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Women, are they really liberated?
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Foreword
The role of women in Chinese cinema has changed over time. In this paper, I will
try to research on the changing image and role of women in Chinese cinema by
performing a comparative analysis of two representative films in the 1940s and
1990s, A Spring River Flows East and Ju Dou, using reference and evidence from
various related articles including Brett Sutcliffe's "A Spring River Flows East:
‘Progressive' Ideology and Gender Representation", Paul G. Pickowicz's Victory
as Defeat: Postwar Visualizations of China's War of Resistance, Mary Ann
Farquhar's "Oedipality in Red Sorghum and Judou", Shuqin Cui's Gendered
Perspective: The Construction and Representation of Subjectivity and Sexuality
in Ju Dou, and Wang Ban's Desire and Pleasure in Revolutionary Cinema.
My analysis will focus on Sufen and Ju Dou, the two respective female protagonists
in A Spring River Flows East and Ju Dou. I believe that although there is a
progressive change in the depiction of female characters from A Spring River
Flows East to Ju Dou, due to social and historical context, the underlying
principle remains unchanged indeed. Women are still unable to surpass the boundary
of traditional patriarchy in Chinese cinema. In the first half of this paper, I will
briefly introduce the two characters Sufen and Ju Dou, and illustrate their
differences in terms of their entrance to the family, their suicides and their
romantic relationships with their men. While in the remaining portion, I will
point out their similarities and how they are the same in my opinions.
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Sufen and Ju Dou
Spring River Flows East was made in 1947 after the end of the war. The story
is about the romantic relationship between Zhang Zhongliang and Sufen, and how
their lives are impacted by the war. The image of Sufen follows the traditional
Chinese conception of a virtuous wife and good mother. As Brett Sutcliffe writes
in his essay "A Spring River Flows East: ‘Progressive' Ideology and Gender
Representation", "the image of Sufen as the ever faithful and hardworking wife
and mother, conforms most closely to the traditional image of the ‘virtuous wife
and good mother (xianqi liangmu)" (Sutcliffe p. 9). She is loyal to her husband,
Zhongliang, as well as to Zhongliang's mother and their son. During the wartime
when she is separated from her husband, she works very hard to take good care of
Zhongliang's mother and their son. Throughout the film, we keep seeing her
washing dishes, cleaning the house, cooking meals and playing with children.
She never complains, or forgets her duty as a faithful wife and mother.
Ju Dou was made in 1990 by the fifth generation director Zhang Yimou. It is about
the romantic relationship between Ju Dou and Tianqing, an adopted member of the
family headed by Jinshan, the owner of a dye factory. But it is not a normal
romantic relationship. As Sheldon Lu suggests in his essay National Cinema,Cultural
Critique, Transnational Capital: The Films of Zhang Yimou, "the illicit, ‘incestuous'
affair between Ju Dou and Tianqing is a transgression of the laws of the
patriarchal system, which is represented by Yang Jinshan and the whole Yang
clan" (Lu p. 114). This relationship is incestuous and immoral because of two
reasons. First, Ju Dou is a married woman. She is supposed to be loyal to her
husband. Having an affair with another man signifies the violation of this marital
commitment. Second, Ju Dou is the auntie of Tianqing, their relations in the
family are vertical. That means, Tianqing is supposed to respect Ju Dou as a
maternal figure, any sexual relationship between them can be viewed as the
transgression of this vertical relation. Although the background of the story
of Ju Dou is set in the 1920s, it reflects the contemporary Chinese conception
rather than the traditional attitudes. Ju Dou is a rebellious character who
rejects traditional conception of a virtuous wife and good mother. Throughout
the film, her behaviors are outrageous. She always complains her husband Jinshan
and shows no respect by regarding him as a "Lao Bu Xi", which literally means
"old but still not dead". She also seduces her nephew Tianqing and propels their
sexual relationship that ends up with the birth of an illegitimate son, Tianbai.
After Jinshan is paralysed in the middle of the film, she even puts him into a
bucket and makes him aware of her sexual relationship with Tianqing, and that
Tianbai is not his son indeed. Compared with Sufen, Ju Dou is exactly an opposite
in terms of the general conception of a good wife and mother in China.
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Love?
It is interesting to compare how Sufen and Ju Dou are brought into the family.
As Brett Sutcliffe summarizes the story of A Spring River Flows East, "Zhongliang
declares love to factory girl Li Sufen and soon afterwards they are married
and have a baby, named Kang'er. With the outbreak of war, Zhongliang is sent
to the front and Sufen and her mother-in-law return to Zhongliang's home town
to live with his father and brother, Zhongmin" (Sutcliffe p.9). Their matrimony
is a practice of free choice marriage that is against the traditional practice
of arranged marriage since they fall in love and decide to get married themselves.
