Representations of Chinese Women Warriors in the Western Media
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REPRESENTATIONS OF CHINESE WOMEN WARRIORS IN THE CINEMAS OF HONG KONG, MAINLAND CHINA AND TAIWAN SINCE 1980 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Chinese at the University of Canterbury by Yunxiang Chen University of Canterbury 2007 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................. i ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... ii Introduction................................................................................................ 1 1. HERstory of Chinese women warriors ........................................... 13 1.1 Basic Imagery ...................................................................................... 13 1.2 Thematic Continuity.......................................................................... 17 1.3 A Brief History of Women Warriors in Chinese Cinemas....... .23 2. Western Influence .................................................................................. 43 2.1 Western Women Warriors ..............................................................44 2.2 Chinese Women Warriors in Hollywood ................................... 54 3. Hong Kong .................................................................................................61 3.1 Peking Opera Blue .................................................................................... 61 3.2 Dragon Inn .............................................................................................. 74 3.3 The Twins Effect ...................................................................................... 86 4. Mainland China ...................................................................................... 98 4.1 Eight Women Died a Martyr .......................................................... 98 4.2 A Lover’s Grief over the Yellow River ......................................... 110 4.3 House of Flying Daggers.................................................................120 5. Taiwan ......................................................................................................136 5.1 Women Soldiers ................................................................................ 136 5.2 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ................................................148 5.3 West Town Girls ............................................................................... 162 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 176 Bibliography ............................................................................................ 181 Filmography ............................................................................................199 i Acknowledgements This thesis is a cross-disciplinary project of film study and gender study. I cannot thank enough my two main mentors, Associate Professor Chigusa Kimura-Steven and Dr Adam Lam for their support and guidance and assistance in obtaining the Master’s scholarship from the University of Canterbury which released me from financial difficulty while working on this thesis. They have also given me intellectual guidance and personal encouragement throughout my study. Associate Professor Kimura- Steven directed me to explore the gender perspectives and theoretical literature in that field. Her supportive criticism helped me to delve more deeply into social issues and refine my arguments. I am also extremely grateful to Dr. Lam who shared with me his knowledge, personal library and his collection of rare Chinese films. I am also grateful to Dr. Xiao Hong for her spiritual support and encouragement. I also owe a great deal to many friends for their inspiration, encouragement and support. Researching on my own could have been a very lonely time, but they helped me overcome the loneliness by providing me encouragement through e-mails, phone calls and visits. I am much obliged to all the tutors in the Learning Skills Centre at the University of Canterbury, especially Frieda Looser, who guided me through the final revision and editing. I also extend my heartfelt gratitude to Colleen Borrie for helping with the final editing of my thesis, and her support in arranging an office for use throughout my research. ii Abstract The subject of this thesis is the depiction of Chinese women warriors in the cinemas of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China since 1980. Women warriors have been a popular feature of Western media since the 1970s influenced by the second wave women’s movement, and have become a significant topic of academic study. However, Chinese women warriors are combined with and referred to as ‘Asian’ women without consideration of their cultural differences. Furthermore, although representations of women warriors in the cinemas of Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan may share some similarities, they also exhibit different regional features. This thesis attempts to reveal regional differences in the representations of women warriors in Chinese language films and their sociocultural contexts since 1980. An important goal of such research is to contribute to the study of the ‘woman warrior’ phenomenon in Chinese cinemas, in the hope that it will arouse interest in the field. This thesis also aims to focus attention on the changing status of Chinese women in different communities. Since gender is a global issue, it is hoped that the feminist perspective adopted here will stimulate interest among film specialists, not only in Chinese women in films, but also in the broader field of gender studies. ii Introduction The subject of this thesis is the depiction of Chinese women warriors in the cinemas of Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan since 1980, and begins by addressing three questions: i) the definition of a ‘woman warrior’, ii) why the regional division of Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan is necessary, and iii) what are their significant regional differences. The Changing Concept of Women Warriors A warrior may be defined as “a person engaged or experienced in fighting.”1 When using the term ‘woman warrior,’ a Chinese person would probably visualise such popular fictional figures as Mulan (木兰) and Mu Guiying (穆桂英) from Chinese literature. Mulan is a filial daughter in an ancient Chinese ballad, “Ode to Mulan”, composed in the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420– 518), who disguises herself as a son to replace her senile father when he is conscripted to serve in the army. Mu Guiying is a woman general of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) in the novel 2 The Saga of the Yang Family. 1 The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines the word ‘warrior’ as “[a] person whose occupation is warfare; a soldier, a member of an armed force. Now usu., a person experienced or distinguished in fighting, esp. of the ages celebrated in epic and romance or among primitive peoples; fig a hardy, courageous, or aggressive person.” 2 The Yang family saga is an important source of depictions of women warriors in Chinese folk culture. Four of the seven sons of Yang Linggong were killed in battle, while all the widows, their sisters-in-law and mother-in-law became generals who fought on behalf of the Yang family. Their stories have been spread by various anecdotists throughout history. In the Ming Dynasty, Xiong Damu collected their stories and produced the novel The Saga of the Yang Family which ended with “The triumphant return of the twelve women generals.” 1 Introduction 2 These women warriors are products of Chinese folk culture rather than the creations of specific authors. It could be said that they are regarded as ‘nü xia’ (女侠) who are uniquely Chinese phenomena. ‘Nü xia’ characters are found in the ‘wu xia’ (武侠, martial arts) novels which are a popular genre in Chinese literature, said to inhabit an imaginary world known as the jianghu (江湖, literally meaning rivers and lakes). According to Rong Cai, ‘jianghu’ is a symbolic territory which “was often believed to stand in sharp opposition to the oppressive official world of corruption and injustice, hence its resonance with the public.”3 The ‘nü xia’ who inhabit ‘jianghu’ are women who are masters of various martial arts and altruistically fight for justice, especially at a time when the official order has failed to do so. Since the Chinese word ‘xia’ is often associated with positive words such as ‘honourable’, ‘noble’ and ‘merit’—much the same as the English word ‘knight’—this term ‘nü xia’ can be translated into English as ‘lady knight.’ When people were disappointed by the failure of their government to protect them in real life, they would imagine rescue by a ‘nü xia’ as a means of catharsis. In the Chinese imagination, altruism is the most important principle of these traditional women warriors’ behaviour, and altruism is in fact part of the central ideal of ‘ren’(仁) in Confucianism, which has always been the nucleus of the Chinese patriarchal order. For centuries, even though these imaginary women warriors had broken the boundaries of female conduct, they were admired by the people because they fought for their nation, their political organisations, and their families without challenging the established patriarchal order. These imaginary characters even engage in warfare when war breaks out and there is a need for their bravery. When the wars 3 Rong Cai, “Gender Imaginations in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the Wuxia World,” Positions 13, no.2 (2005): 445. Introduction 3 end, their