Space In The Modern Process Is Presented

The modernity is a kind of state that incarnates the huge change of history. It not only establishes the contact among different societies on the world, but also influences the most familiar and subjective realm in the daily life. Because the modernity is the symbol of change in social culture, more ever, it indicates the change of a person's external substance and the inner structure of the spirit. As to China in an interim, this subjective and personal modernity is firstly incarnated by the anxiety for space, which is presented dramatically in the history of Chinese movies. And in the research realm of movies narrative, the problem of space is also decisive. Because the space emblematizes the experiences of Chinese modernity, and it is important in movies narrative, so it is becoming natural to take space as the point of departure and the perspective in the research of the Chinese movies in the modern process. And because of the space's importance, it is possible for this thesis to possess originality. In the main part of this thesis, the author used the method of expounding, as well as the integration of historical materials into discussion, summed up study of movies narrative,culture analysis and movie essentiality research, took the space as the research point, analyzed typical movies in the first half of the 20th century and the relations between these movies and social culture, in order to investigate the modernization process of Chinese film culture.The primary content of this thesis is totally divided into three parts: The first part analyzes the space presented in Chinese movies in the"split society"(1905- 1932). According to author's opinion, in early short, Shanghai as the typical space in the"split society"was main movie space, however, the country space was not presented, or presented as a declining background of the city space in Shanghai. In these movies, country space was usually presented to record the ugly performance of villagers.As the city space had been presented in early short, the modernity of the city space had already become the art expressional object. What these movies presented was the generation's courageous advance, in front to the urban modern life which appeared suddenly. But in the late long feature movies, movie makers changed the method in which the space was presented: the identity with city was little, and with country was more. The cities in their films was gloomy, and the country was purified,natural and simple. Thus it can be seen that the movie makers′attitude towards the modernity gradually developed from the primal optimism to the animadversion and self-reflection. So the space imagination and the space presenting in Chinese movies started to become diverse and complicated. After the urban superiority was presented in the early droll short, Chinese movies took the form of negating cities to carry out a spiritual regression.The second part carried on a thorough investigation to the characteristic that the Chinese movie space was presented in the"disordered society"(1932--1945). The author thinks the nation claim and the class claim gradually became main motive to renovate movie space for movie makers in this period. But this rational class and nation claim was not to negate the individual sensitive requirement. Those sensitive needs according with the class and the nation purpose got concentrated and structured expression; and those parts of sensitive need which did not match class and nation intention, even belonged to one's subconscious, were also presented. The urban space was presented two kinds in the movies at that time: class claim and nation claim modeled the space image characterized with"the heaven built on the hell"; the individual sensitive need then modeled the urban space image with oomph and charm. Similarly, two kinds of the country space image were presented in the movies that mainly took agrestic space as the story context:"a discarded park"in the community field and"a utopia"image in the individual feeling. In the modernization process, the film culture had the special track to pursue the modernity. Although it was similar with literature to be placed in the turning point of the great epoch, but the film participated modernization process in the method of commingling the later and the former, and did not like a majority of literature types to"change the direction suddenly"in the typical modern form.After 1937, the strong nation claim stirred up two kinds of ways in which the nation space was presented: the first was the unreal and imaginary national image presented in the"isolated island"movies. The second was the real national image presented in the"war rear"movies that described the nation's tribulation and flight. Because the movies in the"isolated island"could not express the real besieged space directly, so many costume movies were made initially to model the imaginary national community for the perplexed people. But in the face of the anxiety for actual space which was increasingly rigorous, the indirect method of spreading the national consciousness and emotion was not after all essential. Thus, the innuendo and metaphor of those costume movies was replaced by direct reproduction of the"chaotic"prospects in the"isolate island". The"isolated island"gradually became a symbolistic space in movies. In the close space, the exhibition of the human nature and the life was so excessive and deep that those movies exceeded the demand to mobilize the people, crossed the barrier to approve another nation, and were provided with some modernity about the depth of the human nature. It has to be mentioned that, these movies about the Resistance against Japanese in this period do not emphasize the obligation of individual for monarch or the country, but stimulate the individual instinctive animosity and resistance consciousness when human right of life and dignity were under the heel. On the basis, the individual instinct and emotion was led to be consistent with great national demand.The third part analyzes the style of exhibiting the space of Chinese movies in the"transition society"(1945--1949). The movies at that time were mainly divided into two kinds: the"society movies"portraying the social reality and the"humanism film"exploring the human nature or the human subsistence .Their attention to the outer world and expectation of the perfect future society made the"society film"makers abandon exploring the inner spirit and exhibiting impersonally the chaotic social space of the time. They took the class consciousness as the moral criterion, and animadverted on the"evil"ruling class in company with the ruled class, at the same time, they made great efforts to present the space belonging to the people. Obviously, this class-conscious manner of presenting the space in the"society movies"was prepared for the political purpose of"founding a new country", so this kind of movie was acted as the movie makers′political tools to accelerate the democratized progress.Although the"humanism film"did not avoid exhibiting the"chaotic"social actuality, but the individual subsistence and the personal emotion were focuses of their attention. As a result, this kind movie mainly presented the small space which reflected the difficulty in human life, showed the disordered cities which were used as a symbol. Thus, the author thinks that the individual sufferings in the social transition process and the entire spirit of that age as the background of the sufferings had been betrayed in the"humanism movies".As the production of a better film system which was consistent with the film essentiality, Chinese movies from 1905 to 1949 were different from the following which was dominated by the political culture, and its evolution more naturally reflected the development of the actual society and the culture during the period from 1905 to 1949. The movies in this period not only reproduced objectively but also directly participated in and advanced the huge changes of the times. The movie makers and their audience expressed the individual emotion and recorded the national history, especially visualized the Chinese modernization course in their movies. Thus the films of the time became an important cultural symbol in the modernization process for the old country.