HEALTHY REALISM: PARADOXICAL AESTHETICS, IDEOLOGY, AND NATION- BUILDING IN TAIWAN CINEMA 1964-1982 BY MEI- HSUAN CHIANG DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in East Asian Languages and Cultures in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Gary G. Xu, Chair Associate Professor Jose B. Capino Associate Professor Robert Tierney Professor Kai-Wing Chow Abstract This dissertation focuses on Healthy Realist Film Movement (jiankang xieshi dianying) and its influence on Taiwan cinema from 1964 to the rise of New Taiwan Cinema in 1982. Healthy Realism was first introduced to Taiwan film industry in 1964 by the Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC), a studio owned by the Chinese nationalist party, or the so- called Kuomintang (KMT). It claims lineage to postwar Italian Neorealist films, but purposely avoids realism’s dark and pessimistic themes. Current scholarship has often interpreted Healthy Realist Film as the KMT government’s propaganda tool; however, the historical approach tends to overlook the subversive voices and the melodramatic expressions exhibited in the actual film texts. Therefore, drawing on western melodrama study and feminist film theories, this project departs from previous scholarship to examine the melodramatic mode in Healthy Realist Film. It argues that the melodramatic mode was employed to reconstruct the postwar social order, and, at the same time, to provide an auto- critique of the cultural policies and social values proposed by the KMT government. This dissertation is consisted of four core chapters, each investigating the transformation of Healthy Realism at different stages during the 1960s and the 1970s. Chapter 2 traces the KMT government’s obsession of healthiness to the New Life Movement in the 1930s Shanghai. Using Bai Jingrui’s Lonely Seventeen (1967) as an example, the chapter shows that the KMT government’s healthy discourse is ultimately a patriarchal construction. Moreover, as in other early Healthy Realist Films, the eroticized female body on screen often contradicts with the government proposed “healthy” feminine norm. Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 study Healthy Realism’s shift to Healthy Variety- Show (jiankang zongyi) in 1968. Chapter 3 first maps out the historical background for the changes in Taiwan’s national economic and film industry in the late ii 1960s and early 1970s. Similar to Bai Jingrui’s The Bride and I (1969) and Goodbye Darling (1970), many films during the time question the government’s economic policy that is optimistically forward- looking, and the KMT’s reconciliation of traditional virtues for the sake of development and national economic. Chapter 4 examines romance films inspired by Qiong Yao’s novels, a genre encouraged by the government in the Healthy Variety- Show movement. It argues that the female worker boom and the rise of New Feminism in the early 1970s constituted the changes in the genre, which began to offer a subversive reading of woman’s traditional role in family, as manifested in Song Cunshou’s Life with Mother (1973) and Li Xing’s Mother and Daughter (1971). Chapter 5 discusses the anti- Japanese films made after Japan broke its diplomatic relation with Taiwan in 1972, such as Liu Jia- chang’s Victory (1976). The chapter reveals that the nationalist rhetoric and the hostile narrative towards Japan actually serve as a disguise for the KMT government’s growing diasporic anxieties in the 1970s. This project ends with a coda examining the afterlives of the melodramatic mode after Taiwan New Cinema, which deemphasizes and represses the melodramatic aesthetic. iii Acknowledgements I cannot take full credit for this project, as it has been born of a collaborative effort. First and foremost, I am greatly indebted to the director of the committee Professor Gary G. Xu, who has been an inspiring and supportive advisor throughout my study in graduate school. His expertise in Chinese cinema and critical theories has been inspirational in my research. It was also him who encouraged me to take a major turn from my comfort zone in studying contemporary Chinese films to explore early Taiwan cinema. To him, I am forever grateful. I want to express my deepest gratitude to my committee members, the most transformative and life-changing group of mentors I could have asked for. I own a tremendous gratitude to Professor Jose B. Capino, who opened a new window for me by introducing me to western melodrama study, which grounds this project. He offered many insightful comments on my dissertation, and devoted a great deal of time to help me develop my arguments. I have also benefited greatly from the wisdom and critical thinking skills offered by Professor Robert Tierney. His teachings challenged and shaped much of my thinking. I see in him a real scholar’s spirit, and he is always a great role model for me. I also want to express my gratitude to Professor Kai- Wing Chow, who shows me the importance to contextualize the texts. He always