A Comparative Study of Female-Themed Art Films from China and Germany [1 ed.] 9783832599799, 9783832544041

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Ning Xu

A Comparative Study of Female-Themed Art Films from China and Germany

λογος

A Comparative Study of Female-Themed Art Films from China and Germany

Dissertation im Fach Medienwissenschaft

eingereicht in der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Siegen zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades des Doktors der Philosophie (Dr. phil.)

vorgelegt von Ning Xu

betreut von Prof. Dr. Peter Matussek Prof. Dr. Jens Schröter

Siegen, November 2015

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de .

c

Copyright Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH 2016 All rights reserved. ISBN 978-3-8325-4404-1

Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH Comeniushof, Gubener Str. 47, 10243 Berlin Tel.: +49 (0)30 42 85 10 90 Fax: +49 (0)30 42 85 10 92 INTERNET: http://www.logos-verlag.de

iii

Gutachter der Dissertation: 1. Prof. Dr. Peter Matussek 2. Prof. Dr. Jens Schröter

Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 18. Oktober 2016.

iv

v

Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to express my at most gratitude to my first supervisor, Prof. Dr. Peter Matussek, for his supervision, advice, and guidance on this research and encouragement and support through the time of my study at the University of Siegen. His broad knowledge in media aesthetics, infinite wisdom, and modesty inspired and enriched my growth as a student and a researcher that I want to be, and enlightened me very much to find solutions when I met problems during my Ph.D. studies. I would like to give my thanks and appreciation to my second supervisor, Prof. Dr. Jens Schröter, for his consistent help, invaluable academic guidance and attention during the whole work. His engagement, scientific knowledge, and continuous support during the past years were crucial not only for the accomplishment of this work, but also for the expansion of my scientific knowledge and my growing interest in film studies. I want to thank my parents for always encouraging me to pursue whatever interest I might have fancied at the moment. I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to find my own path in life and that I have always felt your support. I am also grateful for the support I have got from my parents-in-law, not least during my Ph.D. studies. The gratitude I feel towards my husband Dr.-Ing. Chen Li is beyond expression. You are the best! Without you, I would probably never even started on this journey, and without you, I would not have finalized it. Thank you for all the joy and support you have given me. Thank you for the so many memorable times staying in Germany with you.

Thank for all of my friends in Germany who had a wonderful time with me, and the friends in China who shared my failures and successes. For the financial support I am thankful to the China Scholarship Council, Gleichstellungsbüros at the University of Siegen, and the Scholarship and Support Programme (“Stibet”) of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

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Abstract I explore female-themed art films from China and Germany and seek to illustrate how the cultural difference between the ways of representing women and narrating women’s themes is shown in both countries’ films, by means of analyzing two film elements: mise-en-scène and cinematography. Every chapter in this book begins with a synopsis that introduces the main stories of the relevant films. I then describe the cultural differences that influence women’s thinking and behavior in both countries. In this book, I examine shots for depictions and symbols of oppression. In Chinese films, shots are often divided into smaller parts or shown to have obstacles to convey this feeling or symbol. But German films often use shots showing narrow and closed interior space instead for this intent. Both of these two techniques represent an implication of women being “trapped” somewhere. I also examine different uses of color, and demonstrate that Chinese films normally use one or two colors as a dominant hue, but German films prefer to choose a more colorful and brighter way to represent women’s lives. I investigate the use of close-ups and show that German films employ many close-ups of faces to show the effects of “shock,” “threat,” and “intimacy” much more than do Chinese films, but Chinese films prefer to use close shots, medium close shots, and medium shots to avoid excessive intimacy. As to the three analysis points above, I provide some differences between traditional Chinese paintings and classical Western paintings, and demonstrate the close relationship between paintings and films. I explore the idea that normally mirror shots in Chinese

films show the mirror’s basic function—that is, a character looks into the mirror to herself, but also, there is a deeper metaphor and the theme of “doppelgänger” always conveyed in German films in such situations. I also investigate “gaze,” and explore its opposite representation, which does not conform to women’s situation of “looked at,” and point out the main reasons of the different uses of nude images in both countries’ films. Furthermore, I discuss the reasons that Western culture is often shown in Chinese films, but rarely are German films represent in non-Western culture.

CONTENTS

ix

Contents Acknowledgements

v

Abstract

ix

Contents

xi

List of Figures

xv

1

2

Introduction

1

1.1

Female-Themed Films and Art Films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2

1.2

Correlative Film Theory and the Statements about Painting . . . . . . .

13

1.3

Introduction of Each Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16

Marriage and Love

21

2.1

Synopses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

21

2.1.1

Chinese films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

21

2.1.2

German films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23

Marriage and Divorce in China and Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25

2.2.1

Different marriage systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25

2.2.2

Different divorce systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

28

2.3

Women Are Trapped in Their Houses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

34

2.4

Representation in Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

43

2.5

Different Functions of Mirror Shots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

51

2.2

x

3

4

CONTENTS 2.6

Representations Showing Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

58

2.7

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

72

Birth and Motherhood

75

3.1

Synopses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

75

3.1.1

Chinese films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

75

3.1.2

German films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

77

3.2

Perspectives on Birth and Motherhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

78

3.3

Family Planning Policy and Pronatalist Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

82

3.4

Representation of Birth in Films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

88

3.5

Contraception and Abortion Embodied in Films . . . . . . . . . . . . .

97

3.6

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Professional Women and Housewives 4.1

5

111

Synopses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 4.1.1

Chinese films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

4.1.2

German films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

4.2

Perspectives on Being a Professional Woman or a Housewife . . . . . . 114

4.3

Different Cultures Reflected in Films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

4.4

Gaze of Mirror Shots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

4.5

Representation of Women’s Lives at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

4.6

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Death and Despair 5.1

161

Synopses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 5.1.1

Chinese films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

5.1.2

German films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

5.2

Perspectives of Death in Different Cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

5.3

Representation on Cinematic Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

5.4

Color or Black and White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

CONTENTS

6

xi

5.5

Whether There Is a Close-up of the Face or Not . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

5.6

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Dreams and Destiny 6.1

207

Synopses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 6.1.1

Chinese films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

6.1.2

German films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

6.2

Representation of Different Cultures on Films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

6.3

Representation of Gaze and Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

6.4

Return or Continue to Seek Dreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

6.5

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

7 Conclusion

253

A Filmography A

259

A.1 Female-Themed Art Films from China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 A.2 Female-Themed Art Films from Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 B Filmography B

263

B.1 Other Related Films from China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 B.2 Other Related Films from Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 C Additional Statements

265

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CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES

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List of Figures 2.1

Two roof shots respectively in Raise the Red Lantern and Perpetual Motion. 36

2.2

The sealed room in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. . . . . . . . . . . .

38

2.3

The house in Martha. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

39

2.4

Moritz von Schwind, The Morning Hour, 1858. Oil on canvas; Width: 40cm; Height: 34cm; Schackgalerie, Munich. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.5

Women are located in a mountain or a field respectively in A Good Woman and The Road Home. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.6

40

41

Kuan Fan, Travelers Among Mountains and Streams, Song Dynasty. Chinese ink and colors on silk; Width: 103.3cm; Height: 206.3cm; National Palace Museum, Taipei. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.7

42

Zhou Shen, Lofty Mount Lu, Ming Dynasty. Chinese ink and colors on paper; Width: 98.1cm; Height: 193.8cm; National Palace Museum, Taipei. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.8

Red in Chinese weddings respectively in Raise the Red Lantern and A Good Woman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.9

42

44

White in German weddings respectively in The Marriage of Maria Braun and Lola. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

44

2.10 Blue in A Good Woman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

45

2.11 Red in Raise the Red Lantern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

47

2.12 Colors in Martha. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

48

2.13 Colors in Lola. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

49

xiv

LIST OF FIGURES 2.14 Shimin Wang, Green of Nanshan, Qing Dynasty. Chinese ink and colors on silk; Width: 66.4cm; Height: 147.1cm; Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

52

2.15 Joseph Anton Koch, The Schmadribach Waterfall, 1821-1822. Oil on canvas; Width: 110cm; Height: 131.8cm; New Pinakothek, Munich. . . . .

52

2.16 Mirror scene in A Good Woman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

54

2.17 Mirror scene in Perpetual Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

55

2.18 Mirror scene in Fontane Effi Briest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

57

2.19 Mirror scene in The Days Between. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

58

2.20 Nude females respectively in Martha and The Days Between. . . . . . . .

61

2.21 Xiaoxiao’s body showing in Married to a Child. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

62

2.22 Ju Dou’s body showing in Ju Dou. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

62

2.23 Nude females respectively in Summer Palace and Fish and Elephant. . . .

65

2.24 A special “gaze” respectively shown in Daughters of China, Zhao Yiman, Song of Youth, The Red Detachment of Women, Hai Xia, and Mountain Flower. 67 2.25 Peter Paul Rubens, Het Pelsken, circa 1636-1638. Oil on panel; Width: 83cm; Height: 176cm; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. . . . . . . .

69

2.26 Gustave Courbet, The Woman in the Waves, 1868. Oil on canvas; Width: 54cm; Height: 65.4cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. . . . .

69

2.27 Fang Zhou, Court Ladies Wearing Flowered Headdresses, Tang Dynasty. Chinese ink and colors on silk; Width: 180cm; Height: 46cm; Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

71

2.28 Yin Tang, Court Ladies in the Shu Palace, Ming Dynasty. Chinese ink and colors on silk; Width: 63.6cm; Height: 124.7cm; The Palace Museum, Beijing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

71

3.1

Qiu Ju’s delivery scene in The Story of Qiu Ju. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

89

3.2

Yanni’s delivery scene in Stolen Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

90

3.3

A way to avoid showing Xiaoyun’s delivery in Dam Street. . . . . . . .

91

LIST OF FIGURES

xv

3.4

Lene’s delivery scene in Germany, Pale Mother. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

93

3.5

Rebecca’s delivery scene in The Stranger in Me. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

94

3.6

Two examples of showing naked children. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

95

3.7

An example of showing motherhood in And the Spring Comes. . . . . .

95

3.8

Anonymous, Playing Balls under a Banana Tree, Song Dynasty. Chinese ink and colors on silk; Width: 24.5cm; Height: 25cm; The Palace

3.9

Museum, Beijing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

96

An example of showing motherhood in Madonnas. . . . . . . . . . . . .

97

3.10 Lorenzo Monaco, The Madonna and Child Enthroned with Six Angels, circa 1415-1420. Tempera on panel; Width: 78cm; Height: 128cm; ThyssenBornemisza Museum, Madrid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

98

3.11 An example of showing condom in Germany, Pale Mother. . . . . . . . .

99

3.12 Abortion scene in Teeth of Love. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 3.13 Abortion scene in Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave. . . . . . . . . . . . 106 4.1

Xiaoyan gives a performance with the Beijing Opera in Durian Durian. 118

4.2

Daqian Zhang, Fairy Sending Flowers, 1935. Chinese ink and colors on paper; Width: 72cm; Height: 167cm; Private Collection. . . . . . . . . . 119

4.3

Zhong Kui’s performance persona in Woman–Demon–Human. . . . . . 128

4.4

Kai Gong, Zhongshan Travel Map (detail), end of Song Dynasty and beginning of Yuan Dynasty. Chinese ink on paper; Width: 169.5cm; Height: 32.8cm; The Freer Gallery of Art, Washington. . . . . . . . . . . 128

4.5

Party scene in Woman–Demon–Human. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

4.6

Party scene in Durian Durian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

4.7

Three shots of showing modernity in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness. 132

4.8

Two shots of showing modernity in Sheer Madness. . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

4.9

Three mirror shots respectively in Woman–Demon–Human, Durian Durian, and Kuei-mei, a Woman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

4.10 Mirror scene in Woman–Demon–Human. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

xvi

LIST OF FIGURES 4.11 Mirror shots in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 4.12 A mirror shot in Sheer Madness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 4.13 Three shots of showing Xiaoyan’s shower in Durian Durian. . . . . . . 144 4.14 Two shots of doing housework in Ermo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 4.15 Two shots of doing housework in Kuei-mei, a Woman. . . . . . . . . . . 148 4.16 Two shots of doing housework in Woman Sesame Oil Maker. . . . . . . . 148 4.17 Martha does housework in Martha. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 4.18 Two sculptures of Weeping Mary respectively in Martha and at a church.150 4.19 Maria does housework in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness. . . . . . . . 151 4.20 Two shots of doing housework in Sheer Madness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 4.21 Four examples on color respectively in Woman Sesame Oil Maker, Kueimei, a Woman, Ermo, and The Village of Widows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 4.22 Four examples on color respectively in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness, Sheer Madness, Martha, and Germany, Pale Mother. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 4.23 The contrast of dark color with light color in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 5.1

Cinematic space with obstacles in Blue Cha Cha. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

5.2

Attempted suicide scene in Shanghai Dreams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

5.3

Cinematic space respectively in Weaving Girl, Ju Dou, and Perpetual Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

5.4

Zeduan Zhang, Along the River During the Qingming Festival (detail), Song Dynasty. Panoramic painting; Width: 528.7cm; Height: 24.8cm; The Palace Museum, Beijing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

5.5

Veronika is the center of the crowd in No Mercy, No Future. . . . . . . . 178

5.6

Albrecht Dürer, Christ among the Doctors, 1506. Oil on poplar panel; Width: 80.3cm; Height: 64.3cm; Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid. 179

5.7

Suicide scene in Veronika Voss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

5.8

Suicide scene in No Place to Go. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

LIST OF FIGURES 5.9

xvii

White symbolizing death and despair respectively in Shanghai Dreams, Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou, The Road Home, and Red Sorghum. . . . . . 187

5.10 Red symbolizing death and despair respectively in Shanghai Dreams, Raise the Red Lantern, and Ju Dou. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 5.11 Black symbolizing death and despair respectively in Raise the Red Lantern and Perpetual Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 5.12 Red symbolizing death and despair respectively in No Mercy, No Future and The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 5.13 Black and white respectively in Fontane Effi Briest, Veronika Voss, and No Place to Go. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 5.14 Black and white respectively in Sheer Madness and The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 5.15 Close-up of Hanna’s face in No Place to Go. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 5.16 Close-up of Katharina’s face in The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum. . . . . 197 5.17 Close-ups respectively in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness, The Marriage of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss, Sheer Madness, and Yella. . . . . . . . . . . 199 5.18 Medium shots and close shots respectively in Blue Cha Cha, Shanghai Dreams, Weaving Girl, Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, and Raise the Red Lantern. . 202 6.1

Western culture respectively shown in Ermo, The Story of Qiu Ju, The Story of Ermei, and You and Me. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

6.2

Weihong plays the accordion in Peacock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

6.3

A poster of Michael Jackson on the wall in The Story of Ermei. . . . . . . 216

6.4

Sibao Huang creates an oil painting in And the Spring Comes. . . . . . . 218

6.5

Distorted faces in And the Spring Comes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

6.6

Western culture shown in Barbara. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

6.7

Non-Western culture respectively shown in A Fine Day, No Mercy, No Future, and The Days Between. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

xviii 6.8

LIST OF FIGURES Gaze and think respectively shown in Barbara, A Fine Day, Marseille, No Place to Go, and Windows on Monday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

6.9

Gaze and think respectively shown in A Fine Day, Barbara, and Windows on Monday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

6.10 Marianne’s gaze in The Left-Handed Woman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 6.11 Hanna’s gaze in No Place to Go. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 6.12 Caspar David Friedrich, Woman at a Window, 1822. Oil on canvas; Width: 37cm; Height: 44cm; Old National Gallery, Berlin. . . . . . . . . 233 6.13 Gaze and think respectively shown in Lunar Eclipse and Millennium Mambo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 6.14 Wei Cui, Portrait of Qingzhao Li, Qing Dynasty. Chinese ink and colors on silk; Width: 56.8cm; Height: 56.7cm; The Palace Museum, Beijing. . 236 6.15 Return to reality in Peacock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 6.16 Return to reality in And the Spring Comes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 6.17 Return to reality in The Story of Ermei. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 6.18 Continue to seek dreams in The Left-Handed Woman. . . . . . . . . . . . 244 6.19 Continue to seek dreams in Marseille. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1

Chapter 1 Introduction The title of this book is: “A Comparative Study of Female-Themed Art Films from China and Germany,” but in the analyses I refer to the films as either “Chinese films” or “German films” for the convenience of discussion. Globalization is an important symbol in the present era. With the communication on politics, the economy, and the culture between China and Germany, people are gradually gaining a further understanding of the other country’s cultural background and living conditions. The comparative study of film art is one of the important approaches to promote cultural exchange and mutual learning between the two countries. The comparative research between Chinese films and German films is not rare, and many scholars and students from China who study film in Germany would like to take this as a research object, by virtue of their cultural identities as Chinese to analyze films comparatively. However, only comparatively analyzing female-themed art films from China and Germany is very unusual. Therefore, this relatively new topic is indeed an important innovative point of this book. There is no doubt, culture affects all aspects of human life. The goal of this book is to examine a cultural difference between the ways of representing women and narrating women’s themes in Chinese films and German films, not much from an aesthetic meaning. These differences are based on the particular cultural tradition between both countries of arts, of course, of cultural, historical, political,

2

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

and social conditions that are shown in films. These representations of the differences between Chinese and German films affect not only the perception of women, but also the life aesthetics in female world of both cultures. Therefore, this work opens a new perspective for the future global and intercultural film research.

1.1

Female-Themed Films and Art Films

First, I need to explain in this section the period of time of Chinese films and German films that I will be analyzing in this book. The release date of Chinese films is after the “Cultural Revolution,” which was a very special period in Chinese film history, from 1966 to 1976. Xing Zhou wrote, “Viewed from the point of view of art development, the ‘Cultural Revolution’ was a tragic period and an anti-art period in Chinese film history, and films almost suffered a devastating blow [642].” Finally after “Cultural Revolution,” Chinese society entered into a new political history period, that is, the “Reform and Opening-Up” period. After 1977, Chinese films changed a lot and turned in some new directions, including towards “artistic exploration, world trends, and the entertainment needs of average citizens [643].” The third and the fourth generation of Chinese directors created films again after 1977. Their creation was delayed for ten years, which made them cherish this opportunity much more. In addition, the fifth generation of Chinese directors grew up and became young directors in the 1980s. Thus, the films after the “Cultural Revolution” can be seen as a new start in Chinese film history. The German films analyzed in this book were made after 1968 during a protest movement in Western Germany called the “movement of 1968.” In 1968, Eva Kolinsky wrote, “set notions about different abilities and social roles of men and women had decreased. The majority of young men and women regarded equality as a desirable social goal which might eventually govern society [338].” Some changes benefited from this movement, such as culture and art aspects. “New German Cinema” appeared at around this time, from some representative directors such as Rainer Werner

1.1. FEMALE-THEMED FILMS AND ART FILMS

3

Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Alexander Kluge, Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg and Wim Wenders. Thomas Elsaesser wrote: “The New German Cinema would then be exemplary in its search for narrational stances appropriate for a national cinema functioning outside the commercial film industry but inside television, outside European auteurism but inside the art cinema, outside doctrinaire propaganda but inside a generally politicised media consciousness [179].” Therefore, for the two reasons just mentioned of the “movement of 1968” and the New German Cinema, which emerged at the similar period, the year 1968 is a rational beginning point for the films analyzed in this book. Generally speaking, the historical approach in a comparative study employs cultural events, social influences, and intellectual levels so as to make the readers understand the contents better. This method of the period of time that I choose is just based on the transition and development of social history and film history in both countries, and I try to explore the interior relation. Moreover, the films analyzed in this book reflect long-term historical changes and features in China and Germany, which depend on the contents in films, rather than the way of the period of time. “Cultural Revolution” and “movement of 1968” belong to different demarcation points of human history based on a background of different culture, politics, and society, however, film is a product which is affected by politics, and “Cultural Revolution” and “movement of 1968” have had a profound influence in both societies, and films after these two periods show large changes compared to previous films. These are new starts in film history in both countries. China and Germany have different political systems, which are led by different cultures, and this is exactly the fundamental goal of this comparative study because of these differences, that is, cultural difference. Therefore, that is why I use these two periods of time to show the feasibility, and make the readers understand this book better. In this section, I also need to explain how I choose films that are analyzed in this book. As I wrote in the previous paragraphs, “Cultural Revolution” and the

4

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

“movement of 1968” as the periods of time in Chinese films and German films is my first step for choosing films. Then, female-themed film is my second step, that is, I only select films belonging to this category, and what is a female-themed film, I will give a detailed introduction later. Next, I only pay attention to art films, which means, I basically do not take examples of non-art films in this book. This is my basic idea of selecting films. But I have to admit, some directors make art films, and also make commercial films. For example, most of the films before 1999 directed by Yimou Zhang are art films, but he rarely makes art films after 1999. Besides, it cannot be denied that there are some differences on filmmaking between the fifth generation and the sixth generation in China, and New German Cinema and the Berlin School in Germany. However, these do not affect the selection method of films. Readers can appreciate different cultures and changes from different historical backgrounds. What are female-themed films? In this book, I have decided not to choose the perspectives of “feminist films” or “women’s films,” because “female-themed films” has some differences from these. Molly Haskell indicated that the term “women’s films” refers to a film type that was popular in the 1930s and 1940s. Films of this type were not necessarily made by female filmmakers. However, they mainly narrate women’s lives, and also make women the target audience [252]. Another meaning of women’s films refers to the films made by women.

1

Yuli Ying in The Chronology of

Women’s Films pointed out that women’s films “neither merely refer to films made by female directors, nor to films with women as the protagonists, and its exact meaning should be the films, videos, DVDs, and multi-media experimental works made by female directors, and female issues as a creative perspective with definite female consciousness [606].” Feminist films refer to “Films that specifically seek to address the role of gender in film from a woman’s perspective. The rise of feminist practice dates mainly from the 1970s and to some extent parallels the development of a significant body of feminist film theory, though part of the work of feminist film scholars has 1 These

two meanings were summarized by [480].

1.1. FEMALE-THEMED FILMS AND ART FILMS

5

also been to uncover feminist film-making from the past–the attention paid to the Hollywood work of Dorothy Arzner and the avant-garde work of Maya Deren being clear examples [55].” 2 However, I have decided to refer to female-themed films as the films about women’s lives and that often show their psychological problems; the female protagonists have an explicit and strong female consciousness, but these films can be made by either or both male and female filmmakers, and the target audience is not only women, but also men. In addition, normally these female protagonists cannot be replaced by men due to their strong female consciousness. That is why I put “female” and “themed” together. For example, in a Chinese film in A Simple Life (2011), directed by Ann Hui, a servant called Sister Peach, portrays her unmarried life as she works for a rich family for around sixty years, from her teens and into her seventies. Even though a woman has the leading role in this film, it still does not belong to the category of femalethemed films. If the role of Sister Peach were replaced by a manservant, who also worked for that rich family for sixty years, this film still would convey the same theme of a harmonious relationship between the master and the servant, thus gender is not important in this film. For similar reasons, some other films like this do not belong to the research scope of this book, even when women are the protagonists. However, The Story of Qiu Ju (1992), directed by Yimou Zhang, is different from A Simple Life. The head of the village kicks Qiu Ju’s husband’s penis, and then Qiu Ju sues the village head. However, if the person who sued the village head were Qiu Ju’s husband rather than herself, then this film’s subject would change completely. In a patriarchal society, Chinese men normally hold a dominant position in a family; therefore, if Qiu Ju’s husband had solved this problem, then Qiu Ju’s strong female consciousness, stubborn and dedicated disposition, could not be revealed at all, and the subject would highlight the powerful position of men in a patriarchal society. 2 See

also, [417].

6

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

Hence, the female protagonist in this film cannot be replaced by a male, and thus this film is an example of a female-themed film. Another example, Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness (1979), directed by Margarethe von Trotta, is the story about a group of sisters who possess a strong female consciousness. If these characters were replaced by men, such as a story about brothers, then the subject of this film would be changed completely. In a patriarchal society, the behaviors of hard working people and even the neglect of the female protagonist Maria’s family, cannot be understood by her younger sister Anna, which fact causes the conflict between the sisters to become more and more intense. If the protagonists were men and they worked hard to support their family, which is not rare, then the structure and the theme of this film would be different. That is why in this book, I sought films with female protagonists with a strong consciousness, who could not be replaced by males. Although I do not employ the terms “feminist films” or “women’s films,” I still refer to many feminist film theories, and in this section, I make a relevant review of these theories. Feminist film theory has a history of several decades. In The Film Studies Dictionary, Steve Blandford, Barry Keith Grant, and Jim Hillier said that feminist film theory has been “[a] key area of development in film studies since the 1970s [and that it] has foregrounded gender as central to a wide range of approaches to the study of film. It is essential to think of feminist film theory not as a unified body of work, but rather as a collection of approaches under a broad umbrella [56].” Molly Haskell, as an influential feminist film critic, believed that women’s inferiority in a patriarchal society is always reflected in male-dominated cinema, which can be seen as a traditional concept. One of the important representations of it lies in the fact that male’s fantasies and desires are conveyed by means of women’s bodies, even through nude images [252]. Molly Haskell evaluated women’s status in films, aiming at the social condition in Western countries, but her evaluations generally simultaneously apply to Chinese films as well. Because like Western women, Chinese women also live in a patriarchal society.

1.1. FEMALE-THEMED FILMS AND ART FILMS

7

Another influential feminist film theorist, Claire Johnston, wrote in her essay “Women’s Cinema as Counter—Cinema” that women in films in a patriarchal society are always being in absent state, and they do not reflect themselves, and they are always controlled by men, so to speak. These films embody men’s fantasies and desires in the form of women’s bodies, which means that women are not shown to have their true female identities at all [326]. 3 As an important literary work about female-themed films, Laura Mulvey’s essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” inspired me in writing this book very much. It focused on theoretical construction and academic reflection, and was based on psychoanalytic theory and semiology to analyze women’s films. In the book Feminist Film Theorists: Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, Teresa de Lauretis, Barbara Creed, Shohini Chaudhuri evaluated this essay, saying, “Mulvey’s essay placed a feminist agenda at the heart of film-theoretical debates, goading critics to reply to her again and again. It has generated such a huge response that it must surely rank amongst the most provocative academic essays ever written [105].” Laura Mulvey put forward the concept of “gaze” and “visual pleasure,” which have always been used in mainstream cinema. She wrote: “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness [440].” This means, a man always plays a role of actively looking, and a woman always plays a role of passively looked at. Laura Mulvey, Molly Haskell, and Claire Johnston all believed that in the perspective of a patriarchal society, women in classical cinema are in the position of “looked at” objects by men, and their bodies are objects of male’s desires, fantasy, and con3 Originally

published in [325].

8

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

trol, and sometimes in a voyeuristic way. The male here, not only refers to the male characters in the films, but also to male audiences who watch the films. Apart from the three feminist film theorists above, Kaja Silverman also devoted much attention to feminist film studies. I mention and discuss in this book her viewpoint about precultural sexuality in the area of the female voice in her book The Acoustic Mirror: The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema [519]. In addition, I also discuss her analysis of mirror shots and visual agency which “is internally composed of the look/gaze dyad” about female-themed films in the book Male Subjectivity at the Margins [516]. Compared to Western countries, feminist film theory was introduced to China relatively late, and Western feminism came into the view of Chinese scholars at the end of the 1980s [481]. Many Western academic works were translated into Chinese as the basic theories of feminism film for Chinese scholars. Gradually, Chinese scholars began to analyze Chinese films by virtue of these theories, and tried to find feasibility for Chinese films. In her book Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography and Contemporary Chinese Cinema, Rey Chow integrated literature, the history of post-colonialism, and cultural studies into feminist film studies so as to interpret the representation of female images in Chinese films [127]. In Hong Wang’s essay “Women’s Films—Stripping from Patriarchal Discourse and Reconstruction,” she believed that in a patriarchal society, “women can be seen as an object of pornographic consumption, and the multifaceted meanings that women possess are reduced to a monotonous identity [570].” This actually is similar to Western opinions, as Chinese scholars also discuss women’s weak position as an object of “to-be-looked-at-ness,” their bodies as a symbol of men’s desires. In Jinhua Dai’s essay “Invisible Women: Contemporary Chinese Cinema and Women’s Film,” she analyzed in detail the representation of women in Chinese films, their images and status, all of which I will discuss in this book. Jinhua Dai believed that Chinese women in films are also in the position of “to-be-looked-at-ness” by men

1.1. FEMALE-THEMED FILMS AND ART FILMS

9

as Laura Mulvey pointed out, and they are objects of male’s desires. This actually is the most noteworthy feature of women shown in films in a patriarchal society. However, there is a film type with large numbers that is very dissimilar to German films: female warrior films. Women in this kind of films are not the objects of watching by men. Jinhua Dai wrote, “The disappearance of the desiring gaze and desiring language in turn undermined and dissolved the classical Hollywood mechanism of male-centered cinematic discourse—that is, male desire and female image, men’s voyeurism versus the female object [158].” These women possess not only female consciousness, but also have strong national consciousness, however, this situation is under the premise of losing femininity and female personality, and then they can get rid of the objective position of masculine desire. In fact, their representation does not freedom from “to-be-looked-at-ness,” it is just a temporary disguise. Jinhua Dai’s another book Cinema and Desire: Feminist Marxism and Cultural Politics in the Work of Dai Jinhua is mentioned often in my book. She meticulously analyzed and interpreted the films from the directors of the fifth generation and the sixth generation, women’s gender and narration in contemporary Chinese films, and so on, and revealed the close interactive relationship since new period (after 1978) between the great change of social culture and the development of Chinese films [148]. It is noteworthy that, most of the films analyzed by Western scholars and Chinese scholars who were mentioned above, are mainstream films. However, as to art film that is analyzed in this book, these analyses are also applied to them in most cases, whether they are Chinese films or German films. For example, “gaze,” “look,” and “to-be-looked-at-ness,” these concepts are often mentioned in this book about women’s bodies as a symbol of men’s desires. Nevertheless, some women in some films do not accord to this feature, and they do not belong to female warrior films. Women in these films are not in the role of “looked,” but actively “look,” and become a leading role of “gaze.” This reflects not only the idea that these women have a strong

10

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

female consciousness, but these films also show women resisting a chauvinistic world and reestablishing their self-worth and their own identities. I explore in this book art films, which is a film mode; therefore, there are some Chinese and German films according to the features of female-themed films mentioned in the previous paragraphs that are not art films, so they do not belong to the research scope of this book. For example, a Chinese film Breaking the Silence (2000) directed by Zhou Sun tells a touching story of a single mother who struggles to raise her deaf son. The female protagonist has an explicit and strong female consciousness, and this role cannot be replaced by a male role, because it tells a story about a mother-son relationship. A German film Summer in Berlin (2005) directed by Andreas Dresen tells a story between two female friends during a summer in Berlin, their happy days and their quarrel time. But these two films do not employ a filmmaking method of art films, and they basically do not show any feature of art films which will be analyzed later. Thus they are not art films even though they are female-themed films. Regarding art films, in The Film Studies Dictionary, Steve Blandford, Barry Keith Grant, and Jim Hillier introduced its features, writing “To an extent the term is relative: for UK and US audiences much European cinema is associated with ‘art,’ and key movements of the post-World War II period form the cornerstones of what most people would term art cinema—French New Wave, New German Cinema and Italian Neorealism. [...] Art cinema is sometimes automatically associated with Auteurism—‘art’ as personal expression [57].” This is a general explanation of art films. Steve Neale also described the art film genre: “Art films tend to be marked by a stress on visual style (an engagement of the look in terms of a marked individual point of view rather than in terms of institutionalised spectacle), by a suppression of action in the Hollywood sense, by a consequent stress on character rather than plot and by an interiorisation of dramatic conflict [448].” David Bordwell conducted a more detailed study on art films, and I employ much from his analyses here. He

1.1. FEMALE-THEMED FILMS AND ART FILMS

11

summarized four modes of narration in film history in his Narration in the Fiction Film: classical narration, art-cinema narration, historical-materialist narration, and parametric narration [59]. He also analyzed art films in an article “The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice,” and pointed out that art cinema motivates its narratives by two principles—realism and authorial expressivity [67]. Protagonists who are psychologically complex characters lack defined desires and goals; they slide passively from one situation to another, and they search and think all the time, autobiographical events, subjectivity, flashbacks, authorship, ambiguity, uncertainty, open-ended narrative, etc. All of these are features of art films, according to David Bordwell [67]. In addition, David Bordwell also pointed out “gaps [60]” as an important feature of art films that resembles “ambiguity,” and is derived from Wolfgang Iser’s “Leerstellen.” For Wolfgang Iser, the gaps in the texts need the reader to have a greater ability to connect to the texts than to have the ability of concretization, and this is an ability of reflection rather than of ensuring something [306]. Peter Matussek pointed out that “we can observe the resurgence of a theory that has its origins in literary criticism, but has now been adopted in a variety of disciplines such as art history, musicology, and film studies: the concept of gaps or ‘Leerstellen’, [415]” according to the term coined by Wolfgang Iser in the 1970s. Gaps always are employed in art films so as to reveal the characters’ emotion and their psychological problems, and to make the audience think. These film critics did not only summarize the features of art films based on author films, but also on the way of filmmaking and shooting style. Sometimes the classification standard that distinguishes between art films and non-art films is not very distinct, but a majority of the films in this book are art films. But due to some analysis needs in an individual chapter or section, I also briefly mention and analyze some non-art films, for example, German films Four Minutes (2006) and Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave (1973), and the Chinese film The Village of Widows (1989). However, the need for these inclusions did not influence the main research object of this book: art films.

