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The major developments and their ideological implications of Chinese him and him education since the Cultural Revolution
Chen, Xihe, Ph.D.
The Ohio State University, 1994
UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Aibor, MI 48106
THE MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS AND THEIR IDEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
OF CHINESE FILM AND FILM EDUCATION SINCE
THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
DISSERTATION
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements
for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate
School of The Ohio State University
By
Xihe Chen, B.A., M.A.
*****
The Ohio State University
1994
Dissertation Committee: Approved by
Kenneth Marantz Arthur Efland g Adviser Robert W. Wagner Department of Art Education Copyright by Xihe Chen 1994 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I express sincere appreciation to Dr. Kenneth Marantz for his guidance and insight throughout the research. Thanks go to the other members of my advisory committee, Drs.
Robert W. Wagner, Arthur Efland and Mojmir Drvota, for their suggestions and comments. Gratitude is also expressed to the
Graduate School, the Ohio State University. Without the financial support of the Graduate Student Alumni Research
Award, which made my travel to China possible, this study would have been much difficult. VITA
1982 ...... B.A., Department of Chinese Language & Literature, Southwest China Teachers University, Chongqing, China
1984 ...... M.A., Department of Cinema, Arts Academy of China, Beijing, China
1985-1986 ...... Research Fellow, Division of Cinema Studies, China Film Art Research Center & The National Film Archives of China, Beijing, China
1986-1987 ...... Deputy Director, Division of Cinema studies, China Film Art Research Center & The National Film Archives of China, Beijing, China
Specially Invited Instructor, The Joint Graduate School of The Beijing Film Academy and China Film Art Research Center, Beijing, China
Special Commentator, for the journal, FILM ART, Film Workers Society of China, Beijing.
Columnist, BEI-YING HUA BAO, a pictorial of Beijing Film Studio, Beijing.
PUBLICATIONS
Books: Film in contemporary China (1993), In cooperation with George S. Semsel, Praeger, Westport, Connecticut & London. Cinema and Literature (1987), China film Press, Beijing.
in And several dozens of papers in film and Chinese cultural studies Published in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United States.
FIELDS OF STUDY
Major Fields; Art Education
IV t a b l e o f c o n t e n t s
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... ii
VITA ...... iii
LIST OF TABLES ...... vii
LIST OF FIGURES ...... viii
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Introduction ...... 1
1. The statement of the problem ...... 1 2. The importance of the problem ...... 4 3. The questions to be addressed ...... 7 4. The methodology of the study ...... 9 5. The limitations of the study ...... 17
II. Review of Literature ...... 20
1. Chinese Film ...... 20 2. Chinese Film Education...... 37
III. Chinese Film in Cultural Revolution (1966-76) . 43
1. The Theme of Class Struggle (1973-74) ...... 46 2. The Theme of Going Against Capitalist- Road-Takers (1975-76)...... 72
IV. Chinese Film in the Transition Period (1976-78) ... 84
1. The Theme of Going Against the Gang of Four .... 84
V. Chinese Film in the New Era (1979-90) ...... 94
1. The Theme of Political Wounds and Xie Jin's Mode (1979-the early 1980’s) ...... 94 2. The Fifth Generation and New Wave (the middle 1980's) ...... 123 3. Entertainment Film (the late 1980’s) ...... 147
V VI. Chinese Film Education (1960'S-1980'S ) ...... 175
1. The curriculum before the Cultural Revolution . 17 9 2. The Film Education in the Cultural Revolution . 189 3. The Pedagogical Practices in 1978 Classroom ... 190 4. The Changes after 1985 ...... 197
APPENDICES
Filmography ...... 205
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 208
VI LIST OF TABLES
TABLE PAGE
1. Categories of Characters in 197 3-74 Films ...... 57
2. Comparison between 1973-74 and 1975-76 Films ...... 78
3. Comparison between 1975-76 and 1977-78 Films ...... 90
4. Social Classification of Characters in 1973-74 Films ...... 112
5. Social Classification of Characters in Early 80's Films ...... 112
6. Binary Opposition of Value System in Films from 1973 to Early 80's ...... 118
7. Comparison of Leading Characters in Films from 1973 to Middle 80's ...... 138
8. Comparison of Value System in Films from 1973 to Middle 80's ...... 140
9. Comparison of Film Modes Since the Cultural Revolution ...... 170
10. GCR of the Beijing Film Academy ...... 179
11. MFR of the Beijing Film Academy ...... 181
12. EC of the Beijing Film Academy ...... 198
Vll LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURES PAGE
1. Major Developments of Chinese F i l m ...... 13
Vlll CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
I. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Chinese film, as a major component of Chinese contemporary art and culture, evidenced profoundly significant developments and striking advances during the catalytic years of the 1970's and 1980's. In terms of aesthetics, the traditional and single dramatized pattern was broken down, and modern and diversified styles were established. In terms of ideology, it changed from a propaganda tool of the Communist Party to a medium with various voices. While the development of Chinese film has attracted international attention, no comprehensive, scholarly study has covered and examined the modern period completely. In order to address this significant subject and explore its pivotal developments completely, I have conducted a historical survey of Chinese film entirely 2 covering the period from the Cultural Revolution to the New
Era (1966-1989).!
Not like the Hollywood film industry, which is controlled by market system, the Chinese film industry used to be dominated by the political system. Following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in October of 1949, China came under the Communist Party rule and, also, Chinese film came under the Communist Party dominance.
The film industry was nationalized soon after 1949. The
Ministry of Culture set up a Film Administration Bureau with two main divisions, one concerned with film production and processing and the other with distribution and exhibition.
With this establishment, Mao's slogan "Politics takes command!" began to come into full play. The whole film industry (including feature film, documentary and animation production) was required to serve such political purposes as the Party dictated. Chinese film became the tool of politics.
Chinese political authority made this relationship an unwritten law. Any dissidence and violence would bring
1. The main part of this research was presented in the conference "Film-China," sponsored by Fu Jen Catholic University (December 1992, Taipei), and is going to be published in the anthology, Film-China: Taiwan, The Mainland, and Hong Kong (January 1994, China Times Inc., Taipei). 3 serious trouble. The film. The Life of Wu Hsum (1950), for example, was praised by everyone, critics and public alike at the time of its release. It was a few months later that
Mao Tse-tung saw this film. He reacted by removing the film from all screens, and by removing its director, its author, and most of its cast from film-making altogether. He even wrote a film review in the Party's newspaper to criticize the film publicly (1951). Also, Before the New Director
Arrives (1956) was a rare attempt at dangerous satire of authority; it was directed by Liu Pan, whose film career was ended in the following years. This political relationship went to extremes in the late period of the Cultural
Revolution, and continued until 1978.
After the beginning of the New Era in 1979, Chinese film was freed somewhat from the close control of politics and entered a new stage. However, no matter how Chinese film changed, politics remained still in its "subconscious." Many developments of Chinese film in the New Era still need to be understood from a political point of view. Chinese films during this period, in a basic sense, echoed political discourses overt or kept secret.
Therefore, when exploring the important developments in
Chinese film during this period, my focus was on their relationship with politics and ideology. I not only looked 4 at the political and ideological implications of these developments, but also investigated how the various social forces (i.e., the Communist Party, filmmaking circles, and audiences) and cultural ideologies (i.e., traditional
Chinese culture. Party ideology, and Western culture) shaped the history of Chinese filmmaking, tracing the relative growth and decline of these factors during this era. In addition, I have included a brief survey of the developments of Chinese film education during this period reflecting the same perspective.
II. IMPORTANCE
The following points show the importance of this study:
First, as I mentioned above, this study offers a point of entry or key for understanding Chinese film and film education.
Second, since China is a country in which the annual production of feature films reached 143 in 1984, (the United
States made 167 features in the same year) with a 27 billion audience (China Film Yearbook, 1985, p. 678), film plays an exceptionally important role in the contemporary art and culture of China. Therefore, understanding Chinese film is 5
also a key to understanding Chinese contemporary art and
culture.
Next, from a non-Western-centered cultural vantage
point, understanding Chinese film (a mix of oriental culture
and socialist ideology) is also an important aspect to
understanding the multi-fold nature of film. In Hollywood,
film is a business; In Europe or New York, film is an art.
But, in China, film always plays an important political
r o l e .
The fourth reason this study becomes essential is that,
for the Chinese film circle, a balanced view for understanding the political function of Chinese film is
needed. After the Cultural Revolution, the trend of de politicized thought made many filmmakers truly believe that
film should be an art. When the economic factor went up during the economic reform of 1980's, which deeply affected the Chinese film industry's system, filmmakers began to realize and appreciate the importance of the relationship between film and business. However, they purposely or unwittingly overlooked the political function of film because they were sick of it. This research goes back to the old proposition "film is a tool of politics", but with a new perspective. It tries to show that in the Chinese political- cultural structure film always comes with a certain "political role", even if its political discourse is not obvious. Therefore, this research makes a contribution to filmmakers so that they may have a better understanding of their own position in Chinese culture, so that they can be more conscious of themselves.
Fifth, research on Chinese contemporary film history is often treated period by period only. Most of the research focuses on the early and middle 1980's. The Cultural
Revolution and the late 1980's have not received enough attention. Thus, this research conveys the findings depicting this crucial period more completely and continually. It is the first study focusing on the ideological implication and political relationship in
Chinese film. It is also the first serious study on the issue of Chinese film education.
Finally, this research uses some Western methods in its examination of an Oriental culture. These methods are different from methods commonly used in the past to study
Chinese film and film education. In this sense, this research opens a window to see and to show how Western paradigms and methodologies can be used in Chinese studies and their respective merits and limitations. III. QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED
Louis Althusser offers a theoretical model for this research, called "ideological state apparatuses" (usually called ISA by film scholars). According to this theory:
1. Film and education are considered as ISA, which are
different from the Repressive State Apparatuses
(such as the Government or the Army) and function
not "by violence", but "by ideology". (Louis
Althusser, 1971, p. 145)
2. Insofar as film and education function by ideology,
they are always unified, despite their diversity and
contradictions, beneath the ruling ideology, which
is the ideology of "the ruling class". The purpose
of this ruling ideology is to secure the
reproduction of the relations of production. (Louis
Althusser, 1971, p. 146)
3. ISA may be not only the stake, but also the site of
class struggle, and often of bitter forms of class
struggle. This is because the resistance of the
exploited classes is able to find means and
occasions to express themself there, either by the
utilization of its contradictions, or by conquering combat positions in it in struggle. (Louis
Althusser, 1971, p. 147)
Using these perceptions as a frame of reference, the questions that are addressed in this research are these;
1. What major developments have taken place in Chinese
film and film education from the Cultural Revolution
to the New Era?
2. What are the ideologies and/or ideological struggles
presented by these developments?
3. How do these ideologies and/or ideological struggles
reflect the interests of various social forces
(classes)? In other words, how do the various social
forces (classes) and their ideologies in turn
influence and form Chinese filmmaking and film
education? IV. METHODOLOGY
1. CHINESE FILM
In order to address the questions on Chinese film, I have mainly investigated and analyzed the most important movements and/or tendencies of Chinese film in each successive stage of this period. Consequently, I exclude non-feature films and the lesser important trends of feature films. I have assumed that feature film is a major part of film production, and that the most important movements and/or tendencies of feature film in each stage represent the basic ideological orientation for that period. This restriction can be viewed as the problem-oriented approach in the methods of historical research. (Shafer R. 1980 &
Tosh J. 1984)
Furthermore, when discussing the most important movements and/or tendencies of each stage, I have not individually dealt with each filmmaker and film, but with groups of film within these movements and/or tendencies in order to look at general trends and ideological nature. In other words, the way in which I surveyed each movement and/or tendency resembles the approach of genre criticism.
Genre is a French word for a literary type. In film study it represents the division of films into groups which have 10
similar subjects and/or themes. Genre, as a film criticism method, according to Bill Nichols in Movies and Methods
(1976), is useful for discussing film within a larger context and for also looking for general trends or social relationships. Of course, some films were selected from these movements and/or tendencies and served as samples for
the analyses of their ideological nature. However, they are
not to be seen as the individual film itself, but rather as
representatives of a genre, and a guide for observing patterns within these genres.
In the period my historical survey covers, Chinese film
industry went through three different political stages:
1. The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Mao and his
followers. Gang of Four, held political power.
2. The Transition Period (1976-1978). After Mao died
and Gang of Four was removed from power in 1976, Hua
Guofeng, a successor chosen by Mao, took over.
3. The New Era (1979-1989). Deng Xiaoping, downed by
Mao in the Cultural Revolution, reassumed power and
launched the movements of economic reform and "the
Four Modernizations."
These three political stages become the major reference points for Chinese film scholars to discuss the developments 11 of Chinese film during this period. Chen Huangmei arranges the Chinese film during this period into three phases according to these three political stages (1989). Paul Clark organizes the Cultural Revolution and the Transition Period into one phase, and the New Era into another phase (1987).
However, both their studies only cover as late as the early
1980's. My study, based on the changes of ideological and political nature of films, divides the whole period into six developmental phases, which correspondingly fall into the three political stages:
The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)
1. The films with the theme of "class struggle"
(1973-1974);
2. The films of "going against the Capitalist-
Road-takers" (1975-1976);
The Transition Period (1976-1978)
3. The films of "going against the Gang of
Four"(1977-1978);
The New Era (1979-1989)
4. The films of "political wounds" and Xie Jin
mode (1979-the early 1980's),
5. The New Wave of the Fifth Generation (the
middle 1980's),
6. The Entertainment Film (the late 1980's). 12
These division, definitions, and arrangement are mainly from my study, and from my perspective, the political and ideological viewpoint.
In terms of chronology, these themes are consecutive, and also overlapping. The films of class struggle reached its peak during 1973-1974, but continued to 1979. The films of going against the Gang of Four peaked during 1977-1979, and also continued to 1983-1984. The films of "political wounds" almost persisted during the whole New Era. The films of the Fifth Generation still existed after 1987, just as the Entertainment Film was already evident in the early
1980's films. However, as the most prominent movements or tendencies for each stage, they occurred consecutively.
Graphically, these stages can be observed below: 13
1973-74 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990
Class Struggle
Against Capi-Roader
Against Gang of Four
Political Wound
Fifth Generation
Entertainment film
Figure 1. Major Developments of Chinese Film
(The thick line indicates the period during which each theme was most prominent; the thin line indicates that the theme was still in existence, but not as a major influence.)
It is important to note that I pay major attention to the analysis of narrative structure of each genre, and mainly used an approach called structuralism-narrative analysis to deal with it. This approach is a combination of
Claude Lévi-Strauss's structuralism and Vladimir Propp's method of narrative analysis. Lévi-Strauss's method is to look for the structure of cultural systems in terms of binary oppositions (1967). Vladimir Propp's method of narrative analysis is to reduce the stories in one category 14
(genre) to a single list of shared functions (1968). Through
the analysis of the narrative structure and functions, I
reveal how film characters present basic social and
political classifications of people in Chinese society and
how the interaction of film characters conveys their
relationships. This social and political perspective is not
only from my methodology, but also from films themselves.
Because most of these films (at least the first four genres
from 1973 to the early 1980’s) can be easily catalogued as political melodrama, which mainly presents people in film characters from a political viewpoint. However, my concern
is not only the directly political implication of these classifications and relatioships, but also the conceptual
and ideological structure in terms of binary opposition presented in films through these characters and their
relationships. My analysis reveals these binary opposition
structures.
My data for this portion of study mainly draws from the
films themselves during the period I survey.% Prior to
2. Most of the films I discussed have English titles available, which are translated by the Chinese Film Cooperation when they were released to overseas. They are;
Fiery Years (1974) Counterattack (1976) The Alley (1980) The Herdsman (1982) Yellow Earth (1984) 15
December 1987, I had worked in the China Film Art Research
Center as a research fellow for three years. The Center was
also the only home of a national film library. Thus, I had
the opportunity to see most of the films of this period.
After coming to America at the beginning of 1988, Chinese
films were still accessible to me at the film parties
sponsored by the Chinese Student and Scholar Association at
OSU, at the Chinese Film Festival at OU, and at some film
conferences about Chinese and Asian film in the USA and
Australia. In the Spring of 1992, with the support of Alumni
Awards provided by the Graduate School of OSU, I had a
chance to spend two months in Beijing Film Archives and watch the films released in recent years. This has been very
helpful for my research. Since it was not expedient to see
Hibiscus Town (1986) Xiao Xiao (1987) Old Well (1987) Obsession (1989) Judou (1990)
Some of the films have no official English titles available, and I translated their titles into English. They are:
Qing-Song Mountain (Qingsongling, 197 3) Merry Xiao-Liang River (Huantengdexiaolianghe, 1976) October Storm {Shiyuefengyun, 1977) A Grim Course {Yanjundelichen, 1979) Wish {Ruyi, 1981) Legend of Martial Art {Wulingzhi, 1983) The Yellow Spirit in Night Shadow (Yemoxiadehuangsiyouling, 1989) Swordsmen in Twin Banners Town [Shuangqizhendaoke, 1990) 16 these films repeatedly, during the course of this research I have also used some written materials as useful complements, for example, China Film Yearbooks 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984,
1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, Catalogue of Chinese Feature Film
1949-1979, and journals Contemporary Film and Film Art and others proved excellent resources. Additionally, as a film critic and columnist in Beijing, I had many good chances to get in touch personally with filmmakers, the officials of the Film Bureau and Culture Ministry, and to get involved in many events in the film circle. All of these became valuable firsthand resources for my researchr In short, this is firsthand research based on such firsthand data melding personal and professional insights.
2. CHINESE FILM EDUCATION
To approach this issue, my investigation and analysis focused mainly on the curriculum problems of Chinese film education and its changes during the period. Because education is a process by which knowledge is conveyed, its nature can be revealed fully by checking the curriculum.
When examining the curriculum of Chinese film education, I have mainly used the method of philosophical inquiry. First, I examined its content (What to teach?), goals and objectives (Why the subject should be taught?). 17
Then, I looked for any assumptions regarding aesthetic and educational theory which offer philosophical foundations for this curriculum. Finally, I presented the ideological and political implications of the curriculum.
My data for this part is primarily drawn from the official documents of film curricula from the Beijing Film
Academy, which is the only institute in China to offer film production education and is the major institute in film education. Also, I have some firsthand experience in both studying and teaching at the Beijing Film Academy.
IV. LIMITATION
Three limitations emanate from the methodology of this study. First, the less important movements and tendencies are not discussed fully. Secondly, the prominent filmmakers and films are not focused on individually. The third is that less attention will be paid to the technique-aesthetics than subject-content. The reasons for these limitations have been stated in my methodology. Since I wished to emphasize the basic historical thread and the ideological implications of
Chinese film as concisely as possible, I felt these priorities justified a minimized attention to aspects less 18 germane. The consequential "limitations," however, do not imply that the history is simplified. 19
Reference
Mao, Tse-tung (1951, May 20). We should pay attention to the discussion of the film The Life of Wu Xun. Beijing; People's Daily.
Althusser, Louis (1971). Ideology and ideological state apparatuses. Lenin and philosophy. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Nichols, Bill (1976). Movies and methods. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Chen, Huangmei (1989). China today: Film (two vols.). Beijing: China social science Press of China.
Clark, Paul (1987). Chinese cinema: Culture and politics since 1949. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1976). Structural anthropology. Doubleday, Garden City, New York: Anchor Books.
Propp, Vladimir (1968). Morphology of the folktale. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Shafer, R. (1980) A guide to historical method. Homewood, Illinois: Dorsey Press.
Tosh, J. (1984) The pursuit of history. New York: Longman.
Efland, Arthur (1983) Curriculum inquiry in art education: A model approach. Columbus: The Ohio State University.
China Film Press (1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990) China film yearbook 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988. Beijing. CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
I. CHINESE FILM
In the literature of Chinese film history, the political and ideological nature of Chinese film is the
issue of most writer's concern, although their approaches may be very different.^
A classic study on this subject is History of the
Development of Chinese Film (vol. 1, vol. 2, 1963), written by film historians, Chen Jihua, Li Shaobai and Xing Zuwen.
Chen Jihua was invited as a visiting professor to many universities of the United States of America during the
1980's to give lectures about Chinese film. This book covers
the history of Chinese film from 1896 to 1949, and contains
abundant historical data about Chinese films, filmmakers.
3. All Chinese references and quotations I used in my studies have no English version, and they are translated by me. 20 21
film companies, and other historical facts. This
authoritative information becomes an important resource for
many later studies.
In its introduction, the authors clearly claim that
this book follows Mao's thoughts regarding history,
literature, and art, which divides any culture and art into
two basic categories: the socialist-progressive and the
imperialist-reactionary. These Maoist beliefs form a
framework going throughout the book. The authors arrange
Chinese film history before 1949 into three stages:
1. 1896-1931, the beginning and development of Chinese
film.
2. 1931-1937, the Party dominated the cultural movement
of Chinese film.
3. 1937-1949, the new stage of the progressive film
movement and the beginning of people's film. (Chen
Jihua, 1963)
In the first stage, the authors argue, Chinese film was
economically controlled by imperialists and bourgeois and was permeated with feudal and capitalistic ideologies.
Therefore, it belongs to the category of the imperialist-
reactionary film. 22
In the second stage, the film industry was still in the hands of capitalists, but the influence of the Communist
Party became ascendant and dominated Chinese filmmaking ideologically. Chinese film became progressive.
During the third stage, the influence of the Communist
Party continued to dominate Chinese film ideologically as in the second stage. The authors mark it "the new stage of the progressive film movement". The developments which have been referred to so far have been based in Shanghai or Hong
Kong (the Kuomintang-controlled area), and controlled by private ownership. However, in the third period, a film production base outside Shanghai was established, which was in the Communist Party-controlled area, Yan'an, and totally controlled by the Communist Party. The authors call it "the beginning of people's film". Both Shanghai's and Yan'an's film movements during this period are progressive. At this point, two sub-basic categories existed within progressive film: the progressive film (based in Shanghai) and the people's film (based in Yan'an), the latter will be developed further and related to the category, the socialist film, by later studies. However, Yan'an made no feature films but only some short documentaries due to the lack of materials, while Shanghai's films often came imbued by bourgeois thinking and feeling criticized by the authors.
The film historians reserve the highest category, the 23 socialist film, for the films made after 1949; they propose to cover this distinct type in the third volume of their film history.
Another major work in this field is Chen Huangmei's
China Today: Film (vol. 1, vol. 2, 1989), one of China
Today'a series sponsored by the Chinese government. The book covers the period from 1949 to 1984, depicting film history since establishment of the People's Republic of China, using the history before 1949 as a background. The authors divide this history into four phases:
1. 1949-1959, rising period.
2. 1960-1965, tortuous period.
3. 1966-1976, the Cultural Revolution period.
4. 1976-1984, the New Era.
Basically, the authors believe, Chinese film developed healthily in the first phase, and was severely damaged in the second phase and destroyed in the Cultural Revolution by the ultra-left line of the Communist Party, and revived and reached its highest achievements in the New Era.
At this point, knowing about backgrounds of the authors is helpful to better understand their opinions and the framework of the book. China Today: Film is by a writing 24 team headed by Chen Huangmei, a former Vice-Minister of
Culture Ministry in the 1980's and director of the Film
Bureau in the 1950's. Chen was one of the Communist Party's moderates. They held the power in the 1950's, and were pushed side by the hard line (the ultra-left line) in the first half of the 1960's; in the Cultural Revolution, they lost control but regained leadership in the New Era. They approach Chinese film history from their own political stance and from two referential politicized categories; the films under the correct line (moderate line) of the Party, which include those made in the first phase and the New Era; and the films under the ultra-left line (hard line) of the
Party, which primarily denote those produced in the Cultural
Revolution. Both categories are historical, as well as critical.
An important article should also be mentioned, which is
"The History Is a Lesson" (1979) by Xia Yan. Xia was a former Deputy Minister of Culture Ministry in the 1950's. In the 1930's, when the patent influence of the Communist Party just entered the Chinese film industry, he was a playwright and a member of the Communist Party film group. His basic views are much the same as Chen's. However, he traces the problem of Chinese film under the hard line of the Communist
Party back to the 1930's. He argues that, the over politicized film policy, executed by the hard line after 25
1949, was rooted as early as the 1930's. After 1949, when the Communist Party took power in the Mainland of China, this policy even went much further. The over-politicized management treated filmmaking and film artists as a violent form of political campaigning (the political campaign, in
China, used to be violent), nearly destroying the Chinese film industry during the Cultural Revolution. This candid assessment combines a very unusual self-criticism with a deep and perceptive insight rarely seen before. Xia disclosed his views as a senior member of the Communist
Party and of the Chinese film industry.
