© Copyright 2017 Yizhong Gu The Myth of Voluntary Death: The Representation of Sacrifice and Martyrdom in the Maoist Films (1949-1976) Yizhong Gu A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2017 Reading Committee: Yomi Braester, Chair Tani Barlow James Tweedie Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Comparative Literature, Cinema and Media 2 Abstract The Myth of Voluntary Death: The Representation of Sacrifice and Martyrdom in the Maoist Films (1949-1976) Yizhong Gu Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Yomi Braester Professor, Byron W. and Alice L. Lockwood Professor in the Humanities Department of Comparative Literature, Cinema and Media The dissertation investigates into the layered narratives of sacrifice and revolutionary martyrdom in Maoist films. Martyr’s death is abstracted and elevated from unpredictable personal event to be a collectively controllable and foreseeable public event. I refer to such ideological control over citizen’s death necropolitics. Maoist necropower interpellates revolutionary subjects, justifies the nation’s secular necropower transmitted from the transcendental ideals, surrogates martyrs bodies and minds to speak for them, and conceals martyr’s marginalized position as the sacrificial object and martyr’s dead body as disposable abject. I argue that the key mechanism of the Maoist necropolitics lies in the absent causes that originate from the transcendental revolutionary ideals. These socialist ideals can never be realized completely and are catachresis that lack sufficient referents. In other words, any socialist ideal essentially stands for a collective historical experience that cannot be fully presented but 3 must be presupposed to regulate personal lived experience. Respectively, these three absent causes are: the future ideal of perfection, the ideal socialist female type, and “the absolute spirit of selflessness.” Chapter 2 argues for the homogeneity of the onscreen Maoist male martyrdom, which follows a constant formula both in theme and in style. Although the orthodox representation of male sacrifice looks formulaic and stiff, I argue that the flawless sublime heroic figure is exactly the embodiment of the communist ideal of the future perfection. Its impossibility of being sufficiently represented opens up the room for audience’s unlimited imagination of the future totality. During the process of fantasy construction, the future ideal of perfection is implanted into the present reality. Chapter 3 argues that the onscreen female martyrdom is far more complicated than the simple generalization of the “erasure of femininity.” The Maoist ideology requires femininity to be emphasized when women are called to die for the nation, to show that the communist revolution is inclusive and universal regardless of any gender difference. However, sexuality needs to be concealed when the libidinal force is uncontrollable and runs the risk of threatening male authority and revolutionary purity. By a close reading of the film Dr.Bethune, Chapter 4 unveils the entangled implications of foreignness and selflessness in constructing and keeping the sameness of the revolutionary individual and collective identity. By the representation of an influential foreign martyr, the revolutionary narrative and the cinematic strategies cooperate to minimize the potential threats of disintegration of the local solidarity from the benevolent foreignness, while maximizing the validity of transnational communism. I argue that the ideal revolutionary individual identity, “the spirit of absolute selflessness” as Mao called for, is a void. But it is exactly such a void that keeps the homogeneity and sameness of the individual identity which defies any change occurred in time and becomes permanent. Chapter 5 4 investigates the rarity of the Maoist films where unconventional martyrdom is represented through genre twists. These film genres include comedy, suspense thriller, and children’s films. The genre twists potentially expose the original paradox and the inherent problems of martyrdom. Being subjects, objects and abjects at the same time, martyrs are at once celebrated and marginalized. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. Introduction………………….………………………………………....9 Chapter 2. The Cinematic Representation of Male Sacrifice: From the May Fourth to the “Three Prominences”………………………………………………………40 Chapter 3. From Lienü to Lieshi: The Socialist Female Martyrs on the Screen.....98 Chapter 4. The Spirit of Absolute Selflessness: Foreign Martyrdom and Communist Selflessness in the Film Dr. Bethune……..142 Chapter 5. Unwelcome Heroes: Genre Twist and Unconventional Martyrdom in the Maoist Films…………………………………………………………………..