12

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION This book is an intercultural comparison study, which mainly examines cultural

differences between China and Germany. “In the new century characterized by significant globalization of the economy, information, and culture, the major issue for human society is cooperation and coexistence of multi-ethnic communities and different cultures [302].” Understanding these differences make Chinese and Germans interact and live harmoniously with each other. I also talk about transnationalism in this book. Elizabeth Ezra and Terry Rowden wrote: “the transnational can be understood as the global forces that link people or institutions across nations. Key to transnationalism is the recognition of the decline of national sovereignty as a regulatory force in global coexistence [189].” Moreover, they continued to write: “The concept of transnationalism enables us to better understand the changing ways in which the contemporary world is being imagined by an increasing number of filmmakers across genres as a global system rather than as a collection of more or less autonomous nations [189].” I analyze in this book how Chinese films display Western culture, and how German films embody non-Western culture. “In a variety of formal and ideological registers, transnational cinema reflects and thematically mediates the shifting material and ideological conditions that constitute global culture [190].” Therefore, art films as a mode of narration can certainly be analyzed in intercultural study. In addition, Katarzyna Marciniak, Anikó Imre, and Áine O’Healy pointed out: “current transnational feminist discourses tend to take place mainly in the social sciences and cultural studies, focusing on the issues of human rights, political economy, and feminist activism [404].” These issues are also reflected in films in this book. Thus it can be seen that transnationalism in film studies can “help us interpret more productively the interface between global and local, national and transnational [266].”

1.2. CORRELATIVE FILM THEORY AND THE STATEMENTS ABOUT PAINTING

1.2

13

Correlative Film Theory and the Statements about Painting

David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson analyzed films in their work Film Art: An Introduction by means of four film elements: mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound in the cinema [74]. In this book, I focus on analyzing two of these aspects: mise-en-scène and cinematography, and I attempt to find the cultural differences between the ways of representing women and narrating women’s themes in Chinese and German films. Some main references in this book about film theory and film culture are as follows: Béla Balázs’s Theory of the Film: Character and Growth of a New Art (1931), André Bazin’s What is Cinema? Vol. 1 (1967), Noël Burch’s Theory of Film Practice (1981), David Bordwell’s Narration in the Fiction Film (1985), Gilles Deleuze’s Cinema 1: The Movement-Image (1986), and his Cinema 2: The Time-Image (1989), and Edward Branigan’s Narrative Comprehension and Film (1992). These works played a role in guiding and inspiring me in writing this book on the aspects of color, mirror shots, cinematic space, close-ups, etc. In addition, they greatly assisted my arguments on some points in this book. Apart from the film theories mentioned above, I also refer to many references about Chinese film analyses and German film analyses, including: Linda C. Ehrlich and David Desser, eds., Cinematic Landscapes: Observations on the Visual Arts and Cinema of China and Japan (1994), Jerome Silbergeld’s China into Film: Frames of Reference in Contemporary Chinese Cinema (1999), Sheldon H. Lu and Emilie Yueh-Yu Yeh, eds., Chinese-Language Film: Historiography, Poetics, Politics (2005), and Lingzhen Wang, ed., Chinese Women’s Cinema: Transnational Contexts (2011); Sandra Frieden, et al., Gender and German Cinema: Feminist Interventions, Volume 2: German Film History/German History on Film (1993), Thomas Elsaesser’s Fassbinder’s Germany: History, Identity, Subject (1996), Jennifer M. Kapczynski and Michael D. Richardson, eds., A New History of German Cinema (2012), and Rajendra Roy and Anke Leweke,

14

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

eds., The Berlin School: Films from the Berliner Schule (2013). These works analyzed and interpreted in detail not only the techniques of expression in the film language of Chinese and German films, but also they explained and discussed the social and cultural backgrounds of the two countries’ films, and this book benefits a lot from these references. Film is a product of culture, and the characters and things represented in films have happened and grown up in a separate cultural environment from China to Germany. I attempt in this book to find the cultural differences between the two countries by means of the comparative study of film elements. Therefore, I draw lessons from many works of social culture, for example, Eva Kolinsky’s Women in Contemporary Germany: Life, Work and Politics (1993), “The Changing Face of Motherhood in Western Europe: Germany,” published by The Social Issues Research Centre (2012), Jingwen Zhong, ed., Introduction to Folklore (1998), Fenling Wang’s Marriage History of China (2001), and Jie Tao, et al., Holding Up Half the Sky: Chinese Women Past, Present, and Future (2004). I also mention some of classical masterpieces in this book, including: Huainanzi, Mencius, Analects of Confucius and Holy Bible. These works of literature provide a cultural basis for this comparative study. In addition, I also mention some references on intercultural studies and transnational cinema, for example, Elizabeth Ezra and Terry Rowden, eds., Transnational Cinema: The Film Reader (2006), Katarzyna Marciniak, Anikó Imre, and Áine O’Healy, eds., Transnational Feminism in Film and Media (2007), and Will Higbee and Song Hwee Lim’s Concepts of Transnational Cinema: Towards a Critical Transnationalism in Film Studies (2010). The close relationship between films and paintings is quite obvious, mainly because films are “mobile paintings.” Films use for reference from paintings on color, composition, and light, etc., and form their own unique artistic charm. Each chapter in this book has some analyses about the relationship between films and paintings, thus, the literature about paintings is also beneficial to this comparative study. For example: Fritz Novotny’s Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1780-1880 (1971), Isolde

1.2. CORRELATIVE FILM THEORY AND THE STATEMENTS ABOUT PAINTING

15

Lübbeke’s Early German Painting 1350-1550: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection (1991), François Cheng’s Empty and Full: The Language of Chinese Painting (1994), Huizhen Hong’s Chinese Art in Comparison with the West (2000), and Jianghong Ji, ed., Chinese Landscape Paintings (2004). This section briefly summarizes the differences between Chinese paintings and classical Western paintings in general regarding their different aesthetic traditions. I use the word “Western paintings” instead of “German paintings,” because the painting characteristics in Western countries are similar on the whole (all of the painting examples in this book come from Europe), and are inextricably bound to their respective religions. In Chinese Art in Comparison with the West, Huizhen Hong explained that Westerner artists like imitating the true colors of figures and landscapes when they draw paintings, which can be seen as features of Western paintings: realistic and threedimensional. Additionally, Western paintings normally are made of surface, and they stress corporality and forms. However, an obscure mode of thinking has emerged in the ancient Chinese society, thus, they do not often copy the objects exactly in their true colors as much as Western paintings do, and painters usually express their own perspectives through their works and make them beautified. Furthermore, Chinese paintings are made of lines, and are relatively planar, and they stress spirituality rather than three-dimensionality. 4 Shuliang Liu explained that, normally the scenery in Western paintings can be seen as a background of the story and the character’s activity, and it is an imitation of reality in Western landscape paintings, so it is a real scenery. However, the scenery in Chinese paintings is not only an imitation, but also the houses, pavilions etc., are the same as their human representations: full of internal life vitality [381]. Laozi said, “Wan wu fu yin er bao yang, chong qi yi wei he [542].” It means that everything in the universe backs to the night side and faces the sunny side, and forms a new 4 These

differences were summarized by [281].

16

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

harmonious object through surging with each other within the night side and sunny side.

5

That is, the night side and the sunny side are unified within the two sides

of an object, because they change ceaselessly, the harmony of them is conditional, temporary, transitional, and relative. This perspective reflects a Chinese thought “Tian ren he yi,” which means the syncretism between nature and human, and it is not reflected in Western culture.

1.3

Introduction of Each Chapter

In this book, I analyze female-themed art films in five topics: Marriage and Love, Birth and Motherhood, Professional Women and Housewives, Death and Despair, and Dreams and Destiny. They are important processes in grown women’s lives. Therefore, a protagonist in a film is a female, but it tells a story of a young girl, then, it does not belong to the research scope of this book. For example, the protagonist in a German film Christiane F.–We Children from Bahnhof Zoo (1981) directed by Uli Edel is a female, but it tells a story of a 15-year-old teenage girl Christiane. So it belongs to an adolescent girl film, rather than a female-themed film. In addition, what I need to explain here is, “Death and Despair,” and “Dreams and Destiny,” these two chapters are seemingly not directly related to the theme of female, that is, men also experience these two life courses, however, the analyses in this book point out the difference when women in both countries deal with these important issues in their lives, which reflect cultural differences as well. In the chapter “Marriage and Love,” I introduce the differences between the marriage and divorce systems in China and Germany, and explore the idea that polygyny in ancient China and monogamy in Germany all along which can be seen as the biggest dissimilarity in the marriage systems that influence the representation of women in films. As to divorce systems, both China and Germany experience a similar ten5 For

more, refer to [160].

1.3. INTRODUCTION OF EACH CHAPTER

17

dency: divorce is much easier nowadays than ancient times. Then this chapter makes a comparative analysis on how do both countries’ films show buildings, color, mirror shots, and women’s bodies. Chinese films and German films both reflect women being “trapped in their houses” when they show the relationship between women and buildings. Chinese films employ many “roof shots” but interior conditions in German films to convey this similar significance. As to color, apart from the different colors mainly used in wedding: red in China and white in Germany, the overall visual effect and emotional atmosphere is different. Chinese films prefer to employ one or two colors as dominant hues, but German films look more colorful and brighter. Moreover, I investigate some differences between Chinese and Western paintings to offer some cultural basis for film representation. In this chapter, I also analyze the different functions of mirror shots: checking women’s appearances in Chinese films and the meditative meaning in German films. Finally, in this chapter I explore the concept of “gaze” and focus on why Chinese films always use an obscure way to show women’s bodies, but German films do so directly. In the chapter “Birth and Motherhood,” I point out first that both Chinese and Germans pay attention to birth, and then examine some differences between the two countries regarding cultural background. “Family planning policy” has been carried out in China, but a “pronatalist policy” has been implemented in Germany, which has caused a different sex ratio. In addition, abortion laws are stricter in Germany than in China, and in this chapter I attempt to find some reasons for the differences, so as to analyze the different representation in both countries’ films. Women’s delivery is also analyzed visually in this chapter, and I make the point that German films normally employ a direct and bloody way to show this kind of shot, but Chinese filmmakers prefer a more obscure way. Similarly, I describe some similar reasons for showing nudes as discussed in the chapter “Marriage and Love.” In the chapter “Professional Women and Housewives,” I point out first that the traditional concept in both countries does not support women going to work, and this

18

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

situation is often reflected in films. In this chapter, I also discuss how culture is shown in films. For example, Chinese films present many traditional Chinese elements and Western modern culture is always reflected in German films. I analyze mirror shots again in this chapter, and come to a similar conclusion as in the chapter “Marriage and Love.” But I also point out an exception in a Chinese film Woman–Demon–Human which has a similar function to that of the doppelgänger in German films, as an extensional meaning of mirror shots. In this chapter, I examine the fact that Chinese films show women doing housework more often than in German films, and the latter always reflect women’s psychological problems. In addition, I mention the difference of color again in both countries’ films and criticize the situation of women characters’ lacking education in Chinese films more than in German films. In the chapter “Death and Despair,” I firstly examine the different perspectives of death in Chinese and in German cultures. Confucianism emphasizes “this life,” Taoism does not fear death, and Buddhism believes in rebirth, but in Western opinion, regarding the world beyond most believe in Christianity. In this chapter, I point out that shots with obstacles that are divided into smaller parts are often used in Chinese films, which can be seen as a feature of cinematic space, but German films employ another means: narrow and closed space. Both of these methods reflect the situation of death with a depressing atmosphere. Additionally, in this chapter I explore some dissimilarities of paintings in the two cultures. I also discuss the use of color for death in Chinese culture: white, red, and black symbolize death in China. I then analyze their assistant role in films. But the characteristic of color use in German films is black and white images instead of color to create a tragic atmosphere. Finally, in this chapter, I discuss the reasons that German filmmakers prefer to use close-ups of faces in the death scenes, but Chinese filmmakers do not, and so I explore the significance of these different techniques. In the chapter “Dreams and Destiny,” I analyze the differences regarding how and when women pursue their dreams in both countries’ films. In the chapter “Profes-

1.3. INTRODUCTION OF EACH CHAPTER

19

sional Women and Housewives,” I analyze traditional Chinese culture in Chinese films and modern Western culture in German films, and in the chapter “Dreams and Destiny,” I continue this examination. However, the films about dreams and destiny often reflect Western elements in Chinese films while German films still mainly show Western culture. And then I explain why cultural interaction and the implications of culture can be seen as the two main reasons for this situation. In this chapter, I explore the concept of “gaze” of women, but the analysis here is different from the one in the chapter “Marriage and Love” wherein I looked at women as being passively looked at while men are actively looking. Instead, in the chapter “Dreams and Destiny,” I take another standpoint, in analyzing how women actively look at other people and things. In this chapter, I comparatively explore why the films in the two countries have two different endings, and I conclude that after a period of time that women pursue their dreams, Chinese women tend to return to their living places, but German women show a tendency to keep on pursuing and never seem to give up.

20

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2. MARRIAGE AND LOVE

21

Chapter 2 Marriage and Love This chapter will analyze Chinese women and German women in their marriages and loves. The main Chinese films treated will be A Good Woman (1985), Married to a Child (1986), Red Sorghum (1987), Ju Dou (1990), Raise the Red Lantern (1991), Red Rose White Rose (1994), The Road Home (1999), Fish and Elephant (2001), Perpetual Motion (2005), Tuya’s Marriage (2006), Summer Palace (2006), and Teeth of Love (2007). The main German films treated will be The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), Martha (1974), Fontane Effi Briest (1974), The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Lili Marleen (1981), Lola (1981), and The Days Between (2001). This chapter will introduce the differences between the systems of marriage and divorce in China and Germany, make a comparative analysis of how these films show buildings and color, and also discuss the dissimilarities in how they show mirror shots and women’s bodies.

2.1 2.1.1

Synopses Chinese films

Four films in this chapter directed by Yimou Zhang represent women’s marriage and love: Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, and The Road Home. Hong Yin believed that most of Yimou Zhang’s films possess a fable: “the iron house.” Lu Xun,

22

CHAPTER 2. MARRIAGE AND LOVE

a Chinese writer, once said that China looked like an iron house: most of the people sleeping soundly, only a few people awake, but the awake people feel depressed since there is no door in this iron house through which to rush out. This perspective can characterize people’s lives in a feudal society, and it also can be employed to express women’s situation in Yimou Zhang’s films (except The Road Home).

1

Jiu’er in Red

Sorghum and Ju Dou in Ju Dou marry diseased old men, or, rather, they are sold to their husbands’ families, and this kind of unhappy marriage seems like an iron house for them. But both of them carry out a bold act, in that they have lovers and have a child with them. Songlian in Raise the Red Lantern also marries an old man, but the difference from Jiu’er and Ju Dou is that her husband is healthy. However, Songlian has to share her husband with his other women, which typifies some women’s miserable marriage lives in a feudal society and a patriarchal society. Only Zhaodi in The Road Home has a happy marriage, since she freely chooses love. “The iron house” is also reflected in A Good Woman and Married to a Child, which tell the stories about the child bride experience.

2

Xingxian in A Good Woman and

Xiaoxiao in Married to a Child, as child brides, not only do the housework for their adoptive families, but also take care of their young husbands. But both of them fall in love with other men at a similar age. This rebellion does not lead to a good result for Xiaoxiao: she still lives in this iron house. But Xingxian divorces her husband and becomes the first woman to rush out from that closed and backward village. These films, just as Xuheng Liu wrote, “reflect the yearning of human nature of unfortunate women for thousands of years, and the strong demand to struggle to free themselves in the hard reality of life and the distorted spiritual life [383].” 1 “The 2 “This

iron house” derived from Hong Yin’s lecture in [603]. is an extreme form of arranged marriage in the Chinese feudal society. Being a child bride

means that a young girl is adopted by another family; after she grows up and reaches a certain age, she must have sex with that family’s son to become a real couple. The child bride normally is born to a poor family, whose parents are unable to care for her, and actually she is sold to her husband’s family. Thus the child bride’s status is very low: she is regarded as a slave after arriving to her husband’s family.” In [639].

2.1. SYNOPSES

23

Red Rose White Rose tells a story of a man and his lover, and the man’s wife and their unhappy marriage more than half a century ago. Perpetual Motion shows the unhappy marriages of four modern professional women, who are rich in material life, but poor in emotional life. Summer Palace and Teeth of Love both are about their female protagonists’ painful and memorable love experiences. They search for a beautiful love, but fail in the end. The husband of the female protagonist in Tuya’s Marriage is disabled after an accident, thus it is hard for Tuya to keep this family. Therefore Tuya wants to marry another man, while maintaining her present husband in order to take care of him, but this behavior is unacceptable to most of her suitors. Fish and Elephant is very special in this chapter. As a taboo

3

subject in China,

and as Shuqin Cui’s evaluation, “the first Chinese feature on a lesbian relationship, presents homosexuality against a heterosexual social-cultural environment [139].” This relationship between two women is not accepted by most people, but they do not give up and hope to gain the understanding and allowance from others.

2.1.2

German films

Most of the German films in this chapter were directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Thomas Elsaesser pointed out that The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and The Marriage of Maria Braun are magnum opuses of European films, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder was an important film artist and auteur [177]. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is a story of lesbian. This kind of subject was shown on the screen in Germany much earlier than in China, compared to Fish and Elephant. However, as John David Rhodes said, queer identity had to “hide itself in order to survive, [491]” thus, the female protagonists in these films are confused about themselves, and search for their identities. Martha is a television film, 4 but it shows a deviant marriage life between Martha and her dreadful husband: although her 3 “Taboo” 4 Joe

was also pointed out in [202]. McElhaney also mentioned this in [421].

24

CHAPTER 2. MARRIAGE AND LOVE

husband often tortures her, she still does not divorce him. Therefore this television film still will be analyzed here. Olga Solovieva considered that some films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, such as, Fontane Effi Briest, The Marriage of Maria Braun, and Lili Marleen, deal with specifically German problems in particular German historical, cultural, and intellectual contexts [523]. These films show not only some German historical problems, but more importantly, they reflect women’s married lives in a historical background. In Fontane Effi Briest, Effi marries Baron von Instetten, who is much older than her, in an arranged marriage. Her husband is a stereotyped and conservative man who is busy with his official business, which makes Effi feel lonely. Gradually Effi falls in love with her husband’s friend, Major Crampas. But finally her husband finds out about this affair, which causes their marriage to end in tragedy. The Marriage of Maria Braun is a story about Maria’s marriage with an infinite hope and waiting all alone. She waits for her husband’s return from the battlefield, and then waits for his release from prison. She always firmly believes in their love, but this marriage still ends in tragedy. Joyce Rheuban wrote, “A syndicated article in the Westfälisches Volksblatt bore the headline ‘People Are Coming Back to the Movies for Maria Braun’ [488],” which shows this film’s popularity. Lili Marleen tells a story of a sincere and forbidden love between Willie and Robert, but this relationship does not have a good ending. The marriage in Lola is relatively happier than those in the other films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder in this chapter. Lola is a singer at a bordello and the mistress of a local builder, but a building commissioner and Lola fall in love with each other afterwards, although there are contradictions and attachments in each other’s hearts, they finally enter the marriage hall. The Days Between tells a love story of a contemporary woman. Lynn is often angry with her boyfriend, who only focuses on training for swimming and ignores her. Then, a Japanese man Koji cannot help loving Lynn, and Lynn likes him as well. She does not know how to choose between these two men, just as the title suggests.

2.2. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE IN CHINA AND GERMANY

2.2 2.2.1

25

Marriage and Divorce in China and Germany Different marriage systems

Marriage has a close relationship with history, society, and culture. Marriage also can be seen as a reflection of social structures, social developments and people’s moral value [562]. The most significant difference between China and Germany in the marriage systems is: polygyny in ancient China (which is not carried out nowadays) versus monogamy in Germany all the time. Huainanzi mentioned the story of Nüwa. When Nüwa was creating the human, other gods came and helped her. The Yellow Emperor helped her to create Yin and Yang for human, Shang Pian helped her to create ears and eyes, Sang Lin helped her to create arms. With their help, Nüwa experienced 70 times and changed a lot, and finally created the human [17]. Taiping Yulan also mentioned Nüwa’s story. Nüwa created the human by using loess, but the work was too hard so she did not have enough energy, and then she used a string to lash in a mire, the mud which was spattered became countless humans [360]. These statements do not aim at explaining the fairy tale, but reflecting the Chinese concept. They show that from the Chinese perspective, humans should be created in groups, including men and women, not like the single Adam in the Western concept. Actually, in the primitive society of China, the marriage system was not clear. Chinese polygyny was established officially in the Dynasty of Western Zhou (1046-771 BC) [107]. Until the time of the Spring and Autumn period (from approximately 771 until 476 BC, or according to some authorities, until 403 BC), polygyny became the privilege of the nobility [108]. Gradually, some rich businessmen and landlords imitated emperors and nobilities to marry more than one woman, in order to improve their social status, and express their power and influence. This was a continuation of this marriage system. As a whole, the features of Chinese marriage before the establishment of the PRC were: arranged marriage; patriarchal domination and ignoring the interests of

26

CHAPTER 2. MARRIAGE AND LOVE

the children; polygyny; men were superior to women; men had the authority to give a divorce [579].

5

Simei Wang pointed out, the feudal marriage system, feudal

patriarchal system, and feudal ethics and morals, were interwoven together. Most women were sunk in a painful abyss, and many men also suffered enormous pain. This situation is bad for the development and progress of Chinese society [572]. Generally, there are two main purposes of traditional Chinese marriage, summarized in A Research on Chinese Marital Quality. The first one is based on family rather than love, which means that marriage makes the two families become bigger and stronger, and enlarges the sphere of relatives. The second one lies in continuing the blood relationship for the male family, which is for carrying on the family line [589]. However, the phenomenon of polygyny was solved gradually. The Kuomintang government announced the “Civil Law” in 1930, article 985 wrote: “A married person must not have a bigamous marriage [130].” It affirmed monogamy, and prohibited the bad habit of concubinage. 6 Article 2 in “General Principles” in Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China of 1950 promulgated the provision monogamy [406]. 7 This was a good beginning, in that women acquired some essential rights in marriage. Mingxia Chen evaluated this law of 1950, saying, “The law was one of the fruits of women’s continual participation in the struggle against feudalism beginning with the May Fourth movement in 1919. The feudal system of marriage and family was an important component of China’s social system, which had persisted for thousands of years [110].” Compared with polygyny in China, the monogamy in Germany seems much simpler. In ancient Germany, normally, a woman’s marriage also was decided by her parents rather than herself, which was similar to the Chinese situation [563], in addition, Friedrich Engels wrote: “who in the circle was the most suitable was decided under this complicated system most certainly not by his individual preference but by 5 See

also, [572]. also, [568]. 7 See also, [405]. 6 See

2.2. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE IN CHINA AND GERMANY

27

the family interests [186].”8 Even though there were many limitations in a marriage, a man could only have one wife. Viewed from the standpoint of Christianity, according to Malachi, “No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this. What did our ancestor do when seeking a child from God? Be attentive, then, to your own spirit, for one should not be disloyal to the wife he took in his youth [272].” This shows that God created only one woman for Adam, and also reflects how a husband should respect his wife. According to Genesis, “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion for him who corresponds to him’ [273].” The marriage of one man and one woman was the decree of God, thus monogamy as the basic marriage system is approved of in Christianity. Christianity is the largest religion in Germany [175], and German culture has been influenced mainly by Christianity, thus Germans carry out monogamy. Viewed by German law, American Bar Association stated, “both men and women are free to marry regardless of whether they are single, widowed or divorced. During their marriage both spouses have equal rights and duties. Sec. 1356 of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch–BGB) stipulates that the spouses shall mutually agree on responsibility for management of the household. If the household management is left to one of the spouses, that spouse chooses to do so by his or her own account [22].” Thus there is no change from polygyny to monogamy like China had. Songlian in Raise the Red Lantern is a poor woman, who has an unhappy marriage, but she is just a representative who suffers from the soreness of marriage: the other women of her husband are unfortunate as well, despite the fact that some of them obtain favor from their husband. This is a tragedy for the Chen family, also for that society. This tragedy cannot be separated from polygyny in China. Another aspect of her tragic marriage lies in its being a mercenary marriage. She married a rich old 8 The

text is essentially the English translation by Alick West published in 1942, but it has been

revised against the German text as it appeared in MEW [Marx-Engels Werke] vol. 21, Dietz Verlag, 1962. Online Version: Marx/Engels Internet Archive (marxists.org) 1993, 1999, 2000.

28

CHAPTER 2. MARRIAGE AND LOVE

man in order to repay a debt for her father, although she knows that man already has three women. The female protagonist’s marriage in Fontane Effi Briest is also unhappy. Similar to Songlian, her marriage was arranged by her parents rather than her own will. However, the difference is that whether Effi’s husband loves her or not, he cannot marry another woman except by divorcing Effi, whereas Songlian’s husband can. These two films show the differences in the situations of polygyny and monogamy, and also reflect the most important difference between the marriage systems of China and Germany.

2.2.2

Different divorce systems

Marriage and family are related to the stabilization of the social structure, the health of social institutions, and the orderly proceedings of the family lifestyle. Some couples grow old together happily, but some couples finally end in divorce. In ancient Chinese society, from the slave society to the extinction of the Qing Dynasty, divorce as a system mainly had three ways: the “Institution of Qi Chu,” 9 This

9

means, Seven Outs, or seven reasons to abandon a wife: a husband can abandon his wife

rightly if she does any item in the Seven Outs, including: first, being unfilial; second, having no son; third, wantonness; fourth, being jealous; fifth, having a serious disease; sixth, being gossipy or having a big mouth; seventh, stealing. In addition, there was a provision called “San bu qu,” means there are three situations in which the wife cannot be abandoned by her husband: first, the members of the wife’s parents’ home are all dead, thus there is no place to go for the wife if her husband abandons her; second, the wife has observed a three-year mourning period together with her husband after his parents’ passing; third, the husband was poor when he marries his wife, but becomes rich afterwards. In [146].

2.2. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE IN CHINA AND GERMANY the “Institution of Yi Jue,”

10

and the “Institution of He Li.”

11

[636].

29 12

In spite of

the fact that divorce was allowed in ancient China, the divorce rate was very low all along. This section summarizes three main reasons. First, the ancient divorce system unilaterally carried out the provision to forbid women’s divorce, but at the same time, there were some limitations on men’s ability “to divorce a wife.” For the consideration of “domestic shame should not be made public,” in addition, men had the right of concubinage, thus some families kept the marital relations existing in name only. Second, “no divorce” was to maintain the rules of feudal theocracy, clan authority, paternity, authority of the husband, and also to stabilize order in families. Third, marriage is based on families, not individuals. The chapter “Hun Yi,” which means “The Meaning of the Marriage Ceremony” in Book of Rites mentioned: “A wedding means that two families convivially connect together in friendship, it relates to the matters of worshiping at temples and producing descendants, therefore the gentleman or superior person pays attention to the wedding [597].” This shows that marriage and divorce cannot be decided on by the couple only. The Republic of China era after the Revolution of 1911 opened a new period. Although some new concepts, such as, the equality between men and women, and modern marriage, were claimed in the Republic of China era, the traditional culture still influenced the actual marriage situation in those years, and arranged marriages and mercenary marriages were still quite common.

13

Although in that period, just

as Wenzhen Ye and Qingguo Lin pointed out, “the modern divorce system based 10 This

is a compulsive divorce system in ancient China. When any member of the couple does some

actions just like murder, harm, or rape the kin of the wife or husband, then the wife or the husband breaks the law, then this couple had to divorce by the compulsory interference of the government. In [289]. 11 This is a divorce system by agreement which the husband and the wife can consult or negotiate. In [492]. 12 For more details, cf. [599], [138], and [109]. 13 As to the statements of the situation in the Republic of China era, summarized by [458]. For more, refer to [111], [315], and [117].

