The Rheology Of The Image Of Emperor In The New China's Film And TV Production

The image of emperor in the contemporary productions of film and TV experienced a development process from latent to obvious, from marginal to central and from being derogated to praised. In the late 1990's, "Emperor Drama" was confirm as a genre. It not only meant the subdivision of the contemporary Chinese history productions, but also revealed the shift of history interpretation and vision.The change of the expression form of emperor's image in the contemporary productions of film and TV was the result and reflection of contemporary Chinese ideology. Leaded by the traditional Marxist socialistic theory, Russia socialistic political and economic model and Class struggle concept, Chinese Seventeen-Year Cinema took "Revolutionary Narration" as its main character and focused on the gerentocratic feudalism emperor class.The emperors in the Chinese history, especially the corruptive dynast in the modem history, became the main emperor image in the productions of film and TV of this period. But in some traditional opera films, the non-class dimension of emperor was remained. In the Cultural Revolution period which emphasized the class struggle, although the emperor image disappeared from the screen, the "legist emperor" gained approval under the background of the "Confucian-Legalist Struggle". The personal factors of Mao Zedong played a derivational role in glorifying Emperor Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu in Han Dynasty.When it turned into "New Era", contemporary Chinese political cultural theme turned from "revolution" to "development". People's ideology idea about class struggle faded and national consciousness began to thrive. At the same time, Popular Culture prospered and the recreational function of Chinese film and TV came to emerge. With the film and TV productions of Hongkong and Taiwan introduced into the mainland of china, the emperor images in Chinese film and TV productions were praised as well as blamed. In the middle of 1990's, Socialist Market Economy system was established. Meanwhile the international communism movement and its ideology suffered from frustrations. As the result, the image of emperor in contemporary productions of film and TV presented such a state that the dominant ideology discourse, cultural essence discourse and popular culture discourse converged on the national interest. The emperor image of Flourishing Age became the mainstream of the productions.The change of emperor image in the contemporary Chinese productions of film and TV reflected the change of our imagination of the emperor over the sixty years, which branded our aspiration for a powerful country and the plan for the developmental road of our nation. Meanwhile, it was also the outcome of the combination of "Great Man Complex" in the Chinese culture and contemporary "Classicalism Writing" over hundreds of years. After The People's Republic of China established, the image of emperor in Chinese productions of film and TV had hibernated for more than twenty years. However, At the turn of the century, it became a new genre of the contemporary film and TV productions.