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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Film Studies Images of the Female Singer The Structural Characteristics of Taiwanese Mandopop Music Videos by Liu, Chu-Ying Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2016 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Department of Film Studies Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy IMAGES OF THE FEMALE SINGER THE STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TAIWANESE MANDOPOP MUSIC VIDEOS Liu, Chu-Ying Music video visually communicates with music, in a storytelling manner with direct or subliminal messages to audiences. It encompasses many discourses over different contexts, and often used in contradictory ways to embody gendered aesthetic values of authenticity. This thesis sets out to investigate Taiwanese Mandopop female stars and their representations in the music videos seen in the Mandopop industry. At the heart of the body of work presented in this thesis is an exploration and examination of three case studies, focusing on female singers Winnie Hsin, Cyndi Wang, and Jolin Tsai, situating them within the Taiwanese Mandopop context, and in relation to their music videos: Understanding (1994), Love You (2003), and The Great Artist (2012). The representatives and adaptabilities for analytical interest are in relation to the three major themes, namely sadness, cuteness, and sexiness, meaning that their work can be seen to construct their specific star representation of femininity, feminism and creativity. Writing on the theoretical dialogue between film studies, music video studies, cultural studies, feminism, psychoanalytic theory and postmodernism, the textual analysis, combining the concept of music video detail analysis and the reconstruction of representations of each performer, will show how their images are created, and lead to a discussion of the embedded semiotic meanings, links among audience reception, creative control, and artistic freedom. Finally, these texts, a link to how the representations relate to cultural tradition and social transformation, will offer a dialogue and critique of Taiwanese society, through representations of the female stars they created. i Table of Contents ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents ...................................................................................................... iii List of Tables .............................................................................................................. v List of Figures .......................................................................................................... VII DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................................. IX Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... XI Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 Motivation .................................................................................................................... 1 Research Questions ...................................................................................................... 3 Outline of Chapters ...................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1: Literature Review .......................................................................... 11 1.1 Mapping the study in Chinese-language pop ................................................... 11 1.2 Women and music video .................................................................................. 15 1.3 Concluding remarks: Locating Taiwanese Mandopop in the existing literature27 Chapter 2: Methodology ................................................................................. 29 2.1 Research logic ................................................................................................... 29 2.2 Analytical tools for conducting structured microanalysis in the case studies.. 33 2.3 Objective hermeneutics .................................................................................... 45 2.4 Semiotics ........................................................................................................... 49 2.5 Concluding remarks .......................................................................................... 53 Chapter 3: Reviewing Mandopop .................................................................... 55 3.1 A short introduction to the history, society and culture of Taiwan ................. 55 3.2 A historical review of Taiwanese Mandopop’s social condition and historical context ............................................................................................................. 57 3.3 Concluding remarks .......................................................................................... 66 Chapter 4: The Melancholic Star and Case study- Understanding ................... 69 iii 4.1 The melancholic figure and sorrowful song ..................................................... 69 4.2 Case study ......................................................................................................... 73 4.3 Chapter Conclusion ......................................................................................... 128 Chapter 5: The Cute Star and Case Study — Love You .................................... 137 5.1 The cute star ................................................................................................... 137 5.2 Case Study — Love You ................................................................................... 142 5.3 Chapter Conclusion ......................................................................................... 178 Chapter 6: The Sexy Star and Case Study — The Great Artist ......................... 189 6.1 The sexy star ................................................................................................... 189 6.2 Case study ....................................................................................................... 192 6.3 Chapter conclusion ......................................................................................... 228 Chapter 7: Conclusion ................................................................................... 241 7.1 What was learned — structural characteristics ............................................. 241 7.2 What was learned — women’s representations in a cultural discourse ....... 245 7.3 Study limitations and provision of direction and areas for future research .. 250 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 257 English ...................................................................................................................... 257 Foreign Language ..................................................................................................... 288 Internet Resources .................................................................................................. 291 Music Video Resources ........................................................................................... 293 Musical Notation Resources ................................................................................... 295 Appendix 1: Lyrics and English translation, Understanding ..................................... 297 Appendix 2: Lyrics and English translation, Love You .............................................. 301 Appendix 3: Lyrics and English translation, The Great Artist ................................... 305 Appendix 4: Numbered musical notation, Understanding....................................... 311 Appendix 5: Numbered musical notation, Love You ................................................ 313 Appendix 6: Numbered musical notation, The Great Artist ..................................... 315 iv List of Tables Table 2-1: The relationships between the research questions and the methodological tools. .. 32 Table 2-2: The comparison of different types of shot between film and music video ................ 34 Table 2-3: The comparison of framings between film and music video ...................................... 35 Table 2-4: Camera movements in music video ............................................................................ 37 Table 2-5: Editing in music video ................................................................................................. 38 Table 2-6: The comparison between film editing and music video editing ................................