30

CHAPTER 2. MARRIAGE AND LOVE

on consensual divorce and judicial divorce, accepted the Western divorce culture which reflected the industrial civilization, basically, it still inherited the connotation of Chinese traditional feudalism, and the right to a divorce for married women was not guaranteed [600].” Thus divorce was not easy at that time. The story of Raise the Red Lantern happens in the Republic of China. There is no happiness at all in Songlian’s marriage, but she cannot divorce. Her marriage is to repay a debt: if she asks for a divorce, her husband will not agree. As discussed above, the Republic of China was a new era in Chinese history, but most of the people were still deeply influenced by traditional culture. It was not strange that a husband abandons his wife, however, generally it was impossible that a wife divorces her husband. Besides, Songlian’s parents’ family will feel shame if she divorces. Thus, Songlian cannot, and does not dare to divorce. The story of Ju Dou also happens in the Republic of China. Ju Dou is bought by her diseased husband, and she often suffers insult and bullying from him, but she cannot divorce. The sad thing is, she still cannot develop a relationship with her lover even after her husband’s death, and she has to live in widowhood. These two stories reflect the marriage and divorce situations in those years. As mentioned in the subsection on “Different marriage systems,” the first marriage law was promulgated after the establishment of the PRC. Many women had a certain understanding of marriage after the Marriage Law was promulgated, and they gradually came to know that the law would guarantee their freedom of marriage and divorce, hence the first wave of divorce appeared just after the establishment of the new China. Fenling Wang also mentioned about the first wave of divorce, she wrote, “Most of the divorce cases belonged to anti-feudalism, and many of them cleared up the issues which were left over before liberation [569].” In A Good Woman, Xingxian, as a child bride, marries her young husband before the eve of liberation. After liberation, the people’s thoughts in this closed village are influenced by the outside world. Xingxian also yearns for the outside, to pursue her

2.2. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE IN CHINA AND GERMANY

31

happiness, thus she announces publicly that she wants a divorce, and becomes the first person to leave that feudal and backward village due to her brave behavior, and her success should be attributed to the implementation of the Marriage Law. In contrast, Xiaoxiao in Married to a Child does not have the chance to divorce, since this story happens in the Republic of China, and divorce was quite uncommon, whereupon Xiaoxiao fails to escape from her tragic fate in the feudal society, and becomes one of its numerous victims. The marriage law in Germany has been gradually established, modified, and improved. In her essay “The History of Marriage Law in Austria and Germany: From Sacrament to Civil Contract,” Judith von Schmädel wrote: “In Germanic and early medieval times, marriage was essentially a secular business contract between the bridegroom and the bride’s father; a sale marriage, which neither required the consent of the bride nor forbade divorce on the part of the husband. [...] This, however, stood in opposition to the Christian concept of marriage, which saw the mutual consent of bride and bridegroom as a constitutive element of marriage and also forbade divorce [563].” This shows that divorce was not easy at that time; in this respect, it was similar to the situation in ancient China. Judith von Schmädel also wrote that “From the Early Modern Period on, the history of marriage in Austria and Germany has thus been one of struggle between the Christian denominations and between the Catholic Church and the power of the state [562].” Besides, by the beginning of the Early Modern Period, “marriage law was exclusively canon law and the Church had sole jurisdiction [563].” Christianity certainly does not support divorce. According to 1 Corinthians, “To the married I give this command—not I, but the Lord—a wife should not divorce a husband; (but if she does, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband), and a husband should not divorce his wife [274].” According to Matthew, “Now I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another commits adultery [275].” Thus divorce is not praised in Christianity, on the contrary, Chris-

32

CHAPTER 2. MARRIAGE AND LOVE

tianity advocates marital affection, encourages responsibility for each other between a couple, responsibility for the children, and being bound to each other, to maintain a harmonious family. Judith von Schmädel wrote, “In the wake of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, a movement towards moral and spiritual renewal took hold, which attached to an increasing degree the concepts of marriage of the Enlightened Age, especially in Prussia. Although this had considerable influence on the marriage—and especially divorce—jurisdiction of those Protestant parts of Germany where the old noncodified common law was still used, it did not affect the codified marriage law of the ALR [564].” 14 The story of Fontane Effi Briest happens in the nineteenth century Prussian Society, and Effi’s marriage was arranged by her parents. However, her husband does not forgive her about her affair, so he decides to divorce Effi and gets custody of their daughter. Although Effi’s husband should be to some extent in charge of their divorce, Effi’s “abandonment” is mainly caused by her own fault. There are some situations about affairs as well in Chinese films, and women are punished severely. The widow (the mother of Qiaoxiu) in Married to a Child has an affair with a blacksmith, so she is sunk into a deep pool as a punishment. The third wife of Songlian’s husband in Raise the Red Lantern has an affair with Doctor Gao, afterwards she is killed by her husband. These women all receive punishment, only the ways are different. Dieter Martiny and Dieter Schwab wrote, “Only from 1 January 1900 onwards was the German Reich governed by a uniform law of divorce. It seemed self-evident that marriage could only be dissolved by a court order [411].” 15 East Germany and West Germany before the unification had differences in divorce law. In East Germany, Dieter Martiny and Dieter Schwab continued to write, “There was only one ground for divorce. It related to the irretrievable breakdown of marriage while at the same time placing it in the context of the state and society. [...] After the fall of the communist regime in 1989, the ‘Family Law Code’ was fundamentally redrafted. [...] From 14 See 15 See

also [502]. also §§1564-1576 Civil Code.

2.2. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE IN CHINA AND GERMANY now on, a uniform law applied in the whole of Germany [412].”

16

33 “West-German

family law underwent a major reform in 1976. The ‘First Marriage Law and Family Law Reform Act 1976’ placed the law of divorce back within the German Civil Code and put it on a completely new footing: The law of divorce was now based on the principle of broken marriage [412].” In addition, the divorce law as implemented by the 1976 Reform Act is still used nowadays [413]. Thus as mentioned in an article “Current Legal Framework: Divorce in Germany,” at present in Germany, “In respect of the dissolution of a marriage by divorce, both spouses have the same rights and obligations under German law, i.e., the law is gender neutral and does not provide for any gender related differences [21].” As a whole, divorce is much easier nowadays than in ancient times, both in China and Germany. But people cannot say that a couple must divorce if their marriage is unhappy or has an irretrievable breakdown: it depends on their own wishes. For example, the couple in Martha is strange. Martha has the right to divorce her horrible husband, as Dieter Martiny and Dieter Schwab wrote, “a spouse could seek a divorce order where the other party had caused the breakdown of the marriage by a major violation of his or her marital duties or by disreputable or immoral behaviour [411].” However, she does not. Does Martha have a mental illness, or is she afraid of her husband, which causes her to not leave her husband? Unfortunately, this film does not provide a certain answer, which makes the audience confused. In Perpetual Motion, Niuniu finds out that her husband has an affair with another woman, then she really wants to find out who is she, and neither feels angry about this matter, nor wants to divorce her husband. She has to consider some problems, such as, the distribution of property and their social status. 16 See

also [222].

34

CHAPTER 2. MARRIAGE AND LOVE

2.3

Women Are Trapped in Their Houses

In general, the married women in Chinese films and German films reflect a similar feature, that of being “trapped in their houses,” but the techniques of expression are different. Chinese films often employ a “roof shot” to represent a woman’s marital status and mental emotion. It visually looks like a cage, even a prison, and it emotionally looks like “the iron house” mentioned in the section “Synopses.” The “roof shot” in Raise the Red Lantern reflects the metaphor of “the iron house,” as shown in Figure 2.1(a): this high angle shot shows the wedding room of Songlian. Viewed as a picture composition, the roofs from four directions hold the courtyard in the center, which make the figures in this picture extremely short and small. In addition, the red lanterns in a circle outline the boundary of the picture in a very obvious way. Zhongguo Yang also thought so: of this quadrangle courtyard, he wrote that it “is formal, tight, just like a cabinet, [...] the figures are often located in an insignificant corner in the frame or in the center [598].” Actually, rather than considering this as a cabinet, it looks more like a prison, which traps a woman’s marriage and freedom, whereupon, such a woman is compressed to be small, and experiences her tragic life in this empty, solemn, deplorable, even mysterious courtyard, from which she cannot escape. Yuan Pan also believed that this building “looks like a prisoner’s cage, a cannibalistic mouth, and it enjoys an abnormal but reasonably ‘quaint’ beauty [464].” Actually the filmed location for that courtyard was not Yimou Zhang’s first choice. In an interview, Yimou Zhang said that in the process of seeking a location that the novel’s author, Tong Su, had portrayed, it was considered that the place should be dark with a damp feeling. 17 Thus this prison-like courtyard, in which the outward 17 Yimou Zhang said:

“We spent over a month on the road looking at different locations and, perhaps

because I’m a northerner, I just couldn’t feel a connection with any of the places I saw. Then as we were passing through Shanxi someone told me about a famous old courtyard house that was worth looking at. I fell in love with the place; it was a special environment, and I immediately decided to set

2.3. WOMEN ARE TRAPPED IN THEIR HOUSES

35

sky cannot even be seen, is shown on the screen, to reveal a woman’s emotion and situation. Perpetual Motion also has some shots showing a roof resembling “the iron house,” as shown in Figure 2.1(b). The foreground in this frame shows a tree without any leaves and some parts of the roofs, as well as several electric wires going through this frame horizontally, all of them seeming to block the exit from this quadrangle courtyard, which obviously implies that they trap the women’s steps and marriages. The middle part of this frame shows the female protagonists, but covered partly by branches, which makes these women smaller and blurrier. The background is the other part of this quadrangle courtyard, which stands there firmly and echoes the tree and the roofs in the foreground, completely surrounding the women, forming a prison-like “iron house.” This reflects not only the women’s marriages with problems, but also describes their emotions of dreaming of escape. Gina Marchetti also thought something similar: the Chinese quadrangle courtyards “occupy a very public place professionally and remain ‘modern’ in their Maoist upbringing, the women are visually imprisoned behind the thick walls and closed doors of the siheyuan, the traditional Chinese courtyard home found along Beijing’s hutong alleyways [402].” Besides, the director Ying Ning considered that this film employs a metaphor to show, the quadrangle courtyard is a typical and step by step symbol, and it cannot break the social rules, and this is a sad thought [450]. Hence, although the four female protagonists have relatively rich life, their marriages look like “the iron house,” and their freedom is trapped there, simultaneously resembling the space which is encircled by the roofs around it, and they can see a hope somehow, but cannot escape after all. In addition to the two examples above, the representation of a roof in Ju Dou also looks like “the iron house.” The huge dye house also conveys a similar meaning of “cannot escape,” and the narrow space which can be seen through the roofs as a high the story there. That’s my problem: as a northerner I can’t help but being attracted to northern-style architecture. When I looked at southern-style courtyards I simply couldn’t bring myself to like them.” In [52].

36

CHAPTER 2. MARRIAGE AND LOVE

(a)

(b)

Figure 2.1: Two roof shots respectively in Raise the Red Lantern and Perpetual Motion. angle shot is Ju Dou’s whole world, where she endures her husband’s torment. Thus this is not a home, but a prison. In an article “Chinese Women’s Films in a Post Colonial Context,” Yaonong Zeng and Juan Chen wrote, “Women are located in a limited and closed environment by means of the dual-division of the social category in a patriarchal society, so as to control them effectively. And women have to completely meet the various needs of men from moral principles to emotional desires, through the dissimilation of women’s nature [613].” The Chinese films in this chapter, involving female protagonists before the establishment of the PRC, or in contemporary society, basically accord with this feature. Viewed in social terms, women cannot escape from the patriarchal society, although their status has risen a lot in modern society. Viewed in terms of the language of the camera, the courtyard is surrounded by roofs, but people still can see the sky outside, so to speak: filmmakers provide some chances for the women to get away, however, most of the women fail to escape, or even, some women do not want to escape at all. Therefore, the prison-like “iron house” reflects not only the social phenomenon, but also provides hints about the women’s inner world. Just as Constance Goh wrote: “Chinese women had not achieved the anticipated emancipation from domestic abuse and slavery even though they are known to hold up half the sky, a slogan used by Mao to gain support of the women. In spite of the bestowal of equal status, women felt that the equality implied by the linguistic gesture

2.3. WOMEN ARE TRAPPED IN THEIR HOUSES

37

did not improve their lot. Instead, they were expected to take on male responsibilities in addition to their domestic commitments [223].” German films also reflect how women are trapped in their houses, but they do not employ the prison-like “roof shots” used in Chinese films: most of them show the interior in the house, and directly represent the metaphor of “trapped.” The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant shows the “house” as an implicit setting which looks exactly like a prison. This film, so to speak, tells the story of a room, a bed, and several women. From this viewpoint, it is similar to Perpetual Motion. The difference is, the women in Perpetual Motion sometimes are in the courtyard, and they are not located in the house all the time, besides, they walk out of the house in the end of the film to pursue their dream of a happy marriage on the road. But in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, all the activities and dialogues of the women are restricted to one bed, and the extremely limited space around it, as shown in Figure 2.2, and this kind of shot can be found everywhere. This is a feature of this film, as Olga Solovieva believed that the women’s psychology and the conflicts of their lives are reflected in this single-room [524]. Brigitte Peucker also believed that the setting in this film seems “hermetically sealed [467].” This special mise-en-scène exactly echoes David Bordwell’s opinion: “many of our most sharply etched memories of the cinema turn out to center on mise-en-scene [75].” Thus, the female protagonists talk about their marriages, loves, careers, happiness, and confusion, even the idea of being a lesbian, in this closed room. They communicate with each other with delight, but sometimes with sadness, even desperation. Therefore, this prison-like house is a symbol, conveys all of the women’s direct and implicit emotions. There are a lot of shots showing the female protagonist in the house in Martha. Martha looks, so to speak, like a little bird who is shut in at home by her husband after her marriage, and what is more unfortunate is that she is often abused by her husband. Olga Solovieva pointed out: “A gendered power dynamic (as in Martha, 1974) is always in danger of simplistically conflating sadism with patriarchal order [525].”

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Figure 2.2: The sealed room in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. Therefore, although this house is spacious and gorgeous, it looks more like a huge cage, or a symbol for a prison. Joyce Rheuban criticized the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “characters frequently waste their lives for the sake of a great love, [...] or come to a tragic end when the illusions that nurtured them conflict with their own instincts and the material realities of life in middle-class society [489].” Martha expects a happy marriage, and there are a great many of her behaviors in this film that show how she changes herself a lot, in order to provide for her husband’s satisfaction. However, she does not get good results all the time. Thus, she wants to escape from this “prison” but does not succeed, and finally returns to her husband’s arms. Moritz von Schwind’s The Morning Hour, shown in Figure 2.4, has a composition and distribution, and the action of its figure, which are similar to Figure 2.3. This reflects how films have learnt a lot from paintings, to be improved and enriched. In this painting, Fritz Novotny wrote, “Instead of confinement within an austere cubic room, it has a free spatial sweep which in itself is the expression of the optimistic atmosphere of early morning; here the bliss of the morning hour has really been captured [451].”

18

Figure 2.3 shows how Martha’s husband goes out of the house

to go to work, how she sends him off at the door, and how she looks at the outside 18 Werner

Busch described this painting: “The young girl has risen, pulled back the covers, gone

barefoot to the window to let in the day. Her linen is still lying across the chair. Next she will begin to

2.3. WOMEN ARE TRAPPED IN THEIR HOUSES

39

world. Actually, Martha also wants to be someone like the woman in Figure 2.4, who expects a nice day coming. However, she seemingly is not happy when she faces the prison-like home. This represents how a woman’s being trapped in her house.

Figure 2.3: The house in Martha. In addition to the examples above, Lola also shows a closed room of the female protagonist, which can be seen as a visual symbol and implication of Lola’s being “trapped,” to stop her act of pursuing a happy marriage. The Marriage of Maria Braun shows a prison-like house as well. Joyce Rheuban pointed out that, “Maria’s pleasure in playing the male role and in succeeding in a man’s world is gained by the compromising of her own identity. She has ‘made it’ because she plays by society’s rules, and in this society, the rules have been made by men [490].” This statement is one reason why women are closely linked to “be trapped in the house” all along. There is another feature in Chinese films about the “trapped” woman, which normally does not appear in German films: the woman is located in a mountain or a field, which indicates that she cannot go away from that place. A Good Woman contains some images of this kind, as shown in Figure 2.5(a) using a long shot: a woman stands on a mountain. Figure 2.5(b) uses the same way to reflect a similar situation in The Road Home. The whole atmosphere resembles many wash herself, comb her hair in front of the mirror, and later work at the sewing table to the left–having first pulled back the second window curtain.” In [90].

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Figure 2.4:

Moritz von Schwind, The

Morning Hour, 1858.

Oil on canvas;

Width: 40cm; Height: 34cm; Schackgalerie, Munich. Chinese landscape paintings, for example, Kuan Fan’s Travelers Among Mountains and Streams, shown in Figure 2.6 and Zhou Shen’s Lofty Mount Lu, shown in Figure 2.7. In Travelers Among Mountains and Streams, the painter “rendered the mountains and slopes with jagged outline strokes and filled them with brush dabs like raindrops— techniques that highlight the monumental and eternal features of the mountains. [...] This masterpiece is a testament to his skills and ideas in landscape painting [446].” It also shows “a tremendous momentum of a panorama for the landscape, which conveys a strong artistic appeal [308].” In Lofty Mount Lu, “The mists and the coloring of the mountains are particularly luminous and well done. A waterfall plunges hundreds of feet, the torrent’s waters becoming light and gentle below [445].” Besides, this painting conveys “a permeability of the space in the composition, thus there is virtuality within the reality [590].” Certainly, these two paintings are not related to the topic “trapped women,” but Chinese films have learnt this technique of expression from Chinese landscape paintings, and have improved as moving pictures, in order to reflect the unique emotion and specific atmosphere of the characters. The two extreme long shots in Figures 2.5(a) and 2.5(b) make the vast views stretch to the horizon, even wreathed in a shroud of smog, and the small figures in the distance reflect a feature of Chinese paintings, as Dazheng Hao wrote: “the portion of space occupied by human figures

2.3. WOMEN ARE TRAPPED IN THEIR HOUSES

41

in Chinese paintings is considerably smaller [245].” The director Jianzhong Huang of A Good Woman said: “I wanted to reflect the sense of repression created by a life in isolation in the mountainous area of Guizhou, and the close condition of the entire nation [293].” Thus this image showing the small figure on a mountain in Chinese painting style, so to speak, achieves his aim. There are also many scenes in The Road Home showing a tiny figure in the frame. Sometimes, Zhaodi sits in a wild field, but most of the time she runs in the field to chase her husband’s pace. This repeated “running” employs “a rhetorical means of amplification, [...] echoes of the emotion and the mental rhythm of the character [392].” This definitely shows her sincere love for her husband, but Yimou Zhang believed that this also reveals Zhaodi’s potential desire and admiration of knowledge and culture [624]. But anyway, Zhaodi only can stay in that village rather than leaving to pursue the outside world, which reflects the meaning of “trapped.” Hence, although these women are not actually trapped directly in their houses, they still cannot escape from their backward villages to pursue happiness in marriage.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2.5: Women are located in a mountain or a field respectively in A Good Woman and The Road Home.

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Figure 2.6: Kuan Fan, Travelers Among

Figure 2.7: Zhou Shen, Lofty Mount

Mountains and Streams, Song Dynasty.

Lu, Ming Dynasty. Chinese ink and

Chinese ink and colors on silk; Width:

colors on paper; Width:

103.3cm; Height: 206.3cm; National

Height:

Palace Museum, Taipei.

Museum, Taipei.

98.1cm;

193.8cm; National Palace

2.4. REPRESENTATION IN COLOR

2.4

43

Representation in Color

This section will analyze the differences between Chinese and German films about marriage in the use of color, from two aspects. First, the main color of the traditional weddings in China and Germany are different: red is the leading color in China, but white is the main color in Germany. Red in Chinese culture normally is “a symbol of happy events. [...] ‘Red’ is involved in Chinese marriage culture as well [296].” The article “Colours Across Cultures: Translating Colours in Interactive Marketing Communications,” also pointed out that red wedding dresses are used in Chinese culture [79]. Kirsi Kommonen also wrote, “red is used in celebrations; in the bridal wedding gown, in New Year’s celebrations [341].” However, white is very important in German weddings, as also in other Western countries. White in Germany stands for cleanness, purity, neutrality, elegance, health, etc [16]. Besides, as Guimei He pointed out in “English and Chinese Cultural Connotation of Color Words in Comparison,” white is used in the wedding dress in Western countries [254]. Junli Li also mentioned that “a white dress is used in a wedding in Western culture [363].” Nevertheless, with the development of frequent cross-cultural communication in current society, the color concept has changed to some degree. For example, a white wedding dress is very common in Chinese weddings nowadays, although the traditional red dress is still used at the same time; and a German wears a traditional red Tangzhuang in some situations. However, red still is a very important color in the Chinese wedding, and white is certainly important in the German wedding. Raise the Red Lantern and A Good Woman tell the stories about women’s tragedies, but in the scenes of showing the wedding and the wedding room, they still employ plenty of red, to represent the delightful and happy emotion and atmosphere, shown in Figure 2.8(a) and Figure 2.8(b). Besides, “red” weddings are represented as well in Married to a Child, Red Sorghum, and Tuya’s Marriage. However, “white” wedding dresses are presented in German films, as shown in Figure 2.9(a) and Figure 2.9(b),

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which come from The Marriage of Maria Braun and Lola. Besides, Germany, Pale Mother also has a scene showing a wedding.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2.8: Red in Chinese weddings respectively in Raise the Red Lantern and A Good Woman.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2.9: White in German weddings respectively in The Marriage of Maria Braun and Lola. The second difference about color is on the overall visual effect and emotional atmosphere. In most cases, Chinese films choose one or two colors as the dominant hue, to create a whole narrative atmosphere, and they often use blue, grey, yellow, and red. Nevertheless, generally German films do not employ only one or two leading colors, but rich colors and more brighter images than Chinese films. The main color in A Good Woman is blue. Figures 2.10(a)–2.10(c) show a scene in

2.4. REPRESENTATION IN COLOR

45

which Xingxian takes her young husband to go to school. Her husband runs and jumps on the way, conveying the image of an active and lovely little boy. Xingxian helps him to take his bag well, and carries him on her back to continue their way. This shows a mountain village in the early morning, the half-light of an early dawn, the thin mountain fog, the plunging water, and even the clothes of the characters; all of this information represents the fresh and clear “blue.” However, for Xingxian, this blue has a negative significance. For Béla Balázs, color and the change of color have a “symbolic significance [28].” Xingxian just changes from her “red” wedding symbolizing good luck at the beginning of this film, to an ordinary daily life based on “blue.” This symbolic significance of the change of color exactly implies the tragic fate of Xingxian. Apart from the red wedding dress, she and the other characters almost wear clothes in a cold tone, plus the natural environment of this village, so to speak, all of the women in this film are immersed in the depressing “blue,” which reveals their unhappy lives. The scriptwriter Kuanding Li said: “Women in China are respectable, but also pathetic [294].” This sentence appears at the beginning of the subtitle in this film. Yuan Zhao wrote: “This is a ‘poem,’ not a truth of sociology. It accords with a certain rule of creative psychology rather than the reality of life [631].” Filmmakers certainly construct the tragic fate of women on purpose, and blue is an important visual representation by which the film attains its creative aim.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2.10: Blue in A Good Woman.

(c)

46

CHAPTER 2. MARRIAGE AND LOVE Raise the Red Lantern, there is “red” in the title, thus no doubt, its dominate hue is

red. Yanjin Li also analyzed that “Red plays a leading role in this film [369].” Zhongguo Yang wrote that this film “employs plenty of red. The high red lanterns hanging on the roofs reflect a primitive sincerity, they also pour out a rebellious consciousness and vent an inner desire. They are seemingly the cheer, scream, and crying of the protagonists, simultaneously with a primitive wildness [598].” There is a plot: Songlian wants to get a favor from her husband by means of a fake pregnancy. This is actually just Songlian’s unrealistic notion reflected by the red lanterns around her in her room. Miaoqing Li also believed that the red lanterns in that scene “symbolize that she dreams of standing out among people, but that just is ideal and illusory [364].” Color is very important as a visual element in Yimou Zhang’s films, as Rey Chow pointed out: “there is every indication that whatever Zhang does, he does in order to emphasize not the thematic concerns or even characterization but the filmic or visual nature of his films [128].” It is indeed very hard to forget the main color after watching Yimou Zhang’s films: their visual nature does this as one of his purposes. However, the thematic concern cannot be ignored, it is also important for the usage of color, even more important than the visual nature, which means, the narrative and the emotions of the characters are also represented by colors. For example, red in this film has several meanings. Apart from red as the leading color in the Chinese wedding, more importantly, red conveys a metaphor. Figures 2.11(a)– 2.11(c) show a scene in which Songlian’s husband just realizes her fake pregnancy. Figure 2.11(a) shows, Songlian’s husband leaves her room angrily, and commands the servants to cover the red lanterns, therefore, the previous bright red is covered by the black lantern covers and curtains. In this image, black, and the grey of the house, crossing each other, convey a depressing, desolate, and even terrible feeling. Songlian with a red coat standing at the door seems quite tiny in this dark color. Figure 2.11(b) is a close shot of Songlian: red is highlighted in the image and reflects her unconvincing emotion; however, this red lacks vitality, and also implies her tragic

2.4. REPRESENTATION IN COLOR

47

fate. Figure 2.11(c) is a subjective shot of Songlian, what she sees is the same as the audience, that overwhelming dark color overtakes all of the vitality and life in this courtyard. Rudolf Arnheim said, “Colors help to distinguish objects and make them stand out against each other [20].” In this scene, the stark contrast between red and black constructs its meaning and the overall atmosphere.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 2.11: Red in Raise the Red Lantern. German films are not same as Chinese films, which focus on one or two colors as a dominant hue. Rather, they are colorful. The first example is Martha, which shows a lot of different colors. Martha’s marriage is unhappy, and makes people perplexed. Figures 2.12(a)–2.12(c) show a scene in which Martha’s husband goes to work, and she stays at home alone. She looks at herself in a mirror with a cigarette in her mouth, and then goes to the garden, sits in a chair, and keeps on smoking. Viewed from the standpoint of color usage, it is really more colorful and brighter than Chinese films. The main color of Martha’s dress is white, with red and blue on it, which creates a bright visual effect. In addition, she is surrounded by all kinds of plants in the garden, as if she is the “queen of plants.” The director Rainer Werner Fassbinder said about Martha, “The film simply tells a story that goes like this: does this woman find happiness [196]?” Martha exactly pursues happiness all along, or, to be more precise, the happiness of marriage. Actually, she always thinks of how can she capture her husband’s heart, how can she make her husband be satisfied with her. Therefore, this multicolored and bright visual effect implies her yearning for a beautiful future. Simultaneously, it reflects the filmmaker’s opinion: why is this flower-like beautiful

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woman abused by her husband, and why does she fawn on her husband on purpose? Hence, this rich color exactly symbolizes the reverse side of Martha’s real life, and possesses an ironic and critical meaning. Rainer Werner Fassbinder also considered: “Martha has finally gotten what she wanted all along: total dependence on Helmut, one achieved in the aftermath of an automobile accident that paralyzes her [422].” He refers to Martha’s light and weird smile in a wheelchair at the end of this film: this shows that she has obtained what she wants. However, this is worth discussing, and does not have a certain answer. If she wanted to depend on her husband completely, then she does not need to escape, and she should behave as in what Figures 2.12(a)–2.12(c) show, that she stays in her prison-like house, and lives a life totally according to her husband’s wishes. If so, the rich color in this film is a symbol of her pretty future, but reality does not go that way. Thus the handicapped Martha eventually only stays in the house, and is surrounded by the rich color, which is as if mocking her grey real life without vivid colors.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 2.12: Colors in Martha. In Lola, the female protagonist’s love does not go smoothly. However, this film neither employs a dark color, nor uses one or two main color as Chinese films do, but is more colorful and brighter, which can be seen from the credits: pink, purple, red, and green. 19 David Bordwell analyzed about the color of this film, he believed that the strips of pink and blue light are sourceless [61]. Brian Price also mentioned the 19 Brian

Price also mentioned the use of color on the titles in this film, see [473].

2.4. REPRESENTATION IN COLOR

49

color, “For Fassbinder, an abstract spectrum of mixed color is the norm in Lola, and allows for no analogical relation, particularly as it becomes rather difficult to separate one color from another [474].” This kind of “sourceless” and “abstract spectrum” make people confused, but this ambiguity is exactly a feature of the art film in David Bordwell’s opinion. Figures 2.13(a)–2.13(c) show Lola calling Von Bohm. She reads a poem to him and hopes to date him. This representation with many colors makes connections through the whole film. Brian Price believed that the color in Lola “is fully exterior and never in the service of metaphor [475].” However, this book does not think so. These colors, are not ostensibly related to the plot, but actually they have a metaphorical function, and they reflect Lola’s inner world and psychological problems. They reveal Lola’s expectations for her future love and marriage, and how she hopes that life can become as energetic and dynamic as these colors. At this point, this is similar to Martha. However, in front of Von Bohm, Lola has to conceal the real situation: the voluptuous bordello with a lot of colors which also serve for the exterior visual effects. Finally, Lola finds her lover and marries him, thus, these colors are not only the exterior representation of her inner world, but also imply the happy marriage Lola obtains at the end of this film.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 2.13: Colors in Lola.

Brian Price pointed out that color can be seen as “a source of abstract visual pleasure and perceptual play that resides somewhere above questions about the film’s meaning [477].” Color representations have different meanings in Chinese and

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German films. Viewed from the point of view of culture, the most obvious reason lies in the differences in the paintings in these countries. Generally, Western paintings use richer colors than Chinese paintings, which often employ one or two colors as a dominant hue. Huizhen Hong pointed out: “It is obvious that generally Western paintings focus on color compared to Chinese paintings, although there are differences in shape and color among Western painters [282].” Ye Jiang wrote, “Both Western painters and Chinese painters focus on the function of color, but with different characteristics [321].” Ge Huang pointed out that in Western paintings, “the color is rich and flamboyant [291].” Chinese paintings certainly employ many colors, but compared to Western paintings, they reflect a sort of “refined beauty [283].” Therefore, often there are differences in color between the paintings and their original items, not as classical Western paintings do. This section agrees with Zhongwu Shao’s summary: “In general, color in Chinese paintings has some obvious intuitionistic features: categorization, imagination, ornamentality, and planarization. [...] The obvious features of color in Western paintings are: individualization, precision, naturalization, and three-dimensionality [509].” Figure 2.14 shows Shimin Wang’s Green of Nanshan. There is an introduction of this painting in Chinese Landscape Paintings: “This painting was created by this painter in his old age for a birthday congratulation to someone, which means a long and happy life. It is an excellent work in Shimin Wang’s landscape painting, and reflects respectful and cautious emotion with deep love [309].” The dominant hue of this painting is brown, and the mountains, trees, roads, clouds, and the sky, show an atmosphere based on brown. Remembering Kuan Fan’s Travelers Among Mountains and Streams and Zhou Shen’s Lofty Mount Lu in the previous section, the separate dominant hues are brown and gray, which confirm again the feature of Chinese paintings as to color. Figure 2.15 is a Western landscape painting made by Joseph Anton Koch. Fritz Novotny analyzed about it that the painter “retains this division

2.5. DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS OF MIRROR SHOTS

51

into zones, the principle of the addition of part to part being carried to such a pitch that the picture offers no single uniform focal point. This method of construction, naive and artificial as it is, conveys almost better than any other an impression of the immensity of the world of high mountains [452].” The cloud, snowy mountain, waterfall, forest, river, stone, figure, and animals, basically are shown in their true colors, which does not employ the Chinese method. Therefore, it cannot be said that Chinese paintings do not focus on color. Rather, Chinese paintings do not employ rich colors and are not as multicolored as classical Western paintings are. Brian Price said: “color demands an especial attention to cultural specificity [478].” Edward Branigan wrote: “Color, in fact, is preeminently a cultural phenomenon [83].” Thus, the films from both countries have learned about color from, respectively, the features of Chinese paintings and Western paintings, and form the different visual effects and cultural significances.

