Society’s Perception Of Prostitution And How It Is Affected By Political Ideologies: A Visual Discourse Analysis Of 1934’s The Goddess

Consider the historic culture of concubinage in Chinese empires. Women who sold their bodies were not merely sexual objects shun by society. They were providers of entertainment for the elite, bearers of their sons. While wives were guarders of the palace, caretakers and educators of children, concubines were brought along for outdoors events. Concubines were literate, educated women with an array of skills ranging from poetry writing and reading to dancing, singing and playing cards. I far from wish to suggest that these women were not facing hardships, humiliation and violence-nor that they were taking on this role out of pure desire. My point, however, is that perception of prostitution is subject to change. In fact, knowledge and meaning of all concepts are up for debate as soon as we alter the framework we operate in. Michel Foucault was right when he wrote that although our language, unconscious and imagination’are governed by laws of structure’-we cannot fail to recognize the forms of discourse that made the very structure possible. (1972:201-202)To assess the new image of a prostitute in China, I have chosen to conduct a visual discourse analysis (Foucault 1972) with semiotics (Barthes 1977) of the female character in Wu Yonggang’s film The Goddess (1934). The last dynasty had fallen, and the People’s Republic of China had been built. Disagreements between Kuomintang and CCP were prominent. The knowledge that was being formed about of a variety of concepts was unstable. Outlining the historical, political, cultural and social changes that were dwelling in China in the twentieth century will shed new light over the cinematic representation-questioning reasoning behind portrayals. The idea behind this paper is to show how we are always told how to categorize and how the truths of prostitution are not found in a representation of them.