Melodrama and innovation: Literary adaptation in contemporary Chinese film

The purpose of this dissertation is to define contemporary Chinese film as a distinct aesthetic, using literary adaptation as a focus. I set out to prove that there is more to Chinese film than an imitation of Western techniques; that it is also influenced by indigenous culture. Literary adaptation, specifically the adaptation of contemporary Chinese fiction, is a common phenomenon in Chinese film, and it provides a useful method for investigating film in general.; I use a series of comparisons and contrasts involving contemporary literary adaptation. I compare films with their original literary bases to examine the choices filmmakers make in adapting fiction to the screen. These choices reveal filmmakers' styles, philosophies, and goals, and highlight a distinction between two kinds of contemporary Chinese film, which I call "mainstream" and "innovative." This distinction, and the prevalence of adaptation, work for films of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan, substantiating the idea of a general Chinese film aesthetic. Both mainstream and innovative Chinese film borrow narrative structure and technique from Western film, and I compare and contrast them with certain forms of Western film to define them further.; The materials I use in my investigation include the contemporary films themselves, the original novels, novellas, and short stories by contemporary Chinese authors on which they are based, works by Chinese film critics on contemporary film, a few works by Western scholars on Chinese film, and interviews I conducted with Chinese directors and screenwriters in 1987.; Using the above methods and materials, I draw certain conclusions about contemporary Chinese film: The more conventional Chinese mainstream film closely resembles Western melodrama, and the innovative filmmakers employ Western art cinema methods. Both mainstream and innovative film, however, have distinctively strong ties to literature and are selective in their choice of Western methods; much of what they borrow is in accord with indigenous Chinese aesthetic principles. I provide a picture of an interesting, complex film aesthetic, and show that although Chinese film borrows style and narrative from the West, it seems to retain ties to indigenous aesthetics.