Research On Female Images In Chinese Rural Movies And TV Plays Since The New Century

Since the beginning of the new century,our society has witnessed tremendous changes in economy,culture and people's livelihoods.Affected by national policies and the film and television production industry,China's rural-themed film and television works have also ushered in new opportunities for development,and have made great breakthroughs in production level,content creation and theme expression.In the film and television works of this kind of themes,there are ideological themes that reflect this huge social change and a series of characters transformed from tradition to modernity.Among them,the image of rural women and the consciousness of women are the most suitable aspects to showcase the thoughts and artistic changes of the times,reflecting a kind of multi-conscious evolution and image innovation.Since the 1930s,the image of rural women has been a common image in Chinese film art.Entangled with the traditional concepts of rural Chinese society and the May Fourth New Cultural Movement,the image of rural women has a dual consciousness of tradition and modernity.The cultural conflicts,ideological conflicts,and changes of the general environment between the new era and the old are all reasons for the changes in female images.The creation of Chinese country-themed movies and TV series since the new century,based on the creation of similar themes in the new era,once again shouldered the historical responsibility of reflecting the image and consciousness of rural women in social changes,and presenting people with a true image of current rural Chinese society and rural-women group.They are the actual carrier of traditional culture and the main body of ideological emancipation.When we sort out and evaluate these vivid images of rural women,we have to think about a few questions: What kind of story are they telling? What are the similarities and differences between them and female characters in the new era? What are the social and artistic values of their image creation? As audiences and researchers,what perspective should we use to interpret and shape these colorful female images? In response to all the above questions,we strive to find relevant answers in rural film and television dramas since the new century.This article analyzes and expounds the types and presentation methods of female images in rural film and television dramas since the new century from the perspective of sociology and film and television creation theory,thereby showing humanistic care and social attention to rural women groups.Under the influence of the tide of reform and opening up in the new era,the image of rural women in film and television dramas in the new century has also undergone remarkable changes.The changes in their images are used to prove the arduous course of China's reform and opening up,from which we can see the rural women's changes in life values,moral orientation,and emotional appeals.Since the beginning of the new century,with the changes in China's rural social environment and the acceleration of urbanization,the social situation of rural women has also undergone further changes and even differentiation.By sorting out the female image pedigree and life history of rural-themed film as well as television dramas,it is found that the current rural female images are roughly divided into two series:One is the image of rural women who tend to be more open and modern.They have been influenced by contemporary civilization,and have also experienced the wound it caused.Such women are exposed to more and more modern civilization and urban culture through reality and the Internet,which have an increasing impact on the lives of themselves and their families.They have more power to speak,dare to challenge traditional patriarchal concepts and female morality,and strive for their due social roles and family status.Such female images include rural women cadres,female entrepreneurs,and certain female college-student village officials.At the same time,under the negative influence of modern civilization and urban culture,the image of rural women has also undergone modern distortions.They rushed out from the bottom of society to find their own new path in life,which is a normal human need.However,under the influence of the market economy,human conscience,natural body,and personal dignity have all become the key ingredients to change their own destiny,and the idea that money is all-important,self-centeredness,and indulgence have become their pursuit of values.Contemporary rural-themed film and television dramas vividly portray the images of these degraded or complex women,including corrupt officials in the countryside,prostitutes,and left-behind mistresses.The other is traditional images of rural women influenced by traditional morality and persecuted by patriarchal concepts.rural Chinese society and farmers are the most pervasive and long-lasting conservatives of traditional Chinese culture,and they are often the ultimate victims,too.Due to the natural distance between rural society and modern civilization,traditional culture exerts a long-standing influence on rural women.On the one hand,this kind of influence cultivates and retains the traditional virtues of rural Chinese women,and has become a symbol of China's excellent traditional culture with a high moral state and aesthetic value.The images of good wives and beloved mothers that appeared in large numbers in rural TV dramas in the new century are representative of them.They are good daughters,good wives,good mothers,good daughter-in-laws and good neighbors.In the tide of commercialization,this kind of image and ideological character has become a model for real-life Chinese women,and has also become the most alluring artistic charm in the aesthetic value of rural film and television dramas in the new century.At the same time,the traditional rural female image like a good wife and a good mother is often constructed on the perseverance of patience and compromises.They are often the nobles of traditional morality,but also the martyrs of it.Therefore,in addition to normal good wives and mothers,there are also victims of traditional morality among rural women.Since the beginning of the new century,the continuously accelerating urbanization process has attracted a large number of peasants to enter the city and become a huge contingent of peasant workers.They left their homes to work hard,and made great contributions to the construction of the city and the lives of the urban dwellers.In fact,this team is very small in the new era,but after entering the new century,it has grown rapidly.Consequently,it has produced another large number of left-behind women in rural society.The image of left-behind women has been portrayed in the film and television dramas of rural themes in the new century,which has distinctive characteristics of the times.They largely follow the tracks of widows and weak women in the past.When depicting these characters,the work is full of deep emotions,but at the same time it also shows the vague consciousness of fusing them with the image of a good wife and a good mother.Of course,whether to leave their home or the country cannot be simply used as the basis for distinguishing the old or new women,the awakened or ignorant women.Because from the perspective of the development of modern society in the new century,housework has become a new social division of labor.A housewife may also be a new female image.However,such images and concepts are still very rare in rural TV dramas in the new century,which may be due to the reality of rural society and the constraints of farmers' consciousness.Between these two types of rural female images,there are also two cross-border female images.That is the image of female college graduates working as village officials who are close to modern civilization and rural shrews who are close to rural folk culture.These female college graduates working as village officials do not strictly belong to people in rural society,but from the perspective of identity and life,she has the characteristics of a new female image in rural film and television dramas in the new century.While the image of shrew not only has the origin of rural traditional folk culture,but also boasts the self-consciousness of modern culture.It should be said that most of these two types of images in rural modern women are not newly appeared in rural TV dramas in the new century.Such images have appeared as early as the beginning of reform and opening up.However,these characters are more prominent and vivid in similar themes of film and television dramas in the new century,and some of them are newly emerged female images.Different from the rural-themed film and television dramas of the last century,the creators of similar themes in the new century have new thoughts and aesthetic concepts.So they have more diverse ways of shaping the image of rural women.In particular,influenced by contemporary film and television artistic concepts and techniques,creators pay more attention to the diversity of personal character,thus showing the complexity of the modernization of rural Chinese society in the new century.In terms of artistic techniques,they focus more on the integration of new audio-visual language expression methods,especially combining traditional realism techniques with modernist expression techniques,using the change of lens,sound,composition and music to portray various female images,which have created a richer image of rural women than before.Since the new century,rural-themed film and television works have made great progress compared with the past.Artistic forms are used to show the new outlook of China's new socialist countryside,which aroused the whole society's attention to the fate of rural women.Of course,there are still many shortcomings in the shaping of female images and consciousness in rural TV dramas in the new century.In particular,more in-depth discussions are needed in terms of expressing the human consciousness,as well as the complexity and profoundness of human nature.