Xia succinctly discusses the reasons which caused the
Party to go astray in its policy regarding the relationship between art and politics. The first is the influence of the feudal cultural mind-set of China, which is totalitarian and demands that art become subordinate to politics. The second is that the Party’s leadership was generally low in terms of cultural affinities, treating art and creativity as well as science in inappropriate ways. The third is that the Party, after taking power, did not immediately adjust the policy regarding literature and art to fit into the new situation in China. The last reason pertains to the slavishly dependent thinking of some Party officials. However, these criticisms mainly point to the hard line, yet do not mean denying the leadership of the Party. As a member of the 26 moderates, he suggests that the political authority should
loosen controls on art creation and trust the artists; on
the other hand, artists should assume their social
responsibility. Essentially, this means that artists can
have a certain freedom to create their art, but "not the
freedom of going against the Communist Party, and the
freedom of going against socialism". (1985)
Dr. Sergei A. Toroptsev, a research fellow at the
Institute of Far Eastern Studies, Academy of Sciences of the
USSR, published a rather discerning book, A Brief History of
Chinese Film (1979).In it he investigates and discusses the history of Chinese film from 1896 to 1966. The author
focuses on the history after 1949 and pays major attention to the relationship of Chinese film to Chinese politics.
Toroptsev arranges Chinese film history between 1949 and
1966 into three phases:
1. 1949-1957, the developments of film art of the
People's Republic of China.
2. 1958-1960, the films in Great Leap Forward period.
3. 1961-1966, the films between Great leap Forward and
Cultural Revolution.
^. Dr. Sergei a. Toroptsev's book is written in Russian, and has a Chinese version. The part of the book I used and translated is from the Chinese version. 27
In brief, in Toroptsev's investigation, the history of
Chinese film after 1949 is an expose history of a Chinese film industry constantly assaulted and finally destroyed by the Maoist political line. He says: "This policy demands to present a work of art only as an illustration of a current political slogan, and only as a propaganda of Mao's instruction and slogan" (p. 47).
It is relevant to mention here some background of
Toroptsev's study. During the late 1950's and the first half of the 1960's, the relationship between the Soviet Union and
China was broken up and a serious ideological debate occurred. Both sides declared themselves the orthodox upholder of Marxism, and the opposed side the betrayer of
Marxism. China accused the Soviet Union of "revisionism", and the Soviet Union accused China of "dogmatism" or
"Maoism". In Toroptsev's study, we can see the influence of this background very clearly. He rigorously differentiates
Maoism from Marxism, and calls it "anti-socialism and anti-
Marxism". Furthermore, he claims that Maoism was the major source of destructive influences on Chinese film after 1949.
Dlanying— Electric Shadows, An Account of Films and
Film Audience In China (1972), written by professor Jay
Leyda at New York University, can be called a classic work 28 about Chinese film in the English language. The title of this book comes from the Chinese term for film and its literal translation— Dian (Electric) and Ying(Shadows).
Leyda worked in China from 1959 to 1964 and a portion of this book derives from his firsthand observation. Another major source is a two-volume work, History of the
Development of Chinese Film, by Chen Jihua. Interestingly,
Leyda refers to Chen's book in the foreword of his own book,
"As I heard this translation of a history so extremely orthodox in attitude and in structure, I began to imagine another history of Chinese film, looser in both attitude and structure, less anxious to subscribe to habits and taboos, and that is what I began to write" (p. xiii). Leyda examines the history of Chinese film from the early age to 1967 in his decisive work. The ruling ideology and film audience, and their respective relationships to Chinese film, are examined closely. Shanghai and Yan'an, two important geographical/cultural concepts in the history of Chinese film, are put in perspective again and are defined as the major concepts which addressed the cultural/political property of Chinese film for the first time. About Yan'an, the author says;
It was here that the people and ideals were formed that were to decide the nature of Chinese films after 1949. At our distance, in time and space, from the now legendary Red base of Yan'an, the film problem would seem a simple one; whenever we get the means we'll make 29 films to help fight imperialism and build socialism (p. 148-149).
While Leyda's definition for these concepts may seem preliminary, it is credible and important. His concepts and perspective, which look at Chinese film from the angles of the ruling ideology and audience, besides the filmmakers, inspire later studies about Chinese film. Especially notable is Paul Clark’s work, an important study about Chinese film in recent years.
Paul Clark, a research fellow at the Institute of
Culture and Communication of the East-West Center in
Honolulu, Hawaii, is the author of Chinese Cinema, Culture and Politics since 1949 (1987). In this book, Clark uses the theoretical framework which concerns Chinese film from three aspects; filmmakers, audiences, and political leadership. He believes that the dynamic relationship among filmmakers, audiences, and political leaderships has shaped the history of Chinese filmmaking. His examination covers the development of Chinese film from 1949 to the early 1980’s, utilizing pre-1949 history for background, as Chen Huangmei does in his book. However, he creates two basic categories,
Shanghai and Yan’an, instead of the correct line and ultra left line used by Chen. He argues that Chinese film, after
1949, is directly linked to two major traditions of Chinese film history, before 1949: 30
One was a more autochthonous heritage closely associated with the wartime Party headquarters in the interior town of Yan'an. It drew heavily on folk traditions, severely modified to conform with Party ideology. In contrast, the alternative cultural tradition grew out of the Westernized, cosmopolitan coastal cities, notably Shanghai. Its cultural inspiration was to a large extent foreign and its political stance reformist or revolutionary, but not necessarily Marxist (p. 2).
The tension between these two traditions constitutes a major theme which dominated Chinese filmmaking after 1949.
Clark takes over the two geographical concepts, Shanghai and
Yan'an, and develops them into two major concepts to describe the cultural and political property characterizing
Chinese film. These two film cultures, according to Clark's theoretical framework, have been shaped by three factors: political leadership, filmmaker, and audience. Based on these two categories, Shanghai and Yan'an, he defines the
Chinese film history accordingly: before 1949, Chinese film is of Shanghai; then, successively,
1. 1949-1956, a contest between Yan'an and Shanghai;
2. 1956-1964, beyond Shanghai;
3. 1964-1978, the Cultural Revolution, beyond Shanghai;
4. 1979-1984, beyond Yan'an.
However, from my point of view, Shanghai and Yan'an are mainly the categories to define Chinese film before 1979. If 31 the development of Chinese film after 1979 is discussed, a
new set of categories would be needed.
A valuable new category for the development of Chinese
film during the 1980's is post-socialism, raised by Paul G.
Pickowicz, a professor at the University of California, San
Diego. In his paper "Huang Jianxin and the Notion of Post-
Socialism" (1990), Pickowicz discusses three films. Black
Cannon Incident (1986), Dislocation (1987), and
Transmigration (1989), made by Huang, one of the most prominent directors of the New Wave of the Fifth Generation.
Pickowicz argues that these films "were produced in socialist nations, but they are not socialist works of art.
Why? Because their subject is the failure of socialism."
Also, he believes that modernism or post-modernism are not very useful frameworks for discussing these most important tendencies of mainland Chinese culture in the 1980’s." He suggests using a framework that might be called post
socialist .
Post-socialism, in brief, involves a massive loss of faith. Some of the alienation, frustration and anger it engenders leads to a politically healthy search for alternatives to traditional socialism, but some of the disaffection (such as the sort one sees in Transmigration) produces self-destructive behavior and mentality (p. 24). 32
Pickowicz relates this concept to other outstanding directors of the Fifth Generation and argues that "Many of the works of Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang and Zhang Yimou, that are set in pre-socialist time or in non-Han border regions, also fit into the post-socialist category" (p. 23).
In Pickowicz's analysis, he tended to underestimate the criticism made by Fifth Generation of the feudalism prevailing in current Chinese society and its political significance. When referring to my opinion about Black
Cannon Incident, he said: "Chen Xihe, for example, asserted that Huang was exposing evils that were 2000 years old, the vestiges of 'feudalism' and 'small peasant' mentality, evils that resurfaced in the Cultural Revolution. This type of vague and inoffensive language does not do justice to Huang
Jianxin because it fails to accept his challenge to look below the surface of the film" (p. 10).
In Pickowicz's study, there are also two other important concepts: reformist and Stalinist, which are related to the developments of Chinese film before the New
Wave of the Fifth generation in the middle 1980's. The author defines reformist as the following:
This type of art expresses faith in socialism, but it acknowledges that there are problems with the socialist 33 system itself. The purpose of exposing such problems is to solve them and, thus, perfect the socialist system (p. 2).
The representative work for reformist, according to the author’s opinion, is Xie Jin's films. Stalinist actually means the traditional Maoism and its ideological products.
Both of them, according to Pickowicz's classification, belong to socialist art, and are distinct from post socialist art.
Nick Browne, a professor and chairman of the Executive
Committee of Chinese film at UCLA, explores the political melodramas of Xie Jin, one of the most important phenomena of Chinese film during the 1980's, in his research paper
"Society and Subjectivity: the Political Economy of Chinese
Melodrama" (1990). The author calls his research a "study of the forms of PRC film in relation to contemporary ideology"
(p. 1). He tries to adopt a cross-cultural perspective on melodrama, a category and paradigm of Western critical theory, as an entree into this study; he believes that political melodrama is an exclusive or privileged site for the expression of the Chinese melodramatic mode, instead of family melodrama as in the West. In this research, he mainly analyzes a major film of Xie Jin, Hibiscus Town (1986), and points out: 34 In this form of the genre, the political perspective vies with and is contested by the ethical one. In this sense Xie Jin's narration, his point of view, includes a dual perspective, at the same time administrative and ethical, on the world of the characters (p. 21).
The film's principal reversal from the Party's ideology, the author believes, is that "the moral perspective contradicts the political one; the long standing correspondence of left with good and right with bad is abandoned." "The non- conforming outsiders — the newly rich peasant and the rightist — are assigned the role of the oppressed, and the agents of the Party, the oppressors, the police" (p. 15). In conjunction with the moral evaluation of positions on the political axis oppressor/oppressed is a moral evaluation of the political characters carried out in terms of sexual relations. The non-conforming outsider, new rich peasant Hu is sexually innocent; by contrast, the relation between the
Party agents, Li and Wang, is presented as a kind of mutual, pragmatic opportunism and moreover as fulsomely illicit.
The dual perspective of Xie Jin, revealed as the author goes further, is a specific historical and cultural formation, which corresponds to the conflict between the two dominant systems of contemporary Chinese ideology:
Confucianism and Socialism. "The film points up the superiority of the Confucian morality to Socialist opportunism and cynical pragmatism" (p. 18). Therefore, In 35 regard to the attitude to the two dominant systems of contemporary Chinese ideology, Xie Jin's political melodrama criticizes socialism, but remains quite squarely within the recognizable terrain of the traditional Han culture. In this sense, "the film fits on the cultural horizon of the 1980's in quite a different way from the radically conceived films of the Fifth generation" (p. 39). At this point, the author clearly relates the two most important tendencies/movements in the 1980's to the two dominant ideologies in China, and concisely defines the difference between them.
George S. Semsel, a professor at Ohio University, has completed two books on recent Chinese film developments.
Semsel worked in Beijing under the Ministry of Culture as a foreign expert in the China Film Corporation from 1984 to
1985. His first book, Chinese Film: The State of the Art in the People's Republic (1987), is a result of that experience. This work gives a valuable description of the organizational system of the Chinese film industry and its current status just prior to the book's completion. The second book, Chinese Film Theory: A Guide to the New Era
(1990), edited by George S. Semsel, is an anthology which collects the works of film studies written by Chinese scholars and published in China between 1979-1986. It provides a systematic understanding of the development of
Chinese film theory after 1979. In the introduction, the 36 author offers a useful brief for the history of Chinese film theory and its political context from 1949 to present. One of my research papers, "Shadowplay: Chinese Film Aesthetics and Their Philosophical and Cultural Fundamentals," appears in the book's collection of selected pieces.
Recently, a new book. Film in Contemporary China,
Critical Debates, 1979-1989 (1993) by Semsel, Xia, and myself, has just been published by Praeger Publisher NY. It presents the development of Chinese film studies in the
1980's, which moved from technological issues in the first half of the decade to ideological issues in the second half of the decade. The book collects the influential works written by Chinese scholars, and examines major issues raised during the second half of the decade. Some of them deal with the major developments of Chinese film in the
1980's. However, they are basically from the viewpoint of film criticism, not the viewpoint of historical study.
Some less important studies or articles are referred to in the discussion of films later, or listed in my bibliography. 37
II. CHINESE FILM EDUCATION
There are very few papers referring to Chinese film education in both Chinese and alien studies. The reason for this, I believe, is that Chinese film education is still a small field in terms of formal film production curriculum which is set primarily in the Beijing Film Academy. For
Chinese film educators, the issues of film education were usually discussed within the Academy. In the early 1980's, film education extended to some comprehensive universities, mainly in the Department of Chinese, as elective courses.
While the discussion of film education has gradually become a topic beyond the Academy, it is still in the beginning stage.
Weng Shirong, a professor and the Vice-Dean of Liberal
Arts College at Shanghai University, examines the history of film education in Chinese universities and discusses tentative ideas about the future film education curriculum in "Notes on the Issues of Film Education" (1984). He divides film education in Chinese universities into three stages; the first is the pre-established stage, from the late 1950's to the late 1970's. During this stage, film curriculum was not set formally, and film was considered as a casual topic discussed in the classes of Chinese
Contemporary (or Modern) Literary History, Literary and Art 38
Theory, and Writing. The second stage is the preliminary stage, comprising the late 1970's to the early 1980's. The course "Introduction to Film" was launched in a few universities during this period. In 1984, a large seminar on film education was held for the university teachers and the
Film Society for Higher Education was established in
Beijing, marking the commencement of the third stage, the developing stage. In 1983, 12 universities opened film courses. In 1984, when Weng's paper was written, 27 universities opened film courses. The author puts forward his proposal for film curriculum in universities. He believes that the following courses. Introduction to Film,
Introduction to Film Literature, Studies of Selective Works of Film Script, Chinese Film History, World Film History, should, and can, be provided in Chinese departments of comprehensive universities and liberal arts colleges in the future. However, this may take several years or longer to optimally further film education.
"On the Position and Function of Film Education in
Higher Education" (1984), written by a professor, Zhang
Yuxiang, offers some useful statistical figures for the history of film education in universities. He mentions that
In 1980, only one university, other than the Beijing Film
Academy, provided film courses. In 1982, 14 universities 39
opened film courses. In 1983, 27 universities established
film courses.
"Principal Opinions on University Film Education"
(1986), written by Zhou Chuanji, a professor of the Beijing
Film Academy, raises a critical evaluation of the film
education in universities outside the Academy, which
developed rapidly in the middle 1980's. He applauds the
development of film education at first, and refers to the
fact that by 1986 about 100 universities opened film
courses. However, he soon questions the legitimacy of film
courses opened in the universities. He argues that these
film courses are not academically proper. They are available
in Chinese departments, and taught as a kind of literary
course. This situation, he believes, is caused by the
traditional film concept of China (considering film as a
kind of literature or drama), and has to be changed. As an
alternative, the author introduced some models in western
countries.
In addition, Robert W. Wagner, a professor of Theater
and Cinema, the Ohio State University, gives a valuable
description of Chinese film training in his paper "Cinema,
and Film Training in the People's Republic of China" (1980), which is a result of his three-week visitation to film and television facilities in the PRC in the summer of 1979. 40
Also, George Semsel made a useful summary of Chinese film education and the Beijing Film Academy in the Introduction of his book, Chinese Film (1987). These are few works about
Chinese film education, written by a non-Chinese. As yet, among these studies done by Chinese and non-Chinese no paper has focused on the relationship of Chinese film education and politics. 41
Reference
Cheng, Jihua, & Li, Shaobai, & Xing, Zuwen (1963). History of the development of Chinese film (two vols.). Beijing: China Film Press.
Chen, Huangmei (1989). China today: Film (twO vols.). Beijing: China social science Press of China.
Xia, Yan (1979). History is a lesson for the later. In Talks on films since the Cultural Revolution. (1980) Beijing: China Film Press.
------(1985). Few words from heart. In Film Communication, Beijing, 1985, Vol. 5.
Toroptsev A. Sergei (1979). A brief history of Chinese film (Chinese version, 1983j. Beijing: China Film Press.
Leyda, Jay (1972). Dianying— Electric shadows: An account of films and film audience in China. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Clark, Paul (1987). Chinese cinema: Culture and politics since 1949. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Pickowicz, G. Paul (1990). Huang Jiangxin and the notion of post-socialism. In Conference of Chinese films in the 1980's. University of California, Los Angels.
Browne, Nick (1990). Society and subjectivity: The political economy of Chinese melodrama. In Conference of Chinese films in the 1980 's. University of California, Los Angles.
Semsel, George (1987). Chinese film: The state of the art in the People's Republic. New York: Praeger Press.
Semsel, George, & Xia Hong, & Hou Jianping (1990). Chinese film theory: A guide to the New Era. New York; Praeger Press. 42 Semsel, George, & Chen, Xihe, & Xia Hong (1993). Film in contemporary China: Critical Debates, 1979-1989. New York; Praeger Press.
Weng, Shirong (1985). Notes on the issues of film education. In An anthology for 1984 University Film Education Seminar, Shanghai: Shanghai Teacher's University Press.
Zhang Yuxiang (1985). On the position and function of film education in high education. An anthology for the 1984 University Film Education Seminar, Shanghai: Shanghai Teacher's University Press.
Zhou Chuanji (1986). Principal opinion on university film education. Contemporary Cinema (Beijing), 1986, Vol. 3.
Wagner, Robert W. (1980). Cinema, and film training in the People’s Republic of China. In Journal of the University Film Association. Fall 1980, XXXII, 4. CHAPTER III. CHINESE FILM IN THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
(1966-1976)
Only nine years after the first movie was made in the
West, China made its first movie Dinjin Mountain (1905)
(Chen J., 1963). From then to the present, China's history of film making spans almost ninety years. In the early age, the main base for Chinese filmmaking was in Shanghai.
According to statistics, as many as 175 film companies were registered in 1925, and 141 of them were in Shanghai. All of them were under private ownership (Chen H., 1989). At that time, film was treated mainly as a technological curiosity and a form of entertainment, not as a kind of serious art.
Most well-educated people were reticent or shamed to join the film industry. The film production essentially encompassed comedy, gangster, action, and melodrama inspired by the Hollywood model (Chen J., 1963).
43 44
By the end of the 1920's, and the beginning of the
1930's, the power of film as a mass medium began to be recognized by more and more individuals. Many intellectuals
joined the film industry with their radical ideals. At the
same time, a film group of the Communist Party was established, and they tried to promote their influence on
filmmaking through script writing and film criticism (Xia,
1979/1980, Chen J., 1963). In the middle 1930's, and the
late 1940's (before and after the World War II), the Chinese
film industry produced many classic works. For example,
Spring Silkworms (1933), Goddess (1934), The Highway (1934),
Street Angel (1937), Eight Thousand Li of Clouds and Moon
(1947), The Spring River Flows East (1947), and Crows and
Sparrows (1949), which expressed radical ideologies on
social equality and national liberation. This is a period with glory and achievements for the Chinese film industry,
and is recognized by many foreign scholars. Chen Jihua
(1963) believes that in the early age Chinese film was dominated by the imperialist-reactionary economy and
culture, and in the 1930's and 1940’s by the progressive
power. However, Leyda (1972) and Clark (1987) tend to define
Chinese film before 1949 with a different category,
Shanghai.
After 1949, the Chinese film industry was nationalized
and controlled directly by the political authorities. Film 45 production bases were built in many areas outside Shanghai, but actual filmmaking was up and down, time after time. For example, the criticism made by Mao related to the film. The
Life of Wu Xun, in 1951, caused a dramatic decrease of film production in the following year, and only one film was released in 1951 and four films in 1952 (Chen H., 1989).
Political interference became constant for the Chinese film industry. However, in the 1950's, the moderates of the
Communist Party held certain, but impressive, power in the industry. Xia Yan (a member of Film Group of the Communist
Party in the 1930's and Deputy Minister of Culture Ministry in the 1950's) and Chen Huangmei (director of Film Bureau in the 1950's and Deputy Minister of Culture Ministry in the early 1960’s), whom I mentioned in the review of literature, were the prominent representatives. They tried to keep a balance between the Party ideology and the film industry. In the late 1950's and early 1960's, some of the best films since 1949 were made. These films include The Lin Family
Shop (1959), Lin Zexu (1959), Song of Youth (1959), Storm
(1959), Third Sister Liu (1960), Early Spring in February
(1963), Serfs (1963).
In the first half of 1960's, the power of the hard line in the Party increased day by day, which directly affected the film industry. Within the Party, "Xia and Chen’s line" was severely criticized as "a bourgeois line" (Chen H., 46
1989). Also, many films, including some of the best films since 1949, including The Lin Family Shop, Early Spring in
February and Stage Sisters (1965), were condemned publicly and banned nationwide, or shown as politically negative models. By the eve of the Cultural Revolution (1966), the
Chinese film industry was seriously paralyzed, and its production decreased from 42 films in 1965 to 13 films in
1966 (Chen H., 1989). In Chen Jihua's book, the history from
1949 to the first half 1960's is labeled with the category, socialist film (1963). Toroptsev names it Maoism
(1979/1983), while Chen Huangmei (1987) and Xia Yan
(1979/1980) arrange it into phases— under the correct line and under the ultra-left line; Leyda (1972) and Clark (1987) designate it with the category, Yan'an.
1. THE THEME OF THE CLASS STRUGGLE (1973-74)
For ten years from 1966 to 1976, China experienced the
Cultural Revolution. During this period, the leftists, headed by Mao, completely defeated the rightists, headed by
Liu and Deng. In the first half of this period, feature film 47 production was totally stopped, and only a few documentaries were made. From 1970 to 1972, about ten "revolutionary model operas" were produced in celluloid versions. By 1973, the
Chinese film industry began to make feature films again. In
January 1974, the first four feature films made since the
Cultural Revolution, Qing-Song Mountain, Fiery Years,
Fighting with Flood, Bright Sunshine Skies, were distributed nationwide. From 1973 to 1976, when the Cultural Revolution ended, China produced 76 feature films (Chen H. 1989). They
focused mainly on two themes: class struggle and line struggle. Both themes appeared together in many films, and were often treated as one thing. But, as a matter of fact, they were distinctly different. Basically, the films in 1973 and 1974 paid more attention to the first theme, the class struggle, while the films in 1975 and 1976 mainly emphasized the line struggle. In the following, I discuss the structural pattern of the films with the theme of class struggle, through Qing-Song Mountain and Fiery Years,
A). Qing-Song Mountain (1973, directed by Liu Guo-Quan)
Qian Guang, a driver of the Qing-Song Mountain
Production Team, is accustomed to take advantage of his job by engaging in smuggling and profiteering, which infringes upon the interests of the production team. A young girl,
Xiu-mei, disapproves of his behavior. However, she, and the 48 others in this production team, can not drive. She begins to learn driving the horse-drawn carriage secretly.
Unfortunately, the first time she drives, the horse suddenly shies. Luckily, Chang Wan-shan, a low peasant who feeds the horse for the production team, stops the horse at the crucial moment. After that accident, the production team leader Zhou Cheng, older brother of Xiu-mei, criticizes Xiu- mei. This reinforces Qian Guang's position and prestige. At this time, a new Secretary of the Communist Party Branch,
Fang Ji-yun, arrives at Qing-Song Mountain. He supports the suggestion of Xiu-mei and other people, and establishes a training class for drivers. Chang Wan-shan is invited as an instructor. Xiu-mei and other young people learn how to drive in this class. Qian Guang sees it as a threat against his position and prestige, and makes the horse ill deliberately, then shifts the blame for the misfortune onto
Xiu-mei and other young people. Chang Wan-shan treats the ill horse carefully. The horse gradually gets better, and finally recovers. He teaches Xiu-mei and other young people a lesson about the class struggle drawn from his own experience before 1949, when he worked for, and was exploited by, landlords and rich men. One day, Chang Wan- shan criticizes Qing Guang for using the production team carriage to take some personal things, and infringing upon the interests of the production team. Qian Guang throws the horse whip, and refuses to drive. He thinks that nobody else 49 in the production team can drive, and Zhou Cheng will rely on him, offering him more power and prestige. However, at this time, Chang Wan-shan, an old man over sixty years, with a disabled leg, takes over the horse whip. When Chang Wan- shan drives the horse carriage into town delivering the products, the horse shies again at the same place where Xiu- mei had the accident. Chang Wan-shan controls the situation immediately. Then, he investigates the reason for the accident with the Secretary of the Communist Party Branch.
They find that in order to keep the position, Qian Guang had trained the horse with an odd habitual method: whenever the horse passed through the place where the accident had happened, it had to be beaten three times, otherwise it would shy. Then, through this investigation, Qian Guang is revealed to have been a rich-peasant before 1949. He is put under public surveillance. From these facts, the production team leader Zhou Cheng learns a lesson of the class struggle. Meanwhile, Xiu-mei and other young people have learned how to drive, and control the horse, and the whip, for the interests of the production team.