2.5

Different Functions of Mirror Shots

Mirror shots have different implications in Chinese films and German films. In most cases, the function of mirror shots in Chinese films is apparent: the female protagonists check their appearances, or appreciate their beauty in the mirror. However, the mirror shots in German films normally have a metaphor function, rather than simply watching one’s appearance. The first example is A Good Woman. Xuheng Liu believed that this is a film “expressing an artistic conception, and not similar to the traditional feature film [384].” This is a feature of art cinema. This film neither focuses on showing plots or conflicts between characters, but rather on expressing the emotions of the characters and the processes of their internal struggles. As to the sequences of Xingxian’s pursuing her love, this film shows the change of her emotion more than the delineation of the external plot. The dramatic conflict and tension are not as strong as in a classical

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Figure 2.14: Shimin Wang, Green of

Figure 2.15: Joseph Anton Koch, The

Nanshan, Qing Dynasty. Chinese ink

Schmadribach Waterfall, 1821-1822. Oil

and colors on silk; Width: 66.4cm;

on canvas; Width: 110cm; Height:

Height: 147.1cm; Liaoning Provincial

131.8cm; New Pinakothek, Munich.

Museum, Shenyang.

2.5. DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS OF MIRROR SHOTS

53

Hollywood film, however, the significance and implication reflected in the whole film make the audience think long and deeply. There is a scene where Xingxian looks in the mirror, shown in Figures 2.16(a)– 2.16(c), reflecting the changing sentiment in her heart. Xingxian puts a flower in her hair, then she looks in the small mirror to appreciate her appearance, and shyly smiles. Her emotion changes immediately from her hard work with monotony the whole day to temporarily lighting up with pleasure. This reflects the common function: looking in the mirror. Why does Xingxian have this behavior? Because she falls in love with a young man of her age. Her mother-in-law and young husband treat her well, so she never thought about having an affair. However, she fails to control her inward feelings, and cares about her appearance much more than before, so as to make a good impression on that man. But she has betrayed her husband spiritually, which is reflected in her behavior of looking in the mirror slinkingly, and ends in divorce, which achieves what she wishes. This evil consequence is caused by “child marriage.” 20 A Good Woman and Married to a Child, show the pursuit by women of their love and sexuality, and the involuntary behavior of rebellion against feudalism. This book agrees with Jinhua Dai’s opinion, “a story about a woman’s desires and cravings was only a masquerade for man’s real predicament [149].” Women expect true love, actually men also have the same feeling, but they are not allowed to behave so crazy, for reasons of common sense, therefore they have to disguise their own inner desire, wearing a mask. This absolutely goes against the normal emotional catharsis, as well as the harmonious development of society. These social meanings are extended by the whole film. However, for the mirror scene, it only expresses that Xingxian cares about her appearance, and the mirror only reflects its primitive meaning as a tool. The second example is Perpetual Motion. The scene shown in Figures 2.17(a)– 20 There

are three reasons for “child marriage”: economic considerations, marriage in adulthood

needs plenty of betrothal gifts; early marriage, and early having babies, and the parents-in-law feel at ease if their son marries early; for reproduction, which is an important even the only function of a traditional Chinese marriage. In [116].

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(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 2.16: Mirror scene in A Good Woman. 2.17(c) depicts that how Niuniu looks in the mirror in the morning to watch her swollen abdomen due to increasing age, and purposely inhales to straighten her back and bring her belly in, so as to see her once slim self, but her round belly sticks out again after exhaling. Thus she has to admit, time and tide wait for no man, and she is not beautiful any more. This scene reflects the function of “looking in the mirror.” Gina Marchetti analyzed about this film, she wrote: “Western liberal feminism and socialist feminism fail to give them personal satisfaction, emotional security, sexual fulfillment, or social relevance. Focusing on the cultural elite, Perpetual Motion indicts Chinese society at large. As the economy expands, even the most educated and affluent women fail to navigate smoothly the rough waters of global consumer capitalism [403].” Niuniu has to candidly admit defeat in front of beauty, while she looks in the mirror at her gross figure, although she is rich and well-educated, hence she feels downhearted in this respect. Thus she is not surprised by the news of her husband’s affair, because she knows well that she does not attract her husband with her appearance. Actually, not only for Niuniu, all of the female protagonists in this film are failures in their marriages and much limitations happen to them, although they have a certain position in society. This is similar to the analysis in “Women Are Trapped in Their Houses,” that women cannot escape from their houses. Ling Dong believed that “The quadrangle courtyard is an enclosed space, and a reminiscence as well. They refer to the past, which had once existed, thus there is no vitality in them [173].” Niuniu’s action of straightening her back in the mirror is actually exactly

2.5. DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS OF MIRROR SHOTS

55

a recollection of her former self in this enclosed space. However, she had vitality both physically and emotionally, which leads to her fantasy: she wants to possess it again. But she has to face reality in the mirror.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 2.17: Mirror scene in Perpetual Motion. Similar shots of “looking in the mirror” appear in The Road Home, Summer Palace, Kuei-mei, a Woman, and Durian Durian, etc., and they reflect the function of “checking appearance.” The previous paragraphs stated the basic function of mirror shots in Chinese films, and also analyzed their social and cultural significance, which is not reflected only by the mirror shots, but by the whole films. The mirror shots in German films convey women’s spirits and deep emotions, and directly reflect the social and cultural significance throughout the whole films, and their metaphorical function is strong. The first example is Fontane Effi Briest, which contains many mirror scenes. Kaja Silverman analyzed the mirror shots in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s films, she considered that “Fassbinder further denaturalizes identity by emphasizing at every conceivable juncture its imaginary bases. Thus he never misses an opportunity to point the camera at a character’s mirror reflection rather than at the character himself or herself, and he shoots almost compulsively through windows, as if to deny any possibility of a direct or immediate access to the object of the camera’s scrutiny [517].” Anna K. Kuhn wrote: “Effi Briest abounds in mirrors. Rarely do the characters address each other directly; instead, they speak either to their own reflection or to the mirror image of their dialogue partner [346].” She continued to write, “Instead, the mirrors, which

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reflect not only the figures themselves, but also their surroundings, simply give back the vacuity of their world. [...] Thus the mirrors reflect the process of reification inherent in bourgeois marriage [347].” This section takes up one example at the beginning of Fontane Effi Briest. Figures 2.18(a)–2.18(c) show a scene in which Effi’s parents want her to marry Baron von Instetten to accomplish a bourgeois marriage, and Baron von Instetten comes to Effi’s home to meet his future wife. Most of this scene is shown and tells the plot by means of the mirror which is in front of the camera. The closed cabinet on the right in this image is a symbol of “trapped” and “suffocated.” The round glass ornament in the foreground conveys a similar implication as well. This metaphor of the items in the room is similar to the conclusion in the section “Women Are Trapped in Their Houses,” which implies that Effi’s marriage is controlled by others and she has no freedom. Besides, the image shown in the mirror actually seems like her fantasy, and it indicates her happy marriage what she dreams of will be thoroughly unsuccessful. Therefore, she has to face reality rather than living in illusions. Nadine Schwakopf also analyzed this scene, she wrote, “we only see a mirror image of the room and not the direct, frontal view. It is the glass frame of the mirror that, via the distorted reflections and dispersed shimmer of light, delineates our field of vision, narrows it down within the margins of the film image and, thereby, enhances the effect of framing immanent in the presence of an optical device [504].” She continued to write: “transparency and opacity, reflection and diffraction coexist in the take, alluding to the often-camouflaged discrepancy between being and appearance that hinges at the same time on the permutation—if not consubstantiality—of truth and illusion [505].” This is what this book approves of: this mirror scene, even all of the mirror shots in the whole film, allude to the surface disguise between the characters’ relationship. The ostensible harmony and politeness of this couple do not prove they live in peace with each other substantially in this marriage. On the contrary, what this scene shows is not only a reflection of an illusion, but also the irony of the real married life of this

2.5. DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS OF MIRROR SHOTS

57

couple. Therefore, its metaphor is much stronger than in Chinese films, and the way of representation is more direct as well.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 2.18: Mirror scene in Fontane Effi Briest. The second example is The Days Between. Figures 2.19(a)–2.19(b) show a close-up in which Lynn removes the makeup from her face. This scene seemingly is similar to the function of mirror shots in Chinese films—looking in the mirror, but its implication is not only so. A bright white light is exactly located in between that mirror, and divides it into two parts, therefore two faces of Lynn appear in the mirror at the same time. This reflects the German expression—doppelgänger, which will be analyzed in detail in the chapter “Professional Women and Housewives.” As the first shot in this film, it directly reveals Lynn’s mentality, and also expresses the story line. Lynn loves two men at the same time, however, she neither wants to break up with her boyfriend, who only concentrates on his swimming career and shows his indifference to her, nor wants to give up that Japanese man, Koji, who treats her very well and has a good time with Lynn. So, Lynn’s heart is divided into two parts to offer them one of each, just as the mirror which is also divided into two parts. She erases the makeup on her face and shows her true face, shown in Figure 2.19(b), nevertheless, she still does not know her feeling clearly. This situation confuses her, and she wants to change it, but this film does not provide a certain answer till the end: she still does not know how to choose. The metaphor of this mirror scene just embodies the title “The Days Between”: she lives in between two men.

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(a)

(b)

Figure 2.19: Mirror scene in The Days Between. Similarly to Fontane Effi Briest, The Days Between also has many mirror shots or “glass” shots to show Lynn’s emotions and psychological problems, rather than checking her appearance. For example, Lynn’s friend helps her to bind up her wounded hand, and this scene uses a mirror shot to show the double faces of Lynn; Lynn steals a pair of shoes in a shoe store, and this scene employs a shot through a big glass in a fitting room, instead of shooting her directly; at Lynn’s friend’s wedding party, she goes to a telephone booth to call Koji, and the camera stays out of the glass door; Lynn and Koji take a train, and one shot was made across a glass window of the train. These shots with mirrors or glasses express their implications and metaphors. The metaphor of mirror shots in German films is also reflected in Martha, Lili Marleen, Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness, and Sheer Madness and so on. The conclusion summarized in this section does not absolutely have a prejudice against German or Chinese mirror shots, but the summary of features in both countries’ films. This is a preference of filmmaking in both countries’ films, also a preference of cultures.

2.6

Representations Showing Bodies

Generally, Chinese films employ an obscure method to show women’s bodies and sex scenes in most cases: either showing women’s backs, or with a boundary at the breasts, the parts below the breasts are offscreen. Female nudes are rarely represented.

2.6. REPRESENTATIONS SHOWING BODIES

59

German films use a completely different way to show women’s bodies: there are too many scenes displaying nude females. There are many shots in Martha showing her slender figure, including her nude, as shown in Figure 2.20(a). Joe McElhaney believed that “Fassbinder repeatedly accentuates her borderline emaciated body rather than masks it [423]” He continued to write that “the image vaguely suggests Christ laid out after the crucifixion [424].” This opinion makes sense, and it was said from the standpoint of the whole film. This scene shows Martha nude, reddened by the sun, lying on the bed in a hotel, and she looks like an exhibit stared at intently by her husband nearby, to appreciate her body. He keeps praising her beautiful body, and finally has sex with her by force. In the whole film, Martha is shown as vulnerable in front of her husband, but she seems particularly helpless and pathetic in this scene. She is as if a pretty bird which is completely controlled by her husband and cannot escape. Her posture visually looks like “Christ laid out after the crucifixion,” and emotionally it also conveys a similarity. Martha is often tortured and abused by her husband, therefore some scenes showing her painful emotion and struggle often appear in this film. Martha at this time, without any clothes, looks exactly like a bird from which all the feathers have been pulled out, and is totally exposed, dangerously. This scene obviously reflects the “gaze” as in Laura Mulvey’s notion which was mentioned in the “Introduction.” Martha’s husband is an active male, with “look” and “subject,” and Martha is a passive female as “to-be-looked-at-ness” and “object.” Nadine Schwakopf considered that “Martha’s body image complies with a model that overturns the topos of cinematographic voyeurism as defined by Laura Mulvey. Whereas Mulvey’s notion of visual pleasure presents inter-subjectivity as necessarily subject to binaries, Fassbinder’s identity units prove to be more adequately characterized by visual agency. As Kaja Silverman puts it, the power to engender identity precisely stems from the non-identity of the agent with the subject. According to Silverman, visual agency is internally composed of the look/gaze dyad, which gives

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rise to a split visuality [506].” Kaja Silverman wrote: “What happens within Fassbinder’s cinema is that both the gaze and the images which promote identity remain irreducibly exterior, stubbornly removed from the subject who depends upon them for its experience of ‘self’ [518].” Laura Mulvey’s notion aimed at pointing out how Hollywood films behave. However, it is still applied to Martha and many other German films on showing women’s bodies. This gaze is very aggressive for Martha, and she cannot withstand her husband’s active expression and action, thus it reveals the visual pleasure of Martha’s husband, which also acts on the audience, whom can be seen as voyeurs. And this gaze also conveys her position of “to-be-looked-at-ness.” In addition, she would like to show herself nude to her husband, which can be seen as a helpless compliance with her husband, and also fawns on him. Thomas Elsaesser also thought, in a similar way, that “The audience is inscribed as voyeurs, but only because the characters are so manifestly exhibitionist [183].” The Days Between also has some nude shots of the characters. Lynn and her boyfriend swim as shown in Figure 2.20(b). Her boyfriend wears a swimsuit, but Lynn does not. There are indeed only two persons in this swimming pool at that time, but after all, it is a public place. In spite of that, Lynn still appears undressed. According to Thomas Elsaesser, Lynn can be seen as an exhibitionist. For Laura Mulvey, Lynn is an object of “gaze,” of “to-be-looked-at-ness,” also as an object of desire in Claire Johnston’s opinion which was mentioned in the “Introduction.” The subject of this “desire” is not only Lynn’s boyfriend, but also includes the audience, who is inscribed as voyeurs. Nude is a catalyst for sexual desire, but women do not get the results that they expect every time. This can be seen if only viewed from Lynn’s emotion, her intentional nudity, actually aims at arousing her boyfriend’s sexual desire, so as to acquire his love, and hopes that he does not ignore her feelings any more due to her sincere love. Lynn is similar to Martha at this point, and Lynn’s behavior reflects, so to speak, her helpless compliance and attempts to ingratiate herself with her boyfriend. Both

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61

Martha and Lynn are educated, and Martha had a job before her marriage, and Lynn also has a job, but still neither of them are free them from restrictions in the patriarchal society, nor break its implicit rules. Just as Laura Mulvey said: “Woman then stands in patriarchal culture as signifier for the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out his phantasies and obsessions through linguistic command by imposing them on the silent image of woman still tied to her place as bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning [441].” Whereupon, the nude becomes these women’s effective method of competing with men. As “objects,” they seemingly do not possess the power of decision, however, they can gradually change their subordinate position by means of this manner of nudity, in order to acquire the respect of men as “subjects.” Although this method is not effective all along, after all this is still one of the means for women to resist in a patriarchal society.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2.20: Nude females respectively in Martha and The Days Between. The Marriage of Maria Braun, Lili Marleen, Lola, Molly’s Way, Madonnas, Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness, No Mercy, No Future, Marianne and Juliane, No Place to Go, and Windows on Monday, all of these German films have female nude shots, and they convey a similar meaning to Martha and The Days Between. Chinese films often employ an obscure method for showing women’s bodies. There is a scene in Married to a Child showing Xiaoxiao and her lover Huagou having sex. Figures 2.21(a) and 2.21(b) are two shots of that scene. Obviously, it shows

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Xiaoxiao’s back and the method of cutting from her breasts, in order to avoid showing her whole naked body. Figures 2.22(a) and 2.22(b) are two shots of a scene in Ju Dou where Ju Dou’s lover Tianqing Yang peeps at her through a small hole. Similar to Married to a Child, only Ju Dou’s back and her “be cut” breasts are shown on the screen. This is a typical technique for showing women’s bodies in Chinese films.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2.21: Xiaoxiao’s body showing in Married to a Child.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2.22: Ju Dou’s body showing in Ju Dou. However, there are two Chinese films in this book that are exceptions, and in them, the function of “gaze” is similar to German films. The first one is Summer Palace. Na Zhao evaluated this film, saying, “There are not only so many sex scenes that are unsuitable for children, but it also shows the

2.6. REPRESENTATIONS SHOWING BODIES

63

‘Tiananmen Square protests of 1989’ that violate national ideology and have almost been forgotten by people [628].” This can be seen as the most important reason for the film’s being banned. Figure 2.23(a) shows just one of the so many nude shots in this film, and the female character in this scene exposes her breasts on purpose. Viewed from the background in this shot, there are other residential buildings, and she is easily seen by other people, however, she still insists on being undressed despite whether or not others see her nude. In this sense, she fits very well with Thomas Elsaesser’s opinion: exhibitionist. Her boyfriend loves another woman, therefore her behavior aims at catching her boyfriend’s heart firmly, since she does not want to lose in this war of love. Her behavior also confirms Laura Mulvey’s opinion about “tobe-looked-at-ness,” and she exposes herself generously without any shyness, hence visual pleasure emerges immediately. One can ask whether this was an appropriate way to shoot, keeping in mind the usual approach to showing women’s bodies in Chinese films. It can be appropriate. However, filmmakers are deliberately against the traditional concept and technique, and try to be different to interpret the story in a rebellious way, which actually is similar to the obstinate female protagonist Hong Yu with her rebellious spirit. Jian Tao believed that Summer Palace “tries to use a fictional reality naturally closest to the heart, to accomplish the exploration of individual lives. This is completely a private female diary [543].” This film can be seen as a private diary, besides, this “private” is brought into the public and to be expanded, which is mainly reflected in female bodies and sex scenes, therefore its privacy feature disappears and is totally exposed in front of the public. The second example is Fish and Elephant. This is also a banned film, and basically there are two reasons: first, it is a story of lesbians; second, there are many sex scenes. Just as Huiqun Tian’s comment, the director made this underground film due to its special topic [551]. 21 21 The

title of this reference should be “The Devil in the Bottle: Absent Male—The Psychoanalysis

for Li Yu’s Movie,” but the author wrote “Psychanalysis” instead.

64

CHAPTER 2. MARRIAGE AND LOVE Rosemary Hennessy wrote: “queer theory’s postmodern conception of identity as

an ensemble of unstable and multiple positions contests traditional formulations of sexuality as a personal issue [265].” Judith Butler “explores the ways in which the assumption of a lesbian identity can serve not only to affirm but also to constrain, legislate, determine, or specify one’s identity in ways that support the categories of homophobic and heterosexist thought [91].” Indeed, as Anne Sanders said, “Marriage today does not only involve private interests; it is also an important legal and political issue [500].” As to the topic of homosexuality, the perspectives and regulations are different in China and Germany, which leads to the different representations in films. In Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China, article 2 in “General Principles” clearly had the provision that marriage is between a man and a woman [406], 22 that is, other forms of civil union are not accepted. In Germany, Anne Sanders pointed out, “Civil partnerships were introduced in 2001, when a coalition of the Social Democrats and the Green Party under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was in office [501],” and were allowed for same-sex couples. Although same-sex marriage is not legal in Germany, however, by contrast, attitudes are even stricter in China than in Germany. Therefore, some films, like The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and Four Minutes, telling the stories of lesbians have appeared on the screen. From the point of view respecting human life-styles and equal rights, same-sex marriage should not be discriminated against and excluded. However, viewed in the context of the national conditions in current China and the perspective of the majority, for example, same-sex marriage affects the perfect expression of sex for people, and it destroys the action of carrying on the family line [371], therefore the legalization of same-sex marriage is very difficult. Thus just as Shuqin Cui wrote, “Female sexuality, especially homosexuality, is a subject that film directors in China hesitate to address [140].” A film like Fish and Elephant showing a story of lesbian identity and practice only becomes a underground film [141]. There are many naked sex scenes between women in Fish and Elephant, as shown 22 Also

see [405].

2.6. REPRESENTATIONS SHOWING BODIES

65

in Figure 2.23(b). In the sex scenes in other Chinese films in this book, the man is an active “subject” of “look,” and the woman is a passive “object” “to-be-lookedat-ness.” However, all of the female protagonists in this film are in the position of “to-be-looked-at-ness,” and it even does not show the “gaze” of men. This is a thorough subversion and rebellion of women in the patriarchal society. They actually just want to express their inmost emotion and pursue virtuous love. However, their behavior is not accepted by most of the people due to the constraint of the traditional concept, thus they are miserable inside. Therefore those naked sex scenes reflect not only the rebellious and stubborn women in the film, but also convey an urgent and sincere discourse expression of the director as a female. The director Yu Li said: “I want to express women’s real pain and helplessness [...] in the eyes of the female protagonist Xiaoqun, the society looks like a wall, and her wish and desire are blocked by this wall. Her silence brings her more pain and pressure [206].” Thereupon she is willing to have the “to-be-looked-at-ness” to release pressure and anguish.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2.23: Nude females respectively in Summer Palace and Fish and Elephant. In Chinese films, whether they employ an implicit and conventional method of showing women’s bodies, or break through the traditional habit to boldly show women in the nude, they all reflect the notion of “gaze” and “to-be-looked-at-ness.” However, there is a special historical phenomenon, that is, female warriors, which leads to a special “gaze” shown in plenty of films and other literary works during

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1949–1978. Such as, some films reflecting female warriors who fight bravely against the enemy, and some heroines who lead the masses to carry out social reform: Daughters of China (1949), Zhao Yiman (1950), Song of Youth (1959), The Red Detachment of Women (1961), Hai Xia (1975), and Mountain Flower (1976), separately shown in Figures 2.24(a)–2.24(f). They are not art films, and were made before 1977, thus they do not belong to the scope of this book. However, these women are shown to be very strong, even braver than men, and this is indeed a special phenomenon of “gaze,” therefore, this section analyzes it briefly. Their behavior completely reflects Mao Zedong’s saying, “Women hold up half the sky,” thus they are a great distance away from “to-be-looked-at-ness,” and they generally are not shown as the feminine in the male’s desire. Jinhua Dai pointed out, “The decline of the male ‘gaze’ did not result in a new narrative mode that negated or opposed patriarchy, however, for the new mode of representation was itself a revision of a powerful patriarchal discourse. Rather than the self-narration of women, these new films narrated women through an authoritative male perspective. Although images of women were no longer objectified by the male desiring ‘gaze,’ women still did not comprise an autonomous gender group apart from men. [...] The gender opposition and distinction between men and women disappeared and were replaced by class and political difference [158].” 23 Therefore, Chinese films in this period reflect neither the implication of “gaze,” nor human desire by means of showing women’s bodies. As to why are these differences in showing female bodies in Chinese films and German films, this section summarizes two main reasons. The first reason lies in the differences between Chinese portrait paintings and 23 Jinhua

Dai also wrote in [159]: “It is not by being women, but by being warriors that women can

enjoy an equal, or undifferentiated, social status with men. Emancipated Chinese women, situated in a social and discursive structure where the only standards and norms are those of men, assume a new nameless burden and experience a split life and identity. On the one hand, they become ‘people’ just like men, and they ‘prop up half the sky’ with all their strength, or sometimes with limited strength. On the other hand, they assume the unquestioned responsibilities and roles of traditional women.”

2.6. REPRESENTATIONS SHOWING BODIES

67

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

Figure 2.24: A special “gaze” respectively shown in Daughters of China, Zhao Yiman, Song of Youth, The Red Detachment of Women, Hai Xia, and Mountain Flower.

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Western portrait paintings. Huizhen Hong pointed out: “Chinese paintings focus on creating images for all the things on earth, but Western paintings put emphasis on creating images for themselves [284].” This means that Chinese paintings are not portrait-based, but there is a long history of portraits in Western paintings. Huizhen Hong also summarized, the nude is beautiful in the Greek perspective, which benefits from its hot climate and sports, and it is easy to be comfortable without clothes when doing sports [285]. Thus painters could acquire many opportunities to observe and capture the beauty of the human body. This tradition gradually influenced Western paintings and sculptures, etc., thus the nude can be seen as an important part of Western portrait paintings. This section provides two examples of nudes. One is Peter Paul Rubens’s Het Pelsken, shown in Figure 2.25. The female model basically appears nude. Ivan Gaskell wrote, “Rubens incorporated lessons learned from his study of Titian in his work throughout his career. In particular, he used the motif of a near-naked female figure wrapped in a fur-lined coat found in the work from which the present canvas is derived in the late, intimately erotic portrait of his second wife, Helena Fourment, known as ‘Het Pelsken’ [221].” Fiona Healy “reads Rubens’s Venus as the personification of physical love, and as such the ultimate image of his own Hélène. This fusion of Hélène Fourment and Venus becomes very palpable in Het Pelsken, the illustrious portrait historié of Rubens’s young wife as Venus [131].” The other example is Gustave Courbet’s The Woman in the Waves, shown in Figure 2.26. The painter considered that “the beauty of the nude symbolizes naked natural reality. The young girl’s skin in The Woman in the Waves (1868) seems whiter against the dark water, and her solid and towering breasts show a strong perceptual effect full of the vitality of youth [118].” The nude of Lynn in The Days Between, shown in Figure 2.20(b), is similar to this painting, which reflects the tight connection between films and paintings. In China, the perspective on the nude is totally different from the Western concept. Most Chinese consider the nude to be uncivilized, and this concept still has been in the

2.6. REPRESENTATIONS SHOWING BODIES

Figure

2.25:

Peter

Paul

Figure 2.26:

69

Gustave Courbet, The

Rubens, Het Pelsken, circa 1636-

Woman in the Waves, 1868. Oil on can-

1638.

Oil on panel; Width:

vas; Width: 54cm; Height: 65.4cm;

83cm; Height: 176cm; Kun-

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New

sthistorisches Museum,

York.

enna.

Vi-

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dominant position until nowadays. Therefore many Chinese painters do not realize the beauty of the nude. The nude actually appeared in ancient China, but the amount is less and most of them are related to Buddhism. Besides, there were erotic paintings, but most of them were not shown to the public [286]. Zui Chen and Lin Cao pointed out, “The situation of cutting off China from the outside world was broken after ‘The Opium War,’ and then the Western nude art was introduced to China gradually. Some overseas students came back to China at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the human nude, as a scientific basic for an art training method and painting style, were authentically introduced into China [119].” Thus women in traditional Chinese paintings are with clothes, and the figure’s shape does not accord very well with the proportions of the human body, as in Western paintings, due to the lack of observation of the human body for Chinese painters. This section shows two traditional Chinese portrait paintings, the first one is Fang Zhou’s Court Ladies Wearing Flowered Headdresses, shown in Figure 2.27. Chinese Portrait Paintings stated about this painting, it describes “a life situation where some noble women are playing games and admiring the beauty of the flowers in the court, including four parts: playing with a dog, taking a walk, looking at flowers, and wearing flowers in one’s hair. The composition is well-proportioned, the full and round figures appear calm, and the lines were delineated smoothly [310].” The second one is Yin Tang’s Court Ladies in the Shu Palace, shown in Figure 2.28. This painting “was based on the palace living of Meng Chang, the emperor of the Later Shu during imperial China’s Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Its lines are smooth and the colors are gorgeous. It reflects the painter’s intelligence viewed both from its form and its content. It is one of his masterpiece of painting beauties [311].” First, all of these women wear clothes. In addition, all of these women look quite similar, but this does not fit the facts. This reflects a feature in Chinese paintings: pursuing an “artistic conception” rather than to “copy.” The second reason lies in the difference in the “motion picture rating sys-

2.6. REPRESENTATIONS SHOWING BODIES

71

Figure 2.27: Fang Zhou, Court Ladies Wearing Flowered Headdresses, Tang Dynasty. Chinese ink and colors on silk; Width: 180cm; Height: 46cm; Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang.

Figure 2.28: Yin Tang, Court Ladies in the Shu Palace, Ming Dynasty. Chinese ink and colors on silk; Width: 63.6cm; Height: 124.7cm; The Palace Museum, Beijing.

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tem.” In Germany, the Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle der Filmwirtschaft (Voluntary Self-Regulation of the Film Industry, FSK) has a film ratings system: FSK 0, FSK 6, FSK 12, FSK 16, FSK 18, and “educational programming.” This clear classification is designed to classify films with regard to their suitability for audiences in terms of issues such as sex, violence, substance abuse, profanity, impudence, or other types of mature content, and it also helps parents to decide whether a film is suitable for their children [192] [193]. For example, Martha and The Days Between both belong to FSK 12. However, the People’s Republic of China does not carry out a motion picture rating system, and it only has the distinction between “suitable for all ages” and “banned.” The deputy director Shi Zhao of SARFT (The State Administration of Radio Film and Television) believed that in China currently, it is not appropriate to carry out such a system. There are many cases where teenage audiences are difficult to be controlled from entering into the market, cinema, and internet bar, to watch films that are not suitable for them [605].

24

Therefore, SARFT only treats all films

equally without discrimination, and directors must follow the regulations, otherwise their films cannot be released in Chinese mainland theaters. The part “Examination of Movies” in Regulations on the Administration of Movies in the PRC clearly forbids publicizing pornographic films [486]. Hence, films such as Summer Palace and Fish and Elephant, apart from their sensitive topics, their many sex scenes, and the shots showing nude women, belong to irregularities, so they absolutely cannot smoothly pass review, and only become banned films.

2.7 Conclusion This chapter began with briefly summarizing the films considered, in synopses. Then it analyzed the differences between China and Germany in their marriage systems 24 For

more, see [126] and [136].

2.7. CONCLUSION

73

and divorce systems, and pointed out that polygyny in ancient China and monogamy in Germany all the time constituted the biggest difference. Then this chapter analyzed the connotations of shots in the subsequent four sections, to be reviewed as follows. First, both Chinese and German films express “women are trapped in their houses” and they cannot escape from there. Chinese films employ many roof shots, resembling cages and prisons, to show the female protagonist’s marital status and psychological emotion, but German films show the interior of the house to directly reveal the implication “trapped.” Second, there are differences between the two countries’ films in their use of color. Apart from red as the leading color in Chinese weddings (although nowadays many Chinese brides wear white wedding dresses due to cultural blending, red is still very important in Chinese weddings), but white as the leading color in German weddings, normally there are one or two colors as the dominant hue in a Chinese film, to establish the whole atmosphere, but German films are much more colorful and brighter. This section also pointed out the differences between Chinese and Western paintings with regard to color, which have influenced films very much. Third, as to the function of mirror shots, generally they aim at checking the female protagonists’ appearances or appreciating their beauty in Chinese films, but in German films, they possess a deeper metaphor instead of only seeing women’s looks. Fourth, when there is a sex scene or a scene showing women’s bodies, Chinese films always use an obscure way to represent them and avoid showing a nude, but German films are just the opposite, often directly showing nudity. This section summarized two main reasons: one derives from the differences in painting, that is, Western portrait paintings had a history of the nude, but Chinese portrait paintings did not; the other one lies in the fact that German films have a clear “motion picture rating system,” but Chinese films still have not carried it out.