There is no external driving force (i.e. from their parents) at all. I think it
is related to the progressive movement proposed in China in the early 1920s.
As Sutcliffe writes, "With the May Fourth reform movement, the practice of
arranged marriage was abolished and free marriage instituted by law. The 1931
KMT and CCP (Chinese Communist Party) Marriage Laws both continued provisions
for free choice marriage and divorce" (Sutcliffe).
While in Ju Dou, with the background of the 1920s, the matrimony is a clear
example of arranged marriage. As Shuqin Cui writes, "the dye-house owner, Yang
Jinshan, an old and cruel man, purchases a beautiful young woman, Ju Dou, in
expectation of her bearing him a male heir. Impotent and hostile, however, he
uses his new wife as slave labor during the day and abuses her at night for
failing to bear him a child" (Lu p. 304). Ju Dou and Jinshan do not have any
romantic relationship at all. Their marriage is arranged by Jinshan in order
to provide a family lineage. It fits the traditional conception of marriage
in China, in which the biggest value of a wife is to bear children for the
family. As Sutcliffe writes, "In the feminist critique of Chinese tradition,
marriage has been seen as a primary site for women's subordination. As the
ultimate of exchange commodities, women were highly valued for providing a
family lineage" (Sutcliffe p.10). As I have said above, it is interesting
because the progressive marriage in A Spring Rive Flows East ends up with the
regressive tradition of suicide of Sufen. On the contrary, in Ju Dou, the
regressive marriage results in the suicide of Ju Dou triggered by progressive
attitude. In my opinions, the transitions from progressive to regressive
attitude and vice versa are probably arranged by the filmmakers in order to
maximize the dramatic tension of the story.
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Suicide!
The suicides of Sufen and Ju Dou represent two different sets of value and
conception entirely. Sufen commits suicide because she realizes that Zhongliang
is not going to give up his prosperous life, which is provided by his new wife
Lizhen. For Chinese tradition, a wife does not have the right to divorce or
become independent, because such actions are viewed as immoral and a departure
from the patriarchal dominated family. Therefore the only option available
to Sufen is to give up her life. As Brett Sutcliffe suggests, "In traditional
China, the motivation for suicide was based on a code for moral uprightness
that placed a high honor on the maintenance of chastity. Such were the codes
of honor set by traditional Chinese society that individuals may have sought
death in preference to an ‘illegitimate' existence. ... When we consider the
possible alternatives to her suicide - divorce and independence, both of
which represent a clear break from dependence on a patriarchal dominated
family, suicide then becomes the only means by which the text can reassert
control over the fate of women and contain them within the confines of a
patriarchal moral code" (Sutcliffe p.11).
Ju Dou's suicide is much different from the former one. Her suicide is not
triggered by her will to maintain chastity or morality. It is rather an
emancipation from the traditional conception of morality. As Shuqin Cui
suggests, "with no way out from under the blanketing power of the feudal
system, Ju Dou sets a fire that sends the dye factory and her years of longing
for liberation up in the smoke" (Lu p. 305). Throughout the film, Ju Dou's sexual
desire is always oppressed. She is forbidden to get married with the man she
loves even after her husband is dead. At the end of the film after Jinshan is
dead, Ju Dou and Tianqing are still unable to announce their relationship to
the clan. What they choose to do is to continue the love affair secretly. They
steal outside to make love in the wild and in the tunnel. In addition to this,
she is also prohibited to express her own thought and stance. For example, in
Jinshan's funeral, Ju Dou and Tianqing are forced to block the coffin forty-nine
times in order to show their respect for Jinshan. Applying Shuqin Cui's
analysis, "a worm's eye-view shot of the coffin and two figures prostrating
themselves and rolling under declares the authority of the dead and the
subordination of the living" (Lu p. 322). That means, even though Jinshan is
dead, there is still no way out for Ju Dou to escape from this patriarchal
system she is trapped in. Her suicide, on the other hand, is viewed as a
liberation because it is the only moment in the film when she is allowed to
make a decision herself and take control of her own destiny. It is also the
only moment when she is not required to care about traditional conception or
the criticism of the others, since her death means a total detachment from
the world.
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Matrimonial life...
In terms of the matrimonial life of the couples depicted in the films, it
seems that Sufen and Zhongliang's love is more spiritual than Ju Dou and
Tianqing's. As Chris Berry writes about the director of A Spring River Flows
East Cai Chusheng in the Appendix of his book Perspectives on Chinese Cinema,
he refers him as a leftist director who "helped to establish the openly leftist
Kunlun Film Studio, which worked against the Nationalist Guomindang government"
(Berry p.187). A Spring River Flows East was a product of this studio. It is a
revolutionary film that aims at promoting the Communist culture. Based on this
origin of production, I would then like to apply Wang Ban's analysis about love
in revolutionary films in his article Desire and Pleasure in Revolutionary Cinema.