B). Fiery Years (1974, directed by Fu Chao-Wu)
In the early 1970's, the so-called brother country (The
Soviet Union) goes against China by breaking contracts with
China, and withdrawing the technical experts from China. At 50 the time, a steel mill is smelting a kind of alloy steel needed by a kind of military ship. Following Mao's thoughts of self-reliance, the team leader of the furnace workers,
Zhao Shi-hai, suggests using the domestic material instead of the imported material. While the Factory Director, Bai, insists that they should use the imported material from the so-called brother country. Secretary of the Communist Party
Committee of the factory, Wang and the workers support Zhao
Shi-hai's plan. Bai has to accept it. However, when the smelting is almost successful, Yin Jia-pai, who holds the position of the technical leader, puts some harmful material into the furnace. Meanwhile, he sends some people to the
Factory Director to report the success. Consequently, the bottom of the furnace is burned out. Yin Jia-pai reports to the Factory Director that the accident is caused by technical problems in the operation. The Factory Director believes this, stopping Zhao Shi-hai from working, and asks him to confess his mistakes. However, despite the penalty,
Zhao continues to smelt with the domestic material with the support of Secretary Wang. Yin Jia-pai adds the harmful material again, and is caught this time by the workers at the scene. Hence, the truth is apparent. Through the lesson learned from truth, and with the help of his fellow comrades. Factory Director Bai changes his mind. Finally, all members in the factory work together, and successfully produce the alloy for the military ship. 51
In this mode, the characters can be divided into five
categories; heroes (Xiu-mei and Chang Wan-shan in Qing-Song
Mountain, Zhao Shi-hai in Fiery Years), leaders of the
Communist Party who represent the leftist political line of
Mao (Fang Ji-yun in Qing-Song Mountain, Secretary Wang in
Fiery Years), masses, leaders of the Communist Party with
the rightist thought (the rightist leaders, Zhou Cheng in
Qing-Song Mountain, Factory Director Bai in Fiery Years),
and class enemies (Qian Guang in Qing-Song Mountain, Yin
Jia-pai in Fiery Years). Each category of character can be
viewed as a whole; their interests and actions are
identical.
The standard plot of these films follows a set
progression. At the beginning of the story, there is work
that needs to be done. This work comes not only with
economical significance, but also with political
significance. In Qing-Song Mountain, this work is driving
the horse carriage of the production team. It is a routine work on the one hand, and also a class struggle with Qian
Guang, a rich-peasant and member of capitalist class on the
other hand. Therefore, this is a political struggle as well.
In Fiery Years, this work is smelting alloy. It seems to be
a routine task from one view. But, from another view, it is
a political struggle with the revisionists (USSR). When the 52 revisionists broke the contract of providing the alloy, they
led the Chinese into difficulty and forced Chinese workers to do it themselves. So, the first formula is:
1). There is a work that needs to be done.
Pertaining to this work, the heroes (or heroines) have a project. In Qing-Song Mountain, Xiu-mei wants to control the horse whip because she believes that Qian Guang has taken advantage of his job by engaging in smuggling and profiteering, and harms the best interests of the production team. In Fiery Years, following Mao's thoughts of self- reliance, Zhao Shi-hai suggests using the domestic material instead of the imported material to smelt the alloy.
2). The heroes have a project pertaining to this work.
Meanwhile, the rightist leaders have another project for this work. In Qing-Song Mountain, the leader of the production team, Zhou Cheng, insists that Qian Guang should hold the horse whip. In Fiery Years, the factory leader,
Bai, intends to use the imported material to smelt the alloy. Their projects are opposed to the heroes'.
3). The rightist leaders have another project for this work. 53
However, heroes overcome the disturbance from the rightist leaders. In Qing-Song Mountain, Xiu-mei learns how to drive the horse carriage secretly. In Fiery Years, Zhao
Shi-hai gets support from Secretary of the Communist Party
Committee Wang and the masses, and begins to smelt the alloy.
4). The heroes carry out their own project.
Because of the sabotage from class enemies, the heroes' project is in trouble. In Qing-Song Mountain, the horse has an odd behavior, which has been reinforced by Qian Guang's training. When Xiu-mei drives the horse carriage the first time, the horse shies. Then, Xiu-mei is criticized by her older brother, production team leader Zhou Cheng. In Fiery
Years, When Zhao Shi-hai wishes success in smelting, Yin
Jia-pai puts some harmful materials into the furnace.
Consequently, it causes adverse effects, burning the bottom of the furnace.
5). The heroes' project runs into problems because of the sabotage from the class enemies.
When the heroes' project gets in trouble, the rightist leaders blame the heroes, and stop the heroes' work. In
Qing-Song Mountain, after the accident happens, Xiu-mei is 54 criticized. Zhou Cheng returns the horse whip to Qian Guang, which consolidates Qian's power and prestige. In Fiery
Years, after the bottom of the furnace is burned, the
Factory Director, Bai, stops Zhao Shi-hai from working.
6). When the heroes face the troubles, the rightist leaders cancel the heroes' project, and carry out their own project.
Then, the heroes, Xiu-mei and Zhao Shi-hai, face the situation of losing their honor and moving to a lower position.
7). The heroes fall into difficult situation.
When the heroes fall into a difficult situation, they get support from the Party. In Qing-Song Mountain, after the first accident, the new Secretary of the Communist Party
Branch, Fang, arrives at Qing-Song Mountain, and supports
Xiu-mei. He establishes a training class for driving, and invites Chang Wan-shan to be an instructor so that Xiu-mei and other young people can learn how to drive in this class.
In Fiery Years, Zhao Shi-hai gets the support from the
Communist Party Committee in the difficult situation.
8). The leftist leaders support the heroes. 55
Under the support of the leftist leaders, the heroes' project can be continued. In Qing-Song Mountain, after the training class, Xiu-mei begins to drive the horse carriage once again under the auspices of the leftist leaders. In
Fiery Years, Zhao Shi-hai resumes smelting the alloy with the domestic material under the support of the Communist
Party Committee.
9). The heroes continue their project.
In order to destroy the heroes' project, the class enemies engage in a deadly sabotage. In Qing-Song Mountain, when Qian Guang notices that the driving class is established, he makes the horse ill, and shifts the blame onto Xiu-mei and other young people. Then, the second accident with the horse occurs. In Fiery Years, when Zhao
Shi-hai continues his smelting, Yin Jia-pai puts in the harmful material again.
10). The class enemies engage in sabotages again.
However, their sabotages and real identifications are finally revealed by the heroes and their fellow comrades. In
Qing-Song Mountain, Zhang Wan-shan and Secretary of the
Communist Party Branch, Fang, carefully investigate the history of Qian and discover his real identification, a rich 56 peasant, and his sabotage and intrigue, "the trick of three whips." In Fiery Years, when Zhao Shi-hai continues his smelting, Yin Jia-pai puts in the harmful material again, and is caught by the workers.
11). The sabotages and real identifications of the class enemies are finally revealed by the heroes, masses and leftist leaders.
The reality of class struggle give the rightist leaders a good lesson. They see the mistakes made by themselves.
12). The rightist leaders see their own mistakes.
Therefore, they give up their own project and join the heroes' project. Finally, the work is finished successfully.
13). The work is finished by following the heroes' scenario.
Through the above analysis, formulating the narrative structure of this film mode, we can arrange the five types of the characters into two sides: positive side and negative side, and two levels: society level and party level as the following: 57 Table 1. Categories of Characters in 1973-74 Films
Positive side Negative side
Society-level 1. Heroes Class enemy
2. Masses
Party-level Leftist leaders Rightist leaders
In this arrangement, the heroes belong to the positive side, but at the society-level like the masses, because they do not hold the proper authority which is usually held by the
Party-level characters. Actually, they (for example, Xiu- mei, Zhang Wan-shan, and Zhao Shi-hai) are often depicted as distinguished members from workers, low and low-middle class peasants, and PLA men (the masses). Surrounding the heroes as a central figure, there are two basic conflicts. One is the conflict between the positive side headed by the heroes and the class enemies. This is the most important and dominates the development of plot. In Qing-Song Mountain, the class enemy, Qian Guang, tries to control the horse whip for his private interests, but Xiu-mei and Chang Wan-shan want to get the horse whip from Qian for public interests.
It causes a struggle between them with both political and economical significance. In this struggle, Qian engages in many intrigues. But, the heroes and their fellows gradually find out his intrigues, and finally defeat him. In Fiery 58
Years, focusing on the alloy urgently needed by the defense industry, an economical and political struggle takes place between the positive side headed by hero Zhao Shi-hai and the class enemies, inside and outside. From outside, the revisionists try to control the Chinese (represented by the heroes' side) by breaking the contract of providing the alloy, and, from inside, the class enemy, Yin Jia-pai, wants to harm the heroes' side through damaging the hero's scenario. However, hero Zhao Shi-hai and his fellows follow the line of Mao's self-reliance and overcome all difficulties on the way to smelting the alloy.
There is another conflict in the narrative structure of this film mode, the one between the heroes and the rightist leaders. As to the work which the hero wants to be done, the rightist leaders would like it to be done as well as possible. This attitude distinguishes them from the class enemies. However, they have a different project than the heroes'. This project often deals with the work only from an economical view, which means to give in to enemies politically. In Qing-Song Mountain, the leader of the production team deals with the work with a business attitude and wants to return the horse whip to Qian Guang. In Fiery
Years, the Factory Director, Bai, would like to use the imported material to smelt the alloy. This way runs counter to the principle of Mao’s self-reliance, and will lead to 59
giving in to the revisionists. In the conflict between the
rightist leader and the hero, there is always a leftist
leader, who represents the leftist revolutionary line of
Mao, standing by the hero and supporting the hero's project.
In Qing-Song Mountain, this character is Fang Ji-yun, and in
Fiery Years, the Secretary of the Communist Party, Wang.
They are not leading characters in the story. However, they carry a very important function in the plot conflict, because they possess the political power, which is strong enough to confront the rightist leaders.
In this film mode, the rightist leaders do not work together with the class enemies. However, the rightist leaders are always used by the class enemies, because they lack the idea of class struggle. Since the rightist leaders have certain power in their hands, they can do something, which the enemies want to do but are unable to do, harming the heroes' project. In Qing-Song Mountain, it is leader of the production team, Zhou Cheng, who takes the horse whip from Xiu-mei and gives it back to Qian Guang. In Fiery
Years, it is the factory leader, Bai, who orders Zhao Shi- hai to stop his project. However, through the lesson of class struggle, they finally understand what is wrong with their ideas and change their position to the heroes' side. 60
The masses do not play an important role in the conflicts of this film mode, but are a significant symbol.
They always stand with the heroes, thus symbolizing society's approval of the heroes' project which, after all, is for their best interests.
Through the dramatic relationships among the five kinds of characters above, three basic binary oppositions in value system are presented, all of which come with political significance. The first is the opposition of revolutionary/anti-revolutionary, which is presented in the conflict between the camp headed by the heroes and the class enemies. The revolutionary side develops the economy and the business .for the interests of the public and the nation. The heroes devote everything they have to the noble cause. On the contrary, the class enemies damage the economy and business, and harm the interests of the public and the nation with dirty tricks. Therefore, this political opposition also contains ethical significance, the opposition of good/bad.
The second is the opposition of the leftist line/the rightist line, which differentiates the rightist leaders' camp from the camp headed by heroes and the leftist leaders.
The leftists follow Mao's principles of class struggle and self-reliance to expand economy and business, while the 61 rightists carry on a policy which gives in to the enemies and capitalists. The opposition of the political lines does not necessarily come with ethical significance, because the rightists are not bad guys, and they also want the work to be done. This is mainly an opposition in terms of epistemology, the one of right/wrong.
The third opposition is the opposition of two kinds of status with political power, which distinguishes those holding political power, (usually, inside the Party), from those not holding the power, (usually, outside the Party).
Only with the consent of those holding the power, inside the
Party, can the project proposed by the heroes be carried on.
When the rightist leaders, inside the Party, reject the project, it comes to a deadlock. In the conflict between the heroes and the rightist leaders, there is not only the opposition of the leftist line/rightist line, but also the one of the status with the power, and without the power.
When a hero confronts a rightist leader, there is always a leftist leader inside the Party showing up and supporting the hero so that the project is able to be carried on again.
It shows the identity of the leftist leader and hero in terms of political line, but also the difference between them in terms of the status with political power.
Furthermore, this opposition is also presented in the identity and difference between the rightist leaders and class enemies. They both stand against the heroes' project, but only the rightist leaders have the authority to stop the project. Therefore, when the class enemies engage in sabotage, they always try to take advantage of the political power of the rightist leaders. In Fiery Years, for example,
Yin Jia-pai puts some harmful material into the furnace and, meanwhile, sends people to the Director, Bai, to report success. This is a typical practice. Also, in Qing-Song
Mountain, Qian Guang is always trying to get sympathy and support from the leader of production team, Zhou Cheng. In the opposition of being with power and without power, the leftist and rightist leaders, inside the Party, are on one side, since they both are those holding power.
From the above analysis, we can see that political themes dominate this film mode, and sexual themes are totally excluded. Most films have no implications about sexual relationships, or any family scene. For most heroes and heroines, for example, Zhao Shi-hai, Zhou Ting-Shan
(hero of The Pioneers, 1974), or Fang Hai-zheng (heroine of
"revolutionary model operas" On the decks, 1973), We have never known if they are married or who are their spouses. In
"revolutionary model operas" The Song of Dragon River
(1972), we can guess that the husband of heroine Jiang Shui-
Ying is a member of the Chinese People's Liberation Army
(PLA) by an inscribed board "the honored family of a PLA 63 man" on the door of her house. However, this is basically not to show her marital status, but to enforce her political status. Everyone knows what was the meaning of "family of a
PLA man" in that time. They were the most reliable politically. In Qing-Song Mountain, it seems that the gender feature of heroine Xiu-mei is excluded on purpose. She has a nickname "false boy", which means and makes her female characteristics disappeared in the film. In this film mode, the relationship between male and female only have political significance, not sexual (physiological or psychological) significance. They are "revolutionary comrades" or
"revolutionary comrade-in-arms".
The classification of the characters and the arrangement of their relationships, and the binary systems of values, which are brought out by the classification and relationship arrangement, all come from Mao's thoughts regarding the continuing revolution under the condition of the proletarian dictatorship (or the condition of socialism). It was said during the Cultural Revolution that these thoughts were extracted from the lesson of the USSR falling into the hands of the revisionists, and were an important development for Marxism. These thoughts are the theoretical base for launching the Cultural Revolution. It is claimed, although the proletarian (the Communist Party) holds the power under the condition of the proletarian 64 dictatorship, that does not mean the end of the class
struggle between the proletarian and the capitalist class.
The class enemies have been overthrown politically, but they are never willing to accept their failure. They are dreaming of restorations at any time, and will continue the class struggle with us in the areas of economy and ideology (not military and politics). The focus of the struggle still is
fighting for the power. The class struggle will continue through the whole period of the socialist revolution and construction. Therefore, under the condition of the proletarian dictatorship, the proletariat still should "take the class struggle as a key link" (Mao) and engage uninterruptedly in the struggle against the capitalist class. Those who give up the struggle against the capitalist class and pay attention to economical construction are capitalist-road-takers (the persons in power taking a capitalist road), and represent the interests of the capitalist class. This implies the policies held by the so- called No. 1 and No. 2 capitalist-road-takers in the
Communist Party, Liu Shao-qi and Deng Xiao-ping. (Liu was condemned and died in prison during the Cultural Revolution.
Deng survived from the Cultural Revolution and became No. 1 leader in China after the Cultural Revolution.) According to
Mao's theory, the whole society is divided into two parts: the revolutionary proletarian camp and the anti revolutionary capitalist camp. The proletarian camp consists 65 of workers, low and low-middle peasants, PLA men and the
Communist Party, the Party is considered as pioneer team of workers, low and low-middle peasants, and PLA men. The capitalist camp includes landlords, rich peasants, anti revolutionary (including historical anti-revolutionary, such as the members of Kuomintang party, and current anti revolutionary, such as the members who are against the
Communist Party at present), evildoers (such as criminal offenders), the rightists (who were condemned in the Anti-
Rightist Movement in 1957, mainly, intellectuals), capitalist academic authorities (mainly professors in universities), bureaucrat-comprador bourgeoisie, and also imperialists (such as the imperialists of the United States) and revisionists (such as the leaders of the Soviet Union) abroad.
Mao also believes that the social class struggle will be definitely reflected in the Communist Party, and become the struggle of the two political lines between the leftists and the rightists within the Party. The leftists represent the interests of the proletariat, while the rightists represent the interests of the capitalist class. The line struggle is the continuation of the social class struggle within the Communist Party. 66
The crux of the class struggle (in the society) and the line struggle (within the Party) is fighting for the power.
"Having power means having everything, losing power means losing everything." This popular motto of the Cultural
Revolution expresses the strongly concentrated concern with the power. Since the power of the proletarian dictatorship is held by the Party, the capitalist class must find agents within the Party when they can not confront with the proletariat militarily and politically. This makes the class struggle in society and the line struggle within the Party interwoven simultaneously around the power.
Mao's concepts on social division. Party division, and concerns for the power crisis (having power/losing power) are exactly reflected in these films with the theme of class struggle. Therefore, when we locate this mode in the context of social forces and cultural ideologies in which it was produced, we can clearly relate it to the influence of the leftists headed by Mao in the Party and his ideology. The influence was realized through the direct control of Mao's wife over the Chinese film industry in the Cultural
Revolution. She combined Mao's political line "take the class struggle as a key link" and his artistic policy "arts serve politics" perfectly, and created this film mode. It also can be seen as a symbol for the mainstream Chinese culture of that period. 67
At this point, I offer a summary of my framework by which I relate this film mode with the following modes of
Chinese social and cultural context. I emphasize three main social forces which shape Chinese filmmaking: The Party, the artists, and the audience. This framework is not initiated by me. During the Cultural Revolution, it was generally believed that any success in artistic creation had to be a combination of three elements: the ideas from the leaders, the artistic skills from artists, and the source material of art derived from people's living experience. In the formulation of this combination, the three elements which shape Chinese art creation were clearly brought out. I believe this framework still serves well for now. Some
Western authors, such as Jay Leyda (1972) and Paul Clark
(1987), also treat these three elements as the major forces which determine the Chinese film industry in their studies.
Of course, these three elements can be divided further.
The leadership of the Party can be divided into the leftists and rightists, or those holding the power in the Cultural
Revolution and those holding the power in the New Era. The film artists can be separated further by style and age, such as the Third Generation, the Fourth Generation, and the 68
Fifth Generation.5 The audience also can be separated into different levels by age, education, and area. In addition, along with more exchanges between China and overseas since the late 1980's, foreign film markets, film festivals, and film investment forces have become a force from international societies which have become involved in
Chinese filmmaking. I call this the fourth force. Perhaps, the influence of this force is still limited on the mainstream of Chinese film industry so far.
In regard to the cultural ideologies which influence
Chinese filmmaking, Chen Jihua mentions two major but opposite forces in his book; proletarian ideology and
^ . In the book, Chinese film: The state of the art in the People's Republic (1987, New York: Praeger Press), George Semsel gives an useful description for the generations of Chinese filmmakers:
China divides its filmmakers into generations. Those who graduated from college after 1982 are the Fifth generation. Those who studied film prior to the cultural revolution but who did not make films until after it ended, are the Fourth generation. The Third generation directors did not study film, but entered the industry near or shortly after Liberation. They form the older working generation. The Second generation refers to the filmmakers of the 1930s and 1940s who developed social realism. The First are the pioneers. The Fourth and Fifth generations are sometimes called the "Academic School" because they studied the medium formally prior to entering the industry. It is more useful to refer to them as new filmmakers than young filmmakers since many of those making film for the first time are in middle age (p. 11). 69 bourgeois ideology (1963). However, his study mainly deals with the history of Chinese film before 1949. Discussing the history after 1949, Paul's book (1989) uses the framework of
Shanghai/Yan'an. Before Paul's work, Jay Leyda (1972) also used the same approach. I believe that his framework is more suitable to discussing the history after 1949 and before
1979. To deal with the history from the Cultural Revolution to the New Era (1966-1989), we need a new framework. I emphasize the following three points: Chinese traditional thinking, the Party's ideology, and Western cultural thinking. The Chinese traditional thinking mainly means
Confucianism. The Party's ideology includes two mainstreams:
Maoism and Deng Xiao-ping's thoughts. They are related but also different. The Western cultural thoughts range from the concepts of Western freedom, equality, democracy, individualism, to Freudianism, Western Marxism, and many various schools of philosophy and art theories which have influenced Chinese culture and arts in the 1980's.
Social forces are related to ideologies. For example, the leadership of the Party is usually identical with the ideology of the Party. Meanwhile, they are different from each other. For example, some artists are close to the ideology of the Party and some prefer Chinese traditional culture or Western culture. In order to locate Chinese film 70 in Chinese contemporary society and culture more exactly, I will separate them into two categories.
According to this framework, the films with the theme of class struggle have basically presented the influence of the leadership of the Party in that time (the leftists headed by Mao). One can barely see the individual expressions of the artists, nor find as well the influence from the audience. In other words, the artists and audience were totally dominated by the influence of the Party. As for the relationship to the three major ideologies, this film mode mainly exposed Mao's thoughts. Also, from its major emphasis on the themes of politics and ethics, and its neglect of the themes of the individual, we also can see its connection with Chinese traditional ideologies.®
^. Regarding the relationship between the Party's ideology and Chinese traditional ideologies, Toroptsev once gave an interesting remark;
Tightly gripped by Confucian rituals, a human soul was voluntarily subordinating itself to social norms. Paternalist ideas widely spread in China after 1949, in fact, did not produce any principal changes. (1990, p. 1, "The PRC Cinema: Turning to a Human Being." In Conference of Chinese films in the 1980 's. University of California, Los Angels) 71
Reference
Cheng, Jihua, & Li, Shaobai, & Xing, Zuwen (1963). History of the development of Chinese film ('two vols.). Beijing: China Film Press.
Chen, Huangmei (1989). China today: Film (two vols.). Beijing: China social science Press of China.
Xia, Yan (1979). History is a lesson for the later. In Talks on films since the Cultural Revolution. (1980) Beijing: China Film Press.
Toroptsev A. Sergei (1979). A brief history of Chinese film ('Chinese version, 1983;. Beijing: China Film Press.
Leyda, Jay (1972). Dianying— Electric shadows: An account of films and film audience in China. Cambridge; The MIT Press.
Clark, Paul (1987). Chinese cinema: Culture and politics since 1949. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. 72
2. THE THEME OF GOING AGAINST CAPITALIST-ROAD-TAKERS (1975-76)
In 1975, Chun Miao, and Breaking with Old Ideas were
made and distributed. These films came with a new theme,
"picturing the person in power taking the capitalist road", which marked a new development in Chinese filmmaking. Chun
Miao is generally considered as the first film "picturing
the person in power taking the capitalist road" (Chen H.,
1989). In 1976, Counterattack, The Grand Festival, Merry
Xiao-Liang River, and A Cause for One Thousand Years came
out and brought this tendency to its peak.
A). Counterattack (1976, directed by Li Wen-Hua)
Han Lin, who was the first Secretary of the Communist
Party Committee of the Province before the Cultural
Revolution and was overthrown at the beginning of the
Cultural Revolution, has resumed his position. After
returning from Beijing with the renewed title, he decides to 73
reorganize the work of his Province in order to carry on the policy "Four Modernizations." The Party Committee of the
Province under his lead decides that the reorganization
should first begin with education to train people qualified
and needed for the socialist construction. They go against the policy "Open door to run school," (This policy makes political standards instead of academic standards for
admissions) and insist that students should take academic examinations for admissions. They propagate this new policy through the official newspaper of the Province.
However, Jiang Tao, the Secretary of the Party
Committee and leader of the Workers' Mao Thoughts Propaganda
Team in the Yellow River University, and Director Chao, a member of the Party Committee of the Province, believe that everything Han Lin is doing is part of a reactionary
tendency, the "Wind of Restoring Capitalism". So they put up
a Da-Zi-Bao (big-character poster), which denounces the
reactionary tendency, and warns people that the capitalist-
road-takers are trying to restore capitalism. Meanwhile,
Jiang and Chao propagate Mao's thought "Take the class
struggle as a key link" in the University's classrooms.
These opinions are against the official newspaper of the
Province. For this, Jiang Tao is arrested. He writes a
letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party to
sue the Province Party Committee. The struggle is getting 74 more intense. After several months, the two resolutions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party are announced, which criticize Deng's line and overthrow Deng once again.
Jiang Tao is out of the jail. Meanwhile, a movement against the capitalist-road-takers begins at the local level, which means Han would depart after Deng.
B). Merry Xiao-Liang River (1976, directed by Liu Qiong and
Shen Yao-Ting)
There are two production teams in a village around
Xiao-liang river; the second and ninth production teams. The second production team leader, Zhou Chang-ling, is a member of "Zhao-Fan-Pai." (the ultra-leftist group in the masses controlled by the Gang of Four during the Cultural
Revolution) He suggests that they need to bring the Xiao- liang River under permanent control in order to develop the area's economy. However, the ninth production team leader,
Xu Zhen-cai, proposes the slogan of "Rich and then rich again," and goes against the proposal of bringing the Xiao- liang river under permanent control because of the monetary cost. The Deputy Director of the Communist Party Committee of the County, Xia, follows Deng's policy on developing economy and "four modernizations," agrees with Xu's slogan.
He turns the heat on Zhou Chang-ling to stop his project.
Meanwhile, bourgeois Bai Han-cheng engages in sabotage to 75 secretly damage Zhou's project. However, Zhou does not give up his project, and fights against Deng's economic policy and "Four Modernizations". He says that the policy of "Four
Modernizations" is a revisionist plan for getting rich, and does not take class struggle and the political line into account. In this struggle, the second production team leader
Zhou Chang-lin wins the victory finally in both economics and politics. The Deputy Director of the County, Xia, is overthrown again as a capitalist-road-taker.
