Article "Socialism, Aestheticized Bodies, and International Circuits of Gender: Soviet Female Film Stars in the People’s Republic of China, 1949–1969" Tina Mai Chen Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, vol. 18, n° 2, 2007, p. 53-80. To cite this article, use the following address : http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/018223ar This document is subject to copyright. All services operated by Érudit available for your use are also subject to the terms and conditions set forth in this document http://www.erudit.org/documentation/eruditUserPolicy.pdf Érudit is a non-profit multi-institutional publishing consortium comprising the Université de Montréal, the Université Laval and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to produce and disseminate scholarly documentation. Érudit offers digital publishing services for scientific journals since 1998. To contact the Érudit team :
[email protected] Document downloaded on 18 July 2008 Socialism, Aestheticized Bodies, and International Circuits of Gender: Soviet Female Film Stars in the People’s Republic of China, 1949–1969* TINA MAI CHEN Abstract This paper analyses the importance of love relations and sexuality in Soviet film for Chinese socialism in the 1950s and 1960s. By looking at the movement of Soviet women across the Sino-Soviet border — in films and as part of film delegations — I highlight the international circuits of gender that shaped socialist womanhood in China. I examine Chinese discussion of Soviet film stars including Marina Ladynina, Vera Maretskaia, and Marina Kovaleva. I locate the movement away from 'fun-loving post-revolutionary' womanhood associated with Ladynina to socialist womanhood located in struggle and par- tisanship within the larger context of Maoist theory and Sino-Soviet relations.