A Study Of Mother Figures In 21st-Century Taiwan’s Family Melodrama

After a brief downturn at the beginning of the new millennium,the Taiwan’s film industry gradually recovered,giving rise to a multitude of outstanding works.Among them,family ethics,as an important movie motif,is deeply loved by audience.At the same time,family melodrama have made numerous beneficial attempts at depicting mother figures.This paper focuses on mother figures in Taiwan’s family melodrama since the new century and examines their portrayal through an analysis of relevant cinematic texts.From auditory and narrative perspectives,the construction of mother figures is studied,and the changes in these figures,as well as the reflections of Taiwan’s Cultural status quo,are to be identified.The paper is divided into three chapters: Chapter I examines the novelty of mother figures in 21st-century Taiwan’s family melodrama from three perspectives,discussing subversions,rewrites,and breakthroughs in the areas of family roles,social identity,and gender awareness.Chapter II delves into how family melodrama construct the maternal image from visual-auditory and narrative dimensions.The visual-auditory construction of Taiwan family melodrama encapsulates the use of abundant ’imagery’ symbols and the maintenance of a diverse hybrid language,thus manifesting its characteristics of breaking through and inheriting traditional Taiwan realist film aesthetics.Meanwhile,from the narrative perspective,family melodrama focus more on individual experience expression and their postmodern transformation features.Chapter III extends the maternal image to Taiwan socio-cultural discourse.Firstly,the changes of mother figures more directly reflects the enhancement of female consciousness in Taiwan’s cinema,writing a new chapter of feminist in Taiwan’s film.Secondly,it elucidates the isomorphic relationship between mother figures and Taiwan’s family melodrama,mother’s predicament metaphorically signifies Taiwan’s challenges.Lastly,beginning from the relationship between the mother and the family,it infers the return and affirmation of Taiwan culture towards traditional Chinese culture.By examining mother figures in Taiwan’s family melodrama,this paper highlights the cultural changes reflected by these mother figures,providing a fresh perspective for studying female figures in Taiwan’s cinema and Taiwan’s culture.This study also holds significant implications for raising societal awareness of the importance of women.