The narrative structure of this film mode can be summarized as follows:
1). The capitalist-road-takers carry on an anti revolutionary political and economic line in the areas they control.
2). The leftists, headed by the heroes, carry on a revolutionary political and economic line against the reactionary line of the capitalist-road-takers.
3). The capitalist-road-takers get support from the high level capitalist-road-takers.
4). The class enemies engage in sabotage to secretly support the capitalist-road-takers. 76
5). The leftists get the support from the public for their
revolutionary line .
6). The leftists carry on the revolutionary line in spite of
strong pressure from the capitalist-road-takers and the difficult situation.
7). With the support from the high level, the capitalist-
road-takers overwhelm the leftists.
8). The leftists do not give up, and continue fighting.
9). Finally, the leftists get the support from the Central
Committee of the Communist Party (It means the Gang of Four
or Mao himself) and, also, their line successes in economic or business areas.
10). The leftists overturn the capitalist-road-takers.
As compared with the prior film mode, this film mode basically maintains the social division created in the prior
film mode in terms of the two sides (the positive and the negative) and two levels (the society-level and the Party-
level) on one hand. On the other hand, it has some major differences from the prior film mode. First of all, the 77 heroes are no longer members at the society-level of the positive side (the distinguished members of the workers, low and low-middle class peasants and PLA men), but are members at the Party-level of the positive side. They are the leftist leaders holding political power within the Party.
In the first mode, they usually stand behind and support the distinguished members from workers, low and low- middle class peasants, and PLA men (the heroes in the first mode). Now, they stand on the first line of struggle themselves. Secondly, the major opponents of the heroes, in this mode, are not the class enemies in the society, but the persons in power taking the capitalist road within the Party
(the rightist leaders in the first mode). The class enemies in the society take second place and give secret support to the capitalist-road-takers. Thirdly, the capitalist-road- takers are not like the rightist leaders in the first mode.
The rightist leaders in the first mode are just short of the ideas about the class struggle.
Once the class enemies are revealed, they will change their mind and stand by the revolutionary people. In this film mode, they stand on the opposite side of the revolutionary group from the beginning to the end.
Therefore, they totally represent the interests of the class enemies, and become "unchangeable" capitalist-road-takers. 78
In the end of the story, they are either overthrown or will be overthrown. Finally, the two sides of the struggle are now related to the backstage bosses at the higher levels on each side, which indicates that the nature of the struggle is highly political. The difference between the two modes can be diagrammed as the following:
Table 2. Comparison between 1973-74 and 1975-76 Films
Heroes major opponents
The first mode Distinguished Class enemies
(1973-74) members from
workers, peasants,
and PLA men
The second mode Leftist leaders Rightist leaders
(1975-76)
Since this film mode concentrates especially on the conflicts and characters inside the Party, the class enemies and the masses on the society-level lose the significance which they hold in the first mode. They become only a political label. The masses always stand by the leftist leaders, a symbolic process showing that the leftist line represents the interests of the public. The class enemies always stand by the capitalist-road-takers, which symbolizes that the capitalist-road-takers line represents the 79
interests of the class enemies. The heroes in the first
mode, the distinguished members from workers, low and low-
middle class peasants, and PLA men, have disappeared or
dissolved into one category within the masses.
The changes in the narrative structure cause some
obvious changes in the three binary oppositions which are
presented in the first mode. First, the opposition of
revolutionary/anti-revolutionary in the first mode is mainly
displayed in the conflict between the revolutionary classes
and the class enemies outside the Party, but in this mode
the opposition now exists between the leftists and rightists
inside the Party. The conflict outside the Party becomes
subordinate. Second, the opposition of right/wrong in terms
of epistemology, which is displayed in the conflict between
the leftists and rightists in the first mode, is no longer
significant. Third, the opposition of being with
power/without power is no longer presented between
inside/outside the Party, but between the leftists and
rightists. At the beginning of films, it is usually the
rightists who are holding most power, while the leftists are without power (or with little power) and pushed out. At the
end of films, the leftists are sure to get the power back,
and the rightists are sure to be overthrown. This is not
like the first mode, in which the leftists and rightists
both share the power. 80
From these changes, we can see clearly that the struggle between the two sides in the Party is getting sharper. As a matter of fact, these films were exactly the outcome of the struggle in the society between the two sides of the Party, which was getting tenser and sharper at that time.
In 1975, in order to ease off the economic and political crisis caused by the Cultural Revolution, Mao returned Deng Xiao-ping (who used to be accused of being
Liu's political companion and No. 2 capitalist-road-taker inside the Communist Party) to his former high position.
When Deng took the power, he put Mao's class struggle and line struggle policy aside and, instead he put the emphasis on economic issues. This brought Deng into sharper conflict with the Ultra-Leftist group ("Gang of Four" led by Mao's wife)in the party. Finally, he was overthrown again in early
1976.
The films with the theme of going against capitalist- road-takers emerged out of this context. They pictured the conflict between the leftists (headed by Mrs. Mao) and the rightists (headed by Deng) in that period from the viewpoint of the leftists. In this film mode, not only the leftists are displayed as more outstanding and higher-minded, but the 81 rightists are more odious and obstinate; and their political backgrounds also often personifies the persons in real life.
For example, Zhou Chang-lin and Jiang Tao all have the background of Zhao-Fan-Pai (an ultra leftist mass organization under the control of the Gang of Four). This is identical with the two members of the Gang of Four, Wang
Hong-wen (Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party, and Mao's successor in that time) and Yao
Wen-yuang (member of the Political Bureau of the Chinese
Communist Party). Director Zhao, as a leftist in the high class, implicates Mrs. Mao (member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party) and Zhang Chun-qiao (another member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party).
Furthermore, the actress' outer appearance looks so similar to Mrs. Mao's that any audience would never mistake her for somebody else. In Merry Xiao-Liang River, Deng's name is mentioned and criticized directly. (China was not a country where politics was open. When a person's name was shown negatively in mass media, it meant he/she was dead politically.) In addition, like Deng Xiao-ping, Deputy
Director Xia and Han Lin are both the rightist leaders who were overthrown in the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, but who then return to their positions of power. This background hints at Deng's experience. 82
In brief, this film mode changes the central theme from the class struggle (going against the class enemies on the society-level) to the line struggle within the Party
(against the persons in power taking the capitalist road).
Some of these films apparently have the personal marks of the Gang of Four. However, they basically are still in the range of Mao's ideology. 83
Reference
Chen, Huangmei (1989). China today: Film (two vols.) Beijing: China social science Press. CHAPTER IV. CHINESE FILM IN THE TRANSITION PERIOD
(1976-1978)
1. THE THEME OF GOING AGAINST THE "THE GANG OF FOUR" (77-78)
The years from late 1976 to late 1978 saw a political transition in China. After Mao died in September 197 6, and the Gang of Four were arrested in October of the same year,
Hua Guo-Feng became the leader of the Chinese government.
Hua was the successor Mao chose. He insisted on Mao's political line regarding "the continuing revolution under the condition of the proletarian dictatorship" on one hand; on the other hand, he began to criticize the Gang of Four as an anti-revolutionary faction across the country. During this period, a total of 64 films were made in China (Chen,
H. 1989), and a major trend among them became the films with
84 85
the theme of going against the Gang of Four. In 1977, the
first film with this theme, October Storm, was released.
After that, Hope (1977), A Grim Trip (1978), Blue Gulf
(1978), Stormy Course (1978), A Person Who Lost Memory
(1978), Eventful Years (1978), A Person Who are Ready for
the War (1978), It Is Not a Story about One People (1978),
Stormy Waves (1978), and Lantern (1978) were produced. This
film mode is totally the opposite of the last mode, films with the theme of going against capitalist-road-takers, in
terms of specific theme. However, they are very similar in terms of narrative pattern.
A). October Stonn (1977, directed by Chang Y i )
After Mao dies in September, 1976, Ma Chong, the
Secretary of the Communist Party of the City in charge of the industry of the City, uses his power to order a military plant to produce a type of weapon. Meanwhile, he puts the political Commissar of the local military, Xu Jiang,
Secretary of the Communist Party of the military plant. He
Fan, and some others' names on the blacklist, and declares
that he will smash all small and big capitalist-road-takers.
At this time. He Fan is ill and stays in the hospital. When
He gets out of the hospital, he soon puts an end to the production of the weapon. For this. Ma threatens He with the order of the Central Committee leaders (implicating the Gang 86 of Four). A reporter of the Party newspaper, Zhang Lin, a special appointed agent of the Gang of Four, forces He to finish the production of the weapon on time. He refuses to follow their order and, as a result, he is suspended from working. In order to seize the whole power of the Communist
Party Committee of the City, Ma, with the secret approval of the Central Committee leaders, tries to kill He. Driver Xu
Xue-shong, the son of Xu Jiang, devotes his life to saving
He. Finally, just when Zhang Lin holds the order signed by the Central Committee leaders to pick up the weapon, the news about the "The Gang of Four"'s downfall is announced on radio. Ma Chong and Chang Lin are arrested.
B) . A Grim Course (1979, directed by Shu Li)
The Chang-zheng locomotive crew of a Railway Bureau, headed by Cheng Wan-peng, accepts the task from the State
Council to support the Jiangbing Railway Bureau for solving the blockage of transportation. Director of the Jiangbing
Railway Bureau Cheng Shao-jie, following the order ofthe
Gang of Four, accuses the Secretary of the Communist Party
Committee of the Railway Bureau Fang Lai of being a black model of capitalist-road-takers; and he establishes an illegal "Worker Administration Committee" to try to seize the power of the Committee of the Communist Party. When
Cheng Wan-peng, the uncle of Cheng Shao-jie, arrives at 87
Jiangbing Station, Cheng Shao-jie supports him publicly and disturbs him secretly. It makes the Chang-zheng locomotive crew unable to send their trains out. However, with the help of Fang Lai, the Chang-zheng locomotive crew finally departs with their load of goods.
Xiao Qian, director of the office of the Central
Committee (implying the political agent ofthe Gang of Four), conspires with Cheng Shao-jie to seize power sooner. They hold a public meeting to denounce Fang Lai. However, Fang
Lai confronts them in the meeting and changes the direction of the meeting. He appeals to the audience to do something for socialist construction and gets a strong response from the audience. After that, the situation at the Jiangbing
Station changes. At this time, Cheng Shao-jie sends someone to damage the locomotive, intending to destroy the trains and the workers. Cheng Wan-peng bravely rescues the locomotive crew and trains, and breaks Cheng Shao-jie's plot. Cheng Shao-jie threatens him and then lures him by the promise of gain. But, Cheng Wan-peng refuses. Hence, Xiao
Qian and Cheng Shao-jie stake everything on a plan to bomb the Jiangbing Railway Station in order to break the transportation line between the north and south of China.
The daughter of Cheng Wan-peng gives her young life to rescue the train. At this moment, the leader of the Railway 88
Ministry arrives at the scene, and announces the news: the
Gang of Four is down.
The narrative structure of this film mode can be
summarized as follows :
1). The ultra-leftists in a local unit conspire to bring down the revolutionaries (the rightists) and get power.
2). The heroes and revolutionary group take action to stop the conspiracy formed by the ultra-leftists.
3). The activity of the ultra-leftists is endorsed by the
Gang of Four in the name of the Party Central Committee.
4). The hero and revolutionary group are backed by the public.
5). In the name of the Party Central Committee, the ultra leftist group puts the political pressure on the heroes and revolutionary to force them to give up.
6). The heroes and revolutionaries stand up against the pressure.
7). The ultra-leftists make the final vicious sabotage. 89
8). The heroes and revolutionary group stop the vicious sabotage by paying with their lives.
9). The news of the Gang of Four overturned comes out, and the ultra-leftists in the local unit are arrested.
Compared with the former mode, this mode is actually telling a story which has the same characters and events, and happens in the same time. It recounts the struggle which occurred between the leftist group (The Gang of Four) and rightist group (the capitalist-road-takers) and in the late
Cultural Revolution from 1975 to 1976. But, the viewpoints between both are totally contrary. The former one, from the viewpoint of the Gang of Four, takes the capitalist-road- takers as negative roles; and what the heroes represent is the leftist political group of the Gang of Four and their followers. This mode, from the viewpoint of the rightists
(the so-called capitalist-road-takers), treats the political group of the Gang of Four as negative roles, and treats the capitalist-road-takers and their followers as the positive leading roles. The changes between the two modes can be seen in the following table; 90
Table 3. Comparison between 1975-76 and 1977-78 Films
Heroes major opponents
The theme of going Leftist leaders Rightist leaders against
Capitalist-road- takers (1975-76)
The theme of going Rightist leaders Leftist leaders against Gang of
Four (1977-78)
What is interesting is that the positive leading roles in both the former film mode and this film mode all declare that they represent Mao's revolutionary political line, even though the positive leading roles in the two modes refer to two totally different and opposite political groups in
Chinese society.
In this film mode, the ultra-leftist group always engages in vicious sabotages in the final moments. This is a function taken by the class enemies in the first two modes.
Therefore, the leftists inside the Party and the class enemies outside the Party, in the first two modes, are combined into one category, in this mode. 91
The masses are still treated as a political label like those in the first two modes. However, in this mode, the masses always stand by the rightists in the Party (the capitalist-road-takers). This symbolizes that the rightists represent the interests of the people and have the support from the people.
Like the last mode, this film mode emphasizes the opposition of revolutionary/anti-revolutionary. But the rightists (the capitalist-road-takers) become the symbol of revolution and justice, the leftists (The Gang of Four) become the symbol of anti revolution and evil. The opposition of right/wrong in terms of epistemology has disappeared. The opposition of the status with power/without power is also overturned. In the beginning of the films, the leftists are holding power, the rightists are without power or with little power. At the end of the films, the rightists seize the power back and the leftists are overthrown.
To sum up, these films follow the theoretical framework of Mao's thoughts regarding the continuing revolution under the condition of proletarian dictatorship (class struggle, line struggle, and the struggle for the power) on one hand and, on the other hand, they offer a new version as to who represents the Mao's revolutionary line and who are the 92 enemies. It makes these films not only fit Mao's ideology, but also fit the position of the new government. 93
Reference
Chen, Huangmei (1989). China today: Film (two vols.) Beijing; China social science Press. CHAPTER V. CHINESE FILM IN THE NEW ERA
(1979-1989)
1. THE THEME OF POLITICAL WOUND (79-EARLY 80 S)
The end of 197 8 is the time when the most important changes took place in contemporary Chinese history since
October, 1949. It marks Chinese society's entrance into
Deng's era after Mao's era. At the third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party, Mao's thoughts concerning the class struggle and continuing revolution under the socialist condition were denied, and the related policies stopped being implemented. Maoism and
Mao's historical place were re-evaluated. China's leaders
(headed by Deng) formally adopted the policy of the Four
Modernizations (of industry, agriculture, national defense, and science and technology) as the Party's and country's highest priority, with all other tasks to be subordinated to
94 95 economic development. At the same time, China formally established full diplomatic relations with the United
States. At this point, two years after the end of the
Cultural Revolution, Chinese society really entered a reforming and open age.
With these changes, an important change of position with the Party's cultural policies also took place. The
Party's policy on literature and arts, "serve politics", was replaced with "serve people and socialism". A certain freedom for art creation was admitted (Deng, Xiao-ping,
1979). All these deeply affected Chinese film.?
In 1979, with the debut of films Bitter Laughter,
Reverberations of Life, and Xiao Hua, and the discussion of the modernization of film language, Chinese Film began a new developmental stage. Its theme and style became varied. The production reached 67 films in 1979, 84 films in 1980, and more than 100 films every year after 1981 (Chen, H. 1989).
Among various tendencies, the most important one relates to the films which rethink and reevaluate the political and social life during the Cultural Revolution and the regime of
^ . About the general change in social ideology and its influence on the film ideology, please refer to the Introduction of the book, Film in contemporary China: Critical Debates, 1979-1389 (1993, Semsel, George, & Chen, Xihe, & Xia Hong, New York: Praeger Press). 95
the ultra-leftists (which is generally considered longer
than and including the Cultural Revolution). As for the
theme exposing the evil of the Gang of Four, this appears in
the relation to the last film mode as the theme of going
against the Gang of Four. However, these films do not pay
attention to the struggle of fighting for power between two
political groups, but instead emphasize the suffering and
torture which ordinary people were going through during the
period. Therefore, they often were named "wound film" in
their time. These films include Tear Stains (1979), The
Suffering Heart (1979), Bitter Laughter (1979), Night Rain
on the River (1980), Legend of Tianyun Mountain (1980),
Unrequited Love (1980), The Alley (1981), A Corner forgotten by Love (1981), Wish (1982), The Herdsman (1982), On the
Middle Age (1982), River without Buoys (1983), Under the
Bridge (1983), Hibiscus Town (1986), and etc.. This list contains the most distinguished films of that period. Shao
Mujun once summarized the major tendency in the early 1980"s
as "Xie Jin M o d e " (1990). It is reasonable. In my framework,
I try to include some films beyond the Xie Jin mode, so that we can discuss the nature of this tendency on a broader
base. Actually, Hibiscus Town was made in the middle 1980's.
But, as a major representative work of Xie Jin, it belongs
to this category and will be discussed within this context. 97
a). The Alley (1980 directed by Yang Yan-Jin)
The film begins with Xia's telling his story to film
director Zhong. Ten years ago (during the Cultural
Revolution), Xia was a teenager and an auto-repair worker.
He met a young boy, Yu. Yu had nice looks. However, his eyes
always showed a frightened expression. In order to pick some
medicinal herbs for Yu's mother who was in serious
condition, Xia and Yu went to a mountain covered by trees.
They treated each other with sincerity and called each other
brother. Yu fell down into the river when she tried to get a
medicinal herb. He got out from the river, and wanted to
change his clothes. At this moment, she asked Xia to leave
him alone. So Xia noticed Yu was a young girl. Why had Yu
covered her real sexual identity? Yu then told Xia her bad
experiences with tears.
In the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Yu's mother had been overthrown as a member of a black group and
beaten up almost to death. Yu had been also humiliated by
having her hair half-shaved. She had been insulted
everywhere. For survival, she forced herself to pretend she
was a boy. She wished she could have grown her long hair
back and become a girl again. Xia, as her elder brother, was
determined to get what Yu should have as a girl, and to make
her happy. However, Xia failed everywhere. In order to get a 98 female wig for Yu, Xia was beaten up, and it caused his eyes to be blinded. He was sent to a hospital. After he got out of the hospital, Yu was gone. Xia missed Yu constantly and often walked to the alley where Yu had lived before. But Yu was not there any more.
Where is Yu now? Director Zhong asks Xia. Xia does not know. Director Zhong designs three ends for Yu. The first,
Yu becomes a play girl and degrades herself, because of her bad experiences during the Cultural Revolution. Xia does not agree with the answer. As an option, Yu becomes a famous violin player. One day, Xia and Yu meet in the alley again and reunite. Maybe this is a dream. In the third version, Yu becomes a worker. She has been looking for Xia all along.
One day, they reunite on a train.
b). Wish (1981, directed by Huang Jian-zhong)
In 1961, Cheng-yu, a new teacher, has just come to
Guang-ming Middle School. Every early morning, he hears the sound of the old cleaner sweeping the road. The old cleaner,
Shi Yi-hai, arouses the interest of Cheng-yu. Cheng-yu finds
Shi is a very diligent and conscientious worker, as well as an odd old man with superstitious beliefs. It makes other people think he is slow with his thoughts. On the New Year's
Eve, Cheng-yu is invited to Shi's room. On that night, the 99 old man tells Cheng-yu a ghost story which recounts haunted events on the campus. The old man deeply believes that ghosts exist in the world. Shortly after that, the school holds a public meeting "Recalling the past suffering in the old society (before the Communist Party took over the mainland China in 1949), and thinking about present happiness (after 1949)." The old man, who suffered in his early age, talks well about a priest he knew before, in retort to Cheng-yu's general criticism of capitalism in the old society. That makes many students laugh and disturbs the serious mood of the meeting.
During the Cultural Revolution, a former capitalist is beaten to death, and his body is abandoned. Shi Yi-hai covers his body with a plastic cloth. The Principal of the
Middle School is denounced and tortured at a public meeting on a stage. Shi Yi-hai goes up to the stage and takes off the barbell which is hanging on the neck of the principal.
The members of the Zuan-zheng team (who are the teachers branded as the "class enemy" in the Cultural revolution and put in the concentration labor camp of the school) are forced to do some heavy works. He sends green-bean soup to them.
Cheng-yu also notices that the love affair of the old man is also unusual. Shi Yi-hai is an old man without wife 100 or child. He deeply falls in love with a woman, Jin Qi-wen, who comes from a royal family which went down in the end of
Qing Dynasty. It is impossible for them to get married, because Shi is considered as a member of the revolutionary class, and Jin a member of the anti-revolutionary class. The pressures from the society make them hide their feelings in their hearts. The ex-husband of Jin Qi-wen returns from abroad, and wants to remarry her and take her abroad. She refuses him. Nothing can break their spiritual relation.
However, in reality the old man's wibh has never been fulfilled. He dies lonely on a cold night.
c). The Herdsman (1982, directed by Xie Jin)
At the Beijing Hotel, one day in 1980, a reunion takes place between Xu Ling-jun, a poor herdsman, and his father,
Xu Jin-you, an American millionaire. They have lost touch since 1949, the eve of Liberation.
Xu Jin-you, who was then a NanJing capitalist, fled to
America. He left his wife and his son behind. Jin-you prospered in America and founded a new family there. His former wife soon died.
Xu Ling-jun, the son, was wrongly branded a "Rightist", and sent to the far North-western pastures in 1957 when he 101 was a college student. Ling-jun worked as a herdsman in day
time, and slept in the stable in night time. One night, he
could not stand the lonely, shameful, pessimistic, desperate
situation any more, and tried to kill himself. In the final moment, however, he decided to live. He got sympathy and
help from his fellow herdsman. During the Cultural
Revolution, he was protected by the people, and survived. He developed a great affinity for these ordinary people, the vast grasslands and the horses he raised. A girl, Li Xiu-zi,
fled from famine in her rural home town of Sichuang province, and came to the farm Xu worked. An enthusiastic neighbor, Guo, led her to Xu's small, broken house. They held a simple wedding ceremony with the best wishes from their neighbors. Li was a brave and honest girl and a wonderful wife. They were poor, but with courage and perseverance the couple improved their lot and they led a simple and happy life. One year later, they had a lovely son, and the family became perfect. In 1979, Xu Ling-jun was rehabilitated and assigned to teach the children. His dream of being a teacher was fulfilled, and he devoted all his
life to the job.
Then suddenly Ling-jun is called to Beijing where his
father awaits him. His father feels sorry for having not
fulfilled his duty as father, and wants his son to move to
America to receive further education and carry on his 102
business. However, they can not communicate well. After the
father learns the son's torturous experiences during these
years, he understands why his son has firm faith in the
motherland, people, family and future life. Ling-jun tells
his father that he can not leave the country when it is in
progress. Staring at the son, Xu Jin-you feels that although
he is rich in money, he is poor in feeling and faith. He
understands his son's decision and does not force him to
America any longer. He tells his son: "I want to be buried
in my home country someday."
d ) . Hibiscus Town (1986, directed by Xie Jin)
Hibiscus Town is a small town surrounded by beautiful
scenery. Kindhearted and pretty Hu Yuyin sells a local
variety of bean curd made from rice. She works hard and
lives frugally together with her husband Guigui. As a
result, they save some money and finally manage to build a
new house on the land bought from a local Party official,
Wang. Wang, who was a land reform expert in the early age of
the People's Republic of China, lives elsewhere in
deplorable condition at the edge of town. With the
commencement of the "Four Clean-ups" Movement in 1964, the
local Party Secretary, Li Guo-Xiang, a woman under the
banner of "class struggle," arrives in the town and begins
to investigate Hu. The investigation moves forward with the 103 public accusation, made after a detailed accounting of costs and revenues of the enterprise, of Hu's illegal self enrichment through favorable terms with the local manager of the State’s granary stores. Hu seeks to hide the uninvested profits in the house of an old boyfriend, a low level cadre,
Li Man-Gen. He broke off their relationship earlier, though he loved her, because he could not afford to jeopardize his political career by associating with a woman with a bad class background (Hu's mother was a prostitute). Under hysterical pressure from his wife who fears the punishment of their own family, the cadre turns the money over to
Secretary Li, and turns in Hu. The consequence is that the
State confiscates Hu's property, condemns her as a bad element, "a newly rich peasant," and puts her to work cleaning the streets. Li breaks up "the clique"; Hu's husband commits suicide after failing to kill the Party secretary, the cadre is sent for self-criticism, and old Gu, formerly party leader and grain store manager is arrested.
Three years later with the onset of the Cultural
Revolution, Secretary Li is herself stigmatized (as a
"slut"; she protests saying she is a "leftist"), is publicly humiliated, but returns shortly to replace Acting Secretary
Wang. Hu's punishment goes on, demoralizing her to sickness.