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CHAPTER 3. BIRTH AND MOTHERHOOD

75

Chapter 3 Birth and Motherhood This chapter will analyze films in terms of the theme of birth and motherhood. It will mainly introduce the differences about this, including the family planning policy in China and the pronatalist policy in Germany, contraception and abortion, and will also analyze the differences when representing a woman’s giving birth. The main Chinese films treated will be: Mama (1990), The Story of Qiu Ju (1992), Stolen Life (2005), Dam Street (2005), Knitting (2008), and When Love Comes (2010), and also including Kuei-mei, a Woman (1986), Teeth of Love (2007), and And the Spring Comes (2007). The main German films treated will be: Germany, Pale Mother (1980), Molly’s Way (2005), Lucy (2006), Madonnas (2007), and The Stranger in Me (2008), and also including Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave (1973), and The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979).

3.1 3.1.1

Synopses Chinese films

In The Story of Qiu Ju, the village head kicks Qiu Ju’s husband in the crotch in a quarrel, then Qiu Ju sues the village head. But after Qiu Ju gives birth to a son, the village head is arrested by the police, thus Qiu Ju feels very guilty. Because she only wished

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for an apology rather than this serious consequence. The female protagonist Biqiu He in the original novel was changed to the pregnant woman, Qiu Ju, who arouses more concern and sympathy [391]. This film expresses how “the Chinese value children,” and the strong preference for boys to girls which reflects the core problem of this story: a boy is very important in a family. This concept is reflected not only in this film, but also is conveyed in Mama 1 which tells the moving story of a mother and her mentally handicapped son. Other people think this boy will never recover, but only the mother all along keeps the belief that her son will recover one day. Xiaoyun in Dam Street is pregnant when she is sixteen, then she and that boy are both expelled by the school. After Xiaoyun gives birth to a son, her mother tells her the baby is dead. But ten years later, Xiaoyun discovers her son is still alive, and there is a dubious relationship between them. This film, Shuqin Cui wrote, “displays teen pregnancy and its consequent social punishment to bring sex and gender into the discourse of power, adding a feminist perspective [142].” Stolen Life also tells a story about a woman’s life and her missing baby. Yanni has no idea that her boyfriend only wants to sell their baby for money, so she takes a lesson from that missing baby and leaves her unreliable boyfriend. This conveys that a baby can change a person’s life; this perspective is also reflected in Knitting. After Daping becomes pregnant, her boyfriend walks away and does not take any responsibility. Finally, Daping and her love rival raise that baby together. A movie critic Bieling Zhuo said: 1 This is the first independent film in China.

“Independent cinema in the People’s Republic of China

first emerged during the key transitional period that began around 1989, when massive protests by students and others in Tiananmen Square ended in the bloody crackdown known in China as the June Fourth Incident. Some of the psychological fallout from that event can be observed in Wu Wenguang’s pioneering documentary Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers (1990), which was unprecedented for its independent production, its direct-cinema aesthetic of detached observation, and for the lives it depicted as well–artists who had essentially dropped out of mainstream society. In the same year, Zhang Yuan, a recent graduate of the Beijing Film Academy who had eschewed working in the state studio system, released Mama, which combined a fictionalised story with documentary interviews and, together with Bumming in Beijing, marked the beginning of Chinese independent film-making [425].”

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77

“This film describes a real life, its plot is unpredictable, the same as the fate of the characters [124].” When Love Comes tells a story about the love and understanding between parents and children, especially when the “child” has her own baby. Laichun’s father marries into and lives with her first mother’s family, but the first mother cannot have babies, so she accepts Laichun’s second mother (Laichun’s biological mother) in order to carry on the family line. Most of the time, Laichun does not understand her family, until her accidental pregnancy and her boyfriend’s disappearance, when she suddenly grows up and takes care of her family. Simultaneously a new life grows up in her body, which changes Laichun very much.

3.1.2

German films

In Germany, Pale Mother, Lene’s husband Hans is sent to the front just after their wedding, although both of them are reluctant. But the crack between their relationship gradually appears because of the lack of communication. After Lene gives birth to Anna, she expects things will improve, but Hans still only wants to have sex when he is at home for several days. All along, their relationship does not improve. Besides, Lene suffers a facial paralysis which makes her upset everyday. Steven Taubeneck wrote, this film “graphically depicts the shock that many felt in the aftermath of the war. In this film, she tells the story of her mother and the inner war she entered after the outer war had ended [545].” The director, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Barbara Kosta wrote “In exploring her own subjectivity, she focuses on her parents’ lives and the collision between their private dreams and the politics of the Third Reich [342].” An Irish woman Molly and a Polish man, Marcin in Molly’s Way have one night of sex, and Molly gets pregnant, Molly then goes to Poland to find her unborn baby’s father. But Marcin only makes love with her and does not take responsibility for that baby, which makes Molly upset. Finally Molly leaves without informing Marcin. This film begins with Molly’s arriving at a train station in Poland, and finishes with her

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leaving. Lucy also shows a single mother’s life. 18 year old Maggie has a baby called Lucy. Maggie often cannot go outside to have fun with friends, sometimes her friend or her mother takes care of Lucy, but that is inconvenient. After having a boyfriend, Maggie and Lucy move into that man’s apartment, but her boyfriend sometimes does not care for Lucy, thus their relationship becomes worse. No matter how tough are the things Maggie must face, she takes care of her baby all the time. The film Madonnas tells a story that Rajendra Roy wrote, “Rita (Sandra Hüller) is the single mother of five children, several of mixed race and clearly not all of the same father [494].” However, it seems she is not good at taking care of children, and claims her own mother was never a good one. Her behavior does not accord with what the title suggests. Another film, The Stranger in Me, also shows some bad behaviors of a mother, Rebecca, to her baby, but that is because she suffers postpartum depression. On the surface, her behavior is extremely irresponsible, even horrible, but she deserves sympathy: at least this situation is not her wish.

3.2

Perspectives on Birth and Motherhood

In the traditional Chinese way of thinking, Meiyi Lü and Yongfu Zheng wrote, “the basic feature in the gender system is sexism and sexual inequality: the core content is the male’s superiority to the female [388].” Women’s education is home-based, and they should learn how to manage household affairs [622]. The most important responsibility for women is giving birth to children. In the cited paper, Shuqing Zhang and Yang Zhang summarized that all three religions pay attention to birth, but there are some differences between them. Confucianism pays much attention to adding a new person to a family from the angle of extending the kinship system and to maintaining every the status and influence in society of each family’s name. Chinese-style Buddhism also pays attention to birth, viewing it from the point of view of human continuity and self-development, so as to coordinate with social existence and follow the development of people’s livelihood.

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Taoism emphasizes “letting nature take its course,” dealing with things according to humankind-self production rule, maintaining the natural harmony, ecological balance, and gender equality [622]. Although Buddhism and Taoism have both influenced the Chinese people, Shuqing Zhang and Yang Zhang thought that “Confucianism plays the biggest role in fertility values [623].” A perspective about birth in Confucianism is “Bu xiao you san, wu hou wei da [429]” which means there are three major offences against filial piety: having no male heir is the gravest one. An Introduction to Chinese Fertility Culture was the first academic monograph on Chinese fertility culture 2 summarized that traditional Chinese society encouraged people to give birth to sons and carried out some childbearing policies, for instance, families having boys were exonerated from the corvee, were exempted from taxes, rewarded with goods, and obtained food assistance [459]. Thus the traditional concept can be considered as being that bearing babies as soon as possible after the wedding, the more children the more blessings. It is a big deal whether a woman gives birth to a baby or not, whether she has more children or not. The role for women of staying at home to support their husbands and raise the children was changed to a certain degree after the extinction of the Qing Dynasty. Meiyi Lü and Yongfu Zheng wrote that “The raising of women’s social status is a remarkable highlight in the change of Chinese modern society. It is also a symbol of the difference between modern women and traditional women [389].” They also summarized four kinds of woman’s roles in modern China: good wife and loving mother with a new connotation (they are not only good wives, but also have obligations to society); the mother of the nation (women’s qualities are improved by means of receiving education); modern women (professional women who receive some education with modern ideas); revolutionary female warriors (professional revolutionaries) [390]. After the establishment of the PRC, and people were finally freed 2 This

evaluation is derived from [614].

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from the previous horrible and miserable era, many women participated in the work of socialist construction, and had the right to enter into the new society. Notwithstanding, the importance of birth in the Chinese mind does not change much: most Chinese are still willing to have children. In their article “Fertility Culture: Tradition and Its Change,” Guohong Zhu et al. wrote that “The worship of reproduction is still hidden in the deep structure of Chinese culture [645].” Bringing up children and doing domestic service are taken by many women to be a duty and a habit while they are professional women, which increases the burden on them. But traditional Chinese culture still influences many people in contemporary society, thus with the increasing of women’s status step by step, many women still carry on their “mission”: giving birth. Whereupon a new type of fertility concept has gradually grown up. An Introduction to Chinese Fertility Culture mentioned, “A scientific, civilized, and progressive concept of marriage and procreating is the core of constructing a new type of fertility culture. It obviously advocates ‘delayed marriage and delayed child bearing,’ ‘fewer and healthier births,’ ‘boys and girls are both good,’ and ‘husbands have a responsibility for family planning’ [460].” In traditional German culture, Diane J. Guido wrote, “Boys were trained for professions; girls were trained to run a household and to know just enough to carry on intelligent conversations with their future husbands [241].” Diane J. Guido continued to write that as to woman, “Her top priority was the bearing and raising of children. Her sphere was that of the home, the private, as opposed to the public sphere of the man. Her activities were centered around the three K’s, Kinder, Küche, and Kirche (children, kitchen, and church) [242].” Birth is important for women in traditional German culture, which is similar to the traditional Chinese concept. An article “The Changing Face of Motherhood in Western Europe: Germany” summarized some historical perspectives about motherhood. “Women were supposed to be obedient, self-sacrificing mothers who were solely dedicated to the education and rearing of their children [98].” It is similar to traditional Chinese concept in this

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regard. In the 18th century, “Politics became ‘gendered’ and the ‘institutional mother’ emerged. Mothers were idealised and the mother’s importance for the spiritual and emotional well being of children and husbands was increasingly emphasized [98].” Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi considered that an organic, spiritually grounded mothering model need to replace a childrearing method used by decadent aristocratic mothers [98]. These show the important role of mothers for children and families. This article also mentioned that “While women experienced a shift towards greater equality during the early years of the Weimar Republic, these progressive reforms were to be undone during the Nazi era. According to the Nazis, children were born to the Führer, not to the parents. [...] In 1934, all mothers were officially suspended from state employment in order to be able to fulfill their duty at the ‘birth front’ (‘Geburtenfront’). The mother was conceived of as a ‘Gebärmaschine’ (‘child-bearing machine’) and the Nazis notorious ‘Mutterkult’ (‘cult of the mother’) was exemplified by the bestowal of the ‘Mutterkreuz’ (‘cross of honour for the German mother’ as a reward for bearing at least four children) [99].” Thus, mothers who had more children were much glorified in those days. However, this situation limited women’s rights, and they did not obtain freedom. In 1934, Adolf Hitler proclaimed, “Woman’s world is her husband, her family, her children, her house [240].” Viewed from another perspective, a country needed soldiers and combat power in wartime, a society with a high death rate certainly needed newborn babies as a supplement. Germany encouraged people to have children, but did not encourage women to enter the field as China did. Many Chinese female soldiers made significant contributions to the establishment of new China, films showing such Chinese female warriors were mentioned in the chapter “Marriage and Love.” Nowadays, German women have the right to make a decision whether they want children or not. In Christianity, mothers have a unique and crucial role in the lives of their children. Sarla Chand and Kathy Erb wrote, “New life is one of God’s most precious

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gifts. Having a baby should be one of the happiest times for a woman and her family [104].” Titus mentioned: “In this way they will train the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, pure, fulfilling their duties at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the message of God may not be discredited [276].” Anna Melchior wrote, “By loving your children, you enable your children to love themselves and to love others. By respecting your children and meeting their needs, you show your children that the world is a safe place to be. By providing a good example, discussing your goals and hopes with your children, and setting boundaries, you give your children values that will support and guide them throughout their lives [427].” Being a mother certainly is not an easy thing, especially raising children for their future. Anna Melchior continued to write that “There are no other jobs quite as challenging as being a mother because mothering challenges you on all levels— physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually [428].” This has shown that German culture and Chinese culture both pay attention to birth, and also emphasize the important role of mothers in bringing up children, in spite of the fact that some differences of contents and methods in both countries still exist. However, in modern society, the ratio of German women who still stay at home to take care of children and do housework, is higher than that for Chinese women. As to the differences between professional women and housewives in both countries, these will be analyzed in detail in the next chapter.

3.3

Family Planning Policy and Pronatalist Policy

This section will analyze how the “family planning policy” in China and the “pronatalist policy” in Germany are represented in films. Before discussing this difference, this section will talk about the fertility rate first, which has declined for decades both in China and Germany. According to “The Population Fertility Policy in 60 Years of China,” Xiaohong Ma and Chao Sun wrote

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that “From the 1970s, China has carried out a policy of reducing the fertility rate to control population growth. After 40 years of this effort, rapid population growth has been controlled effectively [399].” For example, in the time of the story of The Story of Qiu Ju, China carried out the “family planning policy.” Qiu Ju responds to the nation’s appeal, and does not want to break the rule by having more children, thus she takes extreme care with her first baby’s gender. “The Changing Face of Motherhood in Western Europe: Germany” stated, “In 2009, the average German mother had 1.36 children, which marks a stark decline from the 1960s when the figure was 2.5 children per mother [100].” Even though there is no examples that directly reflect the number of children in a family in German films, it is still not common that a mother has the five children shown in Madonnas. However, the reasons which caused the decline of the fertility rate in each country are entirely different. In Germany, “there are too few after-school care clubs and kindergartens, and this lack of provision serves as a disincentive for couples thinking of having children. Furthermore many would-be parents find it increasingly difficult to take on the responsibility of having a child alongside existing career-related pressures [101].” In China, the “family planning policy” is the most important reason for the decline of the fertility rate. Compared to the encouragement of childbirth in Germany, the situation of Chinese “family planning policy” seems more complicated. Guiyu Pan wrote, “In general, the main line of childbearing policy in traditional Chinese society lay in encouraging an increase in the population. That is to say, there was no policy of birth control in traditional China [461].” After the establishment of the PRC, the childbearing policy has experienced three phases: the phase of a pronatalist policy (1949–1953); a phase of preparation of transforming the policy (1954–1959); the phase of carrying out the limitation of birth policy (1960–nowadays), and the one-child policy that began with 1980–1984 [204]. Why does China carry out such a strict childbearing policy, and in a country with a tradition of reproduction worship? Generally, it can be based

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on one point: the Chinese population is too large, and the consequences would be unthinkable if China had not controlled it. There is no doubt that the “family planning policy” achieved the goal of controlling the quantity of the population. However, it caused a high sex ratio. 3 Xin Yuan and Hailong Shi wrote, “It is generally recognized that the normal range of sex ratio at birth is 103 to 107. In China, however, the sex ratio at birth has begun to remain on the high side and has continued to rise since the 1980s. It was 107.6 in 1982; 111.3 in 1990; 116.9 in 2000. The rate of increase was 7.74% over 18 years [608].” In other words, there are more men than women in contemporary China. The most important reason for the high sex ratio is the traditional Chinese culture of fertility: “more children and more boys [645].” Some traditional concepts are: “prefer boys to girls,” “woman is inferior to man,” “continuity of a clan,” “perpetuate the family,” etc. Although traditional fertility culture influences people less nowadays, this book thinks, as Xin Yuan and Hailong Shi believed that “it has not accomplished the fundamental transformation so far, [...] especially in rural areas, the preference for a boy is the core of the birth demand for peasants [609].” In The Story of Qiu Ju, Xueying Luo wrote that “The scriptwriter considers there are several connotations and aspects in this story. One, it possesses sociality in the exterior and superficial respect: an ordinary civilian sues an official, or, this is a story of a common person struggling against the grass-roots bureaucracy. Second, viewed from the figure’s fate and personality: one of the weak who suffers damage maintains her honor. Third, there is an existentialism perspective: people probably damage the other party as a cost when they maintain their own dignity [396].” However, why does Qiu Ju only want to obtain a sincere apology rather than compensation from the village head? Apart from her obstinate personality in seeking for justice, more importantly, the part of her husband’s body which was kicked is the penis. Lijun Feng believed that “The ultimate goal of Qiu Ju is to maintain the male genital 3 In

this book, sex ratio means the ratio of males to females.

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organ [203].” As Jerome Silbergeld wrote, China was carrying out a “one-child policy” in Qiu Ju’s era, [514] thus that organ is very necessary for fertility. Besides, Zhizhong Fan believed that “The significance of a woman in a patriarchal society lies in whether she bears a boy and takes him into the symbolic order of male [194].” Fortunately, Qiu Ju bears a boy at the end of this film and accomplishes her mission as a woman. Otherwise, if this baby had been a girl, and if Qiu Ju’s husband had developed a disease and become infertile simultaneously, then Qiu Ju would not have had a boy to “carry on the family line,” which is a big misfortune for rural people. This shows the importance of the Chinese concept: “perpetuate the family,” which means “want to have boys.” In Mama, the female protagonist always keeps faith that her mentally handicapped son can be healed one day, although others around her have the contrary opinion. On the one hand, this film reflects a deep maternal love; on the other hand, one cannot help thinking, if the mentally handicapped child was a girl instead of a boy, would Mama continue to have the treatment positively for many years, full of bright hopes? This couple has to consider, if they give up on this son and have another child, maybe that will be a girl. This speculation does not aim at slandering the great image of Mama, whom this film represents and praises, but at emphasizing the importance of a boy in a family. In When Love Comes, when Laichun’s mother gives birth to a boy who is sixteen years younger than her, the whole family is immersed in happiness except Laichun. Her father even drinks a lot to celebrate, and believes that he has finally achieved the most anticipated hope in life. This plot reveals the concept “prefer boys to girls.” The development of modern fertility technology, contraception, birth technology, sex determination technology, and artificial abortion technology, has also caused a high sex ratio. These approaches provide many reliable methods for choosing the sex of a baby, which will be discussed in detail in “Contraception and Abortion Embodied in Films.”

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of children, but rather, a “pronatalist policy.” A couple can decide how many children do they want, and Germany sets some policies to encourage childbearing. For example, before unification, East Germany carried out some rules, Eva Kolinsky wrote that “the first was that married couples could expect to be allocated a flat, especially when they were expecting a child [339].”

4

The second reason was that the East German

government offered newlyweds interest-free loans for setting up their home. If the couple remained childless, the loans had to be repaid within 11 years. For each child born before the 11 years were up, the state offered a discount. A couple with three children would only have to repay 2,000 of the original 7,000 Marks. 5 Eva Kolinsky wrote that “Generous child allowances were a further incentive. [...] Since the early 1980s, higher child benefits were offered for second children. [...] During the period of leave, the place of employment would be kept open, and a woman could expect to return to the same work and receive the same level of pay she had reached before her break [340].” An article, “Tensions of Female Employment, Reconciliation Policies and Childbearing Intentions in East and West Germany,” has argued that East Germany has sufficient child care facilities for children under age 3, but West Germany still has few; East Germany has all-day care facilities, but it is hard to find any in West Germany.

6

Furthermore, “Under German law, young parents

receive money for 14 months and both men and women have a right to take time off work once a child is born [101].” However, although there are many such benefits for having children in Germany, the birth rate still is not high, due to the reasons mentioned in the previous statements. And the sex ratio does not change much: it has been stable on the whole. In Germany, an effect of the war on the sex ratio was observed, with a rapid increase of the sex 4 For

more, refer to [167]. in [530]. 6 Summarised by [416]. 5 Summarized

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ratio from 0.51 to 0.52 during both wars, and a decline afterwards [554]. 7 Thus the reasons for the high sex ratio in China are not applicable to Germany. Looking at the German films discussed in this book, there are no examples representing the concept of “prefer boys to girls.” In Madonnas, actually Rita as a single mother does not have a good ability to take care of her five children, but, Rajendra Roy believed that “having children is the one thing Rita knows she is good at. Her progeny belong to her, and of that she is fiercely proud and protective. Will she learn to care for them or shun the responsibility? At the end of Speth’s film, Rita walks away [494].” She does not have a good handle, so to speak, on treating her children, and this film does not forecast the relationship between her and her children in the future: this suspense reflects a feature of the Berlin School. Marco Abel wrote, “withholding such information requires the kind of encounter with images (and sounds) that enforces a suspension in the viewer of his or her desire for familiarity and pleasure, indeed that subjects the viewer to the images, rather than instilling a sense of control over them [2].” In addition, her “communicative breakdowns [134]” with others, including her children, depict her as an unqualified Madonna. Whether Rita is a good mother or not, this film reflects the policy in Germany of no limitation on the amount of children. Germany, Pale Mother shows the important position of a mother. As the director Helma Sanders-Brahms said, women “teach the children to walk erect, and they teach the children to speak, and if they did not teach the children to speak or to walk, you can see that it would be very difficult for human beings to become human [470].” Obviously, the position of Lene in her daughter’s heart is higher than Lene’s husband. On the one hand, Hans is often absent in his daughter’s growth stage because of the terrible war. On the other hand, Hans thinks that their daughter disturbs their sexual activity in his only days at home, so sometimes he does not like her very much. However, the reason is not because the baby is a girl not a boy, but the father’s private 7 For

more about sex ratios, refer to [96].

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demand, thus there is no gender factor in this film. But at a similar time in China, most people liked boys much better than girls.

3.4

Representation of Birth in Films

This section will comparatively analyze some scenes of representing the process of delivery in both countries’ films. On the whole, German films show this kind of shot much more directly and more closer to visual realities than do Chinese films. The first example is The Story of Qiu Ju. Jerome Silbergeld wrote that “Pregnant throughout her social journey, Qiu Ju bears a son just before the end of the film, a son the chief never had—accomplished with the timely intervention of the chief himself after her labour goes badly [515].” Figures 3.1(a)–3.1(c) show a scene of Qiu Ju’s delivery. The corridor of the delivery room in Figure 3.1(a) shows a place where the relatives of the puerpera wait, and the audience gets information of the location from the two big striking Chinese characters on the doors “chan ke” which means obstetrics. Next, a moving shot directly shows that Qiu Ju finishes her delivery in Figures 3.1(b)–3.1(c). The detailed process of delivery is totally omitted, which can be seen as common in Chinese films. The core problem in this scene does not lie in how Qiu Ju gives birth to her baby, but whether she can smoothly accomplish her delivery, in other words, whether this baby will be born or not is the key point, which emphasizes the outcome more than the process. Xiaoli Zhao believed that “If Qiu Ju is an activist pioneer, then what she wants to maintain, is not the personal right of her or her husband, but a general childbearing right, an ancient belief about the sex organ: destroying the sex organ is the most serious crime [629].” Therefore, the delivery scene becomes the climax of this film, and this baby can be seen as the best way to silently solve the conflict for his elders, just as Figure 3.1(c) shows Qiu Ju and her son sleeping together in peace. Both of them share a white sheet, and they appear in the same frame as well, which means that although the baby has come out of the mother’s womb, emotionally they

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still can be seen as one integral whole: their destiny is inextricably linked. Who is the hero in this lawsuit? Neither the public security bureau, nor the court, but the baby. This outcome also confirms the “prefer boys to girls” in the traditional Chinese perspective.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 3.1: Qiu Ju’s delivery scene in The Story of Qiu Ju. The second example is Yanni’s delivery in Stolen Life. Figure 3.2(a) shows one shot of this process, and obviously this scene borrows a real delivery process of a puerpera from a professional institute. This room with modern medical equipment, the gray light and shadow, the shaking shots, the fast cutting, and the real newborn baby at the end of this scene, all of these make the delivery episode with documentary-style stray from the whole film. More importantly, Yanni does not appear in this scene at all, and the director does not give the actress any opportunity to do any crying and shouting in the delivery: the director makes her disappear completely. And then Yanni is shown in the next scene in Figure 3.2(b): she holds her baby to breast-feed him. This obviously conveys a feeling, the delivery has nothing to do with Yanni. The insertion of this “give birth to a child” indicates a tragic end, that Yanni’s child does not belong to her, the baby has to be sent to other people after birth, even they will be separated forever. Whereupon, the director Shaohong Li employs the method of alienation objectively and escaping subjectively, and “the cruel shots frostily reveal the living condition and the variation in mental world of modern people [244].” Simultaneously, it reflects how Shaohong Li pays close attention to human beings in her films, as an individual, and as a mem-

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ber of the society [365]. Therefore, although this scene does not completely omit the process of delivery as The Story of Qiu Ju does, it rather provides a real bloody baby that is not related to Yanni.

(a)

(b)

Figure 3.2: Yanni’s delivery scene in Stolen Life. The delivery scene in Dam Street only employs subtitles 8 to inform the audience what happens, shown in Figure 3.3, which is simpler than in The Story of Qiu Ju. The director Yu Li considered that this subtitle “is very direct and makes people calm, and the black screen provides the audience a process of temporary quiet inwardness [372].” This is also a process of alienation, which produces a similar effect to that of the delivery episode in Stolen Life. The first scene in this film shows Xiaoyun sitting in a creek, and then lying in the water. Yu Li believed: “Water symbolizes the female. Audiences feel uncomfortable when they watch a woman with clothes sitting in the water. This actually means the woman gets into some kind of quandary [373].” In addition, Huiqun Tian believed that this water reflects “the relation between the uterus and life, [...] she experiences the feeling of the life-giving for a woman, but she is incapable of taking responsibility for this new life due to her young age, she hesitates and does not know how to deal 8 The

subtitle says: On October 6, 1983, the boy’s sister, a doctor at the town hospital, privately did

a premature delivery operation for Yun. Yun’s mother asked the boy’s sister to give the newborn baby up for adoption to the teacher couple. The mother told Yun that the baby was dead.

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with it [552].” This kind of exquisite and symbolic visual representation for women’s life-giving, however, actually disappears completely in the process of delivery, including the puerpera. Xiaoyun’s disappearing, so to speak, is an escape in her inner heart from this disgraceful matter, and her mother even feels more shameful than her. Besides, the baby’s father leaves this town, but the harmful effect of this matter to Xiaoyun is bigger than that the man has escaped as well. As Xiaoying Yue said: “The pressure of life which an ‘immoral’ female suffers from, is much higher than a male [610].” This is exactly a common situation for women in a patriarchal society. Shuqin Cui wrote that “The film also locates the female protagonist in a psychological confusion that problematizes female self-identity [143].” It can be said that this experience of delivery is a reflection of Xiaoyun’s psychological confusion, and also is a beginning of her search for her “self-identity.” Anyway, Xiaoyun survives under pressure all the time, and forcefully pursues the peace and happiness in her heart.

Figure 3.3: A way to avoid showing Xiaoyun’s delivery in Dam Street. This section will provide two German examples of showing a delivery. The first one is Germany, Pale Mother shown in Figures 3.4(a)–3.4(c). The most obvious difference from Chinese films is that the bloody newborn baby is shown extremely directly. However, this “bloody” shot exactly reflects André Bazin’s opinion of “a total cinema that is to provide that complete illusion of life [45].” This scene also reveals maternity, as Kaja Silverman wrote: “the image of the infant contained within

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the sonorous envelope of the mother’s voice is a fantasy of origins—a fantasy about precultural sexuality, about the entry into language, and about the inauguration of subjectivity [520].” A voice-over is used in this delivery scene: this can be seen as a characteristic feature. Some famous films employ voice-overs, and in a way which makes them more unique in film history, for example, A Man Escaped. David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson analyzed the function of sound in A Man Escaped: sometimes the voiceover’s commentary helps clarify the action, at some points the voice-over even corrects an impression given by the image [76]. In most of the scenes, the voice-over in Germany, Pale Mother serves for comments and narrations, also leaving the imaginary space to the audience. Richard W. McCormick believed that “The film’s use of voiceover thus draws attention to its own existence as a fictive discourse. At the same time, it distances the audience by providing a perspective on the events being narrated separate from that of the main characters [418].” Mary Desjardins wrote Lene’s “hysteric masochism is associated with a kind of powerlessness as the woman/mother cannot separate her body from her psyche (her body acts in compliance with her psyche) [169].” After Lene has had her daughter, her body and psyche still are devastated by her husband. During this delivery, some documentary footage about the war is also added. Richard W. McCormick wrote: “Not only does the documentary footage of the bombers put Anna’s birth into historical context, that birth contextualizes the bombing as well: the experience of women and children was not ‘separate’ from the history of the war [419].” Lene and her daughter indeed cannot avoid living through that cruel history, although that is not their wish, but this is unchangeable, therefore their private and public lives cannot be separated in that special period. Barbara Kosta also believed that this film “looks at the inevitable interdependence of the private and public spheres and the consequences of misconceiving, and even repressing, the interchange between them [343].” However, the insertion of the documentary footage

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does not generate confusion in this film, as Anton Kaes wrote, “the actual process of historical reconstruction does not seem to pose a problem; memory and narration run parallel [328].” But what should not be ignored is that the “alienation” effect is also conveyed between this scene and the whole film, which is also applied to Chinese films as discussed above. Besides, Lene and her daughter are separately arranged in two different shots, which shows a different treatment of the delivery scene between the mother and the baby in Chinese films. It reflects, so to speak, a Chinese-style “being together” and a Western-style “individual,” as Longji Sun pointed out [534].

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 3.4: Lene’s delivery scene in Germany, Pale Mother. Another example showing a delivery is The Stranger in Me. A part of that scene is shown in Figures 3.5(a)–3.5(c). As in Germany, Pale Mother, this film also provides a real newborn baby, and even shows the action in which the infant is drawn out of the actress’s uterus. This indeed displays it much more directly than most Chinese films. In addition, although the baby and the mother are in the same shot, indeed, the baby is on his mother’s clothes, this dose not resemble Figure 3.1(c) in The Story of Qiu Ju, in which the mother and her baby are covered by the same sheet. Thus, the mother and her baby in The Stranger in Me are still separated even though they are organized in the same frame. The mother’s facial expression conveys that she is very shocked about this baby. Thus the Chinese-style “being together” and Western-style “individual” are reflected again in this scene. This also indicates that the mother does not like her baby, due to her postpartum depression.

