A cross-cultural analysis of gender and representation in Chinese New Cinema

This study explores the social construction and cinematic representation of gender in Chinese New Cinema from a cross-cultural perspective. Western theories of gender and narrative are used to analyze four films--two by male directors and two by female directors--in relation to Chinese cultural history.; Male and female filmmakers differ in their representation of women in ways which reflect cultural contexts as well as cinematic resourcefulness. In Zhang Yimou's Ju Dou, representations of women reveal a desire to reassert a repressed male subjectivity and sexuality. Framing woman in the foreground displays a humanistic concern for exposing social oppression, but the gendered perspective which relates women to men conveys a longing to recover a lost masculinity. Hu Mei's Army Nurse, by contrast, employs a first-person, voice-over narration to render the inner workings of a female subjectivity which registers self-sacrifice before the authority of entrenched social position.; Gender identity becomes a repeated scene of shifting and multiple meanings in Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine and Huang Shuqin's Woman Human Demon, which both portray the traditional use of cross-sex impersonators in Chinese opera. The character of the concubine in Farewell demonstrates how symbolic castration, corporal punishment, and theatrical costume and make-up can transform biological maleness into a gendered female role by authenticating the projection of external power on the personal body. In Woman Human Demon, however, self-representation reveals a split self: failed identities as daughter, lover, and wife mark a haunting search through the ghostly mask of the non-woman, even non-human. A self-reflexive narrative uses the opera persona to explore a woman's inner conflicts and address the external crises which bedevil her.; Chinese new films open themselves to critical readings based on Western film theories, yet, arising from a critical context with distinct social and cultural codes, Chinese films in turn challenge the prevailing theories. This study seeks to make connections between Chinese films and Western theories while respecting the differences inherent in each, and to create alternative approaches for a better understanding of Chinese New Cinema. The detailed readings of particular films exemplify a cross-national approach to Chinese cinema.