Her co-worker. Crazy Qin, labeled a rightist in 1957 for authoring a play that was criticized as attacking socialism 104
(under the pretext of attacking feudalism), cares for her and a romance ensues. When she gets pregnant they decide to ask the Party for permission to marry, believing that although they have been denounced and stigmatized, they are
"still human beings, not animals," and that they have the right to have children. They are pronounced a "threat to the
Great Proletarian Dictatorship," refused permission to marry, are tried and sentenced; Hu, three years suspended,
Qin, ten years. In 1979, with the Cultural Revolution over, they are reunited, and resume the tofu business with which the film began. Secretary Li returns to town to carry on
Communist politics, and Wang goes crazy, predicting another
"movement."
The narrative structure of these films can be summarized as follows:
1). The leading character lives in a time dominated by the ultra-leftist political regime (such as the Cultural
Revolution in 1966-197 6, the "Four Clean-ups" Socialist
Education Movement in 1963-1964, or the Anti-Rightist
Movement in 1957).
2). The ultra-leftist political regime oppresses the leading character. 105
3). The leading character tries to escape from the
oppression.
4). The effort of the leading character fails.
5). The leading character falls into a very sad situation.
6). The masses sympathize and help the leading character.
7). The oppression of the ultra-leftist regime on the
leading characters goes to extremes.
8). There were two endings :
a. The political regime remains. The leading character can
not stand the oppression; he (or she) collapses or dies.
b. The political regime changes. The leading character is
finally freed.
Paralleling the political story line, there is another
story line which takes sex as the subject in this film mode.
It usually appears in step 5 or 6 of the political story
line above. Its formula is as follows;
1). In the sad and miserable situation, the leading character meets his (or her) girlfriend (or boyfriend). 106
2). The friend sympathizes and cares for the leading character.
3). Usually, they begin with friendship, which leads to a true and strong love affair.
4). This relationship becomes the spiritual support by which the leading character withstands the political oppression and continues to live.
5). This relationship is destroyed by the ultra-leftist political power.
6). The leading character bears the strikes from political oppression and the love affair, and is going through the most painful and hardest time.
This time is often the time that the oppression goes to extremes in the above political story. Paralleling the political story again, the ending for the love story has two variation:
7a). The leading character is not able to reunite with the friend.
7b). The leading character reunites with the friend. 107
The most important change of this mode in narrative
structure from the last three is the status of leading characters. They are no longer the changed agents of any political group or power, but ordinary people. They have no positive political identification or, in actuality, they have only some negative political identifications imposed by the political regime which dominates the stories. For instance, Hu Yu-ying is a "new rich peasant", Xu Ling-jun and Qin Shu-tian are "rightists" (the status imposed on many intellectuals after the Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957, and different from the title for the rightist leaders in the
Party), Yu is a child of the "black group" (a title in the
Cultural Revolution for all members of the anti revolutionary camp both inside or outside the Party). As a matter of fact, their individual status is quite close to the category of the class enemies in the first mode, films with the theme of class struggle. (Attention; the stories told in a past time tense in this film mode happen in the same time as the stories told in a present time tense in the first mode, the films with the theme of class struggle. Both took place in the Cultural Revolution.) For example, Hu Yu- ying, like Qian Guang, is a rich peasant; Xu Ling-jun and
Qin Shu-tian, like Yin Jia-pai, are intellectuals; Yu is a child of these class enemies. 108
Their opposite side is represented by the agents of the ultra-leftist power or group. In some films, such as The
Alley, Wish, and Herdsman, they are just a type of character behind the scenes. However, they are necessary in terms of narrative structure. In the first and second modes, they appear as kinds of positive roles, but have negative roles in this film mode. This presentation is identical with the third mode, the films with the theme of Going against the
Gang of Four. However, in this film mode they have a totally different story from the third film mode. They are not oppressing the capitalist-road-takers, nor fighting with the capitalist-road-takers for power, but oppressing and torturing the ordinary people (or, from the viewpoint of the ultra-leftists, the class enemies), represented by the leading characters. Perhaps, from the viewpoint of the ultra-leftists, this conflict is a struggle against the class enemies for power regarding the proletarian cause for one thousand years. As to the leading characters, this struggle was only a struggle for the basic right cf living and surviving. In Hibiscus Town, Qin Shu-tian tells Hu Yu- ying when they are arrested for their love affair at a public meeting of the town: "Don't give up, live on, even like an animal." These words exactly show their situation.
In the political story line, the films show us as much as possible the craziness, cruelty and inhumanity of the politics. 109
Another important change in the narrative structure of
this film mode is that besides the story line of a political
theme, there is another story line of a sexual theme running with it. This adds a very important character to the films:
the sexual partner of the leading character. This role has
never shown up in the last several film modes, and allows
this film mode to have real male leading characters and
female leading characters. Some of the sexual partners
themselves are the victims of the ultra-leftist regime and
going through the torture as much as the leading characters,
such as Qin Shu-tian. Most of them are ordinary people (but
often tie up with the leading characters for their relationship), such as Xia in The Alley, Feng Qin-lan in
Legend of Tianyun Mountain, and Li Xiu-zi in The Herdsman.
In the latter case, their function in the films is somewhat
similar to the masses' in the previous several modes:
showing the support from the people and public. This is because in the time when the sexual partners built a certain
relationship with the leading characters, they also show the political support to the leading characters themselves. Just
as Xiu-zi (in Herdsman) responds to the people when they congratulate her husband on his political rehabilitation;
"In the day I married him, I did rehabilitate him politically." In the relationship between the leading
character and his (her) sexual partner, these films do as 110 much as possible to illumine their beautiful feelings, fine qualities, and noble spirits.
The masses in this film mode share the same function that the sexual partner of the leading character possesses.
They stand by the leading character and also show that the leading character gets the support from people, just as they do in the last several modes. The difference is that they no longer stand by the representative of any political line or group, but by the representative of a non-political group, and by the opposite side of a certain political line or group.
The third important change in the narrative structure of this film mode is that there is not a definite representative of the positive or revolutionary political power which confronts the ultra-leftist political power or line in many films. It creates an absence in the structure.
However, in the Xie Jin mode, there must be someone who in some way indicates or implicates their existence: for example, Gu Yan-shan in Hibiscus Town, Luo Qun in Legend of
Tianyun Mountain. In Herdsman, there is no certain character who represents the positive political power. But, through Xu
Lin-Jun's gracious declining of the invitation of his
"American" father to go to the United States, the film shows his feeling of total trust and love for his "Chinese Ill
Mother", which implies the existence of a positive political
authority in China. However, the significance of positive
political images is reduced greatly in the narrative
structure of this film mode. Compared with the conflict
between the leading character and the ultra-leftist
political power, the conflict between the positive political
power and the ultra-leftists assumes smaller proportions. Of
course, whether or not the positive representatives appear
directly affects the end of the story. Without the presence
of the positive political power, films Wish, The Alley,
Bitter Laughing, and On the Middle Age, end in a vague and
dim mood, while Legend of Tianyun Mountain, Herdsman, and
Hibiscus Town, made by Xie Jin, all have a light and hopeful
ending. However, compared with Legend of Tianyun Mountain
and Herdsman, the impression that Hibiscus Town gives an
audience is more mixed like brightness shaded.
These changes totally reverse the arrangement of the two sides, the positive side and the negative side, built in the first mode (1973-74). In the first mode, the masses, and
the leftist leaders are in the positive side, while the
class enemies and rightist leaders in the negative side as
the following: 112
Table 4. Social Classification of Characters in 1973-74 Films
Positive side Negative side
Society-level Masses Class enemies
Party-level Leftist leaders Rightist leaders
But, in this mode, the class enemies (and, in Xie Jin's mode, the rightist leaders) become the positive side, while the leftist leaders become the negative side. In other words, every character category has changed its position to the opposite side, except the masses.
Table 5. Social Classification of Characters in Early 8 0 s Films
Positive side Negative side
Society-level 1. Class enemies
2. Masses
Party-level Rightist leaders Leftist leaders
(only in Xie Jin's
mode) 113
Furthermore, the major conflict now takes place not only between the two sides, but also between the two levels: the society-level (class enemies) and the Party-level (the ultra-leftists). This is a very significant change from the former modes (which all present the major conflicts at the same levels, either at the society-level or the Party- level), since while the society-level is in the positive side, the Party-level is in the negative side.
In this film mode, we can see two sets of binary opposition systems, which are opposite each other as well.
One set is derived from the political reality in that time, that is, from the viewpoint of the ultra-leftist political power. It is the political opposition of revolutionary/anti revolutionary, which is displayed in the difference and opposition between the ultra-leftist political power and the leading characters. The revolutionary means poor, such as lumpen-proletariat Wang Qiu-su. He had never worked hard to make his living before the Cultural Revolution and, then, became an activist and leftist (which means revolutionary) in the "Four Clean-ups" Movement and in the Cultural
Revolution. The anti-revolutionary means rich and making money. For example, Hu Yu-ying had worked hard in her small business and saved a certain amount of money before the
"Four Clean-ups" Movement. Then, she was titled "new rich peasant" and became a member of the anti-revolutionary in 114 the Movement and Cultural Revolution. The revolutionary means holding high the banner of class struggle, and fighting aggressively with the reactionary classes. In
Hibiscus Town, for instance, Li Guo-xiang not only confiscated Hu's house and savings and put her into a labor camp, but also she deprived her of the rights of having a family and child. In The Alley, the revolutionary means not only striking the members of the "black gang" down to the dust, but also humiliating their daughter by having her head half shaved. The anti-revolutionary means fighting against the revolutionary action stubbornly and to the finish. In
Hibiscus Town, Hu Yu-ying not only transferred the money to a hidden place, but also formed an anti-revolutionary alliance with "rightist" Qin Shu-tian (they were getting married). In The Alley, Yu tried to find a female wig to cover her half-shaved head. In addition, the oppositions of right/wrong and being with power/without power, which take place in the last three modes, are also displayed in some films of this mode from the viewpoint of the ultra-leftists.
Another set of a binary opposition system is formed from the viewpoint of the leading character (also from the viewpoint of the authors). That is the opposition of good/evil and of the oppressor/the oppressed. As a matter of fact, this set of binary oppositions is a reset, from an ethical viewpoint, of the last set of binary oppositions of 115 the revolutionary/anti revolutionary, which is built from a political viewpoint. The leading character represents good, which is shown in his innocence, honesty, hardworking traits, and his kindheartedness. Whereas the ultra-leftists represent evil, which is shown fully by their cruel oppression of the leading character. Also, the opposition of good/evil is displayed between the political story line and sexual story line. In the political story line dominated by the ultra-leftists, we see the severe torture and cruel strikes, the fall of morality and loss of humanity. In the sexual story line led by the leading character, we see the purity, honesty, sympathy and understanding, selflessness and devotion, warm and fine feelings. These are displayed in full in the scene of the clearing street dance of Hu and Qin in Hibiscus Town, and by the love story between Yu and Xia in The Alley, which is derived from the Chinese ancient legend of Liang and Zhu.®
Therefore, just as Professor Browne says, the narrative structure itself of these films forms "a kind of juridical process with its own (narrative, fictional) rules of evidence and argument" (1990, p. 23). It rewrites and rewords the political discourse with the moral discourse or.
^. Liang and Zhu, a popular Chinese ancient legend in which a girl pretends to be a boy, and studies in a private school, then, falls love with a boy-student. 116 in other words, reexamines and reorientates the political binary opposition system with the moral binary opposition system. The revolutionary, in terms of political perspective, is related to bad, in terms of moral perspective; the anti-revolutionary is related to good. As a result, the opposition between the two sets of binary opposition systems themselves constitute the most basic binary oppositions in these films: the opposition of the political and the moral. Many films in this mode clearly displays how politics and morality are rejected by each other and can not be coexistent. Anything, even love between man and woman, becomes dirty when it is in relation to politics, such as the affair between Li Guo-xiang and Wang.
On the contrary, morality is not related to politics. For example, old kindhearted worker Shi Yi-hai, in Wish, is a typical, ordinary person without any political consciousness. The film especially emphasizes something in his faith which is totally different from, or opposite to the political faith in that time: his belief in ghosts and his sincerely telling others the ghost story. In mainland
China where atheism is a clearly political sign, this doubtlessly stresses the nonpolitical nature of morality.
In sum, like the last three film modes, politics is still a basic theme in this film mode. The difference from the former three is that it becomes a negative-theme. Its 117 presence mainly is not for confirming, but for exposing. The sexual theme has been displayed for the first time since the
Cultural Revolution, and becomes a major theme. However, the connotation of sex is clearly restricted in these films. It always connects with certain moral rules, and is displayed as something in relation to love, marriage, family, responsibility, obligation, and sacrifice. Probably, this is the first step in returning to sexual themes. It has to be traditional and moral. The other forms of sexual themes can only be explored in a next step. Therefore, in spite of this, the theme of sex is displayed outstandingly and positively in this film mode, it actually becomes the theme of morality. In short, these films, by having sex moralized and politics demoralized, placed the moral theme in the top position. It is a fundamental theme surpassing both politics and sex. This essential change in theme (value system) can be shown in the following diagram; 118 Table 6. Binary Opposition of Value System in Films from 1973 to Early 8 0 s
Positive Negative value system
value value presented in
films films in Revolutionary Anti- Politics
1973-74 revolutionary films in Revolutionary Anti Politics
1975-76 revolutionary films in Revolutionary Anti Politics
1977-78 revolutionary film in 1979- Good/Anti bad/revolu Morality early 80s revolutionary tionary (anti
politics )
Undoubtedly, these films have made the boldest criticism to Mao's political ideology so far. Because the class struggle and line struggle, derived from Mao's theories, became a movement of frenzied torture to innocent and ordinary people in these films, and the Cultural
Revolution became a disaster to China. This critical view form a reexamination and réévaluation of Mao's theory and practice about the Cultural Revolution, significantly showing the viewpoint of ordinary people. It is very important to compare this film mode with the first mode, the 119 films reflecting the theme of class struggle. Assuming that the films in the first mode are stories about the Cultural
Revolution told in the present tense from the viewpoint of the ultra-leftists following Mao's theory; this film mode is a retelling of the same stories, but in the past tense.
However, in this particular time, the authors adopt the viewpoint of those who are defined as the class enemies in the first film mode, such as "rich peasant" Hu Yu-ying,
"rightist" Qin Shu-tian, and child of the "black gang" Yu.
Conseguently, by telling their own stories from their own point of view, they fully rehabilitate Qian Guang (a rich peasant in the first mode) and Ying Jia-pei (a bad intellectual in the first mode).
For these reasons, the main influence we see in this film mode comes not from the political authorities any longer, but from ordinary people and film artists. They re present the Cultural Revolution from their own perspectives.
Accordingly, the fighting for power, which those in power worry about, rteps down to a secondary place, and the conflict between ordinary people and politics takes the major place. Perhaps, in this film mode, the influence from artists is more than the influence from ordinary people.
Notably, this film mode tells the story about the Cultural
Revolution often from the viewpoint of "the class enemies", by which we see the reflection from the artists. In China, 120 the artists formerly were classified under the category
"intellectual", and they were placed in the negative position in Mao's theory regarding the class struggle, like
Yin Jia-pai in Fiery Years and Qin Shu-tian in Hibiscus
Town. In the various political movements since 1949, they tested to the full the bitterness of false accusations and oppression as Yin and Qin did in the films. "Being class enemy" used to be a common experience for many intellectuals. Therefore, when the situation permits, this experience is soon reflected in their own works and in certain, if various, ways. Bitter Laughter, In the Middle
Age, and Herdsman are stories directly relevant to the intellectuals and their lives.
In reference to the belief that these authors put morality, on the top position of their value system, we can perceive their relation to the traditional culture and ideologies. They, paralleling these ideologies, believed in the good nature of human beings, and many felt that the moral power is strong enough to resist political corruption.
They are mainly the Third generation directors (Xie Jin) and
Fourth generation directors (Yang Yan-jin, Huang Jian-zhong) in Chinese film artists. Generally speaking, the fourth generation emphasizes more the total opposition of morality and politics. Whereas Xie Jin tends to divide politics into two parts by the moral rule; moral politics and unmoral 121 politics, this is totally shown in the films of Xie Jin's mode. Also, Xie Jin tends to divide sex into two parts by moral rules: moral sex and immoral sex. It compromises the opposition of politics and morality to a certain degree.®
The Party's ideologies and leadership still influenced this mode in various ways. In Xie Jin's mode, for example, we can see how the artists observe the Party's ideologies
(Deng's ideologies). Perhaps, it is a necessary balance for some artists, if they do not want to meet too much trouble.
Besides, the Party's influence was also demonstrated by directly intervening in the process of filmmaking. Such as the Parry's open criticism to the film Unrequited Love
(Special Commentator of Army Daily, April, 1981), to film scripts A file in the Society, A Girl-thief, and If I am
True,i° the repeated examining of In the Middle Age, the ban on Dove Tree, all of these restricted some film artists from going too far. Also, these responses made Xie Jin's mode become the mainstream in this period, since it kept a balance between the voices of ordinary people and the
Party's ideology.
5. Xie Jin's mode, for his compromise, was severely criticized by the young generation of Chinese intellectuals in the middle 80's. Please refer to Chapter V of Chinese film theory: A guide to the New Era (Semsel, George, 1990). Paul Klark (1987) and Chen Huangmei (1989) both refer to these criticisms in their books. 122
Reference
Semsel, George, & Chen, Xihe, & Xia Hong (1993). Film in contemporary China: Critical Debates^ 1979-1989. New York: Praeger Press.
Chen, Huangmei (1989). China today: Film (two vols.). BeiJing: China Social Science Press.
Shao MU]un (1990). The multifarious decade. In Conference of Chinese films in the 1980's. University of California, Los A n g l e s .
Deng, Xiaoping (1979/1982) A speech at the Fourth Congress of Writers and Artists of China. Selection of important documents since the Third Central Session. BeiJing: People P r e s s .
Browne, Nick (1990). Society and subjectivity: The political economy of Chinese melodrama. In Conference of Chinese films in the 1980’s. University of California, Los Angles.
Liberation Army Daily Commentator (1981, April 20). The criticism of Unrequited Love. Beijing Daily, p. 2.
Clark, Paul (1987). Chinese cinema: Culture and politics since 1949. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Semsel, George, & Xia Hong, & Hou Jianping (1990). Chinese film theory: A guide to the New Era. New York: Praeger Pre s s . 123
2. THE FIFTH GENERATION AND THE THEME OF CULTURAL REFLECTION
(THE MIDDLE 80 S)
At the end of 1983, a young film production team, composed of the 1982's graduates of the Beijing Film
Academy, finished a film. The One and Eight. It marked the rise of the Fifth Generation (filmmakers) in Chinese film industry. After that, a group of films made by the Fifth
Generation, such as Yellow Earth (1984), On the Hunting
Ground (1985), Black Cannon Incident (1985), Horse Thief
(1985), The Girls' House (1985), Swan Song (1985), The Big
Parade (1986), King of the Children (1987), formed a so- called "New Wave." It extended to these later films. Sunny
Rain (1987), Put Some Sugar in Coffee (1987), Red Sorghum
(1988), Judou (1990), Bloody Dawn (1990), Big Mill (1990),
Heighten the Red Lanterns (1991), and more. The title, the
Fifth Generation, does not mean an art movement with a united style and theme, but includes various styles and 124 themes. Among them, the most important theme is "cultural reflection", and Yellow Earth is their earliest and strongest film to present this theme. Most of the above can also be placed in this category. As a matter of fact, this theme does not begin with Yellow Earth, and is not limited to the works of the Fifth Generation. As early as 1983, one year earlier than Yellow Earth, this theme had already appeared in the film. Country Couple, finished by the Fourth
Generation director, Hu Bin-liu. Later, this theme also appeared in Life (1984), On the Beach (1985), Good Women
(1985), Sacrificed Youth (1985), Wild Mountain (1986), Old
Well (1987), Xiao Xiao (1987), Human, Demon, Woman (1987), which were all made by the Fourth Generation directors.
a). Yellow Earth (1984, directed by Chen Kai-ge)
1937. The Socialist revolution has started in western
China, but most other areas are still controlled by the
Kuomintang. Some Eighth Route Army soldiers are sent to the still "unliberated" western highlands of Shanbei to collect folk tunes for army songs. Film begins. Spring, 1939. An
Eighth Route Army soldier, Gu Qing, reaches a village in which a feudal marriage between a young bride and a middle- aged peasant is taking place. Later, the soldier is hosted in the cave home of a middle-aged widower peasant living with his young daughter and son. Gu Qing works in the fields 125 with them and tells them of the social changes brought about by the revolution, which include the army women's chances to become literate and to have freedom of marriage. The peasant's daughter, Cui Ciao, is interested in Gu Qing's stories about life outside the village, and she sings a number of "sour tunes" about herself. The peasant's son, Han
Han, sings a bed-wetting song for Gu Qing, and is taught a revolutionary song in return. The young girl learns that her father has accepted the village matchmaker's arrangement for her betrothal. Soon, the soldier announces his departure.
Before he leaves, the peasant sings him a "sour tune", and
Cui Ciao privately begs him to take her away to join the army. Gu Qing refuses on grounds of the public officers' rules but promises to apply for her and to return to the village once permission is granted.
Soon after his departure, Cui Ciao's feudal marriage with a middle-aged peasant takes place. At the army base, Gu
Qing watches some peasants drum-dancing to soldiers going off to join the anti-Japanese war. Back in the village , Cui
Ciao decides to run away to join the army herself. She disappears crossing the Yellow River while singing the revolutionary song. Another spring comes. There is a drought on the land. As the soldier returns to the village, he sees that a prayer for rain, involving all the male peasants, is taking place. Fully involved with their prayers, nobody 126 notices Gu Qing's return, except the peasant's young son. In the final shots he rushes to meet the soldier, struggling against the rush of worshippers.
b ) . Xiao Xiao (1987, directed by Xie Fei)
In the early years of this century, the marriage between a older girl and younger boy is popular in western
Hunan, a province in southern China. When Xiao Xiao is twelve years old, she is married to a two-year-old boy. The marriage makes her pained when she becomes older. Six years after the wedding, she falls in love with a young farm hand,
Hua Gou, who works for her family. And not long afterwards, she is pregnant. At the same time, a widow in the village,
Qiao-Xiou-Niang, has an affair with a smith. They are caught by the clansmen while being together. As punishment, the knees of the smith are smashed, and Qiao-Xiou-Niang is drowned in the river. Afraid that their love affair also will be exposed, the young farm hand runs away. Xiao Xiao tries in many ways to have an abortion, but does not succeed. On a certain night, she escapes from her home and falls down on the road. She is brought back to the house and locked in a room. According to the rule of the clan, Xiao
Xiao faces two possible penalties: being drowned or sold out. Her parents come to the village to beg the clansman.
Her mother-in-law and father-in-law forgive her and save 127 her. She is allowed to give birth to the child and to bring the little boy up as her husband's younger brother. Several years later, Chun Guan, the husband of Xiao Xiao, enters the
Middle School in the town, and tries to dissolve the marriage. However, Xiao Xiao is unemotional about her marriage at the time. Following the old rule, she arranges the maix'iage for her son, a little kid, with a girl much older than her son.
c). Old Well (1987, Directed by Wu Tian-ming)
Old Well is a village located on the Huangtu Highland of northern China and severely lacks water. To sink a well, the people in the village have worked for several generations, but have not succeeded. Wang-quan and Wang-Cai, two boys, and Qiao-ying, a girl, are classmates in the High
School, and also the only educated people in the village.
Fu-chuang, the head of the village, lays hopes on them.
Wang-quan and Wang-Cai both like Qiao-ying. But Qiao-ying is closer to Wang-quan. Wang-quan's grandfather and father arrange marriage for Wang-quan and his brother Wang-lai.
They learn that the young widow in the village, Xi-feng, is looking for a man who is willing to marry into and live with her family, while, in return, she will pay back with money.
The grandfather asks for one thousand dollars to have Wang- quan marry into her family. Then, he plans to use the money 128 to have Wang-lai married. Xi-feng and her mother are very pleased with the deal. However, Wang-quan is angry with it.
Wang-Cai knows that Wang-quan and Qiao-ying love each other, and suggests that they go to the town office to register their marriage as soon as possible. The grandfather stops
Wang-quan and gives him a dressing down. Under the pressure of the family, Wang-quan is forced to marry into Xi-feng's family. Later, Wang-quan is injured in a fight with the neighboring villagers for a well. Qiao-ying comes to his home to see him and leaves some medicines, but stays silent.
After a training class sponsored by the County Office,
Wang-quan, Qiao-ying and Wang-Cai work together to find a well for the village. When they work on a new well, the well caves in. Wang-Cai is killed in the accident. Wang-quan and
Qiao-ying are buried in the well. They hold each other and spend three days in the well before they are rescued. It is a desperate time. They think they will die, and have sex.
After getting out of the hospital, Wang-quan works at the well again. Qiao-ying leaves the village after she recovers.