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(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 3.5: Rebecca’s delivery scene in The Stranger in Me. Overall, delivery scenes in German films are more direct and bloody than in Chinese films. Apart from some special requirements for each film, more importantly, this kind of scene is a disguised form of “gaze” that was pointed out by Laura Mulvey, that is, women are looked at as objects; the difference is in the “motion picture rating system” between Germany and China which was analyzed in the chapter “Marriage and Love”: Mainland China still does not implement a “motion picture rating system,” but Germany does. This is similar to the differences in nude shots discussed in “Marriage and Love.” However, China does not forbid showing naked infants and children, not like women’s bodies as adults, and even sometimes prefers showing naked children to express loveliness, happiness or some specific emotion, as shown in Figure 3.6(a) and Figure 3.6(b), thus this is not a taboo. Although naked children are shown normally without limits in Chinese films, bloody newborn infants in general do not appear on the screen, and they are replaced by babies with clothes, or the delivery scene is omitted. However, Taiwan carries out a “motion picture rating system,” thus it is not strange that there is a bloody newborn baby shown in When Love Comes. For German films, they also reflect the “realism” that André Bazin praised. As to the representation of motherhood, German films and Chinese films are relatively similar. Figures 3.7(a)–3.7(b) show a happy and harmonious scene in And the Spring Comes between the female protagonist and her adopted daughter and her family. Although this is not a close shot, it still conveys the joyous emotion of the

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(a)

95

(b)

Figure 3.6: Two examples of showing naked children. characters. A similar scene can be found in Chinese paintings: such as Playing Balls under a Banana Tree shown in Figure 3.8. In this painting, “two children playing with small balls, their mother and sister watch them nearby, their eyes concentrate on the balls. The momentary dynamic and expression of the figures are depicted vividly. This painting is fresh and beautiful with a rich flavor of life [312].” This reflects not only “this kind of physical activity was popular with children in the city in the Song Dynasty [601],” but also conveys an atmosphere of peace and happiness between the mother and her children.

(a)

(b)

Figure 3.7: An example of showing motherhood in And the Spring Comes. In Madonnas, as the title suggests, there is narrated the relationship between a

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Figure 3.8: Anonymous, Playing Balls under a Banana Tree, Song Dynasty. Chinese ink and colors on silk; Width: 24.5cm; Height: 25cm; The Palace Museum, Beijing. mother and her children. However, the mother, Rita, does not take responsibility for her five children very well, unlike the typical image of Madonnas, she sometimes even feels embarrassed when they stay together. But Figure 3.9 shows that Rita tries to improve their relationship, and this is quite a precious moment in her motherhood, which conveys a cosy and harmonious atmosphere. The white wall behind Rita looks like the spotless hope that they look forward to their nicer relationship in the future. This picture resembles a kind of Western painting about the Virgin Mary carrying the baby Jesus, for example, Lorenzo Monaco’s The Madonna and Child Enthroned with Six Angels shown in Figure 3.10. This painting depicts, “The Madonna enthroned holds the Infant Jesus standing on her lap, his right hand raised in blessing. To either side of the throne is an angel with a censer and, partially visible behind them, four other angels, two on either side [80].” Miklós Boskovits wrote, “The painting has a blend of colours, apart from the heavily oxidized mantle of the Virgin, which ranges from delicate light tones of salmon pink and cyclamen to apple green, mother-ofpearl grey and canary yellow [81].” These detailed descriptions reflect a harmonious

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atmosphere between the mother and her child, and a similar scene and emotion are also conveyed in Figure 3.9. Both the Chinese and German examples illustrate again that films learn much from paintings and their close relationship.

Figure 3.9: An example of showing motherhood in Madonnas.

3.5

Contraception and Abortion Embodied in Films

Since ancient times, there have been many methods for birth control in the world, and some of them are still used nowadays. But contemporary people like to choose modern methods, which are safer and more convenient. Birth control serves, so to speak, not only for individual families, but also makes a contribution to the population size of humanity. Bozhong Li summarized some old birth control methods in China. For example, traditional Chinese medicine causes contraception, destroys the genital organs of the male or female so as to sterilize the individual, employs acupuncture and manipulation, uses some foods for contraception, employs various adjustments of sexual intercourse, and uses extended lactation as a contraceptive measure [359]. In addition, there are some extreme methods, for instance, an article “A History of Birth Control Methods” stated that “the methods used before the 20th century were not always as safe or effective as those available today. Centuries ago, Chinese women drank lead

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Figure 3.10:

Lorenzo Monaco,

The Madonna and Child Enthroned with

Six

Angels,

circa

1415-

1420. Tempera on panel; Width: 78cm; Height: 128cm; ThyssenBornemisza Museum, Madrid. and mercury to control fertility, which often resulted in sterility or death [335].”

9

This article also stated, “For thousands of years, abstinence, mutual pleasuring without intercourse–outercourse–withdrawal, predicting fertility, and breast-feeding were used by our ancestors to prevent unintended pregnancy [336].” Cuntong Wang summarized six main methods that people now use in contemporary China: sterilization; the intrauterine device (IUD); the condom; oral contraceptive pills; other measures (e.g., Norplant); and abortion (as a remedy for an unsuccessful contraception) [566]. The article “A History of Birth Control Methods” summarized the methods around the world in more detail. 10 There are not many films with plots relevant to contraception. In When Love Comes, Laichun’s first mother complains about her that she did not use a condom, otherwise she will not be bothered about her pregnancy. This shows the condom is an important contraceptive method in modern China. Besides, Ju Dou also shows some things in its 9 For 10 For

more, refer to [521]. more detailed information, refer to [337]

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plot about a traditional contraceptive method. After Ju Dou and Tianqing Yang have had their first son, they begin to worry about Ju Dou’s possibly becoming pregnant again. Hence, Ju Dou goes to a nunnery and obtains a kind of medicine without knowing its detailed ingredients, and an old nun tells her, it is for external use before sexual intercourse and using it will prevent pregnancy. Germany, Pale Mother also shows a plot with a condom, as shown in Figure 3.11. Hans has never made love with a prostitute because he says he loves his wife, thus his comrades-in-arms spelled out the word “Liebe” (love) using a bunch of condoms on his bed, as a joke.

Figure 3.11: An example of showing condom in Germany, Pale Mother. There is no distinct difference in contraception reflected in these two countries’ films, but the difference about abortion is quite obvious. Amirrtha Srikanthan and Robert L. Reid wrote that “In Chinese tradition, the greatest tragedy is a lack of descendants. Families must not merely have children, but have good, healthy, talented children [528].”

11

However, such a country has many

cases of abortion, which existed for a long time in traditional Chinese society. Yanxia Tian and Peimin Jiao wrote, “In the historical records, induced abortion in China had come into light since the Han Dynasty and three kinds of abortion techniques appeared simultaneously. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, because of the pressure from more population, abortion became popular in some regions, and became public, and turned into a profession or business. However, because of the traditional anti11 For

more, refer to [400] and [508].

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abortion bias, importance was not attached to the technique of abortion, and it could not be perfected [553].” Is abortion a crime? Different eras have had different perspectives on this. For example, Huapeng Tang wrote, “There are seven articles on criminal abortion in the 27th chapter in the New Criminal Code of the Qing Dynasty: a woman has an abortion by herself, someone forces a woman to have an abortion, medical care personnel carry out an abortion with getting out of line, etc., these behaviors to be punished severely [540].” Besides, Xuehua Jin summarized some of the partly relevant provisions about women’s rights and interests on abortion in contemporary China. “The 48th and 49th articles in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China state that women’s rights are protected by the nation. [...] That is to say, abortion as a woman’s right is protected by the Constitution in China [324].” However, Stipulations of Prohibition of the Medical Examination of the Fetus Gender for Non-Medical Needs and Sex-selective Pregnancy Termination has been in force since 2003, and the 7th article stipulates: “Pregnant women who are eligible for the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities Population and Family Planning Regulations, and have received maternity certificates, must be authorized by the local Family Planning Committee or organizations for Family Planning of the sub-district office and get the certificate, if they intend to have implemented a surgical termination of pregnancy of gestation more than 14 weeks for non-medical needs [531].” Although there are some provisions about abortion, Xuehua Jin considered: “The legislative system of prohibition of abortion in China seems somewhat chaotic, and there are some situations of violating the legislation, which need to be sorted out [324].” 12 In reality, abortion in modern China is free from discrimination. A pregnant woman can find a way if she really wants to have an abortion. For example, she can go to a little clinic with relatively poor medical conditions and a lower level of safety, or even have the procedure done in her own home. For instance, Yehong Qian in Teeth of Love has an abortion in 12 For

more detailed articles on the law, see [324] and [541].

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her lover’s home so as to conceal their affair from others, something which will be discussed later in detail. What about abortion in Germany? After the rise of Christianity, Church Law gradually began to advance, and abortion was criminalized. Viewed from the point of view of the Bible, an unborn baby is fully human, “Jesus tells us with the Parable of the Lost Sheep that each life is precious [104].” Psalms stated that “Certainly you made my mind and heart; you wove me together in my mother’s womb [277].” Psalms also stated that “I have leaned on you since birth; you pulled me from my mother’s womb. I praise you continually [278].” These show that God creates human beings in mothers’ wombs: a life will be the same human starting from a mother’s womb and on into the future. The love and understanding which God grants to a human do not begin with one’s birth, but start from conception. Therefore, abortion means the killing of a life, and it constitutes a crime. But there are some exceptional cases. For example, Amirrtha Srikanthan and Robert L. Reid wrote, “The majority of mainstream conservative Protestant denominations permit terminations when the mother’s life is threatened [529].” 13 All in all, abortion is a rejection of God’s blessing, and also a blasphemy to God. Thus from the perspective of Christianity, abortion basically neither conforms to the Bible, nor conforms to the heart of God. The legislation in Germany also mentioned abortion. Helen Rappaport wrote, “Under the civil code, women convicted of having abortions faced sentences of six months to five years in prison. Stritt’s call for the legalization of abortion prompted many long debates within the FGWA, and ended with the defeat of the proposal in 1910, [...] Abortion would remain in the criminal code until 1969 [485].” In addition, Vera Houghton wrote that “By a new law issued in Eastern Germany on September 27th, 1950, for the ‘Protection of Mother and Child and the Rights of Women,’ permission for abortion is withdrawn except where the health of the mother is gravely endangered by pregnancy, or where one of the parents suffers from a serious hered13 For

more, refer to [401].

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itary disease [288].” However, German feminists also worked on this. One slogan used in the 1970s was “Mein Bauch gehört mir! (My belly belongs to me!) [205]” Besides, there are some different opinions on abortion between East and West Germany. Lee Ann Banaszak wrote, “For East Germans, women’s employment played a significant role in determining abortion opinion, while religious denomination did not. In contrast, West Germans are largely unaffected by women’s employment status, although the factors that determine abortion attitudes differ by sex [34].” Some specific provisions in Germany after unification on abortion include, for example, that there are two situations for gestational limits of up to 12 weeks from conception: if the women declares being in a state of distress (in practice: on request after counseling); rape; or other sexual crime. The situations of no limit are: to avert danger to the life of the woman; to avert the danger of a grave impairment of the physical or emotional state of health of the pregnant woman [199]. “In practice women have access to safe abortion up to the 12th week only, when the passed counselling and the waiting time. After the 12th week of pregnancy they have no choice at all [200].” Overall, having an abortion in Germany is more difficult than in China. This section will summarize two main reasons for this difference. First, as discussed above, although normally Chinese people hold a negative attitude to abortion, they have not had the same perspective as in Christianity, which considers that life is granted by God. Thus abortion is not as serious as is the view in Germany. Besides, traditional China was a society with feudal ethics and rites, which considered that unrelated men and women are forbidden to have intimate contact, so sexual behavior without marriage suffered a severe blow. Thus, the main purpose for abortion was for curing sickness and saving the pregnant woman. But the situation of a pregnant woman without marriage has bettered in contemporary China. Some of them have to implement an abortion for their own lives or families, or the limitation of the number of children. However, that is not a problem in Germany. In When Love Comes, after finding out about Laichun’s pregnancy without marriage

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and the disappearance of her boyfriend, the whole family is very angry with her. Besides, the doctor does not agree to perform an abortion for her because she has been pregnant for more than four months. Laichun regrets her behavior, so she hits her belly with great force, shaking a tree hard, to express her upset and the fear in her heart. The straight trunk in that scene resembles a penis, like that which had made Laichun pregnant. So she shakes that tree hard to vent her emotions, stupidly hoping to have an abortion by herself. This foolish behavior also happens in Knitting. Daping is pregnant while her boyfriend leaves her so as to escape from his responsibility. Then Daping jumps into a big pit and tries to have an abortion by herself. This pit resembles a woman’s womb, which can accommodate a life. It is also a “metaphor for a forbidden area [510],” which refers to abortion. At last, Haili helps her to get out of that deep pit, escapes from abortion, which illustrates the theme of female friendship [604]. These symbolic signs represent these women’s hopes for an abortion, but both of them fail. Helma Sanders-Brahms said, “What does it mean to lose face? In many Asian countries it is the worst thing that can happen to a person. It means losing their identity, as perceived by the people around them [499].” “Losing face” is not only shown in When Love Comes about the pregnant young lady without marriage, but is also reflected in Dam Street, where Xiaoyun has the same experience. Xiaoyun Chen believed that “In the mother’s eyes, the ‘face’ is more important than the body [112].” Shuqin Cui wrote that “Dam Street situates the deviant body against the social-political era of 1980s’ China, when teenage pregnancy was seen as ‘moral decadence’ [144].” The best way to solve this problem is to have an abortion. There is a scene that shows how Xiaoyun’s mother lashes her pregnant body with a feather duster [145]. This completely reveals how the mother rather had hoped that her daughter would have had an abortion in time, but now it is too late since her unborn baby is around seven months old in her belly. In addition, there is a plot showing an abortion as well in Kuei-mei, a Woman. Guimei’s stepdaughter Zhengfang successfully implements an

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abortion, because she has carelessly become pregnant when she is 15 years old. In China, in such a situation of pregnancy at such a young age without marriage, it is normal for the girl’s parents to take her to obtain an abortion if possible, in order to give their daughter a better future. Therefore, the parents in When Love Comes and Dam Street are very angry with their daughters, since they have missed the opportunity to have an abortion. There is a scene representing an abortion in Teeth of Love shown in Figures 3.12(a)– 3.12(d). Yehong Qian is pregnant by her lover, and both of them realize that this baby will not come into the world, otherwise their future will be taken a worse direction. Then they decide to obtain an abortion. Although at the end of the 1970s and in the 1980s, which is shown in this film, China was going to develop rapidly, unmarried pregnancy and unmarried abortion were still laughed at by other people, and they were definitely something disgraceful. Besides, “having affairs” was also a shameful matter. Thus the unborn baby has to become a victim. Viewed from the aspect of love, Runtuo Xu and Tingyi Wu wrote that “In the circumstance that Yehong Qian knows Han Meng is married, she still actively falls in love with him, and undergoes the pain of abortion and being punished for this love [592].” Both of them are punished by the related organization: Yehong Qian is expelled from her university and is sent back to her native home, Han Meng’s application to become a full member of the Chinese Communist Party is postponed. However, they are not sent to prison, which proves that this is not a crime. For both of them, abortion is not as severely a killing of a life so that people must feel guilty, as is thought in Christianity. Simone de Beauvoir wrote in her The Second Sex, “Women realize their physiological fates when they become mothers, this is her natural ‘mission’ [161].” However, this natural mission sometimes is too strong an imposition on women, which makes them have no choice when they are pregnant but want to abandon that unborn baby. As if this mission is a dangerous bomb, it damages not only the pregnant woman, but also harms other people around her. This scene shows that Yehong Qian experiences

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the miserable abortion as “the bomb” in her belly to resist her “natural mission.” Her mind and body both suffer from the abortion, but she must violate the traditional Chinese perspective on birth that was discussed in previous sections—“pay attention to birth,” so as to avoid trouble. Ruojian Pan wrote that “The scene of abortion shows a closed space, the gloomy light, a syringe needle, sweat, and nearly stationary time, all of these make this scene both quite realistic and illusory [462].” The section “Representation of Birth in Films” showed some examples of pictures about women’s giving birth, and summarized a conclusion: Chinese films show this kind of shot more implicitly and indirectly than do German films. This also can be applied to this scene of an abortion. Apart from Yehong Qian’s painful expression, the out-flowing blood shown in Figures 3.12(b) and 3.12(c) represents how the dead infant will come out of Yehong Qian’s body. This scene uses this method to reveal the process of abortion instead of providing a real dead infant or a similar prop. The audience can understand the plot and experience the character’s emotion by means of imagination rather than watching a real thing as a documentary does. Compared with Chinese films, there are rarely plots showing abortion in German films, not to mention a detailed scene about it. But one film, Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave (1973) directed by Alexander Kluge, which is not analyzed in this book, represents a scene of an abortion which will be briefly shown here. Karyn Kay wrote that this film “revolves around six months in the life of one Rosewitha Bronski— at 29, wife, mother, abortionist, and growing political activist [334].” Figures 3.13(a) and 3.13(b) are exactly two shots in the process of an abortion while Rosewitha works. From the Chinese perspective, this scene is excessively direct, bold, and bloody, which completely conforms to the conclusion summarized in “Representation of Birth in Films.” In addition to this, this film is more like a documentary in some of its scenes, rather than a drama, for example, this abortion episode. Karyn Kay thought, “Kluge likewise disjoints his narrative with basic Brechtian alienating devices, interjecting

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 3.12: Abortion scene in Teeth of Love. voice-over and filmic inserts as comments on Rosewitha’s domestic and political activities [334].” If the audience appreciates this abortion scene as a documentarystyle scene, then this “excessively direct display” will be comprehended more easily.

(a)

(b)

Figure 3.13: Abortion scene in Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave.

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Actually, The Marriage of Maria Braun has a plot about abortion. Maria Braun is pregnant by an American soldier, Bill, but she does not love Bill, who was just a man she needed for getting money, and she thinks there is no future between them. In addition, she still loves her missing husband. Therefore, she has an abortion. Although there are not many details about her abortion on screen or in conversation, this is a rare German example showing abortion in this book. There are also some similar cases in German films of woman pregnant without marriage, or after a one-night stand, of being a single mother. However, the result and the way they are treated by other people in this matter are totally dissimilar to Chinese films. Basically, this is because there is no limitation on the number of children in a family, and because of the different concept in Christianity, discussed above. Molly’s Way is a good example representing attitudes towards the one night stand. Molly has had one night of sex with a Pole, called Marcin, then, after some time, she finds that she is pregnant. However, Marcin does not cherish their relationship and does not intend to take responsibility for that unborn baby. As discussed in previous paragraphs, in Chinese films about this issue, the Chinese would rather implement an abortion if the unborn baby is not big enough. They think this would be good for both the woman and the baby. But, Molly does not think so, she would rather believe she can raise that baby well by herself, otherwise, she would be killing a life if she has an abortion, which is a perspective in Christianity. The young mother Maggie in Lucy has a baby when she is 18 years old. This situation of a young single mother is very similar to Dam Street and When Love Comes. As analyzed above, the mothers in these two Chinese films regret finding out too late about their daughters’ pregnancies, otherwise “abortion” is an inevitable choice. Xiaoyun’s mother in Dam Street gives her daughter’s newborn baby to a teacher couple who wants to adopt a child, and then tells Xiaoyun that the baby was dead. Thus Xiaoyun does not raise her son at all. In When Love Comes, Laichun gives birth to

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a baby, but the whole family helps her to raise that child so she does not have to rely only on herself. That is why the Chinese do not support a woman’s having a baby at such a young age, especially as a single mother. On the one hand, it is shameful or “losing face”; on the other hand, she is likely to lack a good enough ability to raise that child physically and psychologically. However, Maggie as a single mother raises her baby by herself, and sometimes her mother helps her. “Losing face” as represented in Chinese culture is not revealed in this film. In Germany, with its low fertility rate, one rarely has the situation that Rita has, having five children in Madonnas, not to mention in China where there is a “Family Planning Policy.” Besides, her role as a single mother with five children is very uncommon in modern China. Rita does not think carefully before having each of her children, which causes the absence of paternal love for all of her children. In addition, she never thought about abortion, in this she is influenced by Christianity: as the film title suggests, Rita is described as Jesus’ mother, she definitely would not kill a life, especially her unborn babies. Actually, both Lucy and Madonnas do not clearly explain why the single mothers do not get married, why they rather raise their children by themselves, and do not contain any plots about abortion. In addition, they are open-ended, and do not provide a developing direction of the single mothers about the relationship with the children till the end of the films, which leaves enough imaginary space to the audience. Oskar Roehler described the Berlin School films as interchangeable, depressing and boring, and driving people away from cinemas [269]. The evaluation of a film depends on the person doing the evaluating—however, these two films indeed make the audience depressed about the single mothers’ future, even the problems of their motherhood. The Berlin School as “a loosely configured group of filmmakers who share a desire to infuse German cinema with a new sense of reality [2]” in Marco Abel’s opinion often portray some social issues, such as, the life of single mothers in Germany. Then this section will continue to discuss the second reason why Germany is stricter about abortion than China is. In China, as a traditional agricultural country,

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the rural areas need a male labor force to do the farm work. With the rapid economic boom in China and the development of agriculture, this situation of needing male labor has weakened in contemporary society. However, some traditional Chinese concepts such as, “prefer boys to girls,” “carry on the family line,” and “bring up sons to support parents in their old ages” still influence people. As mentioned above, China has carried out the Stipulations of Prohibition of the Medical Examination of the Fetus Gender for Non-Medical Needs and Sex-selective Pregnancy Termination, however, China also implements the “Family Planning Policy” simultaneously, thus there is a situation in which some couples succeed in finding a way to discover the gender of their unborn baby, and implement an abortion if that is a girl. The Story of Qiu Ju does not include any plot about abortion, but it repeatedly emphasizes one thing: “prefer boys to girls.” The quarrel between Qiu Ju’s husband and the village head is caused by “the lack of boys [94]” of the latter. Qiu Ju does not know whether her unborn baby is a boy or a girl, if she knew in advance that it would be a boy, that would be the best solution, and then the following stories would not have happened. Xiaoli Zhao also thought the same way: “The verdict of the county public security bureau had required that the two families of Wan and Wang should pay attention to stability and unity. But they do not know, the most important thing which really makes them stable and unified is not the set of procedures of mediation, verdict, reconsideration, and lawsuit, which they had managed with elaboration, but the newborn baby. His birth eliminates all of the potential hatred [630].” This shows how the influence of “prefer boys to girls” may cause an abortion. However, in Germany, the concept of “prefer boys to girls” does not have such a great influence even though people still live in a patriarchal society. In addition, Germany does not carry out a family planning policy, but encourages childbirth. Whether having a baby or not, and how many children, depends on a couple’s wishes, so there is no special necessity for caring about the gender of a baby. Not only

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in German films in this chapter, but seeing all the German films in this book, none of them represents the concept of loving boys much more than girls.

3.6

Conclusion

In summary, both Chinese culture and German culture pay attention to birth, admit that mothers play an important role in their children’s lives, and the traditional role of mothers in both countries is similar. However, in contemporary society, the ratio of German housewives is higher than Chinese housewives. As to the number of children in a family, there is a big difference in both countries. China carries out a “family planning policy” mainly because the population is too large; Germany carries out a “pronatalist policy,” but the fertility rate has declined all the time. The section “Representation of Birth in Films,” analyzed comparatively women’s delivery visually, and concluded that German filmmakers prefer to use direct and bloody shots which are closer to the visual realities than Chinese filmmakers. This is a disguised form of showing the concept of “gaze,” that is, women are looked at by men. The most important reason for this is the difference as to a “motion picture rating system,” and André Bazin’s “realism,” that is used in many European films. Next, “Contraception and Abortion Embodied in Films” discussed the many differences on abortion in China and Germany rather than on contraception. That section looked at some examples of films to prove that Germany is stricter about abortion than China is, and analyzed the cultural reasons for this. In addition, it looked at two examples of cinematography to demonstrate, again, that German films prefer to show the abortion scene excessively directly and with all its bloodiness.

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Chapter 4 Professional Women and Housewives This chapter will analyze professional women and housewives in both countries’ films. The main Chinese films treated will be Kuei-mei, a Woman (1986), Woman– Demon–Human (1987), Woman Sesame Oil Maker (1993), Ermo (1994), and Durian Durian (2000), but also including The Village of Widows (1989). The main German films treated will be Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness (1979), and Sheer Madness (1983), but also including Martha (1974), Fontane Effi Briest (1974), The Left-Handed Woman (1978), The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Germany, Pale Mother (1980), and The Days Between (2001). This book does not merely discuss films which are classified to a specific chapter, it also explores some relevant plots from other chapters. There are intersections among the different themes, but the topics of the chapters are relatively independent. This does not disorganize the structure, but makes the contents richer.

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4.1 4.1.1

CHAPTER 4. PROFESSIONAL WOMEN AND HOUSEWIVES

Synopses Chinese films

Kuei-mei, a Woman tells the story of Guimei’s 1 life after marriage. Guimei plans to meet her fiance after arriving at Taiwan, but she has completely not heard from her fiance, hence she stays at her cousin’s home. Helpless, she marries a man, Yongnian Hou, who already has three children, to get rid of depending on her relatives. However, her husband likes to drink, and often owes a gambling debt, in addition, which is intolerable is, he has a baby with another woman. But Guimei endures everything. They go to Japan to earn money. After returning to Taiwan many years later, they open a restaurant called “Xiafei zhi jia” (“The Family of Xiafei”). However, she suffers from uterine cancer while their life becomes better. Guimei is a representative of the traditional Chinese woman, also a model of a good wife and a good mother. Woman Sesame Oil Maker also describes a woman running her family business, which resembles Kuei-mei, a Woman. Ms. Xiang was sold to her crippled husband’s home when she was a little girl. This couple runs a small sesame oil workshop in their village. Ms. Xiang is smart and capable, she manages to get this workshop to be known far and wide. But her husband is a male chauvinist drunkard. Ms. Xiang only enjoys some intervals of happiness while staying with her lover. She buys a beautiful girl for her stupid son as his wife, thus this tragic fate continues with her daughter-in-law. Ermo also tells a story about a tough and capable woman. Ermo’s endeavor ostensibly is for buying the biggest color television in that county, therefore she makes more twisty noodles to earn more money. But actually she hopes to improve her family’s living standards through hard work. Woman–Demon–Human tells about a performer in the opera, Qiu Yun, who ded1 “Kuei-mei,”

is in the Wade-Giles form, which is a Romanization system for Mandarin Chinese,

but nowadays it has been almost completely replaced by Hanyu Pinyin. In this film, filmmakers still use Wade-Giles since this is a Taiwanese film, but this book uses Hanyu Pinyin instead. Therefore, Kuei-mei equals Guimei.

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113

icates her life to her favorite career. As Wenna Zhou wrote that “The prototype of Qiu Yun, Yanling Pei is a diva who disguises herself as a man portraying Zhong Kui [641].” Qiu Yun inherits her parents’ artistic talent, with potential success in the Chinese opera. Her father (actually her foster father) is forcefully opposed when she learns opera, he considers that it is not good to be an opera actress. However, when she is engaged in her favorite career, but one day wants to give up since her mother is insulted by others, her father is forcefully opposed again. As a successful woman in an international career, attracting tremendous attention, few people understand her pain and confusion. Durian Durian is a story about Xiaoyan’s career and life. Xiaoyan comes from the Northeast but works for a short period as a prostitute in Hong Kong in order to earn money. She works long hours everyday, but is too shy to speak out about this job, and her family does not know anything about it. But Xiaoyan has to give up this profitable business after her visa’s expiration, and returns to her relatively backward hometown. Soon the admiration and jealousy from other people around her make her uncomfortable, but she cannot tell anybody the truth. In the end, her cousin and friends go to the South with the dream of making money. However, Xiaoyan stays at home and returns to her former career—an actress with the Beijing Opera.

4.1.2

German films

Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness tells a story about a relationship between sisters, but looked at deeply and carefully, it reflects different women’s perspectives on careers and life. The older sister Maria is independent, with a good ability at work. She forces her younger sister Anna to study, and hopes that Anna will have the life that she organizes. Nevertheless, Anna is a romantic, and is used to relying on Maria. Maria has less time to accompany Anna when she is in love, thus Anna thinks that Maria has betrayed her. Anna, selfishly, wants to monopolize Maria, so then she commits suicide to take revenge on Maria. Afterwards, Maria and Miriam become

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friends, and Maria treats her as her sister. So she forces Miriam to study so as to find a better job. However, Miriam does not want to be a person who is controlled by others. Hence their friendship breaks up. Now, at last, Maria begins to understand Anna’s heart, but it is too late. Sheer Madness is a story about a strange friendship between two women with different characteristics. Olga teaches feminist literary theory in a university, and she is both independent and self-confident. Ruth was a teacher, but she gives it up afterwards because of her mental disease. She is very shy and passive about everything, even attempts suicide several times. After meeting with each other for the first time, Olga makes a peculiar impression on Ruth, so their contact gradually increases, and Ruth does not feel shy when staying with Olga. However, Ruth’s husband considers that Olga is robbing him of his important position in Ruth’s heart. In the end, Ruth shoots her husband.

4.2

Perspectives on Being a Professional Woman or a Housewife

Traditional Chinese concept is, women should be stay at home as understanding wives, loving mothers, and qualified housewives, rather than going outside to earn money. Thus it leads women’s lower status than men, which accords with the concept of many Chinese thinkers and educators. Jie Tao wrote that “As for Confucius, he established many rules and regulations about the management of the state and the family, almost none of them favoring women [544].” 2 Bijun Zheng wrote: “Silk production, printing, and pottery, well developed during the Song dynasty, stimu2 Some

traditional Chinese perspectives are: a woman’s virtue lies in her lack of knowledge or

ability; man should deal with the outside world while woman’s place is within the courtyard of her house; woman is the source of evil, her beauty may bring disaster to the kingdom; sweet wives and gentle mothers.

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lated both commerce and culture. Women were an important part of the workforce in many industries. Under the pressures of this urban economy, the traditional divisions of labor between men and women changed [632].” Besides, Bijun Zheng continued to state, “Two of the most common occupations for women were prostitution and entertainment. In order to increase the tax income, the government nationalized the sale of wine and hired women to lure customers into singing houses, wine shops, and tea shops. [...] During the Southern Song dynasty, an official’s promotion or demotion might depend on his ability to collect revenue on wine sales. Thus, raising a daughter to become a prostitute or entertainer became a way of making money for some families [633].” 3 In spite of the fact that women helped their husbands to run businesses, or sold agricultural products as farmers, or worked as prostitutes, most Chinese women before 1949 were housewives. But as Xin Luo wrote that “Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, women’s employment has been increasing [395].” The traditional Chinese concept is often represented in films. Guimei fulfills her responsibilities for her family. She endures their poor life and her husband’s inability to earn money. But she always firmly believes life will be better day by day. Before opening their restaurant, she does almost all of the housework. After setting up their restaurant, she still is the busiest person in this family. She is a model of a perfect woman according to the traditional Chinese concept. Her husband is seen as relatively weak, and the woman contributes more to the family. Bangwei Mo evaluated that “The director shows a ‘silent heroine’ in a traditional Chinese family through the isolated and wretched Guimei, whose fate is controlled by others [432].” Dehou Wang wrote about Ermo: “Ermo’s sturdy physique, rough style, working bitterly hard, desiring to excel over others in characteristics, all of these form a strong vitality as if others cannot compare with her [567].” Ermo is not merely a housewife, but also raises her family. She often works late to earn more money due to her 3 Original

quotes derived from: [430] and [479], for more, refer to [593].

