Against the background that Chinese films have been taking part in multi-level international cooperation, many researchers and scholars, or even normal audience get a sense that we must be increasingly unable to interpret the Chinese films as we did before. But how to find a new and proper perspective? The book China on screen may give some illuminations. Famous professors of film studies, Chris Berry and his wife Mary Farquhar, use this scholarly work to illustrate two arguments: first, how a different Chinese cinematic tradition have taken function in annotating assorted depictions of national and national identity; second, instead of using the old national cinematic approach which took the national for granted, we should seek for a new framework …show more content…
The operatic mode originated at the same time as Chinese people began to conduct film making. However, it should have been comprehended along the cultural direction, but easily been “guided” by state direction historically. As a result, operatic mode has a nationalism core inherently. While the realist mode experienced a changeover from helping China became a modern nation-state to dealing with contemporary issues. Different phases present oceans of sources for understanding national in China cinema and Chinese …show more content…
Three women actresses and their images in some works have been contrasted to answer two questions in chapter 5: why motherhood is not so prominent in Chinese cinema rather than in other countries, and how their looks should be and be regarded by others? By clarifying the viewpoints of other scholars, authors discuss how the looks take effect in forming modernity and Chineseness. Chapter 6 is titled “how should Chinese men act” and focuses on Confucian codes which “persist as mythic symbols of national identity, ideal masculine behavior, and institutional governance” (p.136). The codes can be summed up as filiality, loyalty and brotherhood. These codes confer privilege to masculinity in relation to governing the nation and family. By approaching the “interdisciplinary of ‘law and film’” (p.136) and referring to films of Jackie Chan, John Woo and Zhang Yimou, the authors argue that the promodern codes models men’s images and how the men should act in cinema
The purpose of The Last Train Home may seem identical to a typical documentary film, where the director sets out to raise awareness on a certain issue of importance. However, as the film progresses, the political subtext is revealed. The sincere intention of this film is to convey a message regarding the harmful effects that western consumerism has on the Chinese society. By doing so the director Lixin Fan, tries to make American viewers to sympathize with the problems of China’s industrial revolution, and feel partially responsible for supporting it through the products we
Mao’s Last Dancer, directed by Bruce Beresford, is driven by Li’s experiences in the clash between American and Chinese culture and the journey to discovering his own identity. Through Li’s eyes this film shows us his search for identity which can sometimes be helped or hindered by the difference in cultures. These themes are shown during the film through the use of Symbolic, Written, Audio and Technical conventions (SWAT).
The Disney movie, Mulan, is a fantastic movie that depicts gender-stereotyped roles, socialization of gender roles, and consequences of over stepping one’s gender role. Both males and females have a specific role in the Chinese society that one must follow. Mulan made a brave choice pretending to be a man and going to war against the Huns in place of her father, risking serious consequences if she were to get caught. She broke the socialization of gender roles and could have been faced with very serious consequences of her actions. The Chinese society in Mulan exemplifies the typical gender roles of males and females, the consequences of displaying the opposite gender role, and showed what the society expected in males and females in characteristics and attitudes.
Chen, Jo-shui. "Empress Wu and Proto-feminist Sentiments in T'ang China." In Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China, edited by Frederick P. Brandauer and Chün-chieh Huang. 77-116. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
Other research has devoted to unveiling the origins and the development of their stereotyping and put them among the historical contextual frameworks (e.g., Kawai, 2003, 2005; Prasso, 2005). Research has shown that those stereotypes are not all without merits. The China doll/geisha girl stereotype, to some degree, presents us with a romanticized woman who embodies many feminine characteristics that are/ were valued and praised. The evolving stereotype of the Asian martial arts mistress features women power, which might have the potentials to free women from the gendered binary of proper femininity and masculinity. Nevertheless, the Western media cultural industry adopts several gender and race policing strategies so as to preserve patriarchy and White supremacy, obscuring the Asian women and diminishing the positive associations those images can possibly imply. The following section critically analyzes two cases, The Memoirs of a Geisha and Nikita, that I consider to typify the stereotypical depictions of Asian women as either the submissive, feminine geisha girl or as a powerful yet threatening martial arts lady. I also seek to examine
There are obvious differences within our two cultures and the way we depict gender roles. These differences show themselves in the work force, the distinct tasks performed in the home, and the privileges one receives in society. In the work force, the women of America hold many positions of importance, relatively speaking (I know that's a whole other essay). They are usually treated as equals with men and there are few jobs from which they are excluded, again for the sake of argument. In China, women are expected to stay at home and are not permitted to be in a work force that is held exclusively for men. They are assigned the role of housewives and must stay at home to clean the house and raise the children. Women in America receive education that will prepare them for the high paying jobs of a professional, all while the women in China are obeying the orders from their husbands and culture. The films portrayal of these particular gender roles are very evident. We can't forget however, that this was a western made film and in my opinion I feel that it tends to exaggerate the gender roles. I'm not saying that they are not present, because there is a definite inequality. I just keep in mind that it is a film and has to have an audience appealing theme.
