2.3 Sacrificed Youth: an Inward Journey
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This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. The Cinema of Negotiation: Sexuality and Subjectivity in Mainland Chinese Women’s Cinema (1981 - 1988) by HU Lidan The thesis is submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Edinburgh 2015 DECLARATION In accordance with the University of Edinburgh Regulations for Research Degrees, the author declares that: (a) This thesis has been composed by the author (b) It is the result of the author's own original research (c) It has not previously been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification The copyright of this thesis belongs to the author. Signed:…………………………………………………….. Date:………………………………………………………… Abstract This thesis examines Chinese women’s cinema from 1981 to 1988, with an emphasis on their representation of women’s sexuality and subjectivity. During the period of economic growth in the 1980s, hitherto repressed discourses of individuality separated from the state ideology of collectivism which had long dominated the Chinese screen. Focusing on the various images of women created by female directors, this thesis aims to articulate how the interplay between gender consciousness and ubiquitous censorship inform and construct female directors’ ambivalent attitude in the face of love and sexuality, and how narratives of gender and nation are filtered through the repressive selves. The thesis deploys feminist, narrative, psychoanalytic and semiotic theories together with film-studies-based theories to critically analyse the signifying subtexts of female directors’ films in relation to the repressive mechanisms acting on them. The bulk of the study discusses eight films made by six major female directors active in filmmaking in the 1980s. These directors were by no means a group that shared a uniform aesthetic pursuit. However, it is possible to see in them a shared concern with female sexuality and subjectivity, which are marked in their films despite having been neglected in studies on Chinese cinema. I compare and contrast their ways of dealing with gender consciousness, interrogating repression as a symptom haunting their female protagonists as well as the directors themselves. The films made by female directors in the 1980s, I will conclude, are the outcome of negotiation between an oppressive censorship upon cinema and the desire to bring to the screen women’s experience of sexuality and subjectivity. ii Table of Contents DECLARATION ......................................................................................................... i Abstract ....................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... vi Introduction ............................................................................................................. viii Chapter One Breaking through the Collective Consciousness .............................. 1 1.1 Socio-historical Background of the 1980s ............................................................. 1 1.2 Feminist Power Bounded ..................................................................................... 10 1.3 Cinematic Styles of Chinese Cinema in the 1980s .............................................. 18 1.4 Chinese Female directors ..................................................................................... 24 1.5 Critical Aspects on Gender Discourse ................................................................. 30 Chapter Two From National Discourse to Personal Narrative ........................... 36 2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 36 2.2 The Drive to Win: An Integration of Female Consciousness and Nationalism ... 39 2.2.1 An Initiation of Auteurist Style ........................................................... 42 2.2.2 Nationalist Discourse: the Cultural Revolution as Invisible Presence 48 2.2.3 Narrative Spaces ................................................................................. 54 2.3 Sacrificed Youth: An Inward Journey .................................................................. 58 2.3.1 Authorial Narrator ............................................................................... 61 2.3.2 Consistent and Inconsistent Female Voice-over ................................. 66 2.3.3 Visual Forms ....................................................................................... 71 2.3.4 Sexual Bodies and Clothing ................................................................ 77 2.3.5 A Love Triangle .................................................................................. 84 2.3.6 An Abortive Self-emancipation .......................................................... 87 2.4 Sacrificed Youth vs. King of the Children ............................................................ 92 2.5 Conclusion............................................................................................................ 96 Chapter Three Body and Sexuality: Passages to Individual Discourse ............ 101 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 101 3.2 The Girl in Red: an Exalted Confidence in Individuality .................................. 103 3.2.1 A Digressive Narration ..................................................................... 106 3.2.2 Clothing and Body: Synecdochical Embodiment of Individual Discourse .............................................................................................................. 110 3.2.3 Three Women .................................................................................... 118 iii 3.2.4 Patriotism vs Western Culture .......................................................... 119 3.3 A Missing High School Girl: A Didactic Sexual Education .............................. 123 3.3.1 A Challenge to the Off-limits Topic ................................................. 125 3.3.2 Sexuality as an Explicit Narrative ..................................................... 128 3.3.3 A Didactic Ending ............................................................................. 134 3.4 Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 138 Chapter Four Accommodating Female Desire in War Films ............................ 140 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 140 4.2 Army Nurse: A Self-exile ................................................................................... 141 4.2.1 Army Nurse as an Epitome ................................................................ 142 4.2.2 Digressive Voice-over Narration ...................................................... 144 4.2.3 An Unfulfilled Desire ....................................................................... 148 4.2.4 From Being Oppressed to Being Repressive .................................... 155 4.3 Women on the Long March: Rediscovery of Lost Experience .......................... 159 4.3.1 An Exploration of an Erased Memory .............................................. 160 4.3.2 The “Antinarratable” in the War Film .............................................. 164 4.3.3 Implicit Criticism on Nationalism .................................................... 171 4.3.4 The Significance of an Alternative Point of View ............................ 174 4.4 Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 175 Chapter Five Quest for More Self-aware Female Subjects ................................ 177 5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 177 5.2 Woman, Demon, Human: the Dilemma of Transgender Performance............... 180 5.2.1 Qiu Yun in the Mirrors ..................................................................... 183 5.2.2 Double Layers of Narrative Structure and a Cinematic Representation of Opera ................................................................................................................ 185 5.2.3 The Impasse of a Transgender Identity ............................................. 189 5.2.4 Repressing an Oppressed Identity ..................................................... 192 5.2.5 Woman, Demon, Human vs. Farewell My Concubine ...................... 200 5.2.6 Summary ..........................................................................................