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husband’s poor health, and hopes to improve their quality of life, which lies in both material and spiritual aspects. But Yijun Luo believed: “The money earned by Ermo is neither converted into capital, nor meets the concrete material or cultural demands of the individual and the family [397].” But, the television is exactly an instrument symbolizing capital or wealth. Ermo may not realize it at that moment, but the television can be seen as an effective window through which to look at the world. Going abroad is not easy in rural areas during Ermo’s era, thus watching TV to learn about different cultures is a positive step, and it meets a cultural demand, especially for the next generation. Therefore the family, led by Ermo, tries to enter into modern society. Ms. Xiang’s husband cannot do much work because he is crippled. After the collaboration between their sesame oil workshop and a Japanese company, their business is bigger and more famous, and then Ms. Xiang becomes a businesswoman. But the transformation of her role does not change her miserable fate, she still suffers her incapable husband’s maltreatment in flesh and spirit. Although he is an incapable man, he still shows his “masculinity.” The director Fei Xie criticized: “This film ostensibly attacks the ignorant, ridiculous deep-rooted bad habits of the feudal tradition; it deeply represents the distortion (or alienation) and involution of humanity [587].” Interestingly, Ermo and Ms. Xiang have a similar situation: their husbands are weak or handicapped, which leads to their not working. These men know clearly that they must rely on their wives to support their families, nevertheless, they do not become friendly with their “raisers”: they blame and control these women. Guimei’s husband is healthy, however, he does less than Guimei, who becomes the main breadwinner. This is similar to some films of Yimou Zhang: the men are often in the vulnerable status, whereupon the women have to bear the burden of raising the families.

4

This situation deliberately emphasizes the powerful women, and flays

the male’s “stateliness” and their “persistent unreasonableness” with exaggeration. 4 For

instance, Jiu’er in Red Sorghum marries an incapable old man; Ju Dou’s husband is similar to

Jiu’er’s; Qiu Ju’s husband is kicked by the village head, then becomes incapable.

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In short, no matter whether the men are strong or weak, the housewives in Chinese films are laborious, toilsome, even miserable. Yongping Jiang wrote, “Until 1978 China practiced a centrally planned employment system. [...] Many women who previously had not worked outside the home now filled positions doing social production and other public jobs, becoming the creators of social prosperity and the founders of the new China [322].” Women finally had authentic job opportunities. Thus, professional women do not rely on men, due to their economic independence to a certain degree. Their status at home has gradually increased, and the degree of their oppression by men has been gradually weakened. For instance, the female protagonist in Mama is a professional woman: she has the right to not give up her mentally handicapped son, although her husband disagrees with her. In feudal China, a wife’s standing up to her husband in this way would have been unlikely. Besides, the female protagonists in Peacock and Teeth of Love are workers in factories. “Report on the Survival Conditions of Chinese Professional Women in 2010” pointed out that professional woman constitutes an important group in Chinese society [198]. In Durian Durian, “The director Fruit Chan said, this film was inspired when they were filming Little Cheung,

5

he had the thought when he saw the gangdom

and prostitutes coming and going in Mong Kok [137].” Although prostitutes have a fabulous income, they are poor people. Every time Xiaoyan entertains a guest, she randomly says her name, and native place, which reflects that working Xiaoyan is not the real one, she is only a blind money machine. After leaving Hong Kong, she returns to her old career as an actress in the Beijing Opera. Eventually she knows what she can do, what kind of job is suitable for her, so this is the beginning of her growing up. Figures 4.1(a)–4.1(b) show Xiaoyan giving a performance with the Beijing Opera. This cannot prove that Xiaoyan loves this career, actually she is doing this out of 5 Little

Cheung is a film also directed by Fruit Chan, released in 1999.

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frustration. The name of this performance is “The Fairy Sending Flowers” which is a literary quotation in ancient China, and there are many works of different arts about it.

6

Figure 4.2 is one example among many works on this topic, which resembles

Xiaoyan’s performance. The painter Daqian Zhang not only devoted himself to painting, but also calligraphy. The calligraphy (“Ti Kuan” is important in traditional Chinese painting 7 ) on this painting shows the author’s name, time and location of creation, as well as some poetry to express the painter’s feelings. 8

(a)

(b)

Figure 4.1: Xiaoyan gives a performance with the Beijing Opera in Durian Durian. This Beijing Opera pericope is an episode of Xiaoyan’s career, and it has a point. The image of the prostitute, as Xiaoyan’s previous job, definitely does not relate to a fairy, however, her performance is quite holy and flawless. This sharp contrast reflects not only how Xiaoyan rejects her experience of being a prostitute, but also conveys the dilemmas of some professional women. Anyway, it is impossible that Xiaoyan becomes a fairy, or a woman without sorrow and anxiety, whereupon the 6 “The

Fairy Sending Flowers” derived from a story from the Buddhism Vimalakirti Sutra-Guan

Zhong Sheng Pin, for more about this story, see [92]. People use “The Fairy Sending Flowers” to express how spring is full in the world: auspicious things always happen. The beautiful scene of “The Fairy Sending Flowers” looks like the snow flying in the sky, which means the flowers are scattered to the earth: they embellish the forests and mountains. For more, see [290]. 7 “ ‘Ti Kuan’ is also called ‘Ti Shi,’ ‘Kuan Zhi,’ which means some of the contents of the painting: the name of the author, position, time and location, poetry, prose, thought, informal essay, etc.” In [646]. 8 The fairy in this painting is the painter Daqian Zhang’s lover—a North Korean girl. For more about this painting’s purpose and “Ti Kuan,” see [548] and [571].

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Figure 4.2: Daqian Zhang, Fairy Sending Flowers, 1935. Chinese ink and colors on paper; Width: 72cm; Height: 167cm; Private Collection. filmmakers select this legend to express Xiaoyan’s deep seated yearning. She hopes to be a fairy, then she will not suffer from her physical and psychological problems any more. Certainly this is an unrealistic fantasy, but Xiaoyan enjoys this splendid moment, and also delivers her illusion to others, just as the fairy sends flowers to the world. After the establishment of the new China, Chinese women’s status increased by a large margin. Jinhua Dai summarized: “Contemporary Chinese women came to enjoy the same rights of citizenship as men: equal pay for equal work, the right to enter into and dissolve marriage contracts, the rights to give birth, raise children, and have an abortion [150].” Hence many women’s resistance consciousness, which had been hidden for years, increased greatly. For example, Qiu Yun possesses this

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strong feminist consciousness, and pursues her career persistently. She stubbornly practices at rehearsals, overcomes difficulties, and eventually reaches a high level of artistic achievement. The director Shuqin Huang considered: “This female actress watches the world from a female angle, therefore I weakened this story’s historical background and plots, to make the inner world of the character and psychological changes be reflected completely, consequently combining the two worlds of ‘human, demon’ [237].” Qiu Yun integrates herself into a career as a representative professional woman. In the bad period of traditional opera, and additionally, with her children being very young, she could have stayed at home as a housewife, but she insisted on involving herself in work. These are not requirements of family values for a traditional Chinese woman. Nevertheless, Qiu Yun does what she likes, investigates the life she hopes for, and this bold idea benefits from the women’s liberation movement. With the rapid development of the Chinese economy, people’s living standards quickly improved, thus an opinion burst into people’s minds—women go home. Meihua Jiang pointed out three reasons for advocating that women go home. First, viewed from their physiological characteristics and the social division of labor formed by history, women are more suitable for doing housework than men, and men go out to work while women look after the house; second, housework is a kind of social labor, and “housewife” does not contain the meaning of being enslaved and retrogressing; third, if people only emphasize that women should go into society, a woman’s role will become nervous, and this does not benefit family life [316]. 9 However, a lot of problems need to be considered, for instance, is only relying on the man’s income enough to support a family? Meihua Jiang also summarized three reasons opposing “women go home.” First, “women go home” deviates from the history of human 9 People

who supported the third reason considered, the level of housework’s modernization was

relatively low, and women would become over-fatigued if they sank into both the roles of the family and the social. In [316]. Although these viewpoints were expressed at the end of the 1980s and the early 1990s, they are inappropriate nowadays, but they can be employed in most films (they were made in the 1980s and the early 1990s) in this chapter except Durian Durian.

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development and also revolts against the women’s liberation movement; second, considered from the economic point of view, the current income of low wage and high employment is not enough to support families, besides, women will lose their source of finance if they stay at home, and their status will decrease; third, women will lose the wide social living space they had gotten when they had jobs, and they will face repetitive domestic affairs and a narrow activity space, so it would be hard for their spirit to avoid oppression [316]. This book does not support the viewpoint of “women go home.” A large number of women staying at home is inadvisable in the rapid growth of modern China. The differences between men and women must be admitted, as Meihua Jiang pointed out: “The ‘Equality of men and women’ does not mean ‘men and women are all the same.’ People should re-recognize ‘Equality of men and women’ on the premise of admitting women’s independent personality. That is to say, women should ‘retrieve women’ and ‘move towards women’ on the basis of the equality of men and women, and develop the role ‘things men cannot do, we can do’ as a function [317].” But there is no need to realize “things men cannot do, we can do.” This is rather extreme, exaggerates women’s abilities and increases its impossibility. With a conformance to one’s practical situation, proceeding from actual conditions, then women can give full play to their maximum enthusiasm and ability to accomplish their work. This is better than an extreme opinion. The traditional German concept is similar to the traditional Chinese concept, which does not support women’s going to work. Women’s important responsibilities are: taking care of their husbands and children, doing the housework, supporting their husbands in comfortable environments so as to work with pleasure and raise families. One opinion is that women should go back to the eighteenth century to realize the ideal role for women in families. The article “The Changing Face of Motherhood in Western Europe: Germany” stated that “In 1949, for example, women and men were legally made equal by the new Basic Law, although it was not until 1957 that the Civil

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Code was amended to acknowledge this change. At the same time, West German society promoted a return to the ideals of an 18th century vision of motherhood located in the domestic sphere [100].” Another similar opinion is, as Gertrud Nunner-Winkler wrote, “In West Germany working mothers suffer from the accusation that they are bad mothers more than in any other European country [453].” Besides, “Der Spiegel argues that Germans have a stronger tendency to conceive of mothers as belonging to the home than people do in France, Norway, Sweden and Denmark [101].” This is the exact opposite of the Chinese contemporary situation, as Meihua Jiang summarized, the population supporting “women’s employment” is much larger than the one assenting “women go home [318].” Anyway, women should have the right to decide whether to work or not. The roles of traditional German women: the three Ks, 10 which means women are surrounded by Kinder (children), Kirche (church), and Küche (kitchen) as completely being housewives. For instance, the female protagonist in Martha does not go to work after marriage. She stays at home all day and waits for her husband’s return, she cooks for him, and makes him happy, which are the housewife’s responsibilities. Although Martha’s husband treats her like a bird living in a cage, or an object for venting his abnormal sexual desire, Martha still obeys her horrific man. Another example, Fontane Effi Briest, the director Rainer Werner Fassbinder thought about this film that “it isn’t a film about a woman, but a film about Fontane, about this writer’s attitude toward his society [197].” However, although it possesses a social function, the female role still is significant. Actually, Effi is not a housewife as Martha is, she does not do the housework, which is done by servants. She only needs to enjoy the rich life, but she is a poor bird growing up in a rich cage and then marries another rich cage. The main German films in this chapter are both directed by Margarethe von Trotta, she said: “I show the difficulties, but, most importantly, I prove that women’s 10 For

example, the chapter “Birth and Motherhood” mentioned that the three Ks are a feature of

traditional German women.

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relationships with other women is an important theme to explore in films [224].” Maria in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness is a hard-won helper of her boss, so to speak she is a model professional woman. But Anna studies a major she dislikes, and her thinking and action are totally different from Maria. Anna K. Kuhn believed that “Maria’s professional persona, her no-nonsense, businesslike efficiency, stands in sharp contrast to the exotic disarray of Anna’s sphere [344].” This story happened in the 1970s, the traditional concept still influenced people. Gertrud Nunner-Winkler wrote, “If the woman was rash enough to wish to enter the male world of business and efficacy, the principle of rationality would eventually gain the upper hand, and the female ‘contrasting virtues’ of emotional sensitivity, concern for the welfare of others and tenderness would erode. Today the issue is less the endangering of the ‘female essence’ than the compatibility of family and career [453].” But Anna just does not understand why Maria works so hard. She doubts, does Maria work for Anna’s studies and finding a good job in the future? But Maria enjoys her success in her career, simultaneously thinks that her job is much better than many other women. In Sheer Madness, Olga is an independent and self-assured professional woman, and Ruth is a shy housewife who is greatly dependent and lacking in self-confidence. Renate Hehr said: “The microcosm created in Heller Wahn (Sheer Madness) shows phenomena that are typical for the period when the film was made. In the early ’80s, the élan of the great collective movements that emerged from the movement of 68’ fizzled out, and the emotionalism associated with working for social change had become hackneyed [259].” Olga portrays a positive feminist, who makes the men around her feel uncomfortable because of her strong personality. More importantly, she teaches feminist literary studies in a university that makes her twinkle with a dazzling aureole as an independent woman. Otherwise, her boyfriend would not leave her. Yet for her, it is impossible to give up her career to cater to men who do not cherish her. Ruth is not as busy as Olga, as a housewife or a person has to be taken

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care of, she relies on her husband and does not perform a housewife’s duties. These two different women act two different roles vividly and impressively. Generally speaking, “The female labor participation rate in a developed country is relatively high, and it is relatively lower in a developing country [482].” However, China has a special situation. Looking at the data, the female labor participation rate in China is higher than in Germany, even higher than in many other developed countries. The data from “The World Bank” shows that the employment to population ratio (ages 15+) of Chinese females was 61.5% in 2012,

11

for German females (ages

15+), 50.8%; the labor participation rate (ages 15+) of Chinese females was 63.8% in 2012, for German females (ages 15+) was 53.5%.

12

Definitely, the number of

professional women in Germany is less than China. 13 The emphasis is not on the number of women with or without jobs,

14

but the

preference for choosing roles in films. Some German films reflect housewives’ lives: Martha and Fontane Effi Briest; some show professional women’s lives: Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness, The Marriage of Maria Braun, The Days Between, and Sheer Madness. There is one rule: housewives are trapped in housework, or professional women are trapped in busy work, or women cannot do well in both situations. Besides, most of them reflect the reality of social issues. Margarethe von Trotta said: “In Germany I was used to light comedies, or nostalgia films—films that did not deal with reality 11 The

latest data is 2012. come from [35]. 13 This book employs the date from “The World Bank,” since the standard of comparison is similar 12 Data

for all of the countries. For more data, see [431], [133], [102], [454], and [208]. 14 Actually, the data from “The World Bank” about the employment to population ratio and the labor participation rate in China and Germany both began with 1990 or 1991, and there is no a database based on the same standard for comparisons before 1990. Many of the films in this chapter were made before 1990, thus the data might not be suitable for analyzing these films. But one interesting phenomenon in the data is that basically the percentage of both the employment to population ratio and the labor participation rate in China has a sustained downward trend in these twenty years, but Germany’s situation is just the opposite, basically it has a sustained upward trend. This means China has more and more housewives, but Germany has more and more professional women.

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or real issues. It was just an escape [225].” Many directors of the new German cinema made many films about social issues, for instance, the Gastarbeiter film, terrorism and politics, Nazis and German history, American cultural imperialism, and feminism [410]. These factors as social background influence the female characters. Olga teaches feminist literary theory, Maria works hard, they are in conditions of feminism; terrorism appears in The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum; German history is presented in Germany, Pale Mother. Films from the last dozen years also reflect this social background, and emphasize showing women’s emotions, although the female protagonists do not have many dialogues, for example, The Days Between, Lucy, and The Stranger in Me. No matter the social background or psychological problems, whether professional women or housewives, overall, the women in most German films are unfortunate and unhappy. Generally, women in most Chinese films are also miserable. But one thing quite different from German films is that Chinese directors prefer to represent the tragic lives of housewives, especially films from the 1980s and the early 1990s, for example, Kuei-mei, a Woman, Woman Sesame Oil Maker, Ermo, A Good Woman, Married to a Child, and Raise the Red Lantern. First, this theme is easier to impress domestic audiences. The traditional Chinese concept still influenced Chinese society several decades ago, “sweet wives and gentle mothers,” “man should deal with the outside world while woman’s place is within the courtyard of her house” still were standards with which to evaluate women. Thus these films are likely to win sympathy. 15 Second, unfamiliar situations are more interesting for foreign audiences. For example, how do child brides or young widows live in a patriarchal society. However, this cannot be seen as a humiliating behavior. Foreign audiences can attempt to understand Chinese 15 The

director Shuqin Huang pointed out: “Generally, there are two types of women in Chinese

male directors’ films. One is, women are represented gentle, virtuous, loyal in love, and considerate to husbands and children, which accord with the images of the traditional Chinese women. [...] The other one is, directors sympathize with women’s fates in a condescending tone, survey women’s fates as adjudicators, and tell people ‘How miserable are women’s fates!’ ” In [237].

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culture through these films. But this theme of showing women’s miserable fates in rural areas has lessened over the past 20 years, and more films show women’s lives in cities: the similarity is, women still are not happy enough.

4.3

Different Cultures Reflected in Films

Fang Lan pointed out that “During the long matriarchal period of human history, the female predominated in production and life. With the transformation from a matriarchal society to a patriarchal society, the female gradually turned into the male’s dependent, due to this dominance [349].” Jie Tao wrote that “When China began as a slave society more than four thousand years ago, the emergence of private ownership and a family and class hierarchy initiated a patriarchal system that put into power the male as husband, father, and head of the clan, and reduced women to the control of men [544].” In the traditional German concept, Heide Wunder believed that “Obedience was the wife’s duty towards her husband, but it also characterized the relationship between men as citizens and magistrates as city fathers [585].” These show that women’s status was lower than men in both countries. After women formally entered the work force in contemporary society, they gradually became more self-assured and independent, even more intelligent in a way that they had never been aware of, whereupon women’s status improved step by step. Woman–Demon–Human is the magnum opus of Shuqin Huang. She said that she was not familiar with feminist theory, but just wanted to make a good film [595]. But Jinhua Dai believed that “In many senses, it is to date the first and only ‘feminist film’ in China [151].” Xiaoli Wu and Shengmin Xu thought that Jinhua Dai’s evaluation is quite appropriate [584]. In May, 1986, the editors of the bi-monthly Contemporary Cinema organized a symposium on “women’s cinema.” The report “does assert some common points, stating that Chinese women directors display more ‘acute sensitivity’ than their male counterparts, but lack their ‘depth of maturity’ [49].” But one year later in 1987, Woman–Demon–Human was released. It absolutely does not

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lack “depth of maturity,” so then the negative evaluation of Chinese women directors collapsed without being attacked. Shuqin Huang considered that Qiu Yun “wants to live a harmonious and ordinary life. However, she fails because of her independent personality. This is a dilemma of human significance. One can avoid pain if one realizes this point [596].” Mu Fei 16 said: “It is impossible to pursue the American film style, or to imitate the style of any country. Chinese film can only show its own national style [201].” Although this was a perspective from several decades ago, nowadays it still makes sense. The cultural differences nowadays between the East and the West are narrower than several decades ago, but imitating indiscriminately does not have a future. Therefore Chinese films often reflect Chinese cultural elements. Qiu Yun often portrays male figures, for example, Zhao Yun.

17

But this is just

a cross-dressing on the stage, not related to her sexual orientation. Another male figure Zhong Kui, as an important role, frequently appears in this film. Figures 4.3(a) and 4.3(b), are Zhong Kui’s performance persona in Beijing Opera, who is exactly the one Qiu Yun loves, and makes Qiu Yun move to the global stage. But this film does not show clearly, whether this scene comes from Qiu Yun’s performance or her fantasy. This “ambiguity” reflects the “authorial expressivity” in art cinema [68]. As to color, the director Shuqin Huang said: “Red, white and black are the basic background, leading the whole film [238].” Zhong Kui’s large red robe symbolizes his loyalty to the human and god. Red also means danger, because he usually is seen as a vanquisher of ghosts and evil beings. White symbolizes his selfless love for his younger sister and also creates the impression of innocence to the world. The long black beard makes Zhong Kui serious and horrific, especially for ghosts and evil beings. Zhong Kui accomplishes one great thing—giving his sister away 16 Mu

Fei (1906-1951) was a Chinese film director from the pre-Communist era. Yun (died 229), courtesy name Zilong, was a military general who lived in the late Eastern

17 Zhao

Han Dynasty and early Three Kingdoms period, and normally appears in the Chinese traditional opera as a heroic figure.

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in marriage. 18 The Chinese painting Zhongshan Travel Map depicts this situation, as shown in Figure 4.4. Figures 4.3(a) and 4.3(b) also both express this situation. Thus this scene shows Chinese culture through Qiu Yun’s performance.

(a)

(b)

Figure 4.3: Zhong Kui’s performance persona in Woman–Demon–Human.

Figure 4.4: Kai Gong, Zhongshan Travel Map (detail), end of Song Dynasty and beginning of Yuan Dynasty. Chinese ink on paper; Width: 169.5cm; Height: 32.8cm; The Freer Gallery of Art, Washington. French director René Clair said that the highest level of artistic achievement in movie design is reached when “the style relates so closely to that of the work itself that the audience pays no special attention to it.” 19 The Beijing Opera is integrated into 18 For

more about this story, see [152]. in [38]. Inspired by [39].

19 Qtd.

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this film, and the setting design sometimes makes the audience confused as to which scene shows the Beijing Opera and which scene is a film scene. In her heart, Qiu Yun pretends to herself to be Zhong Kui’s younger sister. When she realizes nobody can be relied on, she begins to enter into Zhong Kui’s inner world and observers herself. Therefore she shapes this character excellently, so to speak, she is very successful in her career. But has women’s status really improved? If not, why does Qiu Yun receive such high honor? If so, why is she always waiting for someone (who, in her fantasy, is Zhong Kui) to rescue her? Qiu Yun has been liberated by modern society, but has not been liberated by herself in her inner world. Her successful career does not mean everything will be fine in her life, as Xingyang Li criticized: “In the course of her complicated interactions with the Other, Qiu Yun is simultaneously unsuccessful in her personal life and successful in her professional artistic life [367].” Qiu Yun says that she married the stage without regret. But, her husband, what kind of position does Qiu Yun put him in? He must be ‘the Other,’ rather than the one she is relying on. Ying Zhang considered: “The escaped woman is not rescued due to portraying a man, the betrayal in this escape does not make her born again either [625].” Nevertheless, Qiu Yun is not born again from the outside in this escape, but she indeed changes a lot from the heart, and she is reborn in her heart. Another scene showing Chinese culture is the party to which Qiu Yun’s father invites all the people in his village, 20 shown in Figures 4.5(a)–4.5(b). This scene contains many full shots and close shots, to show the liveliness of the scene or the specific action of drinking and eating. The production designer “organizes the narrative through design [15].” The whole scene describes people’s delight and congratulations. It shows not only the characters in front of the camera, but also the guests behind 20 Inviting

people to attend someone’s party or treat someone, is a common social phenomenon in

China, Hanyu Pinyin is “Qing Ke.” This means the host entertains guests or gives a dinner party to receive congratulations, express friendly relations, woo someone, etc., normally guests pay nothing. Actually the Chinese do not pay all of their attention to food of the party, but to the happy and busy scenes and emotions.

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them. Although eating together like the Chinese is not hygienic and easily produces waste—a buffet would be better. However, as Zhongtian Yi said, the emphasis on eating together is eating with emotion, consanguinity, and culture, something which is very difficult to change [602]. This is the Chinese “Ren qing wei” 21 which Longji Sun mentioned in The Deep Structure of Chinese Culture [535].

(a)

(b)

Figure 4.5: Party scene in Woman–Demon–Human. Durian Durian reflects some Western cultural elements, but it still shows many Chinese cultural elements. For example, a scene shows Xiaoyan’s parents inviting many relatives and friends to enjoy their party for celebrating Xiaoyan’s “return home with honor.” 22 Figure 4.6 is a full shot showing almost the whole party. The red lantern in Chinese culture reveals how the setting can create a cultural significance [40]. It is the brightest part in this frame, to celebrate this family. Xiaoyan makes her status higher, her family’s honor also is greater. It is worth noticing that this film learned its shooting method from the documentary—Wendy Gan also mentioned this: “Influenced by documentary camerawork [214].” 23 This party scene employs this method, and the shaky handheld camera seems to express a true picture of Xiaoyan’s unquiet 21 This

means, when Chinese do things, their behaviors always are accompanied by human interest,

the milk of human kindness, human touch, or sentimental. It is the exact opposite of “impersonal.” 22 This is a Chinese idiom. It means, somebody returns home after getting outstanding achievements, and normally refers to a successful career or winning a prize for the country, etc. 23 The whole sentence derived from [215]: “Influenced by documentary camerawork, the camera observes Yan unobtrusively in medium and long shots as she goes about her everyday life, recording

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mind. She does not believe in the high status she has in the eyes of others. Women have been quickly elevated in these decades from a low status, developing into fighting for themselves, which is attributed to the women’s liberation movement. Jinhua Dai believed that “To this day, China is still one of those countries where women’s liberation has reached an apex and where women enjoy a greater degree of power and freedom than they have ever done before [150].” Under these circumstances, this party for celebration is not surprising at all. As written by Wendy Gan, “Yan in Durian Durian is feted by the majority of her family and friends upon her return to Mudanjiang [217].”

Figure 4.6: Party scene in Durian Durian. Apart from the examples from above, Ermo invites many people in her village to come to watch her new color television, in order to show off; Qiu Ju invites her fellow villagers to attend the party thrown to celebrate her new baby; and, some scenes of busy weddings appear in Woman Sesame Oil Maker, A Good Woman and Shanghai Dreams. However, it is hard to find this kind of scene in German films. They often display details of work which show modernity. Figures 4.7(a)–4.7(c) show the different workthe banalities of her work as a prostitute and her leisure in the hours when she is off from work.” Besides, [216] also mentioned: “The rough handheld camerawork, the quick cuts and pacing that had so far defined the Fruit Chan style gives way to more observational, documentary-like camerawork dominated by long takes and long shots and a calmer pace and tone.”

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ing scenes of Maria in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness. The setting design and props show modernity rather than traditional German culture. Besides, Maria speaks English to her working partners on the phone, which conveys the globalization shown in Figure 4.7(a). The setting can provide the social and cultural backgrounds [41]. These scenes reflect the German society at that time. In addition, this film depicts Maria’s strong and independent personality by means of modernity. She wants to attain happiness through her own hands. However, she spends much time on this “modernity” rather than on the relationship between her and Anna. “Modernity” also reflects their psychological problems. But actually no matter how difficult it is to be a professional woman, Maria believes she has made the right choice. She thinks working can improve herself and earn money. Not only has Maria become this kind of person, but she also forces Anna to do it as well. Her success at work makes her very obstinate and strong, so she always wants to make decisions for others, which can be seen as a reason for Anna’s suicide. Expressing women’s relationship is just the director Margarethe von Trotta’s interest, as Judith Maria Plessis pointed out: “she attributes great importance to the personal relations between the women she portrays, analyzing relationships between sisters and close female friends more often than heterosexual bonds [469].” Sheer Madness also reflects the women’s relationship, which overbalance the relation between Ruth and her husband.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 4.7: Three shots of showing modernity in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness.

Figures 4.8(a)–4.8(b) show a college classroom. The setting design, Olga’s clothes

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and hair style endow her with modern characteristics, so does Maria: thereby they seem quite self-confident. Olga teaches feminist literary studies, which prompts her to understand and realize feminist consciousness better than others. Simultaneously, and exactly because of her strong feminist consciousness, she becomes a lecturer to express and discuss her opinion with others. Her self-confidence is revealed in her face and posture, students listen to her with concentration, and her personal charisma and the students’ strong thirst for knowledge make this seminar more attractive. However, she is still poorly influenced by others around her, who make her completely exhausted. As Barbara Koenig Quart considered, Olga is a strong woman who allows herself to be parasitically drained by everyone around her, including her ex-husband, her son, and her male lover [484].

(a)

(b)

Figure 4.8: Two shots of showing modernity in Sheer Madness. It was not easy to become a successful professional woman in Germany in the 1970s. Renate Hehr wrote that “Starting out from the premise that women like Christa Klages, who together with other women have been able to create relative freedom for themselves, were a privileged minority, while the average woman’s life is hardly affected by feminist ideas of self-realization outside traditional lifestyles such as marriage and the nuclear family, Margarethe von Trotta wanted to develop further the figure of the bank clerk Lena, in order to clarify the situation, growth

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opportunities, and longings of working women [260].” Thus the director developed Lena in The Second Awakening of Christa Klages into Maria and Olga. Renate Hehr believed: “On the surface, the film seems to be a self-portrayal of the women’s movement at the time. It addresses topics that were then the subject of public debate, such as the rediscovery of 19th century women’s literature, psychic disfigurement or even mental illness in women whose individuality was suppressed, and tendencies toward esotericism and a new introspection in the women’s movement [261].” Olga certainly does not want to be a woman with a psychic disfigurement or a mental illness. Her individuality brings her something to be proud of, also makes her status relatively high among many men, however, she loses something that she thought important: the sense of security and a reliable man. In addition, the work environment in The Marriage of Maria Braun, the extravagant house in Lili Marleen, the gorgeous and tempting nightclub in Lola, and the bank in The Second Awakening of Christa Klages, all of them display modernity. In contrast, Chinese films show many traditional Chinese elements: the Beijing Opera in Woman–Demon– Human and Durian Durian, the red lantern in Durian Durian, a traditional Chinese house in Perpetual Motion, and some traditional things: a local way of kneading dough and traditional Chinese medicine in Ermo, a special way of brewing wine in Red Sorghum, and a way of repairing a china bowl in The Road Home. Chinese films aim at not only refreshing Chinese audiences’ memories by means of these traditional things which go back to ancient times, but also provoke foreign audiences’ interest, simultaneously describing characters’ emotions and psychological problems through props and the arrangement of settings. Besides, viewed from a nation’s perspective, Zhongbin Li wrote, “Every nation needs to open their eyes to the whole world, a positive and exoteric attitude, not only speaking to the world, but also paying close attention to themselves to attract the world, and absorbing the culture essence of each nation [375].” For example: traditional Chinese medicine is one system of medical theory and practice which combine literae humaniores with natural

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science. The TCM is the sapiential result of the Chinese people against disease over a long history which is based on traditional Chinese culture [93]. Thus taking traditional Chinese medicine for Ermo’s husband not only conforms to the film’s need, but also shows Chinese culture intuitively. German films aim at showing modernity to their audiences. Although modernity has both advantages and disadvantages, it is still a way to experience changes in the society, and seeking for oneself in modern society. Thomas Elsaesser had a similar opinion: “the German ‘cinema of quality’ presents a portrait gallery of figures whose allegorical status in most cases invites direct identification. A great number of them are women, and theirs is usually a quest for self-discovery [180].” This self-discovery actually can be seen as a feature of art film. The Goethe-Institut Vancouver evaluated Margarethe von Trotta: “Her films give a clear emphasis to feminine aspects: the fates of women form the clear focus of her pictures [555].” At the beginning of Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness, it shows a mysterious forest. The dolly leads the audience to sink into this story visually, simultaneously an animal’s voice and a child’s crying create a horrid atmosphere, then two sisters read a story shown in a close shot. It is known from the following shots that this is a flashback of an indefinite time reversal [85]. (Viewed in the light of the whole film, it is a flashback, but it can also be seen as a dream scene, because Anna is sleeping at that time.) This forest appears again at the end of this film, no matter whether it is a flashback as a usual form of time reversal, or an unreal dream scene, “ambiguity” is conveyed, which defines this as an art film.