He proposes that "in the revolutionary film, real images of love and affection
are not to be found in depictions of sexual love between man and woman, even
though such images are not wanting. ... The most compelling spectacles in the
revolutionary film are the scenes of warm family relations, the emotional bonding
of comradeship and brotherhood, the festive conviviality of the revolutionary
collective" (Wang p. 136). Because the aim of the film is to promote a collective
comradeship, it explains why viewers do not see any explicit depiction of sexual
relationship between Sufen and Zhongliang throughout the film, and why
Zhongliang's brother Zhongmin's comradely relationship with his friends are
highly praised. Zhongmin is like a role model who leads an exemplary and fruitful
life in the film. Moreover, when Sufen is detained in the concentration camp,
she always shows love and compassion to other inmates and tries to help them as
much as she can. In regard to her family, she takes good care of her mother-in-law
and her son in order to maintain a warm family relation. There are more
depictions of her concern for these people than her romantic relationship with
Zhongliang.
In Ju Dou, Ju Dou and Tianqing's love is totally different. Their romance is
mainly constructed through an explicit portrayal of sexual intercourse. Sexuality
plays a very important role in this film. While seduction and love-making
scenes are shown again and again throughout the film, Zhang Yimou also utilizes
different cinematic techniques to reinforce the connotation of sexuality
powerfully. For instance, the use of color and point-of-view structure are
remarkable. In terms of color, Mary Ann Farquhar has done an interesting
analysis in her article Oedipality in Red Sorghum and Ju Dou. She proposes
that "sexuality in Ju Dou is primarily described through color in Ju Dou's
clothes and the vibrant rolls of dyed cloth which hang suspended in the factory"
(Farquhar p. 336). In sum, she believes that the colors of Ju Dou and
Tiangqing's clothes at different moments of the film are related to different
stages of their relationships. The names of the characters, like Jinshan,
Tianqing, also have specific association with different colors that connote
their social and moral status brilliantly (Farquhar p. 336). In terms of the
point-of-view structure and the concept of male gaze, Shuqin Cui's analysis is
comprehensive. As Cui writes, "shot/reverse shots keep Ju Dou and Tianqing in
separated frames. Tianqing is often set against a background of darkness. ...
In contrast to the framing of Tianqing, Ju Dou appears in a position of sexual
power. The sense of power and its perversion involves a carefully framed
composition between the female figure and the objects around her" (Lu p. 315).
Contrary to A Spring River Flows East in which any explicit or implicit
implication of sexuality is strongly prohibited by the filmmakers, Zhang Yimou
addresses the issue of sexuality diversely and comprehensively in Ju Dou. Not
only is the sexual desire and the act of sexual intercourse being emphasized,
the motives and the sexual power of the characters are also being examined
carefully. Moreover, the use of Jinshan as the impotent husband and Tianbai
as Tianqing's competitor of Ju Dou's love complicate the romance and turn it
into a power struggle against the social and cultural context in China. While
for A Spring River Flows East, the romance is very pure and straightforward.
Sufen's son only wants to reunite with his father. There is absolutely no sense
of antagonism involved. Although Zhongliang has an affair with two other women
in the film, Sufen is not aware of that until the end of the film; his second
wife Lizhen is also not aware of his mistress. It seems that the filmmakers do
not want to raise this issue overtly since power struggle of sexuality is not
the theme of the film. It is rather the representation of femininity that the
filmmakers want to emphasize. Because Zhongliang is never criticized or
physically hurt, it seems that this representation of femininity is positioned
within a patriarchal society that is different from Ju Dou in which Ju Dou
is trying to overthrow the domination of patriarchy by torturing Jinshan and
seducing Tianqing in order to become the real figure in charge at home.
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Illusion?
Judging from all the reasons above, it seems that there is really an obvious
change in the depiction of female characters from A Spring River Flows East to
Ju Dou. But I think it is not exactly true. When I examined the cotents of
the films more carefully, I found out that Sufen and Ju Dou are still unable
to liberate from the patriarchal dominated society.
As I have mentioned above, Sufen is a victim of the patriarchal dominated society.
Although the film is about the representation of femininity, it is positioned
within a patriarchal society. In his article Victory as Defeat: Postwar
Visualizations of China's War of Resistance, Paul G. Pickowicz proposes that
men are impotent in the film. "Men were not able to prevent the Japanese invasion
and, after the war, were not able to reunite the nation. ... If ware brought
out the worst in men, it appears to have brought out the best in Chinese women,
at least according to these popular postwar visualization. The picture of
wartime China shows patriarchal norms and the family institution itself to be
in serious disarray, ... men are irresponsible and unpredictable, while women
are strong and capable" (Pickowicz p. 389). I do not completely agree with what
he says. Although women appear stronger and more capable than men in the film,
it is very important to realize that the underlying principle, that the society
is still strongly dominated by patriarchal figures, remains unchanged at all.