Before her leaving, she donates all the trousseau that she prepared for her marriage, including a TV set, to the village for the work of sinking a well. Finally, the first well in the history of Old Well village is done. The people erect a memorial to record this history. 129 d). Judou (1990, directed by Zhang Yi-mou)
In the 1920's, and in a mountain area. One day, Yang
Tian-qing comes back to the dye house where he works and lives after collecting fees outside for three months. He finds, Yang Jin-shan, the owner of the dye house and his uncle, has a new wife named Judou. Judou is young and beautiful. She is bought by Yang Jin-shan with big money, and is supposed to have children for Yang. Yang is sexually disabled. Before Judou, he had two wives, who had no child with him and were tortured to death by him. Judou is forced to have sex with Yang Jin-shan every night, and tortured by him when he is sexually disabled. In the day time, Judou works with Tian-qing as a laborer. Judou's cries in the night arouses Tian-qing's sympathy for her sufferings. And, the noise from his uncle's bedroom also awakens his curiosity about sex. Tian-qing is almost forty years old, and has not married yet. He lost the parents at an early age, and was adopted by his uncle, Yang Jin-shan. He became the employee of the dye house when he grew up. Yang tried to keep Tian-qing as long as possible and did not allow him to marry, since Tian-qing was cheap labor and Yang never paid him. Tian-qing begins to peep at Judou through a hole on the wall when Judou takes a shower. Judou finds the hole and plugs up the hole. Tian-qing and Judou are getting closer.
Judou opens the hole again, and shows Tian-qing the bruises 130 on her body while sobbing. Tian-qing hates his uncle for what he does to Judou. However, he does not dare to say and do anything.
One day, Yang goes out of town on business. Tian-qing and Judou finally cross the border and have sex. Judou is pregnant and gives birth to a baby boy. The boy is named
Tian-bai. Yang is very happy about the birth of the son, and not suspicious of it. One day, Yang becomes sick and paralyzed. He stays in bed all day and hears the joyful laughing from Judou and Tian-qing when they are working. He is jealous of that, and struggles to get off the bed to beat
Judou. Judou tells him that Tian-bai is not his son. It really upsets Yang. He tries to kill Tian-bai and to burn the family several times, but does not succeed. Tian-qing and Judou put Yang into a big barrel with wheels, and hanging up every night to prevent his killing himself or harming others, so that he can watch their happiness.
However, the relationship between Judou and Tian-qing can not be open to the people in the town. Soon, Judou is pregnant again and has an abortion secretly. She suffers a lot from this. At Tian-bai's three year old birthday party, the people force Tian-qing to call Tian-bai "my good brother." It makes Tian-qing almost cry. Yang is drowned in the dye pool one day when he is playing with Tian-bai. After the funeral, Tian-qing is ordered by the clan elders to move 131 out from the dye house; according to the clan rules, it is not proper that Tian-qing still lives in the dye house with the widow of his uncle.
Several years later, Tian-bai grows up to be a teenager. His temper is cold and eccentric. He is hostile to
Tian-qing for no reason. Finally, Tian-bai hears some rumors about Tian-qing and Judou, and yells at his mother angrily.
Even though Judou tells Tian-bai that Tian-qing is his father, Tian-bai expels Tian-qing from the dye house work.
Judou and Tian-qing become old. Facing the revengeful son, they feel very sad. They go to the cellar where they used to meet, and hold each other. Without fresh air, they became unconscious. Tian-bai follows them, and pulls them out. He dumps Tian-qing into the dye pool, and strikes Tian-qing with a wooden club. Judou crawls off the bed, screaming.
When she sees that Tian-qing is killed by their son, she sets fire to the dye house.
The narrative structure of this film mode can be outlined as following:
1). The leading character lives in a place, usually the countryside, with a strong Chinese tradition. 132
2). The leading character tries to change his (her) situation in the society.
3). The leading character's action meets pressure from the society.
4). Regardless of the pressure, the leading character takes a decisive action.
5). The society does not approve of the behavior of the leading character.
6). The leading character's action fails.
7). The ending has two possibilities:
a). The leading character gives up and returns to the old
situation, and everything remains unchanged.
b). The leading character dies, and everything remains
unchanged.
In these films, the leading characters do not have any political identification, even a negative one, as they have in the last four film modes, but are very ordinary people.
They are like Chui Qiao in Yellow Earth, who is a daughter of a very ordinary peasant; so Wang-quan, a son of a poor farmer; Xiao Xiao, a young peasant woman; Judou, a bought 133 wife and worker in a small countryside dye house. Their stories are not caused by any political issue or political status, but by marriage, family and sex; the issues are very old and yet also always new for human beings. As to the male, his marriage is often interwoven with his career, such as is Wang-quan's. Facing the issue of marriage and sex, they are no longer the observer of his (her) family, marriage, obligation and responsibility, like the leading characters in the last film mode, but betrayers of these traditional moral norms and values. For example, Chui Qiao leaves her husband for her freedom; Xiao Xiao puts her legal husband aside and has an affair with a farm laborer, Hua
Gou; Gao Jia Lin splits with beautiful and kindhearted peasant girl, Qiao Zheng, and pursued a city girl, Huang Ya
Ping (Life). In Red Sorghum, an unlawful couple, "grandpa" and "grandma", even kill the lawful husband of "grandma".
The unlawful couple, Judou and Tian-qing, do something like this. In Old Well, although Wang-quan, following his grandpa's will, marries the widow, he spends three romantic nights with his real lover in the bottom of the well after he marries. In Wild Mountain, the leading characters, the two couples, finally changed their wives. In short, we can say, what they do is anything, but not moral things.
Consequently, the sexual partner that the leading character has in these films is not like the last mode. 134 previously only one, but now two. One is the legal partner, the married; another is the illegal partner, the non married. It is not necessary that both sexual partners show up together in the film, but it is necessary that they both exist in the narrative structure. And, they are the decisive facts which affect how the leading character takes action.
For instance, in Life, Good Women, Sacrificed Youth, Wild
Mountain, Old Well, Xiao Xiao, Red Sorghum, and Judou, no film breaks this rule. Also, the attitudes of the all leading characters to the two sexual partners in these films follow the rule: betraying the married partner and pursuing the non-married partner. Even though in Yellow Earth, the husband of Chui Qiao does not show up clearly (only a close up shot of his black and rough hand taking the red scarf off the head of Chui Qiao in the bridal chamber), and Gu Qin seems hardly a real lover for Chui Qiao. However, their existence is the reason that caused Chui Qiao's leaving her home and crossing the Yellow River.
The opposition side of the leading character is the masses and society, the neighbors and relatives of the leading character. They are the observers for such traditional principles and values, such as marriage, family, responsibility, and obligation. For example. The marriage, which puts Chui Qiao in a desperate situation, is arranged by her father; those who prosecute the punishment of Gao Jia 135
Lin, Xiao Xiao, and Judou, in the name of morality and clan law, are all the neighbors, relatives, elders in the community or village. Perhaps, the change of the relationship between the leading character and the masses is the most significant. In the last several modes, the masses always stand by the leading character, and symbolize both justice and conscience. In this mode, they and the leading character become the two sides which are opposite and in conflict with each other. Of course, unlike the ultra leftist political power in the last mode, who prosecute and deal out savage punishment to the leading character for no reason, these people are just following the old rules, and trying to introduce the leading character into the society and system. The leading character, at the beginning of the story, is not really a member within the society and system, but between the in-society and out-society, the in-system and out-system. In other words, they are on the edge, and are bystanders to the social system and ritual. In Yellow
Earth, the status of Chui Qiao, who is a bystander and outside the ritual and system, is emphasized by the point- of-view cutting between the shots of Chui Qiao's looking and the shots of the wedding ceremony in the first wedding scene.
Marriage is a major means to draw the leading character into the system and to have them become the one within the 136 system. When the leading character tries to reject the marriage arranged by the system, and therefore, to reject the system itself, the system will prosecute the punishment of the leading character by means of public opinion and administration. As a result, the leading character usually faces the consequence of being excluded from the society.
However, the leading character can not live when totally isolated from the society and, at the same time, is not willing to enter the order of the society. Therefore, he
(she) faces a most difficult choice. Some of the characters try to leave or escape from the social circumstances in which they used to live. For example, Chui Qiao leaves the home town and crosses the Yellow River; Gao Jia Lin (Life) moves from the countryside to the small city, and plans to go to a big city; Qiao Ying {Old Well) finally leaves her lover and home town for a new beginning. However, since the social power is so strong and extensive, and the individual power is so little and limited, it always ends in the failure of the leading character. Some of them, unwillingly or willingly, choose to submit to the society, and the end is also tragic, such as Xiao Xiao's, and Tao Chun's (in
Country Couple). In this sense. Red Sorghum is really a romantic work.
In this film mode, the agents or representatives of any political powers, including both the leftists and rightists, 137 have disappeared. Even if sometimes a character comes with a certain political sign, its implication usually becomes vague and unclear. In the case of Gu Qing (a soldier of the
Eighth Route Army led by the Communist Party), it is hard to say that he is a political figure, because his influence as a representative of a certain political power is very limited. He has never actively nor politically been involved in the conflict between the leading character (Chui qiao), and the society. Furthermore, this influence is mixed up with his individual influence on Chui Qiao as a young man.
It makes his real status even more vague. He is rather like a haunting sexual image (a young man) to Chui Qiao.
Through the dramatic relationships above, these films present the conflict between the individual and the society.
This social classification has totally divorced with (not
"change" or "reverse") the framework built in the first film mode, therefore, divorced with the framework of Mao's ideology. We can not find a corresponding social category from the previous modes for the leading characters. These films create a set of new categories. We can compare their differences from the former modes in the following table: 138 Table 7. Comparison of Leading Characters in Films from 1973 to the Middle 8 0 s
Leading characters Major opponents
Films in 1973-74 Distinguished Class enemies
members of
workers, peasants
and PLA men
Films in 1975-76 Leftist leaders Rightist leaders
Films in 1977-78 Rightist leaders Leftist leaders
Films in Early Class enemies Leftist leaders
80's
Fifth Generation individuals society in Middle 80’s
In this conflict, the individual demands liberation and freedom. A major aspect of it is the liberation and freedom in marriage and sex. On the other side, the society, in order to stabilize and maintain its own state, restrains the individual desire, and leads it into a certain social norm, such as family, marriage, obligation, and responsibility.
This social norm generally connects with the traditional values. In this sense, the conflict between the individual 139 and the society also is the conflict between the traditional and anti-traditional.
As a matter of fact, this film mode, like the previous film mode, also presents two sets of the binary opposition systems which are opposite each other. One is from the society and tradition, which is the opposition of good/evil based on moral principles. From the perspective of this system, the society, masses, and tradition represent good, because they try to maintain these norms necessary for conducting human beings' affairs, such as the family, marriage, responsibility, and obligation. On the other side, as the violator of these norms, the leading character embodies evil.
Another set of the binary opposition system is from the individual and the anti-traditional side, which is the opposition of reasonable/unreasonable. From the perspective of this system, all these things are unreasonable and unnatural to human beings, such as arranging for a teenaged girl to unwillingly marry a middle-aged person whom she has never seen before {Yellow Earth), or arranging for a teenaged girl to marry a two-year-old boy {Xiao Xiao, Good
Women), or forcing a young man, who loves another girl, to marry a widow he does not love(Old Well), or ordering a young girl to marry a winery owner with leprosy {Red 140
Sorghum). Therefore, the leading character's rejection of the marriage, and for his (her) seeking non-married sex are reasonable and natural. This binary system is not based on moral principles but on the principles of human nature and humanism.
The opposition between these two sets of binary systems constitutes the most basic opposition in this film mode: the opposition of reason/morality. The change of this film mode from the last several film modes can be displayed as the following:
Table 8. Comparison of Value System in Films from 1973 to the Middle 8 0 s
Positive Negative Value system
value value
Films in 197 3 Revolutionary Anti Politics
-74, 1975-76, revolutionary
1977-78
Films from Good/Anti Bad/Revolutio Morality
1979 to Early revolutionary nary
B O ’S
Films in the Reasonable/ Unreasonable/ Rational
Middle 80's bad good 141
From the conflict between rationalism and moralism, we seem to hear the echo of the shout from the enlightenment thinkers in the May Fourth movement.u
As to the relationships with the political theme and sexual theme, in this film mode the political theme has moved back to the side-lines for the first time since the
Cultural Revolution, while the sexual theme takes a central place. Furthermore, the connotation of the sexual theme is totally different than that in the films with the theme of political wound and Xie Jin’s mode. The latter mode supports the concept of moralized sex, which usually means selflessness, sacrifice and such virtues. This one is natural sex, and usually means the realization and fulfillment of individual desire. In Judou, this sex even makes people cold and cruel to others. (Of course, this kind of cold and cruel feeling is an outcome of sex that can not be expressed naturally.) This difference between the two modes makes them take totally different means to present a wedding ceremony, a kind of sexual ritual which represents the traditional value. For instance, the wedding ceremonies of Xu Ling-jun and Xiu-zi in Herdsman, and of Hu Yu-ying and
Qin Shu-tian in Hibiscus Town (both made by Xie Jin) are
. About the ideological conflict between rational and morality in the May Fourth movement, Li Ze-hou gives an useful discussion in The history of Chinese modern thoughts (1987). Beijing: Orient Press. 142 perceived as full of solemn, happy, and joyful moods. But, in the works of the Fifth Generation, the wedding ceremony becomes a kind of negative ritual, and is always presented from a critical view and full of tragic color, such as the wedding ceremonies in Yellow Earth and Life. On the contrary, the scene of natural and wild love-making of the illegal couple in these works is covered by a grand and solemn mood. In Red Sorghum, as an illustration, the scene of love-making of the illegal couple, the male leading character and female leading character, is presented in this way; In a wild field full of red sorghums and with fierce wind, the camera is slowly lifted to a lofty position which offers a perspective overlooking the man and woman on the ground. It seems to justify their action from a position of god and heaven.
These films are mainly expressing the critical consciousness to the society, tradition, masses, and system, which ignore or deny the significance of the individual life, from the perspective of individual life. In this expression, the strong political complex and traditional moral consciousness in the last film mode fade out, while the sex act becomes the major means for individual expression. In the change between the last and this mode, we can see the clear gap between the new generation of intellectuals (represented by the Fifth Generation) and old 143 generations (represented by Xie Jin). The ideas of the old generations regarding human nature are full of a strong moral and collective consciousness, whereas the new generation's are full of the consciousness of individual value and rationalism. From the former, we can see their relationship to the Chinese cultural traditions; and from the latter, we can see their relationship to the modern cultural ideologies of the West.
The old generation grew up in the 1950's and 1960's, the classic period of the Communist Party's culture. The education they received was the revolutionary ideologies ingrained by the Party, the collectivism and moralism from the traditional culture filled with the small farmer's consciousness. The Cultural Revolution destroyed their faith in revolution and politics. For the sake of the education they received, they tend to attribute the problem of the
Cultural Revolution and ultra-leftist politics to individual evils (such as Gang of Four), and to take morality as the hope for the society. In sum, they try to find answers from
Chinese tradition. Their alternative model is traditional
(Confucius)/present (socialist); their choice is made within the Chinese perimeter of ideologies. The new generation grew up in the Cultural Revolution and the New Era. The Cultural
Revolution made them sufferers to the full, and also made them believe in the principle of reality more than the 144 principle of morality. After 1979, the open policy provided a window to learn the world outside. Through the window, they learned the cultural ideologies and values in the West.
When they looked back at Chinese society, altered by the
Western ideas regarding human nature and human rights, they view a set of different answers to Chinese reality than do the older generations. Their alternative model is
Chinese/Western; their choice is made along with a new geographic-political perimeter of ideologies. So, while both generations stay aware of the tendency of the day and more attuned towards the humanism in China in the 1980's, the old and new two generations have chosen different approaches.
The difference makes the strong political complex of the new generation intellectuals fade out, and dissolves their attention to contemporary politics into the wider reflection on history, culture, and tradition. In this reflection, they tend to relate the Chinese contemporary political system (socialism) to Chinese traditional culture
(Confucianism), because they both are paternalistic, therefore, denying individual value. The Fifth Generation
12. Please refer to the discussions about the difference between the Fourth Generation (including the Third Generation and Xie Jin) and the Fifth Generation made by Pickowicz (1990) and Browne (1990) in my review of literature. Also, see Chapter II of Film in contemporary China: Critical Debates, 1979-1989 (Semsel, George, & Chen, Xihe, & Xia Hong, 1993, New York: Praeger Press). 145 creates many new images of "self" that denies the social and collective values. Actually, they are a symbol of the Fifth
Generation themselves. Here, the individual is presented as awakening, the masses remaning numb; the individual as advanced, the masses as backward; the individual revolting, the masses submitting. In Chinese culture, which used to confirm the collective value, this presentation is new and unprecedented. It can be said that this reflection on the masses is the deepest one of the Cultural Revolution. From the perspective of the Fifth Generation, the Cultural
Revolution was not caused by a few evil individuals but by whole generations. In the final scene of the worship for rain in Yellow Earth, through the peasant's young son who struggles against the rush of worshippers, the criticism of the masses is displayed very strongly.
As compared with the films made in the early 1980's, many films in this mode, from theme to style, are more radical and bear more Western influence. Some of them caused wide controversy in audiences, and were not widely accepted by society in that time. In most cases, they only raised strong responses from young students in universities and intellectuals, such as Yellow Earth. However, Life and Xiao
Xiao earned a broad audience. 146
Reference
Semsel, George, & Chen, Xihe, & Xia Hong (1993). Film in contemporary China: Critical Debates, 1979-1989. New York: Praeger Press.
Li, Ze-hou (1987). The history of Chinese modern thoughts. Beijing: Orient Press.
Pickowicz, G. Paul (1990). Huang Jiangxin and the notion of post-socialism. In Conference of Chinese films in the 1 9 8 0 's. University of California, Los Angels.
Browne, Nick (1990). Society and subjectivity; The political economy of Chinese melodrama. In Conference of Chinese films in the 1980's. University of California, Los Angles. 147
3. ENTERTAINMENT FILM (THE LATE 1980'S)
After the Cultural revolution, The term "Entertainment
Film" more and more frequently was a significant reference relating to Chinese film production, especially relevant to the growing quantity of productions. Regarding the
Entertainment Film, I mean those films whose major function is for providing entertainment to broad audiences, not for propagandizing the Party's ideologies and government's policies, nor expressing the film artists themselves. In
1977 and 1978, when the sex theme (even love theme) was still forbidden, there was a rash of police and detective films, such as The Bear's Trace (1977), Submerged Reef
(1977), Black Triangle (1978), The Spy in the Eastern Harbor
(1978), Hunting No. 99 (1978), etc. These films all combined the function of entertaining audiences with the theme of class struggle at that time. The negative roles, or spies, in these films are shown as class enemies politically, and/or in relation to the US (imperialism), or USSR
(socialist imperialism), or Taiwan (Kuomintang Party and 148 reactionary). In 1980, the debut of Mysterious Buddha and
Romance in Lu-Shan Mountain, two of the biggest box-office movies of the year, marked the formation of the two most basic genres of Entertainment Film in China. The first comes with the theme of fighting and violence, and in relation to
Kung-Fu, detective, chasing, and criminal films, such as
Shao Lin Temple ( 1982), Legend of Martial Art (1983), IVu
Dang (1983), The Flying Thief in E-Mai Mountain (1985), Wang
Tian Ba (1988), The Swordsman in Twin Banners Town (1990).
Another genre is in relation to the theme of friendship and love between boy and girl, and inspired those films later that have themes of youth, love, triangle love relationships, and sexual issues. In the middle 1980's, when the "New Wave" of the Fifth Generation was the hottest spot, the Entertainment Films already had almost reached fifty percent of the total film production of the year (Wu, B.,
1985). The Entertainment Film became an issue that people paid great attention to in the middle 1980's.
In 1987, the Entertainment Film issue caused a broad discussion in film circles, which justified the function of the Entertainment Films in Chinese society from various views.13 At the end of the same year, the quantity of such
13. In regard to the discussion on the issue of Entertainment film, please refer to Contemporary Cinema (1987, Jan., mar., may), and also see Chapter IV of Film in 149 films rose to more than sixty percent of the film production of the year; and maintained this popularity in 1988 and
1989. This emphatically proved that the Entertainment Film has really become a mainstream in Chinese film industry. At the National Conference on Entertainment Film in 1989,
Entertainment Film was officially defined as the main body of production in the Chinese film industry.In order to define and lead the entertainment film production, the authorities put forward the policy, "entertainment comes with education", as complementary to the theory of the
Entertainment Film as the main body. In the following, I discuss the two basic genres in the entertainment film.
a). Legend of Martial Art (1983, directed by Zhang Huaxun)
In the end of Qing Dynasty, there is a pugilist of
Chinese martial art, Dong Fang Xu. He comes to Tianjing with his family one morning, and performs his martial art at the front of a ruined temple to make money. The head of
Shengzhou Martial Art House, He Da-hai, comes to the scene with his disciples to assault Dong. Dong is forced to fight with him and pretends to be defeated. A doctor of Chinese
contemporary China: Critical Debates, 1979-1969 (Semsel, George, & Chen, Xihe, & Xia Hong, 1993). . About this development, please refer to Zhang Wei (1990, Jan.), Contemporary Chinese Entertainment Film: a symposium, Beijing: Contemporary Cinema, pp. 4-6. 150 medicine, Li, stands by the scene and watches the fighting.
He notices that Dong is not an average pugilist. He goes to see Dong after the fighting, and finds that Dong is the son- in-law of his closest, late friend, Bu. Li invites Dong's family to live in his house, and returns Bu's sword to Dong and his wife, which Bu used in fighting with foreign invaders. Dong knew from his father-in-law that Li was a master of Chinese boxing. He asks Li to teach him Ba-gua- zhong, a Chinese martial art. Li promises. Under Li's directing, Dong makes progress day by day.
Russian boxing master Dadroff, who claims to be unmatched around the world, comes to Tianjing to give an open challenge. It enrages He Da-hai. In the first day fighting. He Da-hai defeats Bichiga, the assistant to
Dadroff. It boosts Chinese morale. However, on the way back to Shengzhou Martial Art House, He Da-hai is shot by Niu-wu, a Chinese guard of a Russian firm in the concessions of
Tianjing. After learning the news, Dong goes to the hospital to visit He Da-hai and pays respect to him. He Da-hai feels regret for what he did to Dong before, and makes an apology.
They become friends. He Da-hai asks Dong to be the head of
Shengzhou Martial Art House while he stays in the hospital.
Dong agrees. 151
Dong and the disciples of the house catch the assassinator, Niu-wu, and send him to the police station.
However, the police chief yields to the pressure of Liang, an agent of the Russian firm, and releases Niu-wu. Niu-wu comes back to Shengzhou Martial Art House to call for fighting in Dadroff's name. Dong decides to fight with
Dadroff and signs the contract which says nobody will be responsible for the death of the other side in the fighting.
In order to secure the winning of Dadroff, Russian ambassador Tulayeff secretly sends people to kidnap Dong's daughter and shakes his determination. For the honor of
China, however, Dong fights with Dadroff, and defeats him by using Ba-gua-zhong. Tulayeff and Liang try to send people to assassinate Dong, For shielding Dong, He Da-hai is killed by the assassinator. Finally, Dong and his family escape from the jaws of death.
b ) . Swcrdcmen in Twin Banners Town (1990, directed by He
Ping)
Twin Banners Town is an old, mystery castle controlled by Yi-dao-xian, a head of a swordsman gang, and his brother,
Er-ye. One day, a junior swordsman, Hai-ge, comes to the town to meet his fiancee. The marriage was arranged by his late father and father-in-law a long time ago. And, he has never seen her. He finds Guai-zi, the owner of a small hotel 152 in the town and his father-in-law, and Hao-mei, his fiancee.
Guai-zi does not like him and regrets the arrangement.
However, he can not say that directly to Hai-ge, the son of his late friend. So, he keeps Hai-ge in his hotel as a helper. Also, Hao-mei does not like her fiancé, because he does not look like a real man, but like a boy.
The hotel business is busy. One day, Er-ye, the head of the gang, comes to the hotel. While getting drunk, he pushes
Guai-zi away and tries to violate Hao-mei. Hai-ge stands up to protect his fiancee. Er-ye slaps his face. Hai-ge becomes infuriated. He and Er-ye both pull swords off at the same time. After an intense fighting, Er-ye is killed by Hai-ge.
Hai-ge learned the swords skill from his late father, but had never tested his power in real fighting. At this time,
Hai-ge, as well as the people in the town, are shocked by what he has done. They know that Yi-dao-xian, the elder brother of Er-ye and a swords master famous for killing his contenders by only one blow, will be sure to avenge his brother. All the people in the town surround Hai-ge and do not allow him to leave. Hai-ge recalls Sa-li-fei, whom he met on the way to Twin Banners Town. Sa-li-fei bragged that he was a swords master, and unmatched in the area. Hai-ge leaves his fiancee and father-in-law to the people in the town as hostage and looks for Sa-li-fei's help. Sa-li-fei 153 promises he will help Hai-ge, and come to the town when Yi- dao-xian shows up.
It is the day. Hai-ge sits under the banners and waits for Sa-li-fei. However, by the noon of the day, Sa-li-fei has not shown up. Hai-ge and the people in the town are scared. Guai-zi gets his sword which he has not touched for a long time. When the time just passes noon, seven horse- riders, headed by Yi-dao-xian, come to the town. Guai-zi goes to fight with Yi-dao-xian first, and is killed by his one blow. Two other people, who try to confront Yi-dao-xian, also fall down under his sword. Hai-ge can not avoid the fighting any longer, and finally stands up. After an intense fight, Hai-ge is bleeding on his face, but does not fall down. Yi-dao-xian is surprised and asks from whom Hai-ge learned the sword skill. Hai-ge says from his late father.
