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Abstract
This study constructs the historical contours of China's social transformation and the evolution of the female image in films between 1949 and 2000. The period 1949-1966 was the period of 'The Song of Revolution,' featuring ideal women; 1966-1976: the period of 'Cultural Revolution'; 1977-1982: 'The Recovery Period,' with the initial awakening of women's consciousness presented in films; 1983-1986: 'The Revival Period,' when the female image became richer in Chinese films, with women searching for their own ideals; 1987-early 1990s: 'The Period of Rebellion,' when women's image strayed away from mainstream discourse; and mid-1990s to 2000: 'The Period of Reconstruction' of the essential women in search of their ideals. Overall, as Chinese cinema witnessed China's social changes, the image of woman in Chinese feature films underwent a subtle shift from one of 'ideal woman' to a 'pursuer of woman's ideal' during the half century covered in this study.
Keywords
Chinese Women; female image; Ideal women; Feature Films
Introduction: Why Do This Study?
This study is an attempt at analyzing the evolution of the female image in Chinese films produced during the period 1949 to 2000, a half-century time span. The female image in the media has been an important branch of study in several academic fields such as communications, women's studies, and sociology. But the images of women in Chinese films during the post-1949 period, following the founding of the People's Republic, have somehow eluded focused scholarly attention. This study seeks to fill the gap in this area of academic inquiry, proceeding from a perspective of the evolution of the female image in Chinese films during the Socialist era.
The most apparent reason for the current lack of research may be that western-trained scholars have always had difficulty accessing and understanding Chinese films in their original form. Language, culture, and ideology constitute a three-pronged barrier formidable enough to hamper the development of scholarship in this area that warrants serious examination.
Another reason may reside in the nature of the content of Chinese films and is more subtle. As I have reviewed existing literature for a study of Chinese TV dramas featuring women, the Chinese women, in real life and on the screen, I note that films have traversed through three distinct stages which,...