Filmic discourse on women in Chinese cinema (1949-1965): Art, ideology and social relations

This study examines filmic discourse on women in about eighteen films from the post-revolutionary cinema of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1964. It argues that "women" were used as significant rhetorical figures in the cultural production which supported socialist transformation of China during those years. By using the concept "inter-discursivity," this study suggests that female protagonists in Chinese films can be regarded as constituting an inter-textual site across which socialist claims, dominant ideologies and social relations make their diverse discursive passages, often in narrative and tropological forms. In this way, post-revolutionary films inscribe the symbolic place and social role of women within the re-definition of the nation-hood and the political culture of China.; A cultural studies approach is adopted to examine the relationship between film genres, gender relations and ideologies. By situating China's film generic production within the country's history and political economy, this study shows that Chinese film genres represent a stable correlation between the films' subject matter/theme and their social purposes. This correlation is based on the relationship between the Party/State and the film studios which was not mediated by the market. Three genres are discussed: revolutionary history films, village films and films about urban living. The institutional context, narrative form, rhetorical use of women and ideologies of each genre are discussed and compared.; Detailed readings of the films informed by post-structuralist feminist, ideological and culturalist approaches identify their contradictions as the result of mixing progressive and bureaucratic or conservative aspects. The films that promote a class-free society as the crucial setting for women's liberation also endorse women's subjugation to political authority and their selfless commitment to society's needs. Finally, the films' mixing of socialist realism with melodrama as well as attempts to appeal to popular understanding support my argument that "propaganda" is conceptually inadequate to describe the cultural significance of this political cinema. This critique of a non-western national cinema considers the political and cultural terms of its production.