After another period of intense fighting, Yi-dao-xian falls down under the sword of Hai-ge. It shocks the town. Sa-li- fei shows up from a hidden place, finally, and says he was delayed by something. Hai-ge pays the final respect to the body of his father-in-law. Then, he takes Hao-mei and leaves the town.
Both the films above are Kung-Fu. Legend of Martial Art is one of the biggest box-office movies of the year.
Swordsmen in Twin Banners Town received the Grand Award at 154
Xi-zhang International Adventure and Fantasy Film Festival
1990 in Japan. The narrative structure of this genre can be summarized as the following:
1). The hero has an excellent skill in martial arts.
2). The evildoer also has an excellent skill in martial a r t s .
3). By using the power of martial arts, the evildoer harms, for his own interests, the interests of the masses and the stability of the society.
4). Facing the threat from the evildoer, people in the society can not protect themselves.
5). The hero stands up to protect people and the society.
6). The evildoer attacks the hero.
7). The hero defeats the evildoer.
8). The interests of the people are protected, and the society recovers its stability. 155
These films have three groups of characters. The first group is the hero, which can be either one or several persons. They have excellent skills in martial arts, and restrict the use of violence. Therefore, the violent conflict usually is not initiated by them. The second group is an evildoer, which also can be either one or a team. They have excellent skills in martial arts like the hero, but always use them to threaten the masses for their own interests. They always provoke the violent conflict first, and harm the interests of the masses and society. The third group is the masses. They are the weakest ones of the three groups, and are unable to protect themselves. Facing the threat from the evildoer, they are in a helpless situation.
Finally, the hero shows up to rescue them and defeat the evildoer and the society is restored to order and stability.
By the narrative structure above, these films present two sets of binary opposition. The first set is the opposition of strong/weak, which is displayed in the difference between the hero, evildoer, and the masses. Both the hero and evildoer are strong and powerful, and the masses are weak and unable. Another set is the opposition of good /evil, which is presented between the hero and evildoer. The masses, in most cases, stand by the side of good. For example, in Legend of Martial Art, they represent the sense of honor and of self-respect of the nation, and 156 justify the use of violence by the hero. However, this presentation is somewhat changed in recent Gong Fu films. In
Swordsmen in Twin Banners Town, for instance, the masses become selfish and cowardly. When Hai-ge is going to leave to seek rescue they think that he is going to run away and come out to stop him and keep him as a hostage. This corruption and selfishness of the masses is also a kind of evil. In the latter case, the justice of the hero's violent action is justified directly by a moral principle: protecting his fiancee's virginity.
In the two sets of opposition, these films confirm power, and as well as morality. However, the power and the morality themselves also build an opposition, even though it is not so clear in most cases. Fundeunentally speaking, these films believe that morality is non-violent. It is shown in the hero's restricted attitude toward using power, and also in the situation that there is no need for violent power after the society restores its order and stability at the end of the films. In Swordsmen in Twin Banners Town, after he killed Yi-Dao-Xian (swords-master), Hai-go, with his fiancee, leaves the town. On the other hand, the violent power is unmoral. This is evidenced in that the person who initiates the violence always is the immoral person. 157
However, these films can not leave the theme of morality (for them, it is impossible to extol the unmoral violence), or abandon the violent power either (if so, Kung-
Fu films would not even exist). Consequently, they design a narrative structure in which the evildoer has the power, and initiates the violence, and abuses the power; then, the hero defeats the evil power, in the name of morality and with the means of violent power, so that morality and violent power can coexist. Therefore, these films not only criticize the theme of violent power, but also accent the theme.
Furthermore, through the newest design of fighting skills and the innovative film technologies, the appeal of the violent power theme is far beyond that of morality's, and becomes the major source of visual appeal in these films.
The phenomenon of the coexisting of opposite themes is presented more tortuously and complicatedly in the films with the theme of sex. In the following two films.Obsession was the one of the most popular box-office movies of the year.
a). Obsession (1989, directed by Zhou Xiao-wen)
Lan Lan, a junior girl student of a Middle School, is raped by a young driver, Shen Da-chen, when she ison the way home after a school night class. Qing Qing, the elder 158 sister of Lan Lan and a nurse, lives with Lan Lan and supports her. Their parents are divorced and do not live with thcz. Lan Lan’s misfortune gives a heavy blow on her heart. She swears to find out the rapist no matter how much she must pay. From the car the criminal has abandoned, policemen find a pornographic journal with the seal of Qing
Qing Book House. The house is owned by Li Chang-wei, the elder brother of Qing Qing's classmate. He loves Qing Qing.
But Qing Qing seems to ignore him.
One day, Qing Qing comes to the house and sees some pornographic journals on the book shelves. She overreacts by pushing customers away and tearing up the books one by one, and shouting "Damn you! Damn you!" Li looks at Qing Qing with sympathy, and says; "So many book vendors around the town. Can you sweep them all? I have serious books inside, but people are not interested in them." Qing Qing calms down, and asks Li to arrange for Lan Lan to live in the Book
House while finding clues. She believes the rapist maybe will come back to the Book House again. At the same time,
Qing Qing searches for the rapist everywhere around the town.
Through a hard search, the policemen find that Shen Da- shen, the elder brother of Shen Da-chen and owner of a car repair shop, is suspicious, and cite him. Luckily, Shen Da- 159 shen has friends to prove that he was not on the scene on the night when the rape happened. He comes home from the police station and calls his brother, Shen Da-chen, to account on the rape. Da-chen admits he did it. Da-shen hates his brother for causing trouble. However, he does not want to send him to jail. So, he arranges an escape for him. They drive to the railway station and stop at the bank on the way to get money. When Da-shen leaves the car, he tells Da-chen
"Don't leave the carl" After waiting for a while, however,
Da-chen gets out of the car and goes to Qing Qing Book Store near the bank. Lan Lan sees him and screams out. Li and Qing
Qing chase after him. Da-chen and Da-shen get on the car and take Qing Qing as hostage. Police cars come to the rescue and chase. Da-shen and Da-chen have no way to run and come back to the tower where they live. Finally, Da-shen and Da- chen are caught at the top of the tower, and Qing Qing is rescued. She stares at Da-chen with hatred and walks slowly towards Da-chen. Suddenly, she pushes him over the edge of the roof. Da-chen falls down from the top of the tower and is killed. It shocks everyone on the scene. However, Qing
Qing seems not to regret what she has done. 160 b ) . The Yellow Spirit in Night Shadow (1989, directed by Da
Shi-biao)
Lntus Hotel is located down town, and its night club attracts many people, as well as the attention of the city police. According to an inside police report, there is an underground porno video business organization there. One night, Da-li, a high school student and a beautiful girl, comes to the club to divert herself. Da-li's parents are divorced. She lives with her father. Her father is just remarried, and she is ignored by the new family. She meets
Pan Jian-ping in the ball room. Pan is an underground porno- video dealer and looking for a new girl who is supposed to provide sexual service to his customers to help his sales.
Pan spends lot of time and money with Da-li, and makes her happy. Then, he brings her to his house to watch porno videos and pictures. Da-li first tries to resist the seduction, and finally loses her innocence. When she comes back home late at night, she tells her father she was doing homework in her classmate's house.
Da-li's elder sister, Mei, lives with the mother, and has a job in the Lotus Hotel as a public relation representative. She used to introduce the customers of the hotel to Swan Bar, owned by Gu, and drew a commission from
Gu. Gu has coveted Mei for a long time. One day, he brings 161 her to his bedroom and tries to force her to have sex with him. When she is in the bathroom, however, he finds a diagnostic report in her purse, which says she has venereal disease. It scares Gu. But, his boss, the head of an underground porno business organization in the city, is interested in it, and tells Gu to recruit Mei into the organization. Da-li finds that Pan is not serious about her.
She is very disappointed and takes drugs to try killing herself. Driver Lan saves her, and beats up Pan for her. Lan becomes Da-li's new boyfriend. Actually, Lan is also a member of the underground porno business organization which
Pan is in. The organization does not want to lose Da-li and has sent Lan to keep her.
Da-li is seduced by money and driven to provide "whole sexual service" for the customers of the porno dealer. At this time. Pan is tailed by police. In order to get rid of the police, Lan kills Pan, according to the order of the boss. At Gu's invitation, Mei agrees to do "the business" with Gu, and to entertain a customer, Dong-bie-ke. In fact,
Mei and Dong-bie-ke both are policemen. They try to get close to the core of the organization and to find the real boss of the porno dealer. Gu introduces "the doorman" of
Lotus Hotel to them, and says "He is the boss." However, when Mei asks for a higher price for the work she is supposed to do, the doorman can not make the decision. 162
Finally, the real boss, a woman, calls Mei by phone and agrees to see her to discuss the business. The phone call is recorded by the police. The police arrests the real boss,
Zhao, and other members of the organization. At this time,
Wen-du-ke, a big porno dealer from outside the city, comes to Lotus Hotel again with the newest porno videos. The police had been looking for him for a long time and missed him last time. He is caught this time. However, Da-li is infected with syphilis. With regret and despair, she comes to the beach house where she had lost her innocence. She sets fire to the house and locks herself inside. When Mei and other policemen come, it is too late to save her.
These films are developed from the films with the themes of youth and love in the early and middle 1980's, such as Romance in Lu-Shan Mountain (1980), A Missing Middle
School Girl Student (1986), and Big Star (1985). But, when they evolved to the late 1980's, they changed tremendously.
Their narrative structure can be summed up as the following:
1). The leading character (usually, female) has strong sexual appeal.
2). The sexual partner of the leading character is attracted by the appeal. 163
3). The leading character is attacked or seduced by the partnei.
4). The partner is prosecuted by the law.
5). The leading character is saved from the sexual evil either by the power of law or by the power of morality. (In the case of Da-li, her blaming herself morally and killing herself is also a way to save her from sexual evil.)
In these films, there are three groups of characters.
The first is usually women or girls, who are usually young and pretty outside, and innocent and fanciful inside. The
"young and pretty" means that they are ripe and powerful in terms of sexual ability. The "innocent and fanciful" means that they are immature and weak in terms of morality. The second group is the sexual partner of the leading character.
They are usually powerful in terms of sexual capability, and weak and even dangerous in terms of morality and law. The sexual partner does not mean that he has the love or friend relationship with the leading character, but that he has a physically sexual relationship with the leading character.
And the sexual relationship usually is first made by violent attack or immoral seduction. The third group is the representative of moral and legal power. This is the restrainer of sex, such as the elder sister Qing Qing and 164 the policemen in Obsession, and policemen Mei and Dong-Bei-
Ke in The Yellow Spirit in Night Shadow. They are powerful in terms of morality and law, but restrained or submissive to the moral principle in terms of sex.
Through the dramatic relationships above, these films display the opposition of sex/morality. Sex is a kind of dangerous and degenerated power, which always causes the moral and unlawful crisis in the society, whereas morality and law are the positive power to stop the criminal and fallen. Therefore, speaking from the surface of the narrative structure, these films confirm the morality and deny the sex. However, the issue is not so simple. When showing the danger of sex, these films also display the strong appeal of it. In the famous scene of the two sisters' taking a shower at the beginning of Obsession, as an illustration, sex is displayed as something pure and fresh, beautiful and graceful. Then, by a point-of-view cutting, we see that a young man (rapist) is watching through a telescope. At this moment, the film offers us a viewpoint which is identical with the criminal’s. The watching
(action) is immoral, but the watched (object) is beautiful.
When watching the film, we are in a dilemma.
As in The Yellow Spirit in Night Shadow, it is not usual to have a high school girl as the leading character in 165 a Chinese criminal film. But it is not accidental either, because a high school girl is one of the most watchable objects in sexual themes. Furthermore, it is not accidental that both films deal with such subjects of sexual criminality and sexual violence, because these are the most exploitable subjects in terms of sexual spectacle. In sum, these films resolve the conflict between sex and morality from the moral perspective on one hand; on the other hand, they display the sexual spectacle as much as possible from the anti-moral perspective. Both sexual and moral themes are opposite and simultaneously coexistent in these films. It is just like the relationship between the themes of violence and morality in Kung-Fu films.
In these films, the political theme has totally disappeared, and the sex becomes a basic theme (Kung-Fu can be seen as the films with the theme of male sex). However, from Xie Jin's mode in the early 1980's, to the Fifth
Generation in the middle 1980's, to the Entertainment Films in the late 1980's, the theme of sex has gone through tremendous changes. In the films of the early 1980's, the theme of sex is connected closely with morality, and presented with the themes of marriage, family, love, and sacrifice. In the films of cultural reflection and of the
Fifth Generation in the middle 1980's, the theme of sex is divorced from the traditional morality, but still within the 166 extent of "reason." By the late 1980's, in the Entertainment
Films, the theme of sex is going very far along in the direction of immorality, and trying to break the taboos in sex and violence as much as possible. These films try to balance this tendency by reintroducing the theme of morality. As a result, it exposes its own dilemma.
The opposition and coexistence of the immoral tendency, and moral theme, within the Entertainment Films embodied the dilemma and conflict in Chinese culture itself in the late
1980's. On the one side, the influence of the traditional culture was still deep-rooted, and the moral principle of oppressing the individual and emphasizing the collective remained the basic social norm. On the other side, new cultural ideologies, especially those from the West, renewed the people's ideas regarding individual human nature and sexual issues. People tried to break through the oppression from the traditional culture to the individual, and to express individual and sexual desires. Consequently, this conflict was expressed in the Entertainment Films in an unconscious form. The reason that I say "unconscious" is because these films deny the individual wants at the rational level (they give a moral conclusion at the end of the films), but fulfill the wants in the sensual level (they provide the sexual pleasure in a visual form). Speaking in psychoanalytical terms, these films presented the conflict 167 between the pleasure principle of ego and the moral principle of superego. However, Toroptsev, in his newest study about Chinese film presented at the "Conference of
Chinese Film in the 1980’s" at UCLA, gives a more positive evaluation of Entertainment Film. He says:
The genre of "Kongfu" that has been developing in the cinema of the PRC from 1979 on, can hardly be explained by the willingness to use impressing forms of show and entertainment. The "Kongfu" cinema was a response to the turn of Chinese society to an individual with his mastership, energy and activeness (1990).
Since these films aim at the box-office, and try to reach an audience as broad as possible, they actually reflect the psychological structure of the masses and most members of the society.
This cultural conflict is displayed in a more conscious way in the works of the intellectuals. In Red Sorghum, Xiao
Xiao, Wild Field (1987), Judou, and Human, Demon, Woman
(1987), for example, they all confirm the natural wants of life, and deny the over-oppression of Chinese morality and tradition to the individual. As a matter of fact, in
Obsession, the author implicates this point in its story. At the end of the film, elder sister, Qing Qing, (the representative of morality) pushed the criminal off the edge of the roof, and caused the criminal’s death. It implicates 168 the over-punishment and irrationality of morality when that morality goes to extremes. When Qing Qing tried to get understanding from her young sister Lan Lan and said "All I did is for You," Lan Lan just blew bubble gum unfeelingly.
This is showing a negatively critical attitude toward morality.
The slogan "education comes with entertainment" presents the influence of the Party on the Entertainment
Films. It demands that film entertainment contains a moral conclusion. At this point, it is identical with the traditional culture.
So far in the above study, I have investigated the important developments of Chinese film since the Cultural
Revolution. Regarding the Chinese film in the Cultural
Revolution and Transition Period, Paul (1987) considers them both as one period, the Cultural Revolution, and as one category, Yan'an. Chen Huang-mei (1989) holds that the
Chinese film in the Cultural Revolution was totally destroyed, and that the Transition Period for Chinese film was a revival stage from the Cultural Revolution and an introductory stage to the New Era (after 1979). They both believe that Chinese film, after 1979, was in its golden age. Paul refers to it with the category. Beyond Yan'an. In
Pickowicz's paper (1990), Xie Jin's mode, in the early 169
1980's, is named reformist (therefore, socialist), and the
Fifth Generation as post-socialism. In Toroptsev's study
(1990), he uses the title "The PRC Cinema: Turning To A
Human Being" to indicate the major tendency of Chinese film of the 1980's.
In my study, with an emphasis on the ideological and political perspective, we can see that during the last twenty years, the ideologies of Chinese film went through many tremendous changes. The political theme moved from the center to the edge. The moral theme shifted from the positive side to the negative side. The sexual theme became the central one instead of the totally excluded one. I put these changes in the following chart: 170 Table 9. Comparison of Film Modes Since the Cultural Revolution
Major coonflict Binary opposition
Films in 1973-74 Revolutionary Revolutionary/Anti
calsses/Class -revolutionary
enemiea
1975-76 Leftists/Rightists Same as above
1977-78 Rightists/Leftists Same as above
1979-Early 1980's "Class enemies"/ Morality/Politics and Xie Jin's mode Leftists
Middle 1980's and Individual/Society Rationality/
Fifth Generation Morality
Late 1980's Heroes/evildoers Morality/Violence
Entertainment Film Police/Criminal and sex
From these changes, we can draw the following inferences. Chinese film is an important battlefield in contemporary China for various ideologies. During the
Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and transition period (1976-
1978), the influence of the Party was absolutely predominant, and the political value was the highest. Along with the réévaluation of Mao's thoughts and the change in cultural policy after 1979, the intellectuals got more space 171 for their thinking. The elder generations, represented by the directors of the Fourth and Third Generations, first began to make great efforts to rebuilt the ideology for the nation. They tried to replace the current political value system (revolutionary/anti-revolutionary) with the moral value system (good/bad). We can see this very clearly from the opposition of two sets of binary opposition systems in the films with the theme of political wound. However, the younger generations, represented by the Fifth Generation, were not satisfied with this answer. They believed that the moral approach could not deal with history, as well as with the Cultural Revolution. Because the history was not made with the principle of good, and the Cultural Revolution was not caused by a few bad men, they tried to introduce the historical and cultural perspective to review Chinese society. In the very opposition of the moral binary opposition system (good/bad) and the reasonable binary opposition system (reasonable/unreasonable)in the films with the theme of cultural reflection, the moral one represented the values of Chinese traditional culture, and the reasonable one, as a matter of fact, represented the values of Western and modern culture. In the criticism of the patriarchal culture of Chinese tradition (as well as the
Party's ideology), they implied capitalist-democracy as an alternative. Through the replacing of the politics/morality binary opposition with the morality/reason binary 172 opposition, we can observe the rapid change in contemporary
Chinese ideologies. In the late 1980's, the market economy developed very quickly in China, and Chinese film industry no longer operated in a pure "ideological context". The effort of Chinese intellectuals' rebuilding the ideology was dissolved under the commercial pressure from the market and audience. However, the Chinese film was still an ideological product. According to the analysis of a famous Chinese dissident, Liu Xiao-Bo, Chinese pop culture (Entertainment
Film is a main part of it) in the 1980's was a determinating force in smashing the Party's culture because it was so popular and difficult to resist (1993).
After June 4th, 1989, the Party began to reestablish control in the cultural and ideological areas. They severely criticized Entertainment Film on one hand,and on the other hand, politically and financially supported the Zhu-
Xuan-Lu (mainstream) films, which mostly represented the glorious history of the Party and leaders. However,
Entertainment Film was actually unbeatable in a society which was changing to a market economy system. Also, the intellectuals did not give up the effort to build a new culture for the nation. In the early 1990's, therefore, the
. Please refer to "On the subjectivity of Entertainment Film" (June 11, 1990), Beijing: Guangming Daily, by Gao Honggu, president of Guangxi Film Studio. It was one of severe criticism at the time. 173
Chinese film industry has become a tripartite institution.
These developments in Chinese film not only indicated the various social and cultural pressures which Chinese film industry withstood, but also, in turn, affected and shaped the society and culture. 174
Reference
Wu, Bao-zhen (1985, September). The catalogue of Entertainment Film in 1985. Beijing: Contemporary Cinema, pp. 90-91.
Semsel, George, & Chen, Xihe, & Xia Hong (1993). Film in contemporary China: Critical Debates, 1979-1989. New York: Praeger Press.
Zhang, Wei (1990, Jan.), Contemporary Chinese Entertainment Film; a symposium, Beijing: Contemporary Cinema, pp. 4-6.
Clark, Paul (1987). Chinese cinema: Culture and politics since 1949. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Chen, Huangmei (1989). China today: Film (two vols.). Beijing: China social science Press.
Pickowicz, G. Paul (1990). Huang Jiangxin and the notion of post-socialism. In Conference of Chinese films in the 1980's. University of California, Los Angels.
Toroptsev, S. (1990). The PRC cinema: turning to a human being. In Conference of Chinese films in the 1980's. University of California, Los Angels.
Liu, Xiao-bo (1993, February 28-March 6). A survey of the cultural life of the mainland people. Hong Kong: China Times Weekly, pp. 70-77. CHAPTER VI. CHINESE FILM EDUCATION
Academic Chinese film education has a short history. It began in the 50's.*® In July 1951, Chinese film performance artist, Chen Bo-er, founded the Institute of Film
Performance in Beijing, which consisted of two departments,
film performance and script writing. Next year, it was renamed the Film School, sponsored by the Ministry of
Culture and Film Bureau, with a two year curriculum system.
In 1956, with the assistance of USSR film professors,
Beijing Film Academy was formally established based on the
Film School. It followed the model of the Moscow Film
University and consisted of the following departments; directing, performance, photography, fine arts, script writing, and engineering, with a four-year curriculum
system. For a long time, the Academy was the only major film
1^. Before 1950's, Chinese filmmakers were trained in film studios, not in classrooms. Most of them were from theater, literature, fine art, and other business. 175 176 educational institute in China. Like the film industry, the film education formerly had been directed by the government.
In 1966, the Cultural Revolution disrupted the entire instructional process and suspended recruitment for the
Academy. It was closed in the following years, and merged into the Arts University of May 7, as a school with a two- year academic system in the early 1970's. During that time, the school had few classes in film photography, film lighting, and film sound. These classes did not provide qualified film curriculum to the students, but the political courses as the major part of their study. Also, political loyalty was the major prerequisite for admission. In the middle 1970's, the instructional process was stopped and the recruitment was again suspended. Chinese film education, just as the Academy president Shen Shong-shen says, "was severely damaged during the ten years of the Cultural
Revolution." (1990, p. 7)
In 1978, the Arts University of May 7 was dismissed, and the Beijing Film Academy was restored. It resumed the entrance examinations and the four-year academic system. In the summer of the same year, it had the first generation of undergraduate class after the Cultural Revolution. About the recruitment of the 1978 class. Professor R. W. Wagner gives a detail report in his article (1980, p. 64); 177
Admittance to the Film College today is by rigid examination— a departure from the policy established by "the Gang of four" during the Cultural Revolution for all institutions where everyone, especially soldiers and peasants, were admitted regardless of educational background or training. During the recent enrollments, 14,000 applications were received, with only 100 acceptances by May 1978. Of the applicants, 6,000 wanted to become performing artists.
Entrance examinations are conducted by teams of teachers who go into the provinces in five major areas. The examination, lasting 10 days, includes aspects of Chinese politics, and knowledge of the Chinese language. Portfolios of art work and photographs are required for those seeking admission to the areas of set design, animation, and cinematography.
They graduated in 1982 and later became the so-called "Fifth
Generation" filmmakers. Besides the four-year class, the
Academy also opened many short-term training classes after
1978.
In the early 1980's, Chinese film education also developed outside the Academy. Some universities opened film courses in the Department of Chinese Language and
Literature, which were limited to the level of film introduction and without degree. Until the middle 80's, there were more than 30 universities offering this kind of film curriculum. In 1982, the Institute of Film Art (a department of Arts Academy of China) established the first graduate class (consisting of 5 students, I was one of them) and the curriculum in film studies with an M.A. degree. 178 which was the highest degree in the field of Chinese film education at that time. In 1985, BFA, in cooperation with the Film Art Research Center of China (transformed from the
Institute of Film Art in 1984), built a joint program for training M.A. graduate students in film studies. The M.A. is still the highest degree in the field of Chinese film education at this time.
As compared with the central position of BFA in Chinese film education, the colleges and universities only occupied a position on the edge of the discipline. They did not have a complete film curriculum for either film production or film studies. Their faculty had almost no influence in the film circle. Moreover, the film courses in the literature department of the universities were even considered to be illegitimate by few radical faculty of BFA, who advocated the unique quality of film in the early 80's.i? In the visible future, there is no possibility to change this situation, because a major establishment and cancellation of the educational programs in universities is controlled by the Central Authority (the National Commission of
Education). There is not much that can be done by universities themselves. The current system of Chinese film
Please refer to my Review of Literature about Zhou's "Principal opinion on university film education" (1986). 179 education, which is concentrated in Beijing or BFA, can not be changed in the foreseeable future.
Since the Beijing Film Academy was and is still the only educational institute providing a complete film production curriculum, my investigation on the curriculum of
Chinese film education will focus on the Academy.
Considering the interruption of the film education in the
Cultural Revolution, my investigation will begin with the curriculum system before the Cultural Revolution, then go on.