points out my blind spots and gives me constructive and valuable advice along the way. I also owe heartfelt gratitude to Professor Wenchi Lin from the National Central University, Taiwan. He has won my genuine appreciation for his generous help and valuable advice on my dissertation. He kindly shared with me some of his film collections, and offered me extremely helpful tips in conducting archival research in Taiwan. I am also deeply grateful to the faculty in the East Asian Languages and Cultures Department. I want to thank Professor Jerome Packard for having unflagging faith in me despite my own insecurity, and for offering me the best advice iv in academic life. Many thanks also go to Professor Zong-qi Cai and Professor Brian Ruppert, who have helped me in numerous ways during my job application. I am also very grateful to my friends at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, Yiju Huang, Yanjie Wang, I- In Chiang, Gong Jin, Eric Dalle, John Wheeler, E.K Tan, to name a few. They are the best dissertation group, thinking partners, and friends in life. I also want to acknowledge the support from my dearest friends in Taiwan, Yen- Nin Tseng and Liang- Tsun Huang, who shared with me my moments of happiness and frustration during the dissertation writing process. Finally, I want to thank my entire family. My father has supported my project in his own way—by patiently watching each film included in this project and sharing his thoughts on the movies with me. Although my mother never quite understands what it is I do and why I do it, she always sees the best in me. There is also my brother, whose optimism sustains me in numerous ways. Without their love and unfailing support, this project would not have been possible. Therefore, I dedicate my dissertation to my family. v Table of Contents 1. Introduction: Rethinking Healthy Realism, Melodramatic Mode and Political Subversion………………...1 2. Disciplining the Sick Body: Healthy Realism and KMT’s Political Insecurities…………………………………………..21 3. The Fetishization of Progress: Critical Reflection from Urban Movies in the 1970s Taiwan………………………………..67 4. Motherhood Redefined: Romance and Maternal Film in the 1970s Taiwan…………………………………………110 5. Nostalgia in Disguise: KMT’s Imagination of Home in 1970s Anti- Japanese Films……………………...............154 6. Coda: Melodramatic Mode Beyond Healthy Realist Film………………………………...............194 Appendix A: Per Capita Income and Television Owning Rate in Taiwan…………............207 Appendix B: Movie- going Culture in Taiwan……………………………………………..209 Glossary of Sinitic Terms, Names, and Titles………………………………………………211 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...............216 vi 1. Introduction: Rethinking Healthy Realism, Melodramatic Mode and Political Subversion My dissertation concerns Healthy Realist Film Movement (jiankang xieshi dianying) and its influence on Taiwan cinema from 1964 to 1982 when New Taiwan Cinema began.1 Although the movement led to the first golden age of Taiwan cinema, there has been an academic void in researching the field. Made during Taiwan’s martial law period (1949- 1987), early Taiwan films are often discussed in the context of cold war politics or interpreted as the propaganda tools for the Chinese nationalist party (KMT). With all the attention placed on the state’s power over the film industry, the limited historical studies tend to overlook the resistance and anxieties manifested in the actual film texts. Furthermore, the ambiguous definition of Healthy Realist Films often leads scholars to overemphasize the realist tradition, neglecting the appropriation of melodramatic aesthetics in Taiwan cinema during the 1960s and the 1970s. After Japan’s fifty years of colonial rule (1895-1945), Taiwan was handed back to the KMT- governed China in 1945. However, after its defeat in the civil war against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the KMT government retreated to Taiwan in 1949 with the hope of claiming the mainland back. It declared martial law in the same year. In order to compete against the People’s Republic of China (PRC), founded by the CCP across the strait, the KMT government initiated a series of cultural reforms to claim the government’s political legitimacy and its role as the guardian of Chinese cultural tradition in the 1960s. The Healthy Realist Film Movement was one of the most important projects in this government’s cultural reform. It was 1 For the sake of clarity, I use the term “Taiwan cinema” in this project to refer to the national cinema of Taiwan instead of “Taiwanese cinema,” which is often used to refer to Taiwanese dialect film. Some scholars claim that Healthy Realism is a film genre; however, I prefer to see it as a film movement that covers different film genres. I will return to this debate in Chapter Two. 1 first introduced to the film industry in 1964 by the party- owned Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC), which was the largest film company in Taiwan during the time.