Zhang Yimou's Sexual Storytelling and the Igeneration: Contending Shanzhashu Zhi Lian (Under the Hawthor
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Parfect, Ralph. "Zhang Yimou’s Sexual Storytelling and the iGeneration: Contending Shanzhashu Zhi Lian (Under the Hawthorn Tree) on Douban." China’s iGeneration: Cinema and Moving Image Culture for the Twenty-First Century. Ed. Matthew D. Johnson, Keith B. Wagner, Tianqi Yu and Luke Vulpiani. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014. 301–320. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 28 Sep. 2021. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781501300103.ch-016>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 28 September 2021, 12:02 UTC. Copyright © Matthew D. Johnson, Keith B. Wagner, Tianqi Yu, Luke Vulpiani and Contributors 2014. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 16 Zhang Yimou’s Sexual Storytelling and the iGeneration : Contending Shanzhashu Zhi Lian (Under the Hawthorn Tree) on Douban Ralph Parfect Since at least the start of the twenty-first century, China’s internet users have increas- ingly been turning to the public, interactive spaces of the web, not only to review and debate new film releases, but also to discuss the broader political, economic and cultural environment for film in China.1 Particularly active in this rise of web-based film commentary is the generation that grew up with the internet, China’s iGeneration. Discussion of film and moving image culture, and of individual films, has appeared on a profusion of online spaces, from bulletin boards (BBS) and dedicated review or database sites such as www.douban.com (hereafterDouban ), to more individualized blogs and microblogs. So far, however, little research has appeared on how exactly these new spaces are being used to address issues relating to film in China, or on what the broader implications of their rising prevalence and visibility may be for China’s film culture. To the extent to which this online universe can be mapped, Sabrina Qiong Yu has taken a notable lead by examining the role of a variety of websites and of individual netizen (internet user) voices in constructing the transnational celebrity of Jet Li and in the debate on Zhang Yimou’s film Yingxiong (Hero) (2002).2 This chapter aims to contribute further to this new research area through focused analysis of a single review website, Douban, and the reviews hosted there of Zhang’s later film Shanzhashu Zhi Lian (Under the Hawthorn Tree, 2010, hereafter Hawthorn).3 In examining how Chinese netizens have used Douban to express conflicting views of Hawthorn, the chapter makes reference to Guobin Yang’s concept of ‘contention’ in Chinese internet culture, and to some of the characteristic genres and styles of this culture.4 This chapter pays special attention, as has China’s iGeneration itself, to Hawthorn’s repre- sentation of teenage romance and sexual behaviour during the Cultural Revolution; in this regard, netizens’ responses to the sexual politics, both of the film itself and of its much-criticized marketing campaign, are read as assertions of ‘sexual citizenship’ that variously resist and approve the ‘sexual storytelling’ of the film.5 The chapter thus 9781623565954_txt_print.indd 301 14/04/2014 09:13 302 China’s iGeneration argues that online reviews, as with much online film commentary, can be seen as part of a broader culture of internet contention that Yang terms an ‘unofficial democracy,’ albeit one still constrained by the dynamics of both the state and the market.6 Although a certain freedom of expression prevails in such online spaces, writings that contravene government-imposed limits on internet content may find themselves ‘harmonized;’ meanwhile the anti-commercial stance of many reviewers has limited power to resist, and may even contribute to, the ‘hype’ for certain products above others in an entertainment-driven cultural industry. Douban, the marketization of culture and online contention in China Douban was launched in March 2005, and at the time of writing ranks as the twentieth most popular website in China, with 68 million registered users and over 150 million visits each month.7 Its core function is as a place to find and share information and views on three kinds of cultural product: books, films and music. In its film section, Douban Dianying (Douban Film), users can rate a film with from one to five stars, or post a review of any length, on which any Douban user can then comment; these comments in turn can be responded to, hence allowing multi-party discussions to develop. Over time, Douban has added further functions such as live music streaming, city events listings and interest-based ‘communities’ or ‘groups’ with social media features. Its parent company emphasizes the website’s interactivity, describing it not only as ‘a cultural resource database’ with ‘high quality’ reviews, but also as ‘a creative community with cultural events and life-sharing.’8 Its audience is characterized as ‘urban youth’: 80 per cent of users live in one of 12 major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing, while 92.5 per cent are aged 18–35. The audience is ‘well-educated’: more than 80 per cent of users have or are taking ‘a bachelor’s degree or above,’ and ‘17 per cent have or are taking a Master’s degree.’ They are also relatively prosperous: ‘42.8 per cent have more than 3000 RMB monthly income.’9 This demographic is not fully coterminous with China’s iGeneration, but the two clearly overlap significantly. As a space for cultural commentary, Douban is characteristic in at least two ways of the broader Chinese cultural landscape of the early twenty-first century: first, it partic- ipates in a commodity culture with retained elements of state control; and secondly, it belongs to a culture of the internet in post-WTO China. Just as film production and consumption have become strongly commercialized in the reform period in China, with films increasingly forced to compete as products in a globalized, consumerist cultural marketplace, while remaining subject to state controls including censorship,10 so too has the nature of published comment on film changed dramatically. The marketization of culture since the early 1980s, and particularly in the 1990s and 2000s, has seen a proliferation of new cultural forms, including forms of commentary.11 Facilitating this has been the rapid advance since the late 1990s of the internet, and, 9781623565954_txt_print.indd 302 14/04/2014 09:13 Zhang Yimou’s Sexual Storytelling and the iGeneration 303 in particular, of web 2.0 capabilities, enabling a more participatory culture of film criticism and commentary to take shape. While this culture may appear more ‘democratic,’ however, online commentary on film is still subject to state-imposed restrictions, just as film itself is. In common with much of the Chinese internet, Douban self-censors in order to retain its government- granted permission to operate. Furthermore, like other sites hosting online film commentary, Douban belongs to a cultural marketplace and is subject to its logic, for instance obtaining income from advertising and attracting new users by prominently displaying new cinematic releases on the home page. Douban users often comment on whether or not films are worth the ticket price. Reviews themselves can become commodities of a kind; one Douban reviewer of Hawthorn comments of his own popularity: ‘I didn’t expect that this film review would become so hot’ [my italics].12 While being rooted in China’s state-capitalist culture, Douban, again like much of the Chinese internet, can nonetheless share in what Yang Guobin calls a ‘culture of contention.’13 It is misleading, Yang argues, for the Chinese internet to be seen merely in terms of its two most reported aspects, government control and popular entertainment. Chinese internet culture rather has a contentious character, in which ‘authority of all kinds is subject to doubt and ridicule,’ and in which a culture of ‘online activism’ has been born.14 Among other scholars, David Herold has similarly described a ‘carnivalesque’ quality to the Chinese internet which often makes it a place of subversion.15 While this chapter will not look at activism per se, it does find Yang’s concept of a culture of contention applicable to the case of user-generated content on Douban. In 2011, for instance, Douban users posted such negative reviews of the film Jian Dang Wei Ye (The Founding of a Party), which had been released to mark the ninetieth anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, that the ratings facility for this film was disabled.16 Douban users moreover have a history of playfully protesting at the site’s self-censorship on sexual issues. In March 2009 users mocked Douban for deciding as part of an anti-pornography campaign to remove images of Renaissance oil paintings featuring nudity; a satirical counter-campaign was organized by users to post clothed images of the nude figures.17 A year and a half later, Douban users would again be making fun of perceived sexual censoriousness, this time in relation to a new film by Zhang Yimou. Under the Hawthorn Tree: Synopsis, marketing campaign and internet reception Hawthorn was Zhang Yimou’s twenty-second film as director, and was released cinematically in mainland China on 16 September 2010.18 It is based on a popular internet novel of the same title by Ai Mi, itself reportedly based on a true story.19 Set in Hubei province in the mid-1970s, it narrates the tragic teenage romance of its two protagonists, Jingqiu and Lao San, which ends with the latter’s death from leukaemia. Several factors hinder the two lovers: the stigmatization and poverty 9781623565954_txt_print.indd 303 14/04/2014 09:13 304 China’s iGeneration of Jingqiu’s family, her father being absent from the home for unspecified political reasons; an acute need for secrecy in conducting the relationship, given Jingqiu’s wish to become a teacher, like her mother, for which she must show exemplary behaviour, particularly avoiding any taint of zaolian or ‘premature love’; and the suspicious gaze of the mother herself, who is desperate to improve the chances not only of Jingqiu but also two younger children.