At the center of Japanese and Chinese politics and gender roles lies the teachings of Confucius. The five relationships (五倫） of Confucius permeated the lives of all within the Heian and Tang societies.4 However, the focus here will be on the lives of the courtesans. The Genji Monogatari provides us with an unrivalled look into the inner-workings of Confucianism and court life in the Heian period. Song Geng, in his discourse on power and masculinity in Ch...
Mimura, Glen M. "What Is Asian American Cinema." Introduction. Ghostlife of Third Cinema: Asian American Film and Video. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2009. N. pag. Pdf.
Since the late 1980s Korean cinema has undergone salient changes in its industrial structure, modes of practice, and aesthetic orientation. Its remarkable transformation into a powerful cultural force in Asia has elicited considerable attention from both the commercial and critical sectors of the international film circuit. Recent discussions of Korean cinema have largely been centered on its market expansion and generic diversification over the past two decades. Accordingly, a strong spotlight has been cast on groundbreaking newcomers in the industry as catalysts for its rapid growth. The nationwide Shiri (Shiri, 1999) syndrome brought about by Kang Chegyu and similar phenomena triggered by Pak Ch’anuk’s Joint Security Area (Kongdong kyôngbi kuyôk, 2000), Kwak Kyôngt’aek’s Friends (Ch’ingu, 2001), and Yi Chônghyang’s The Way Home (Chibûro, 2002) well illustrate this tendency.1
2. Feng, P. (Fall 1999). "The State of Asian American Cinema: In Search of Community". Cineaste, 24.
Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universally understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films; Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films; Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society using sound and editing.
Modernization in the 1980s paved the way for the Hong Kong New Wave, as the studio system set up in the 1950s was dismantled, the film industry experienced more freedom. Since decolonization was heavily present 75% of Hong Kong’s box office revenue were home grown movies, while the meager 15% was left for the foreign market. As one can see the political context of Ho...
Examples of cultural constructions can be seen throughout history in several forms such as gender, relationships, and marriage. “Cultural construction of gender emphasizes that different cultures have distinctive ideas about males and females and use these ideas to define manhood/masculinity and womanhood/femininity.” (Humanity, 239) In many cultures gender roles are a great way to gain an understanding of just how different the construction of gender can be amongst individual cultures. The video The Women’s Kingdom provides an example of an uncommon gender role, which is seen in the Wujiao Village where the Mosuo women are the last matriarchy in the country and have been around for over one thousand years. Unlike other rural Chinese villages where many girls are degraded and abandoned at birth, Mosuo woman are proud and run the households where the men simply assist in what they need. The view of gender as a cultural construct ...
Historical conceptions of China’s culture and global position shaped the PRC’s perspective. Central to this is Sino-centrism and its edict from heaven for dynastic China to spread civilisation (Xinning 2001: 70). Imperial China’s tribute system represented a “Pax Sinica” and the physical manifestation of Sino-centrism, with its success affirming Chinese cultural superiority (Y. Zhang 2001: 52). Instructive in this is Sino-centrism’s similarity to, and conflict with American Manifest Destiny, itself an articulation that Anglo-Saxon American’s are God’s chosen people, with a superior culture and who are pre-ordained to spread civilisation to inferior peoples (Hollander 2009: 169). The PRC’s nationalism can be seen in part as a rejection of this competing celestial mandate, linking China’s decline to foreign intervention and the acceding to unequal treaties that saw the loss of peripheral territories considered intrinsic to historic China (Kissinger 2011: 112). In this way, the PRC’s formation as a modern nation state is the recrudescence of Sino-...
This paper agrees with his way of reframing of cultural diplomacy. Further, this paper agree with Kang’s argument that “[t]he framework of [cultural diplomacy] in terms of international cultural politics is suggested as the international hierarchy of prestige (English, Isar, 2010)”, and takes the position that China’s foreign cultural policies is best understood and explained in terms of the “politics of identity” in the “international hierarchy of prestige” (Kang 7). Indeed bureaucratic policy making concerned with specific kinds of national interests have a role in China’s cultural diplomatic practices, but explanations based on measurable or tangible economic or political interests alone is not