The Fable Of Windowed-mother In Revolution Films Of China (1949-1978)

After People's Republic of China has been founded, the Chinese revolution films according to the need of ideology, appropriation and reform the traditional widowed-mother stories utilize revolutionary discourse, constructed the fable of widowed-mother, achieved the aimed to educated the masses. It is a very prominent phenomenon of Chinese films during the period from 1949 to 1978——discourse the theme of modernity such as proletarian revolutionary through Chinese traditional culture, However, the research on this phenomenon not taken seriously. The fable of widowed-mother in Chinese revolution films is the most typical and the representative case, so the aim of this dissertation is analyzes the fable of widowed-mother in revolution films exhaustively, discuss the discourse of modernity, such as female emancipation, how to realized through appropriation and reform Chinese traditional culture.The widowed-mother stories have close relationship with the Chinese female emancipation,the archetypical images and so on. This dissertation takes the ideological critique throughout the research of Chinese revolution films from the year 1949 to 1978, and use the evolution track of Chinese women social status changes as the thread of thought, from different angles show the evolution track of revolution widowed-mother images, discloses the generation mechanism and significance structure beneath such phenomenon, eventually reveals the historical process of Chinese female emancipation.The stories of"widowed-mother teach the children"in Chinese traditional culture, made the widowed-mother complex as the"collective unconscious"in China. These stories came down from the past dynasties, while feudal rulers implanted the ideology of"being loyal to the country" into them, and highly complimented. The image of widowed-mother presented in the early Chinese films. Part of them continued to perform the myths of"widowed-mother teach the children". By reconfiguring this story, the lefty films began to enlighten and shouted for the female emancipation in China.Once the revolution film appeared in China , it as the"Ideological State Apparatuses"through appropriation and reform traditional widowed-mother stories, in order to constructed new national political fable as so to realization of ideology propaganda. These films established and preserved the legality,authority of the new regime. In these films, the ethical relationships between widowed-mother and husband or other males,widowed-mother and children, all were played down. Furthermore, the gender relations were replaced by the revolutionary comrades relations. At the same time, disaster must befall once husband absent from the family, its also the reason of other male/ Communist Party of China appeared in widowed-mother's life. In addition, relationships between widowed-mother and her children in the films were inverted and reconstructed according to the need of ideology. Mother's education in the traditional story of"widowed-mother teach children"were changed in the revolution context, and even appeared invert and reconfiguration.People's Republic of China take films as the weapon of class struggle, the image of widowed-mother in the period of revolution overwhelm everything, so the image had very politically. Until to the year of 1979, when the period of"literature and art for politics"ended, the image of revolutionary widowed-mother, which enveloped by discourse of ideology heavily, came to a close finally. At the same time, the image of widowed-mother which have ordinary feminist consciousness began to appeared in the films. The purpose of this dissertation is to point that: in order to meet the requirements of ideology, Chinese revolution films created the image of widowed-mother, which through appropriation and reform traditional widowed-mother stories, for the purpose of realized expression of modernity discourse. Chinese revolution films during the period from 1949 to 1979, especially the widowed-mother image in the films, all as the products of ideology of that period, and they also frozen in the film history. As a typical phenomenon in Chinese film, the image of widowed-mother reflect some limitations of history——although Chinese women obtained the class liberation in new China, but the true individual liberation of female did not enter the vision of that period, which emerged until the year after 1978.