…179 Epilogue. Post-Maoist Martyrdom: Reflection on the Maoist Martyrdom……...230 Bibliography…......................................................................................................237 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As the old Chinese proverb says, “there is no word to sufficiently express the deepest gratitude and appreciation.” I totally agree with the proverb, for the difficulty in finding words to express my gratitude. I would firstly thank my committee chair Professor Yomi Braester, for his thought-provoking instruction, care and help for my study and life ever since I has been a graduate student in the University of Washington. The dissertation would not have been possible without his consistent encouragement, support and inspiration. I would like to thank my committee members, Professor Tani Barlow and Professor James Tweedie. Professor Barlow has always inspired and encouraged my academic research ever since I took graduate student course with her. I am honored to contribute to several of her academic projects, which significantly benefit my theoretical thinking and the dissertation writing. Professor Tweedie’s insights and broad knowledge of cinema inspire me greatly on the film theory part, especially to contextualize the Maoist cinema in a transnational perspective in the dissertation. Professor Francisco Benitez deeply influences me with his suggestions on nationalism and sacrifice during the early stage of the dissertation. Professor John Christopher Hamm offers me insight into modern Chinese literature with the premodern connection. Professor Madeleine Yue Dong gives me constructive comments on the Maoist martyrdom. I especially cherish the time when I watched and discussed the Maoist films together with my senior fellow Zhuoyi Wang, now professor at Hamilton College. Many sparks of thought came from the informal chat then. I thank the Department of Comparative Literature, Cinema and Media for offering me teaching assistant position for many years. Many of my thoughts on the Maoist cinema were fleshed out and fine-tuned during the teaching process. I thank the China Studies Program in 7 Jackson School offering me Chester-Fritz Fellowship Award and Freeman Foundation Teaching Fellowship. I am also grateful for the assistance from the Graduate Program Advisor Yuko Mera, who is always there to help me with various issues during the dissertation writing. Professor Ban Wang in Stanford University gave me valuable advice and helped the revision of my essay on the “three prominences,” which is published in his edited book Words and Their Stories: Essays on the Language of the Chinese Revolution. A portion of the Chapter 2 in the dissertation is rewritten from this essay and benefits from his insight on the Cultural Revolution model plays. Lastly, my deepest appreciation goes to my parents Guanxiang Gu and Hongping Zheng, and my wife Meiyan Liang. Without their understanding and support the dissertation would not have been materialized. I thank my little son Jerry, who is always the warmest sunshine in my heart and leads me out of the rainy seasons in Seattle. 8 Chapter 1 Introduction Produced and released almost sixty years ago during the Maoist period, The Story of Liubao Village (Liubao de gushi 柳堡的故事 1957, dir. Wang Ping) is still widely remembered in today’s China. Based on and adapted from a real story, the film weaves a beautiful love story in a warm spring in the Jiangnan area. In the film, the New Fourth Army solider Li Jin 李进 falls in love with the village girl Er Meizi 二妹子. After much hesitation, he follows the army to the battlefield, temporarily sacrificing his personal love for the sublime revolutionary ideal. The film presents the audiences with a happy ending: five years later Li returns to the village, and finds that Er Meizi has already become a communist leader in the village. Although the year of 1944 registered the rigid and endless battles in most part of China, the spring of Jiangnan, often associated with leisure and romance in the classical Chinese poems, is still filled with the windmills, willow leaves, light boats on the screen. The high-key lighting throughout the film sets the film apart from many other Maoist war films, where the gloomy life or death struggle is the dominant theme. The film is especially influential for the theme song On a Sunny Day in the Spring (Jiujiu yanyang tian 九九艳阳天), with its lyrics delicately written as: On a sunny day in the Spring, the eighteen-year-old brother tells you, little Ying Lian, I will go across mountains and oceans I will go for a long journey for two or three years, I will go through storms of shots. 9 We can only meet each other again after the victory of the revolution. 九九那个艳阳天来哟 十八岁的哥哥呀告诉小英莲 这一去呀翻山又过海呀 这一去三年两载呀不回还 这一去呀枪如林弹如雨呀 这一去革命胜利呀再相见1 No matter how beautiful