1. THE CURRICULUM BEFORE THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
The curriculum of the Academy before the Cultural
Revolution included two parts. The first was the General
College Requirements (OCR) which included two sub-parts:
Political Theory and the History and Theory of Art.
TABLE 10: GCR of the Beijing Film Academy
POLITICAL THEORY:
(A) THE MARXIST PHILOSOPHY OF DIALECTICAL AND
HISTORICAL MATERIALISM, MAO TSETUNG'S 180
PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS
(B) THE MARXIST POLITICAL ECONOMICS AND THE SOCIALIST
POLITICAL ECONOMICS THEORY
(C) THE HISTORY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA
(D) THE HISTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST
MOVEMENTS
(E) THE EDUCATION OF THE COMMUNIST IDEOLOGY AND
MORALITY
HISTORY AND THEORY OF ART:
(A) INTRODUCTION TO ART
(B) INTRODUCTION TO FILM ART
(C) THE HISTORY OF THE CHINESE FILM
(D) THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD FILM
(E) APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS OF WORKS OF ART
( translated from THE BEIJING FILM ACADEMY, 1964/1984)
Since Chinese film education (also, the whole Chinese education) did not have the system of Credit Hours as in the
American system at that time, I can not provide an accurate figure of credit hours for each course. Generally speaking, the hours of each course in the Academy was twice that in
American film colleges in terms of classroom clock hours, but in terms of assignment load and examinations for each 181 course both were similar. Chinese film education also did not have the system of electives in that time, which meant that each course on the table was required.
The second part consisted of Major Field Requirements
(MFR). As I mentioned above, the Academy had an elaborate division in major fields of film production, and set up six departments. They were the Departments of Film Literature, of Film Directing, of Film Acting, of Film Photography, of
Film Fine Arts (including two different emphases: Film
Setting and Animation), and of Film Sound. Every department had its own MFR. For example, the following courses were the
MFR for the students in the Department of Film Photography,
Film Directing, and Film Sound.
TABLE 11: MFR of the Beijing Film Academy
FILM PHOTOGRAPHY MAJOR:
(A) INTRODUCTION TO FILM TECHNOLOGY
(B) PHOTOGRAPHIC TECHNOLOGY
(C) SENSITIVE MATERIAL AND PROCESS
(D) PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION
(E) PLASTIC SKILL OF CINEMATOGRAPHY
(F) CINEMATOGRAPHY CREATION 182 (G) SKETCH
(H) APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS OF FINE ART WORK
FILM DIRECTING MAJOR;
(A) ART SKILL OF FILM DIRECTING
(B) DIRECTING AND SCRIPT WRITING
(C) DIRECTING AND ACTING
(D) MONTAGE
(E) ANALYSIS OF FILM
FILM SOUND MAJOR:
(A) VOCAL MUSIC
(B) MUSIC
(C) ADVANCED MATHEMATICS
(D) GENERAL PHYSICS
(E) BASIS OF ELECTRIC CIRCUIT AND NETWORK
(F) ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY
(G) POWER SUPPLY AND POWER PLANT
(H) RECORDING EQUIPMENT
(I) RECORDING TECHNOLOGY AND ART PRACTICE
(translated from THE BEIJING FILM ACADEMY, 1964/1984)
From the above tables, we can see that the first part of GCR, POLITICAL THEORY, actually taught about Chinese 183 official political ideology. We can identify or detect this from their titles, such as THE MARXIST POLITICAL ECONOMICS
AND THE SOCIALIST POLITICAL ECONOMICS, and THE HISTORY OF
THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA. In addition, there were many other occasionally political education courses which responded to various political movements. They were also requirements. (Such as the "Anti-Rightists" Movement, and the "Four Clean-up" Socialist Education Movement. The latter required that every student spend one year engaging in the movement with the Party cadres in the countryside.) The second part of GCR, HISTORY AND THEORY OF ART, also used to be colored with the same official ideology as the POLITICAL
THEORY courses. The textbooks for these courses were written from the point of view of the official ideology.
Regarding MFR, the Beijing Film Academy divided them into several sub-majors: cinematography, film directing, or film sound. Each student just chose one of them. Students were not required to learn the overall knowledge and skills of film production, but just an aspect of them. (This is very different from American film education. Generally,
American film education requires students to learn the overall knowledge and skill of filmmaking and to deal with every aspect from script writing, directing, cinematography, to recording and editing.) Next, MFR of the Beijing Film
Academy mainly focused on the technology and skill of film 184 production, and offered many specialized technical courses, such as SENSITIVE MATERIAL AND PROCESS for film photography students, BASIS OF ELECTRIC CIRCUIT AND NETWORK, POWER
SUPPLY AND POWER PLANT for film sound students. In relation to the film theory, criticism, and aesthetics, there were none of these kinds of courses offered at all.
In addition, as I mentioned before, the Beijing Film
Academy did not have the system of CREDIT HOURS and
ELECTIVES. That means, on one hand all courses on the tables were required and had to be taken. On the other hand, they were the only courses available for students. (Students in one department could not take courses offered by another department.) In short, the curriculum structure of the
Beijing Film Academy was highly restricted and focused on the technical aspect in terms of major fields. Besides a major field, another important aspect which it required was the official ideology courses.
This kind of curriculum structure (What should be taught?) reflected its educational target (Toward what ends?). The Beijing Film Academy stated its educational target as follows;
The guiding principle of the Beijing Film Academy is training the professional filmmakers with the socialist consciousness and knowledge. Students should have the 185 communist ideology and moral character, love the Chinese Communist Party, serve people voluntarily, have adequate knowledge of culture and arts, master the basic theory of the film art and the proficient professional skill.
(translated from THE BEIJING FILM ACADEMY, 1964/1984, p. 380)
The statement emphasized two aspects: politics and technology. The political aspect was first and the technical aspect secondary. Through this kind of film education, students were supposed to follow the official ideology in terms of politics, and to be proficient in terms of technology. Thus, they would make films according to the demands of the official ideology, and films would become the instrument to carry out the official ideology. It totally followed the official guiding principles for art and education.
In the official guiding principles, art was defined as
"A component part of the entire revolutionary apparatus,...A weapon of uniting people, educating people, striking the enemy, eliminating the enemy." (Mao, 1942/1983, volume 8, p.
112) "Art should serve the political needs of the class and the party." (Mao, 1942/1983, volume 8, p. 134) The criterion for art criticism was: "The political criterion is first, the artistic criterion is second."(Mao, 1942/1983, volume 8, p. 139) This was a kind of socialist instrumentalism, which used art as a tool to achieve socialist political ends. 186
Following this, Chinese art education should take socialist politics as its end, treat art as a tool serving the socialist politics, and artists as tool-makers following the socialist politics. Therefore, what should be taught included two aspects : one was the knowledge about the socialist politics. This was primary and supreme. Another was the knowledge about art as an instrument. This was secondary and subordinate. Since art was taken as a tool, the knowledge about it should focus on the technical aspect rather than the artistic aspect. With these two kinds of knowledge, a student can become a good artisan serving the socialist politics.
The official guideline for education was "Education serves the proletarian politics, education combines with productive labor." (1958, p. 2) And "Our guiding principle of education is training socialist-minded educated laborers." (1958, p. 4) This not only defines the target and value of education, serving the proletarian politics, but also defines the two aspects of knowledge in Chinese education, the knowledge about proletarian politics and socialism and the knowledge of productive labor.
As to the knowledge of productive labor, we can get a clearer explanation from Mao's idea about the nature of knowledge. Mao used to emphasize the instrumental knowledge 187 and the productive knowledge. He often equated knowledge with the practical skills and technology. When he inspected the school-run factories of the Nankai University and the
Tianjing University in 1958, he said: "School is factory,
factory is school." Students should be engaged in "part-time work and part-time study," this is the way of "uniting theory with practice." (1958, p. 45) To knowledge without instrumental value, Mao's attitude was negative. He reprimanded it as "The theory losing contact with reality."
(1958, p. 45) During the Cultural Revolution, Mao closed all the universities of China for 5-6 years. Later, he permitted the technical and engineering colleges and universities to reopen. But, the engineering colleges had to move to factories and the agricultural colleges had to move to the countryside. Mao's belief about the nature of knowledge directly connects with his guiding principle of education
"serving the proletarian politics." From his viewpoint, instrumental and productive knowledge can serve the proletarian politics directly, while knowledge without the instrumental value was useless, even harmful. He believed they provided another kind of value and idea, which usually conflicted with socialist politics, such as the humanities.
Even Psychology and Sociology had never received a legitimate place in the curriculum of Chinese universities before the Cultural Revolution, and was called "pseudo science" in the Cultural Revolution. Thus, according to 188
Mao's logic, there must be , besides the above instrumental knowledge, a type of the most important knowledge, that is knowledge of the proletarian politics. Mao said: "What is knowledge? There have been only two kinds of knowledge in the world since the class societies existed, one kind is the knowledge of the productive struggle, another kind is the knowledge of the class struggle. Is there any kind of knowledge else except them? Nothing." (1942/1983, volume 8, p. 131)
Here, just as with the official aesthetics, Chinese educational theory implies that Chinese art education should take the official politics as its end. Art education is a means of training the labor/artisan and serving proletarian politics. The educated people are expected to be the labor/artisans following the socialist political line.
Regarding what should be taught, two points are emphasized in Chinese educational theory: proletarian politics and productive technology. Therefore, no matter of "Toward what ends?" or "What should be taught?" Chinese aesthetics and education theories both provide Chinese art education with the same guiding principles.
Therefore, this film curriculum provides the courses about the theories of the official ideology instead of general philosophy, artistic and social science. This makes 189 students think and create according to the official ideology. It emphasizes instrumental and technical knowledge and the elaborate division of labor. This makes film creation not an independent and complete action of artistic creation, but a manufacturing action. Filmmakers are like the workers on an assembly line. Thus there is no reason to have the system of CREDIT HOURS and ELECTIVES. This accords with the guiding questions: "What should be taught?" and
"Toward what end?" Both sets of answers are under the close control of the high official authority.
2. THE FILM EDUCATION IN THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
As compared with the curriculum before the Cultural
Revolution, the one in the Cultural Revolution was even much worse. Many film courses (almost half of them) in the list were cancelled, and the proportion of the political courses occupied more than half of the whole course hours. These included the documents describing the principles and objectives of the various new policies, as well as major speeches and utterances of the Party and government leaders in addition to the political courses in Table 1. Most of the courses in the area of the History and Theory of Art were cancelled because the film histories before the Cultural
Revolution were denounced as the histories of the bourgeois 190 or imperialists, (It was believed in that time that a proletarian film culture began with the Cultural
Revolution), while the introductions to film and art were replaced by Mao's and Gang of Four's statements about art and film. Only part of the courses of MFR in Table 2, the courses A, B, C, and D, were available because of the limited class hours (two-academic-year system) and faculty
(many faculty were sent to countryside or labor camps during the Cultural Revolution). After the Cultural Revolution, the film education conducted during the Cultural Revolution usually was not taken seriously into account.
3. THE PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES IN THE 1978 CLASSROOM
After the Cultural Revolution, the whole of Chinese education, including film education, basically resumed the system as it was before the Cultural Revolution. However, on the other hand, some guidelines concerning the function of education and the nature of knowledge were adjusted. Deng
Xiaoping re-defined the position and function for education according to the Party's working emphasis from class struggle to economic development. He said:
In order to realize the modernization, the key is the development of science and technology. In order to 191 develop science and technology, we have to develop education. (1979-1984)
The training of qualified scientists and technicians is based on education. (1979/1984)
In these statements, schools and education are treated as key centers for the four modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology.
Following this, acquisition of knowledge was a legitimate aim of education. It influenced film education directly.
The more important change came from the teachers and students.^ They were not passively following the system any
. The Academy has a close relation with the industry, and has a film studio itself. Most of the teachers at the Academy are the Fourth and Third Generations of filmmakers. Such as Zheng Dong-tian (director, head of directing department), Xie Fei (director of Xiao Xiao), and Ni Zhen (writer of Red Lantern), they are the prominent members of the fourth Generation. They went through the Cultural Revolution and suffered to the full (please refer to my discussion about the Fourth and Third Generations in Chapter V, The Theme of Political Wounds and Xie Jin's Mode). So, they abandoned the faith in Mao's thoughts and system, and tried to find a new way for Chinese film and film education after the Cultural Revolution. Most of the students in 1978 class have zhiqing ("educated young people) experience, who graduated form urban middle or high schools in the Cultural Revolution, then were uprooted from their city homes and sent to labor in the fields, rice-paddies, quarries and snows of the remotest regions of the country to "learn from the people" (Mao). They had neither jobs to return to nor any real educational foundations to build on, and the authorities offered them no legal lifeline back to the cities. They were expected to spend the rest of their lives in the countryside. Many had died or permanently lost their health during their time in the countryside. Mao's zhiqing policy was abandoned after the Cultural Revolution. They were 192 longer, but reformed the system as much as possible within its framework. They tried to get rid of the political control and demanded more free space for knowledge delivery, artistic expression and individual development. The model of
Western film education became a major source of their inspiration.w It caused a new dynamic relationship between
permitted to return to the cities. Some of them entered universities when they were almost in their late twenties, such as Chen Kai-ge (director of Yellow Earth), Zhang Yi-mou (director of Judou). So am I. 19. Under Deng's "open door" policy, the information about Western film education and production became available. In the summer of 1979, an American film education delegation, consisting of Robert W. Wagner (Professor of Theater and Cinema, the Ohio State University), E. Russell McGregor (Associate Dean of the School of Performing of Arts and Co- Chairman of the Division of Cinema/TV at the University of Southern California), Steve Wright (USC), and Mark and Ann Scher (the Asia Film Library of New York City), were brought in to consult upon the invitation of the Ministry of Culture of PRC. This is one of the earliest exchanges with Western film educators since China had its film education program. In the following years, many film educators from the universities of the USA and Europe were invited to Beijing to give presentations and lectures, such as Dudley J. Andrew (Professor of University of Iowa), Brian Henderson (Professor of State University of New York at Buffalo), Nick Browne (Professor of UCLA), Bill Nichols (Head of the film studies program at Queen's University), Janet Staiger (Professor of University of Texas at Austin), Ann Kaplan (Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of Humanities Institute at SUNY Stonybrook), Vivian Sobchack (Associate Dean, School of Theater, Film and TV, UCLA), and Tony Rayns (Britain film critic). On the other hand, several delegations, consisting of the faculty of the Beijing Film Academy, were sent to Europe, the USA, Canada, and Australia to observe their film education system in the 80's. Xie Fei, vice-president of the Academy even stayed in the USA for one year (1986-1987) to study American film industry and film education. Doubtlessly, these exchanges strongly influenced Chinese Film education in the 80's. 193 the guidelines and the reality in the classroom. Within the
official framework, some major changes occurred in the contents of some courses, and they caused in substance the change of the whole structure of knowledge.
As to the political courses listed in Table 10, the change of the dominant ideology itself (from Mao to Deng) caused some adjustments in their contents. For example, "The
History of the Communist Party of China" now was taught from
Deng's viewpoint instead of Mao's. Therefore, the Cultural
Revolution in "the History of the Communist Party of China" was not praised any longer, but condemned. In the course
"the Marxist and Maoism Philosophy", Deng's philosophy was added, too. Generally speaking, the courses in this section did not change much .20
20. The information in this section and the following sections are mainly based on my personal experience and my interviews with the teachers of the Academy. When I was an M.A. student in cinema studies at the Institute of Film Art in the early 1980's, many courses were taught by the teachers of the Academy (as visiting professors at the Institute of Film Art), and some courses were even delivered in the classrooms of the Academy. In 1986-1987, I was a Specially Invited Instructor (part-time)in the Joint Graduate School of the Beijing Film Academy and China film Art Research Center. In the Spring of 1992, with the support of the Graduate Student Alumni Research Award of OSU, I went back to Beijing, China to do research and had a chance to interview the President of the Academy, Shen Shong-shen, and some of the teachers of the Academy, such as Ni Zhen (Director, Department of Film Studies), Zheng Dong-tian (Director, Department of Film Directing), Zhong Da-feng, (Acting Director, Department of film Literature). 194
The significant changes occurred in areas such as the
History and Theory of Art. For example, in the course
"Introduction to Art", because of the changes of the whole art policy, its basic concepts changed from such categories as politics, class, and partisanship to art form, artists, and artistic creativity and initiative. At the same time,
Mao's instruction was put aside in classroom and the teachers began to look for or write new textbooks. Also, a major change took place in the course "Introduction to Film
Art", since the traditional film aesthetics was challenged and new film aesthetics emerged. The teachers immediately brought the new concepts of film into the classroom, and replaced the traditional dramatized and politicized film concepts. The Western film theories, such as Bazin's and
Kracauer's, began to enter the classroom of BFA, and were considered to be harmless in ideology and politics.
In the courses of The History and Theory of Art, the most important change probably was in film histories.
Before, and in, the Cultural Revolution, film history used to be approached as a history of class struggle in the film area. Just as the orthodox film historian, Chen Jihua, said in the introduction of his Chinese film history; film should be divided into two parts: the socialist/progressive film, and the imperialist/reactionary film (refer to the Review of 195
Literature). Therefore, "the History of the World Film" only discussed the films of the Soviet Union during the time of
Lenin and Stalin, which were considered as the socialist/progressive film. In "The History of Chinese film", the pro-Party-ideology films were paid attention to, and the rest were ignored or discredited. As a result, film history was taught as a part of the history of the Party's ideology. Whereas, after the C u l L u r a l Revolution, film can be treated as an art, history can be viewed as a kind of knowledge. Therefore, film history was considered as a kind of knowledge about art, and a kind of document of the spiritual treasure of human beings. As a result, in the class of "The History of the World Film", European film,
American film, Soviet film, and Japanese film all were opened up and learned by students. They were examined mainly as a kind of art history; the political issues faded out.
Among these films, European films attracted the most attention, because they were considered as a real representative of the tradition of art film. The avant-garde movement in the 1920's, the neorealism movement of Italy, and the New Wave of France were treated and studied seriously. Also, in the course "The History of Chinese
Film", the artistic and aesthetic viewpoint became the major perspective. Some talented filmmakers, who were not pro-
Party-ideology, were discussed in classrooms and reevaluated. On the contrary, some over-politicized films 196 were discredited. The same thing happened in the course
Appreciation and Analysis of Works of Art, not only
addressing the Soviet or revolutionary works and films in the classrooms, but also the works and films from the West, which were even more welcome. The aesthetic quality became the focus of these discussions and analyses.
As compared with the changes in the courses History and
Theory of Art, the changes in the courses of MFR were not as great. They still emphasized the film technology, which was the tradition of BFA. However, these technologies and skills were no longer taught as the means of political
indoctrination, but of artistic expression. Therefore, the artistic and aesthetic creativity and originality, not the political regulation, became the guidelines for these classes. Students were encouraged to deal with works in their own ways. Also, this caused some changes in the contents of teaching. Many new technologies and skills, for example, the long take, the deep focus, the jump cutting, and the incomplete composition, and their aesthetic
significances were introduced and discussed in the classroom, also.
To sum up, as for the three levels of courses;
politics, aesthetics (histories and theories of art and
film), and technology, the greatest change occurred in the 197 courses dealing with the aesthetic content. This change was fundamental because it provided a set of different values and concepts to deal with art and artistic creation, which was independent of and questioning the set of values and concepts provided by the political courses. In the traditional structure of the curriculum, the aesthetic content was submissive to the political content (the dominant ideology), claiming a kind of art "serving politics". When it merged with the technical content, they constituted a kind of knowledge structure "serving politics". In the new structure of the curriculum, the aesthetic content in the names of art and knowledge was free from the political content. As a matter of fact, it was opposed to the political. Although the political pressure was still there, its influence was much weakened. As a result, when aesthetics merged with techniques, the pairing constituted a new structure of knowledge, which was no longer following the political guideline. It was based on this new structure that the "Fifth Generation" filmmakers were trained.
5. THE CHANGES AFTER 1985
In 1985, 1987, and 1989, the Academy recruited the second, third and fourth undergraduate classes with a four 198 year academic system.in comparison with the curriculum of the 1978 class, the General College Requirements and the
Major Field Requirements did not change too much. The major change was that a third part, the elective courses, was added in the curriculum system; these courses were provided to all students in the Academy like the courses of GCR.
TABLE 12: EC of the Beijing Film Academy
(A). PRINCIPLE OF MARXIST AND LENINIST AESTHETICS
(B). HISTORY OF CHINESE MODERN LITERATURE
(C). HISTORY AND THEORIES OF CHINESE AND FOREIGN FINE ARTS
(D). ANALYSIS OF WORKS OF FINE ARTS
(E). AESTHETICS OF LITERATURE AND ARTS
(F). PSYCHOLOGY
(G). SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
(H). SCIENCE OF ADMINISTRATION
(I). CHINESE CLASSIC LITERATURE
(J). HISTORY OF CHINESE THEATER
(K). HISTORY OF FOREIGN THEATER
21. Most of the students of 1985, 1987, and 1989 classes are high school graduates and pass a highly selective entrance examination. They were born in the Cultural Revolution, but grew up in the New Era. In comparison with 1978 class (the Fifth generation, who were born before the Cultural Revolution and grew up in the Cultural Revolution), they are another new generation, who had no zhiqing experience and had not suffered from Mao's politics, but learned more about outside China when they grew up. 199
(L). FILM AESTHETICS
(M). THOUGHTS OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
(N). LOGIC
(0). HISTORY OF CHINESE CUSTOM
(P). ANALYSIS OF LITERATURE WORKS
(Q). SKETCH
(R). INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPT WRITING
(S). INTRODUCTION TO FILM DIRECTING
(T). PLASTIC ART OF FILM
(U). FILM SOUND
(V). FILM EDITING
(W). FINE ARTS OF FILM
(X). BASICS IN FILM PHOTOGRAPHY
(Y). APPLIED PRINCIPLE OF SENSITIVE MATERIAL
(Z). SKILL OF CINEMATOGRAPHY
(A). BASICS IN PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION
(B). BASICS IN CINEMATOGRAPHY TECHNOLOGY
(C). BASICS IN FILM SOUND
(D). BASICS IN COMPUTER
(Translated from the pedagogical plan of the Beijing Film cademy, 1989)
As a matter of fact, some of them already became the
Major Field Requirements for some departments. For example, 200
BASICS IN FILM PHOTOGRAPHY, INTRODUCTION TO FILM DIRECTING for the Department of Fine Arts, INTRODUCTION TO FILM
DIRECTING, FILM EDITING for the Department of Script
Writing. Through the elective courses, the main end was providing students an opportunity to learn the overall knowledge and skills of film production, even though it was not a requirement like American film education. Just as the
President of the Academy, Shen, said: "The Academy mainly followed the model of the USSR film education in the past.
And the range of the knowledge which was delivered in each department was too narrow. In the education reform, we need to learn the advanced experience of film education worldwide, especially from the West. We should enlarge the range of the knowledge of each student." (1990, p. 9)
Generally speaking, in the new curriculum system, students had a certain free space to develop their own interests.
In this curriculum system, the gap between the official guidelines and the pedagogical practices in classroom even became deeper. The authority still emphasized the politics and operative technology in the official guidelines and curriculum framework, while teachers and students tried to get rid of the political control of art and education, and to put the knowledge and person/individual in the center of art and education. (It finally became a bloody conflict.
Although the further challenge from students and teachers 201 was repressed physically, Chinese film education could never go back to the situation before or in the Cultural
Revolution.) The dual themes in Chinese film education were
just like the situation in Chinese film in the 1980's. This is a basic feature of Chinese contemporary society and culture, and indicates a society and its ideologies in evolution.
To sum up, like the Chinese film industry, Chinese film education had a significant change from the Cultural
Revolution to the New Era. Both changes have a parallel and dynamic relationship. On one hand, the change in the industry influenced the education. Especially, the teachers, as the members of the Fourth and Third Generations, carried their personal experiences and thoughts into classrooms of the Academy. On the other hand, 1978 class (they became the
Fifth Generation after their graduation) brought their new impact on the industry. However, this dynamic relationship primarily is from bottom to top and not form top to bottom, which is realized by the personal efforts of the teachers and students. In terms of the fundamental system, neither change is a result of a dialogue nor a question/answer relationship. That means, the change in Chinese film education is not responsive to the change in the Chinese film industry in a direct sense. Because many changes in the industry were controversial and usually not welcomed by the 202 authorities at the time, these changes could not directly influence the basic system of film education, which was under the control of the authorities. However, since the whole society went in a more open and de-politicized direction, this context determined a general direction of change for both the film industry and film education.
In this dissertation, I have investigated the major developments of Chinese film and film education from the
Cultural Revolution to the New Era, with a focus on their significant changes in politics and ideology. Due to the methodology and the focus I chose, some aspects of the subject have not been explored thoroughly, such as, for the film part, the changes in visual style and form, the individual filmmakers and works, and less important tendencies; and, for the film education part, the changes in teachers and students. In addition, since the Chinese film industry and film education no longer operated in a pure
"ideological context" from the late 1980's, a changed or combined perspective will be helpful to understanding the new dynamic relationship of Chinese film and film education with the society. These should be the topics and perspectives for further studies in the subject. 203
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