Although Zhongliang is irresponsible and unpredictable, the filmmakers never
try to accuse him of being immoral explicitly, nor does he receive any punishment
throughout the film. It is rather the women, Sufen and Lizhen, who are the
suffering ones. It is especially obvious for the case of Sufen. Her suicide
indicates the failure of liberating from patriarchy. As Brett Sutcliffe writes,
"suicide then becomes the only means by which the text can reassert control over
the fate of women and contain them within the confines of a patriarchal moral
code" (Sutcliffe p.11).
Similar to Sufen, Ju Dou's actions are also strongly oppressed by the patriarchal
dominated society. Failure of men are also stressed in Ju Dou. The two male
protagonists are weak. Jinshan is an impotent and infertile figure while
Tianqing is a representative of masculine inferiority whose actions and behaviors
are always controlled by Ju Dou. It seems that patriarchy is totally destroyed
by the failure of these two male characters. But it is not the end yet. The
emergence of Tianbai in the later portion of the film reverts the order of
patriarchy. As Shuqin Cui writes, "Tianbai's acceptance of Jinshan as his father
comes from comprehending Jinshan's symbolic patriarchal authority... He keeps
Ju Dou in an imagined castrated stage by disrupting her sexual affair with
Tianqing... The virtue and positions so specific to certain relationships are
fixed; ... it can be read as a search for lost male subjectivity and
masculinity" (Lu p. 324). That means, although there is a short period in
the middle of the film when Ju Dou almost succeeds in overturning the ruling
of patriarchy, it still turns out to be a failure eventually. Tianbai has
brought everything back to order by eliminating everything that is destructive
to the patriarchal dominated society. In the end, Ju Dou still attempts to
liberate from patriarchy by committing suicide. Zhang Yimou does not let
viewers know whether she is dead or not. Therefore whether her liberation is
a success or failure remains open. In regard to my analysis above, I would tend
to believe that patriarchy is restored eventually. Because whether Ju Dou is
dead or not, Tianbai, the remaining male figure, is still a guardian of the
patriarchal dominated society, and he will soon take over to be the head of the
household. That means, the root of patriarchy will still remain unchanged. Everything
will be back to normal again. Moreover, Ju Dou's revolution is not that
successful actually. For instance, in Jinshan's funeral, Ju Dou and Tianqing
are forced to block the coffin forty-nine times in order to show their respect
for Jinshan. That means, even though Jinshan is dead, there is still no way
out for Ju Dou to escape from this patriarchal system she is trapped in.
In addition, as Shuqin Cui writes, "as Ju Dou and Tianqing taste the pleasure
of the love affair, they are haunted by the fear of violating ritual principles
- especially the principles of chastity for woman and filial piety" (Lu p. 316),
in which all of these principles are withheld and regulated by the patriarchal
clan of the village they live in.
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Conclusion
Although the depiction of female characters do consist certain changes due to the
progressive evolution of social and historical context, the underlying principle
remains unchanged. I believe that after forty years, from A Spring River
Flows East to Ju Dou, women are still restricted within the same boundary of
patriarchal dominated society and traditional conception. There is still no
way out for women to liberate genuinely.
written by Kantorates
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Work Cited
Berry, Chris. Appendix 1: Major Directors. Perspective on Chinese Cinema. BFI Publishing, 1997
Cui, Shuqin. Gendered Perspective: The Construction and Representation of Subjectivity and Sexuality in Ju Dou. Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender(Ed. by Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu). University of Hawai'i Press, 1997
Farquhar, Mary Ann. "Oedipality in Red Sorghum and Judou" . Cinemas. Universite de Montreal, 1993
Lu, Sheldon Hsiao-peng. National Cinema,Cultural Critique, Transnational Capital: The Films of Zhang Yimou. Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender (Ed. by Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu). University of Hawai'i Press, 1997
Pickowicz, Paul G.. Victory as Defeat: Postwar Visualizations of China's War of Resistance. Becoming Chinese: Passages to Modernity and Beyond. University Of California Press, Berkeley, 2000
Sutcliffe, Brett. "A Spring River Flows East: ‘Progressive' Ideology and Gender Representation". Screening the Past. Internet, 1995
Wang, Ban. Desire and Pleasure in Revolutionary Cinema. The Sublime Figure of History; Aesthetics and Politics in Twentieth-Century China. Stanford University Press, 1997
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