010 Abstract This thesis is a comparative study of Xu Xu‘s (1908-1980) novella Ghost Love (1937) and three film adaptations made in 1941, 1956 and 1995. As one of the most popular writers during the Republican period, Xu Xu is famous for fiction characterized by a cosmopolitan atmosphere, exoticism, and recounting fantastic encounters. Ghost Love, his first well-known work, presents the traditional narrative of ―a man encountering a female ghost,‖ but also embodies serious psychological, philosophical, and even political meanings. The approach applied to this thesis is semiotic and focuses on how each text reflects the particular reality and ethos of its time. In other words, in analyzing how Xu‘s original text and the three film adaptations present the same ―ghost story,‖ as well as different allegories hidden behind their appropriations of the image of the ―ghost,‖ the thesis seeks to broaden our understanding of the history, society, and culture of some eventful periods in twentieth-century China—prewar Shanghai (Chapter 1), wartime Shanghai (Chapter 2), post-war Hong Kong (Chapter 3) and post-Mao mainland (Chapter 4). ii Dedication To my parents and my husband, Zhang Boying iii Acknowledgments This thesis owes a good deal to the DEALL teachers and mentors who have taught and helped me during the past two years at The Ohio State University, particularly my advisor, Dr. Kirk Denton, and my committee member, Dr. Patricia Sieber, also my first readers. Without their invaluable suggestions, inspiring comments and patient corrections, this thesis by no means could come into being. I am grateful to my friends Wang Yanyan and Liao Lin, who assisted me to collect materials from the China Film Archive and the Hong Kong Film Archive, respectively. I could not have written the thesis without their support. My thanks also to Debbie Knicely and the DEALL colleagues Yang Qiong, Ni Yaohui, Bai Yifan, He Man, Evelyn Huang, Kana Abe, Erik Christensen, Anne M. Henochowicz, etc. They gave me help, suggestions and encouragement in the research and writing of the thesis. My deepest gratitude is owed to my parents and my husband, Zhang Boying; to them this thesis is dedicated. iv Vita 2003 ............................................................ B.A. Chinese Literature, Beijing University 2006 ............................................................ M.A. Comparative Literature, Beijing University 2008 to present ........................................... Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University Publications Co-authored book: The Unusual Times for America. Zhengzhou: Henan renmin chubanshe, 2002. Fields of Study Major Field: East Asian Languages and Literatures v Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ..................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................... iv Vita .................................................................................................................................v List of Figures ............................................................................................................. viii Introduction .....................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Illusion and Disillusionment in the Name of the ―Ghost‖: A Close Reading of Xu Xu‘s Ghost Love .................................................... 24 Introduction ......................................................................................... 24 A Chinese Ghost Story in a Modern City: Continuity with and Divergence from Traditional Narrative ................ 25 Memory and Illusion in the Name of the ―Ghost‖: An Appropriation of Bergsonism ......................................................... 37 Ghost Tower, Deserted Tomb, and Haunted Theatre: Revolution and Revulsion in 1927 and 1937 ........................................ 46 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 64 Chapter 2: A National Allegory behind a Ghost Story: The 1941 Adaptation Ghost Love and the Shanghai‘s Solitary Island Period ................................................... 67 Introduction ......................................................................................... 67 From Dark to Dawn: An Allegory Not Only About the Ghost .............. 71 The Affinity and Interactions between Film and Drama at Wartime Shanghai.............................................................................................. 76 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 86 vi Chapter 3: Ghost in a Spy Tale of Two Citie: The 1956 Adaptation Ghost Love and 1950s Hong Kong ............................ 89 Introduction ......................................................................................... 89 A Tale of Two Cities ........................................................................... 93 War, Ghost and Spy ........................................................................... 101 Conclusion ........................................................................................ 113 Chapter 4: Enchantment and Disenchantment in the Age of Nostalgia: The 1995 Adaptation Evening Liaison and ―Shanghai Nostalgia‖ .............. 117 Introduction ....................................................................................... 117 A Nostalgic Ghost Story without Ghosts: Ghostly Enchantment and Ghostly Time ............................................ 121 Haunted by Old Shanghai: The Affinity between Evening Liaison and Chen Yifei‘s Late Paintings......................................................... 133 Shanghai Nostalgia, Evocation, and Collective Memories.................. 145 Conclusion ........................................................................................ 159 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 163 References ................................................................................................................... 169 Appendix: Film and TV Adaptations of Xu Xu‘s Works .............................................. 183 vii List of Figures Figure 1. A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) ......................................................................... 28 Figure 2. ―Fear of the Bed-Curtains‖.............................................................................. 34 Figure 3. A Night Scene in Ghost Love (1941) ............................................................... 74 Figure 4. An Indoor Scene in Ghost Love (1941) ........................................................... 79 Figure 5. A Still from Begonia (1943) ........................................................................... 92 Figure 6. A Poster from Spy Number One (1946) ......................................................... 104 Figure 7. A Poster from Ghost Love (1956) and A Photo of Li Lihua ........................... 107 Figure 8. A Night Scene in Evening Liaison (1995) ..................................................... 118 Figure 9. Two Similar Close-ups of the Female Ghost ................................................. 126 Figure 10. Two Similar Scenes of the Funeral Procession ............................................ 126 Figure 11. Gaze/ being Gazed at .................................................................................. 131 Figure 12. A Scene in Evening Liaison: the Customs House on Shanghai Bund ........... 135 Figure 13. Chen Yifei‘s Early Paintings ....................................................................... 139 Figure 14. Chen Yifei, Jiangnan shinü Series .............................................................. 140 Figure 15. Chen Yifei, ―Golden Era in the Old Dream of Shanghai‖ ............................ 142 Figure 16. Chen Yifei, Shanghai Bund Series .............................................................. 144 Figure 17. Two Stills from Evening Liaison (1995)...................................................... 145 viii Introduction In October 2008, Huaxia chubanshe 華夏出版社 in Beijing published a book entitled Gui lian: Xu Xu daibiao zuo 鬼戀：徐訏代表作 (Ghost Love: Representative Works of Xu Xu) as part of the series Zhongguo xiandai wenxue baijia 中國現代文學百家 (A Hundred Masters of Modern Chinese Literature), compiled by the National Museum of Modern Chinese Literature. On the back cover, it was sensationally recommended as follows: Lin Yutang once pointed out that Xu Xu and Lu Xun were both the greatest writers in twentieth century China. In critic circles of Hong Kong and Taiwan, Xu Xu is regarded as a ―world-class‖ writer. He is the gandie 乾爹 (daddy) of Sanmao, and he is more ―Eileen Chang‖ than Eileen