The Ever-Changing Roles of Chinese Women in Society: a Content Analysis and Semiotic Analysis of Some Contemporary Chinese Films
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THE EVER-CHANGING ROLES OF CHINESE WOMEN IN SOCIETY: A CONTENT ANALYSIS AND SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF SOME CONTEMPORARY CHINESE FILMS Master‘s Thesis Yiren Hao Supervisor: Professor Boulou Ebanda de B'béri Department of Communication, University of Ottawa 2st December, 2011 Key Words: Chinese women, Media Content and Gender Roles, Content Analysis, Semiotics, Contemporary Chinese Cinema © Yiren Hao, Ottawa, Canada, 2012 THE EVER-CHAGING ROLES OF CHINESE WOMEN IN SOCIETY ii Abstract One major question in the area of Feminist Media Studies is to analyze the stereotypical female role portrayals in media. Researchers in this area have examined diverse media including television, radio, films, textbooks, literature and so on. Empirical evidence provided by these studies shows that women in media are often underrepresented or stereotypically portrayed in traditional roles such as housewives or mothers associated with feminine values, such as dependent, submissive, and passive. Using content analysis and semiotic analysis, this study is designed to examine the portrayals of female roles in a sample of contemporary (1949-2010) Chinese films. Content analysis is employed to examine how women have been portrayed in films, with the primary focus on the frequency of three types of female roles including (1) traditional roles, (2) modern role, and (3) ideal role. Results suggest that during this long period of time, representations and constructions of women in films have shifted from promotion of gender equality, to diminishing and erasing gender difference, and finally regressed to confining them to traditional roles while emphasizing traditional feminine values and expectations. In using semiotic analysis, this research is able to outline the connotative meanings of the female characters as well as the implicit cultural values and messages of gender that are embedded in films. On this cultural analysis, the findings reveal that female role portrayals in films, which are influenced by political, cultural, and social changes, remained associated with traditional feminine stereotypes, values, and expectations. THE EVER-CHAGING ROLES OF CHINESE WOMEN IN SOCIETY iii Acknowledgement I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Boulou Ebanda de B'béri. Without his active involvement, very helpful comments and corrections, as well as constant encouragement all the time, this work would have been impossible. It has been his great patience and kindly consolation that helps me gets through all the hard times. Working with him has been a really wonderful experience. I am also quite thankful to Prof. Rukhsana Ahmed and Prof. Florian Grandena for serving on my supervisory committee and for posing some thought-provoking questions about my work. Also I would like to thank to all of my friends who give me inspiring ideas and to my family for their support. THE EVER-CHAGING ROLES OF CHINESE WOMEN IN SOCIETY iv Table of Contents CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 1 BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................ 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................. 4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ......................................................................................................... 20 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................... 21 STRUCTURE .......................................................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER TWO: “HOLDING UP HALF THE SKY”: 1949-1966 ............................ 32 WOMEN IN MAO ERA−HALF OF THE SKY ............................................................................. 32 FILM ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................... 34 CHAPTER THREE: “WHATEVER A MAN CAN DO, A WOMAN CAN DO TOO”: 1966-1976 ............................................................................................................................ 51 WOMEN IN THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION ............................................................................. 51 FILM ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................... 54 CHAPTER FOUR: “REDEFINITION OF BEING FEMALE AND FEMININE”: 1978-2000 ............................................................................................................................ 72 WOMEN AND THE ECONOMIC REFORM ................................................................................. 72 FILM ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................... 75 CHAPTER FIVE: “A COMPLEX PICTURE OF OPPORTUNITY, CHALLENGE, AND DISADVANTAGE”: 2000-2010 ............................................................................. 96 WOMEN IN THE EARLY TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ............................................................... 96 FILM ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................... 98 CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ............................................... 118 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 125 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................. 137 APPENDIX A ....................................................................................................................... 137 APPENDIX B ....................................................................................................................... 142 APPENDIX C ....................................................................................................................... 153 APPENDIX D ....................................................................................................................... 159 THE EVER-CHAGING ROLES OF CHINESE WOMEN IN SOCIETY 1 Chapter One: Introduction Equality between men and women in China has greatly advanced over the past decades (Dai, 1995). Contemporary Chinese women enjoy equal rights and opportunities with men within the societal spheres, including political system, work force, and education, as well as marriage and family (Luo & Hao, 2007). However, despite the rapid development and obvious progress in women‘s liberation, many studies have shown that gender equality in China has not been fully achieved (Andors, 1983; Bossen, 2008; Hershatter, 2007; Hong, 1997; Pearson, 1995; Weeks, 1989). For example, according to the 2009 Human Development Report, China ranked 75th out of the 155 countries surveyed in terms of the gender-related development. In addition, in the aspect of gender empowerment measure, a composite index measuring gender inequality in three basic dimensions of empowerment—economic participation and decision-making, political participation and decision-making, and power over economic resources, China ranked 72nd out of 109 countries (The United Nations Development Programme, 2009). Besides, according to many Western feminist researchers of Chinese women, China‘s traditional patriarchal and patrilineal family structure continue to determine the nature of gender relations and the definition of gender roles (Weeks, 1989). Therefore, age-old discrimination and bias towards women still exist in contemporary Chinese society and many issues related to social inequality remain unsolved. Furthermore, women in media are often underrepresented or stereotypically portrayed (Janus, 1977). In China, feminist media study has mainly focused on television, advertising, or magazine, while representation and portrayal of women in films have been relatively less investigated. Therefore, using content analysis as well as semiotic analysis, this study is designed to THE EVER-CHAGING ROLES OF CHINESE WOMEN IN SOCIETY 2 examine the portrayals of female roles in a sample of contemporary Chinese films spanning from the 1950s to the 2000s. Background During the course of China‘s long history, women were deeply oppressed and silenced in society. A traditional Chinese woman back then had to face gender subordination and discrimination at almost every point in her life cycle (Waltner, 1996). For the reason that the unequal gender values and norms were deeply entrenched and naturally legitimated in Chinese culture, women themselves were not even aware of their degradation and abasement in the gender system. After 1949, when People‘s Republic of China was founded, the overall status of Chinese women has been largely improved. Undoubtedly, under the communist system, women were treated more equally and greatly benefited from various governmental policies and programs based on gender equality ideology (Croll, 1983). Since then, Chinese women began to enjoy equal rights and opportunities in public. It was advocated that they were holding up the half the sky (Hong, 1997), a term symbolizing women‘s importance and equality in Chinese society. Consequently, women‘s lives and societal roles have also changed. Media in China, criticized by Westerners as thought control or tools for propaganda, are used by the government as an important mouthpiece to actively transmit