24

Sheer Madness also expresses “ambiguity,” for

example, why does Ruth say that Olga helps her to kill her husband? Does she like Olga more than she likes her husband, or was the killing on impulse? This film does not support a clear answer. Karen Hollinger also analyzed about this uncertainty: “The attachment between the two women is extremely close, even erotically charged 24 David Bordwell summarized some features of art cinema:

etc. are obvious features. In [67].

flashback, fantasies, dreams, ambiguity

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with repeated exchanges of longing gazes between them, but it is also presented with considerable ambiguity [270].”

4.4

Gaze of Mirror Shots

As analyzed in the chapter “Marriage and Love” about the changing gaze of women in Chinese films, gender differences had been eliminated and were replaced by politics and class in war films: women were shown as being very strong. Jinhua Dai believed: “women were losing their spiritual gender, while at the same time finally casting off the yoke of history [153].” But, women in modern society have broken away from that “sexless”

25

belonging to war-themed films. At this moment, women confront

a double pressure, from society and family. They not only take good care of their families to be nice wives, but also work, to support their families together with their husbands. The chapter “Marriage and Love” has analyzed mirror shots. The conclusion was that although there are some exceptions, most Chinese films use mirrors to show women’s make up, or women checking their appearances through mirrors; but many mirror shots in German films convey a spirit and deep meaning. Most films accord with this conclusion. Qiu Yun appreciates her beautiful looks through a mirror shown in Figure 4.9(a); Xiaoyan puts on makeup shown in Figure 4.9(b); Guimei checks her appearance in a mirror shown in Figure 4.9(c). However, Woman–Demon–Human is an exception. It reflects a metaphor function that is always shown in German mirror 25 Sexless,

depicting female warriors fighting tenaciously in the battlefield, their behaviors are as

good as men in war-themed films. Jinhua Dai pointed out, sexless also can be ascribed to the fourth generation directors’ films: “In the Fourth Generation director’s heartbreaking stories of unrequited love, women are depicted more as a portal to humanity suddenly demolished by violence rather than the object of man’s desire. Women in these films are positioned between the beautiful goddess and the beautiful sacrificial offering. They are the illusory image that evil has plundered. Once dispelled from the landscape of history, namely the Cultural Revolution, they are never to return. It can be asserted that these stories are still ‘sexless’ (wuxing) or at least degendered.” In [154].

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shots, but this exception does not influence the conclusion of mirror shots in both countries’ films.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 4.9: Three mirror shots respectively in Woman–Demon–Human, Durian Durian, and Kuei-mei, a Woman. The first scene shown in Figures 4.10(a)–4.10(c) in Woman–Demon–Human shows Qiu Yun’s spiritual predicament. After making up herself as Zhong Kui, Qiu Yun suddenly sees herself without makeup in the mirror. She and Zhong Kui gaze at each other, Qiu Yun’s distorted face in the mirror is a metaphor of her mind, and also reflects her psychological problem. This can be seen as a flashback. Recollection-images “insert themselves between stimulation and response, and contribute to the better adjustment to the motor mechanism by reinforcing it with a psychological causality [164].” Audiences enter into Qiu Yun’s inner world and experience her psychological problem via this “flashback.” Besides, Edward Branigan believed that “A change in the ordering of events is made explicit but is not attributed to a character’s thought [82].” So to speak, this flashback is made by the director to let the audience experience Qiu Yun’s thought. This also can be seen as a dream-like scene. One procedure of dream images is “very restrained, working by clear cuts or montage-cut, making progress simply through a perpetual unhinging which ‘looks like’ dream, but between objects that remain concrete [165].” It seems like Qiu Yun’s fantasy, but there is no clear answer. Qiu Yun leads the audience to fail to distinguish just who is who at this confusing moment. This reflects “ambiguity,” just as this scene itself which also possesses “ambiguity.” Jinhua Dai

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wrote, “They are both within the mirror, but are they stepping into a hall of mirrors, or falling into a nightmarish world: woman? man? true self? role? human? nonhuman? demon? Clearly a moment of descent into the confusion of the mirrored images [155].” Actually the director Shuqin Huang did not think of it so profoundly, she said: “It is too solid if showing Zhong Kui’s eerie and amazing facial makeup directly, so I used several mirrors to display it from different angles [238].” However, the effect is far beyond the director’s original intention. Qiu Yun’s confusion not only comes from Jinhua Dai’s question “woman, man, human, demon,” but also comes from the double pressure of society and family.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 4.10: Mirror scene in Woman–Demon–Human. First, one side of the pressure comes from Qiu Yun’s career. An opera actress, this vocation confirms the proverb “One minute’s brilliant performance on the stage is attributed to ten years’ practice under the stage.”

26

Acting female characters is

absolutely good for female actresses, however, Qiu Yun deliberately portrays men to relieve the stress in her mind, then escapes from reality through fantasy. Jinhua Dai wrote, “Qiu Yun’s attempt to escape her gender fate by ‘playing a male’ (yan nan de) is not only a signifier and metaphor for the existential predicament of modern Chinese women, but it also more subtly exposes and subverts classical male-dominated culture and male discourse [156].” Pressure in male-dominated society not merely happens to Qiu Yun, but many women. Xingyang Li believed that “Qiu Yun interacts with several Others, and it may seem at first glance that the disappointments in her 26 This

is a Chinese proverb, Pinyin: tai shang yi fen zhong, tai xia shi nian gong.

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personal life and her professional successes alike are the result of her interactions with those Others, but in truth her disappointments and her successes always result from her either yielding to the demands of patriarchal culture or rebelling against those demands [368].” She fails to revolt in reality, therefore pressure from society will not reduce. She has to survive sturdily in this environment despite her possessing a strong feminist consciousness. Whereupon she only keeps this rebellion in her mind, as the mirror shots, that she cannot distinguish reality and fantasy, so to speak she does not want to distinguish. Second, Qiu Yun’s family exerts pressure on her. Her father forces her to continue to be an opera actress when Qiu Yun wants to give up. On the one hand, Qiu Yun loves her career, she would not have wanted to give it up if other colleagues had not spoken evil of her mother (that she is a bastard of her mother with another man—her biological father); on the other hand, she cannot disappoint her father due to his silent support and selfless love for many years. The pressure also comes from her husband. Qiu Yun does most of the housework, educates the children, and repays the gambling debt for her husband. Merely depending on her husband to raise the family is not enough, this pressure cannot be overlooked. Can women balance the relation between careers and families in contemporary Chinese society? Jinhua Dai considered: “Scripting and interpreting Qiuyun’s life, Huang Shuqin certainly does not resort to the current nostrum in contemporary China that, for a woman, career and life (in blunter terms, marriage) are doomed to incompatibility; nor does she represent an allegedly female choice between professional success or personal happiness [157].” Nevertheless, Qiu Yun still does not balance well the relation between her career and family, the double pressure still influences her. In contrast, mirror shots in German films pay attention to conveying women’s spirits and deep emotions. Maria sees Anna’s face rather than herself, as shown in Figure 4.11(a), and Figure 4.11(b) shows her horrid expression. There is a German expression to depict this—doppelgänger. Renate Hehr wrote, “The confrontation of

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two opposing figures to point out the hidden potential of an individual is related to one of the most important recurring motifs in Margarethe von Trotta’s work—that of the doppelgänger [262].” Margarethe von Trotta said: “I see duality within my characters. For example, the double self—the other side of yourself—is always very important. I use this Doppelgänger motif extensively. [...] It comes from my personal experience because I need two people to describe my contradictions. In duality, there are always mirror images [226].” Karen Hollinger mentioned: “Female characters in her films can represent the struggle between life-affirming and death-directed components of the psyche, between terrorism and reformist politics, or between freedom and dependence [271].” This doppelgänger also applies to Qiu Yun’s mirror. She sees an imaginary herself in the mirror through the psychological representation, but she still is a normal person when she does not play a role. Thus her doppelgänger is conditional. However, Maria can suddenly see another self or Anna’s face in a mirror when she is sober. This horrific experience happens to Maria several times, this example is one of them. This fantasy mirror scene accords with one feature of art cinema. 27 Maria does not understand Anna’s suicide, even complains about her. Anna’s half face stands in sharp contrast to the close-up of Maria’s face. This exactly shows Maria’s fear in her mind. The director depicts two sides of one person from both reality and imagination by means of the doppelgänger. Maria tries to understand Anna’s spirit at the end of this film, which should be attributed to Miriam. If Miriam had not come to Maria’s mother’s house, how could she have read Anna’s diary and understand her emotion? If she had not become Maria’s close friend, how could she have experienced Anna’s pain and finally escaped Maria’s control? Exactly because of Miriam’s behavior, Maria eventually tries to realize her own fault, therefore she learns much from her experience with Miriam. Ostensibly Figure 4.11(c) shows a pleasant moment from Maria and Anna’s child27 “Dreams,

memories, hallucinations, daydreams, fantasies, and other mental activities can find

embodiment in the image or on the sound track.” In [62].

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hood, but this three-part mirror of displaying children’s immature faces, 28 looks like Qiu Yun in the mirror. Several faces symbolize Maria and Anna’s different characteristics and their doppelgänger status. In another scene, Anna gazes at herself in a mirror, as shown in Figure 4.11(d). This close shot is neither relevant to her makeup nor appreciates her appearance, but aims at meditating on herself, and thinking the meaning of her survival, the difference in philosophy between her and Maria. It is associated with the first scene of narrating a story through her helpless expression. Anna cannot take care of herself, especially in spirit, from a child to an adult. Renate Hehr also believed that “Maria represses her emotional and imaginative side in order to do justice to her professional role, while Anna is introverted and unable to cope with life [264].”

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 4.11: Mirror shots in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness. 28 Renate

Hehr also discussed this mirror shot, see [263].

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The mirror shown in Figure 4.12 in Sheer Madness seems like many mirror shots used in the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, which was analyzed in “Marriage and Love,” its function is also similar. This full shot reflects not only Margarethe von Trotta’s favorite doppelgänger, but also expresses an extreme duality of Ruth. In addition, the sharp pointedness of this mirror looks like a lethal weapon, and it indicates Ruth’s several attempted suicides. All in all, normally mirror shots in German films convey more deep meanings beyond the surface than do those in Chinese films.

Figure 4.12: A mirror shot in Sheer Madness. There is one behavior in Durian Durian that is irrelevant to a mirror shot, but has a close relation to gaze—Xiaoyan takes a shower. Figure 4.13(a) shows a blurry shot in which Xiaoyan has a bath with a customer. A door with a fuzzy window separates them from the audience, who realizes the plot from Xiaoyan’s flirtatious words instead of her actions and expressions. This indirect shooting method is the reflection of Xiaoyan’s inner world rather than to avoid the censorship in China. At the end of this film, when Xiaoyan takes a shower in her hometown, there are nude shots. She cannot face her family, her “dare not tell” and “cannot tell” derive from the traditional Chinese concept. Figure 4.13(b) shows details of a shower, but not a nude shot. Hence this shooting method separates Xiaoyan from the audience and her family.

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Shen Tan wrote, “In recent years, with an increasingly mobile population and economic development, the sex trade industries have grown rapidly in mainland China. [...] Most of these women are migrants from rural villages [539].” Xiaoyan is not from a rural area, but she is from a small city in the northeast, and many people there yearn to go outside to earn money because of the relatively less developed situation compared with southern China. This sex trade happens in Hong Kong, but many prostitutes are from the Chinese mainland. This situation is similar to Shen Tan’s saying. In addition, Regina Ip, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security, pointed out “3,000-odd mainland prostitutes apprehended in 2000 represented 88 per cent of all prostitutes from other places arrested in Hong Kong [305].” This story happened around 2000, and is similar to this letter’s publication time. Chunsheng Hong wrote that “The director Fruit Chan said, this film does not attract audiences by means of the story itself. There is no script, it does not seem to act a film from beginning to end, but narrates Xiaoyan’s survival and sadness depending on some trivial details [280].” The shower is one representation of her everyday life. Figure 4.13(c) shows Xiaoyan taking a shower in her hometown. This behavior is very common when she is in Hong Kong, but there, it was never shown directly. Here, Xiaoyan no longer hesitates to expose her body in this situation, and completely relaxes. Nobody disturbs her, she enjoys real safety and quiet. This public bathing pool decorated with white smooth tiles encircles Xiaoyan, and looks like a firm cage to get her trapped inside. Actually “Yan is at a loss when it comes to what to do next [218].” “At a loss” because she is always searching for something with indeterminacy, which conforms with the features of art cinema. Wendy Gan believed: “Though Fruit Chan is a Hong Kong filmmaker, I’d like to suggest that in the second part of Durian Durian he employs Yan as a barometer of Chinese modernity much as Chow 29 has argued the Fifth Generation filmmakers 29 Rey

Chow argued: “The places occupied by women in these films [referring to Chinese films in

the 1980s and the early 1990s] are crucial in this consideration. Whether or not they actually appear, women are always the places where primitive passions are cathected.” In [129].

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have [217].” Hong Kong is a special part of China: it accepted Western culture and developed its economy earlier than the Chinese mainland, but the directors of Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland still possess some similarities about a film’s theme and feature. Having a shower is a simple human activity, but Xiaoyan’s shower as a prostitute indeed is an issue that is worth noticing and examining. She is the first person doing that around her friends: she can be seen as a “pioneer.” Wendy Gan believed that “The film also privileges Yan by highlighting her perceived role as a vanguard of new mainland Chinese youth among her family and friends at home, emphasising Yan’s significance in a rapidly modernising China [219].” This group of people should be focused on and rescued, or at least this situation should be improved.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 4.13: Three shots of showing Xiaoyan’s shower in Durian Durian.

4.5 Representation of Women’s Lives at Home On the whole, there are more shots showing women doing housework in Chinese films than in German films. Ermo makes twisty noodles, as shown in Figures 4.14(a) and 4.14(b). Her feet step on the dough skillfully, which is a special way of kneading dough in that local place. This strange novelty echoes David Bordwell’s viewpoint, about “exoticism,” which is one of the factors most evident about the output of art cinema. 30 Not all Chinese 30 “Exoticism”

is one factor, the other two are “eroticism” and “children.” In [70].

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know this local characteristic, not to mention foreigners. These two shots make Ermo’s action and facial expression clearly visible. Figure 4.14(b) is more intuitive: it shows her half-face, the other half is covered by her hair. She may tie her hair up, but she does not, and lets her straggling hair flutter in front of her face, which is soaked with sweat. Ermo does not want anybody to see her clearly, as if she does not show off her hard work, only finishes it quietly. But other people, especially men, actually do not notice her, since they think this is a housewife’s responsibility. There is no background music in this scene, but synchronization, which this film always uses. The sound of Ermo’s treading on the dough and her sigh bring the audience to Ermo’s difficulty in life. Chunyu Zheng believed that “Synchronization records the transient action or expression of actors in shooting spot, it is an emotional spark that would not happen a second time [635].” Besides being an interesting prop, the large branch seems more allegoric as a “detailed object.” 31 Her face is positioned in between the two limbs, and her hands support hard on them. It is as if Ermo lives in an open cage, from which she wants to escape but does not: she might escape, but gives up eventually. Jinhua Dai wrote in her A Scene in the Fog: Chinese Cinema Culture 1978–1998, “Ermo is eager to acquire the biggest television: this neither means that this television reflects her actual goal and wish, nor means that the television as the most important signifier in postindustrial society has entered into Chinese country life [147].”

32

However,

television actually is entering into Chinese country life (not all rural areas, since China is big, differences always exist) as a signifier in postindustrial society, some rural people have television, for example, the Blindman’s family, and they share it with others. This “share” refers to the television itself, but also means culture 31 “Detailed 32 Jinhua

object” was proposed in [575]. Dai also stated in [147]: “The director Xiaowen Zhou deliberately chooses some TV pro-

grammes, which rural people are not familiar with, such as a swimming course, a social English class, American football. Besides, Ermo’s family sleeps soundly when there is a scene of flirting in an American soap opera.”

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and knowledge. Television brings happiness and novelty to rural people, and they gradually learn Western culture, making life complicated and colorful. As Judith Farquhar opined: “Yet it does not appear to be a particularly rewarding or joyous future; rather, the film suggests that modern technology will only make life more complicated [195].” This complexity simply lies in between people and objects, people and people. Yichuan Wang believed that “The complexities of power relations in current rural China include: politics and sex, tradition and modernity, men and women, material desire and spiritual demands, etc [578].” Ermo is a representative in this process, also a victim. Kuei-mei, a Woman often shows many shots of doing housework. Guimei serves food for her husband, as shown in Figure 4.15(a), who is arranged near the cabinet, moves between her husband and that cabinet, and her husband is in the foreground. This arrangement of the characters’ location obviously emphasizes the husband’s status as master. He feels comfortable enjoying the fruits of his success in this marriage. Then they have a quarrel about the leftovers, and the two characters occupy a similar space in that frame, Guimei chases her husband’s pace, but the husband leaves with anger, leaves behind Guimei sitting at the table, as shown in Figure 4.15(b). This change in the characters’ location, “far away,” “come near,” and “leave,” reflects Guimei’s lower status and her husband’s arrogance. Yu Xiong pointed out that “generally speaking, men have a higher status than women [588].” After this couple opens a restaurant, Guimei is not merely a housewife any more, but she still does most of the housework. Thus, her status does not change much after she becomes a professional woman. Ms. Xiang does housework, as shown in Figures 4.16(a) and 4.16(b). The lighting in Figure 4.16(a) comes from her left side, and the dark part in this space makes her particularly prominent. It is very early in the morning, and it conveys the emotions of admiration and praise of the filmmaker: the warm light makes Ms. Xiang’s image greater. The sunshine shines over her body, as shown in Figure 4.16(b), also embodies

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the same meaning as in Figure 4.16(a). Ms. Xiang actually is a businesswoman, however, she still does most of the housework as a housewife. Fagang Song wrote that “She is a female not only in a violent relationship with a male after her economic independence, but also suffers from the cultural oppression of the male community. There is also a conflict of her dual identity, between her maternity and femininity [526].” Ms. Xiang is strongly maternal, so she helps her son to marry the girl he likes, although her son is stupid and that girl is reluctant to marry him; however, she simultaneously sympathizes with her daughter-in-law because of her femininity. It is understandable that Ms. Xiang’s husband neither does any housework nor provides benefits for the family, due to his being crippled. However, he cannot regard his weakness as a way of winning sympathy: he even abuses his power to punish his wife. He cannot live better without his wife, but he still shows off his wretched male authority so as to obtain spiritual consolation. Zhuqing Shi pointed out: “The protagonists in Fei Xie’s films always put themselves in need of search,

33

and this

irrealizable requirement leads to a convergent, happy-go-lucky, or destructive tragic ending [511].” Ms. Xiang had pursued something making her happy and relaxed. However, her daughter-in-law is the beginning of another vicious circle of tragic fate, and the chief culprit is Ms. Xiang. Neither of them escape from a tragic fate, and this reflects the sense of original sin. 34 Relatively speaking, German films do not often show women’s doing housework, but there still are some scenes showing this. Martha has this kind of scene, as shown in Figure 4.17. She serves food for her husband, and she considers she will live better and suffer less if she treats her husband well, including cooking, reading books that her husband recommends, and satisfying the needs of her husband’s abnormal sexual demand. She leans over backwards to please her husband, but it does not work all 33 “Search” 34 Er

is a representation in art cinema. Guan pointed out “the sense of original sin” in [239]: in Married to a Child and Woman Sesame

Oil Maker, that both female protagonists’ sexes do not resist the feudal old order, but secretly taste the forbidden fruit, in the premise of admitting its authority, thus they have a sense of original sin.

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(a)

(b)

Figure 4.14: Two shots of doing housework in Ermo.

(a)

(b)

Figure 4.15: Two shots of doing housework in Kuei-mei, a Woman.

(a)

(b)

Figure 4.16: Two shots of doing housework in Woman Sesame Oil Maker.

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the time. She is still controlled by her husband strictly. All the things she does are, in her husband’s eyes, the responsibilities of a wife. Martha is a tragic woman, she looks just like the sculpture in her home, shown in Figure 4.18(a): a weeping woman. Her sad expression really resembles the woman in Figure 4.18(b), which is also a sculpture.

35

There are many Western sculptures and paintings showing

the Virgin with sorrows. Filmmakers exactly draw lessons from Western culture (Christianity) including classical Western art, as this book has often mentioned. The statue appearing in this film is positioned in Martha’s house, which implies her future tragic fate after marrying her husband. Filmmakers put it there deliberately, on the one hand, the audience clearly realizes Martha’s unfortunate experience, thus she and this weeping statue share the same house, where their fates are closely connected. On the other hand, filmmakers criticize Christianity by means of Martha as an example. Martha is tortured by her husband, she often cries and feels depressed, however, she endures everything: filmmakers criticize her behavior as well. Maria in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness is a professional woman, but she still does most of the housework. As shown in Figure 4.19, Maria prepares dinner in the kitchen, and Anna stands near the door of the kitchen and looks at her. We may imagine that after Maria has married someone, she probably will still do most of the housework as well. As in the following perspective, “German fathers work and earn more than German mothers, and women very often do the housework regardless of whether they are also in full- or part-time employment [103].” In fact, this is disrespectful to professional women. Ruth in Sheer Madness is a special housewife: she does not always do the housework, due to her mental illness. Figure 4.20(a) shows Ruth preparing a dinner for her husband and Olga. However, sometimes there still appears a scene such as is shown in Figure 4.20(b), with Ruth’s husband helping her do the housework, which reflects her exceptionalism as a housewife. Renate Hehr 35 Figure

4.18(b) refers to “Weeping Virgin Mary Statue” at Sacred Heart Church, Medford, Mas-

sacusetts, USA, see [582]. In addition, more sculptures or paintings of the weeping Mary are at this website: [581].

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believed that “In Heller Wahn (Sheer Madness), as in Schwestern (Sisters), it is her opinion that there needs to be a new feminine identity if relationships between women are to improve [261].” Some scenes indeed reflect these women’s daily life, their emotions, status, and relationships, and doing housework is just one of the everyday situations.

Figure 4.17: Martha does housework in Martha.

(a)

(b)

Figure 4.18: Two sculptures of Weeping Mary respectively in Martha and at a church. The chapter, “Marriage and Love,” analyzed the use of color and had a conclusion: most Chinese films pay attention to one or two main colors to construct a whole atmosphere, something which has been influenced by Chinese paintings; German films

4.5. REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN’S LIVES AT HOME

Figure 4.19: Maria does housework in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness.

(a)

(b)

Figure 4.20: Two shots of doing housework in Sheer Madness.

151

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often use many different colors, something which has been influenced by classical Western paintings. This conclusion also applies to the films in this chapter. Edward Branigan wrote, “Criticism of film to the present day has largely proceeded as if all films were made in black and white. Few theorists of filmmakers even comment on the use of color in a film much less consider the structural possibilities that color opens for the filmic text [83].” A color strategy in a film indeed reflects the characters’ emotions and constructs the whole atmosphere. Both André Bazin and Rudolf Arnheim saw color as a device with the potential to enhance filmic realism. [188]. 36 Woman–Demon–Human’s dominant hues are red, white and black; the color is relatively brighter than in other Chinese films. Figures 4.21(a)–4.21(d) (coming from Woman Sesame Oil Maker; Kuei-mei, a Woman; Ermo; and The Village of Widows) show women at home or near home, and recalling Figures 4.14(a)–4.16(b), all of them create a main atmosphere of color that is blue, grey, or khaki. This is something which is associated with traditional Chinese paintings. Dazheng Hao wrote that “Traditional Chinese visual representation eliminated not only chiaroscuro, but also color, even though color can be perceived even in flat lighting [246].” Color creates not only the atmosphere of a film, but also reflects the characters’ emotions and characteristics. These dark colors exactly conform to the artistic conception of traditional Chinese paintings. Looking again at the Chinese paintings provided in the previous chapters, the dominant hue of most of them is yellow (or khaki), grey, or brown. And this planarity reflects an artistic conception that obtains its success from its freehand brushwork. Chris Berry and Mary Ann Farquhar wrote, “In Chinese painting, the highest form of brushwork delineates an idea (yì). Realistic rendering of form is not a primary consideration [50].” Figures 4.22(a)–4.22(d) (from: Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness; Sheer Madness; Martha; and Germany, Pale Mother) visually are colorful and brighter than the Chinese 36 See

also [44] and [19].

4.5. REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN’S LIVES AT HOME

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

153

Figure 4.21: Four examples on color respectively in Woman Sesame Oil Maker, Kuei-mei, a Woman, Ermo, and The Village of Widows.

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images provided above. They emphasize more than just one or two colors in constructing a whole atmosphere. This is associated with classical Western paintings, and is related to its emphasis on perspective and copying real scenes. Chris Berry and Mary Ann Farquhar wrote, “the materials of Chinese painting (brush and ink) necessitate swift execution, the painter did not work directly from external models as in the West but from ‘an image already fully and precisely formed in his mind’s eye’ [51].” Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness has many different colors, but the contrast of dark color with light color is another feature of it. Anna often wears a dark color, and Maria often is dressed in light colors, as shown in Figures 4.23(a)–4.23(d), also see Figures 4.19, 4.7(b) and 4.7(c). This obvious contrast expresses not only these two women’s different characteristics, but also conveys a feeling of loss and confusion. Recalling the first scene of narrating the story, Anna is tightly nestled in Maria’s arms to listen to her reading. Maria always kisses Anna when she comes home from work to express her sincere love. This love, nevertheless, does not lead to a good result. That is why Janice Mouton thought that these stories begin with kisses and end with death: these stories portray love and loss [439]. There is another noteworthy phenomenon: the difference in ways of showing education in films. As discussed in previous paragraphs, shots of showing women’s doing housework in Chinese films are more frequent than in German films. It is just the opposite for education. Guimei’s husband disapproves of their daughter’s continuing to study at school, however, Guimei insists on it. She knows that knowledge changes destiny and improves cultivation. A similar situation happens with Ms. Xiang. She is an illiterate rural woman: she cannot change her fate through knowledge, but her daughter can. Nevertheless, her husband’s opinion is like that of Guimei’s husband: he does not support his wife, and considers that there is no use for girls to study hard, which is an obvious discrimination. Actually, these men’s educational level is not high, but they do not want their wives to exceed them. However, these mothers hope their

4.5. REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN’S LIVES AT HOME

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

155

Figure 4.22: Four examples on color respectively in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness, Sheer Madness, Martha, and Germany, Pale Mother.

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 4.23: The contrast of dark color with light color in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness.

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daughters can escape from such unequal fates. Fu-Bai hui Wang thought that “In the countryside, the acquisition of female education and occupational status shows a single linear relationship, and the only way to enter into a high level career and improve one’s professional status is to improve one’s educational level [300].” Thus Chinese films do not often show women studying, since they only pay attention to housework and pin their hopes on the next generation. Sima Guang, who was a Chinese historian, scholar, and minister of the Northern Song dynasty, supported women’s education.

37

However, many educators and

ideologists in ancient China believed in gender discrimination, and excluded women from the social life [612]. This situation has been improved in contemporary society, but progress in the countryside has been relatively slow. Therefore there is nothing strange in that the educational level of Ermo, Ms. Xiang, Qiu Ju, and most women in their villages is low. Another striking example is The Road Home. Zhaodi is an uneducated rural woman, but she loves a literate teacher who becomes her husband afterwards. Xue Lan Rong and Tianjian Shi wrote “Since the late 1950s, China has made tremendous efforts to improve education, [...] Although there has been much educational legislation passed since 1949 and numerous promises made by the government, the condition of Chinese education in many remote regions and rural areas is deplorable, indeed deteriorating even further [493].” Zhaodi is one of the numerous uneducated rural people, whereupon she admires and worships her husband. Most women in Chinese films suffer for men, and are controlled by men via a masculine hegemony. Thus the 37 Sima

Guang, wrote in his Family Rules: “No one should be exempt from study, men and women

alike. Women at home should not omit to study the Book of Filial Piety, The Analects, as well as the Classic of Poetry and the Book of Rites and acquire a general understanding of these subjects.” According to him, a woman’s education would improve her self-discipline, her support of her husband, and her contribution to the education of her children. Hence he added, “Such skills as fancy embroidery and flute songs are not suitable for women’s education.” In [634].

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inferior position of lacking education seems more obvious, and their life circles are still only their houses and families. In contrast, German films do not have many examples representing women’s worries due to their education. Apart from professional women shown in German films, many German housewives are literate. Ruth in Sheer Madness was a teacher, who possesses a certain education level; Martha worked in a library, but she quits it after marriage, so she is a well-educated housewife; Effi Briest comes from a rich family, she received an education from childhood, thus she is also a well-educated woman; Marianne in The Left-Handed Woman is also a well-educated woman. Therefore, there are hardly any German films about uneducated housewives. Secondary education and higher education in Germany were popularized earlier than in China. Besides, the difference between the cities and the countryside in Germany is much less than in China. The Germans’ educational resources and educational opportunities are relatively equal, but China still has this problem up to the present day. There is a comment: “Germany is one of the few countries whose unemployment rate did not rise during the recent economic crisis [301].” This is closely bound up with the participation rate among the populace and with the high quality of the education. Otherwise it would not have won in the economic arena. But women still are not in the ascendant in the patriarchal society, especially for housewives without education, who still have some problems. Charlotte Lauer wrote that “The non-employment state is the remaining category and includes retirement, maternity leave, education, military service, housewife and other non-specified states out of the labour force [350].” German female characters do not need to concern themselves with the circumstances of lacking an education, but with other worries. Martha worries about her husband’s abnormal requirements; Effi worries about her affairs; Ruth worries that the close relationship between her and Olga will be destroyed by her husband; Maria hopes for Anna to accomplish her studies, which is a rare example about education in these films.

4.6. CONCLUSION

4.6

159

Conclusion

In summary, this chapter stated that the traditional concept about women in China and Germany is similar: it does not support women going to work. This has subsequently changed, and this chapter has also shown how women are reflected in films. “Different Cultures Reflected in Films” discussed how Chinese films show many traditional Chinese elements, and German films often show Western modern culture; it has analyzed the films by means of setting and props. “Gaze of Mirror Shots” discussed the functions of mirror shots. In most cases, the mirror shots used in Chinese films are for women’s make up, except for the first scene in Woman–Demon–Human, which has the meditation and doppelgänger meaning as in German mirror shots. The section “Representation of Women’s Lives at Home” firstly analyzed the shots showing women doing housework in Chinese films, which are more frequent than in German films, but German films often show women’s tragic fates by virtue of their psychological problems rather than by housework. Secondly, it talked about the color differences in both countries’ films: most Chinese films build the main atmosphere through one or two colors, but German films employ many different colors. Thirdly, it pointed out the issue of lacking education of women is often shown in Chinese films, to criticize the educational inequality and unfortunate fates this creates. Nevertheless, it is hard to find any German films showing low educated housewives or their worries that are caused by it. Whether Chinese women or German women, professional women or housewives, they cannot escape from the patriarchal society; what they can do is, envisage themselves and to be positive and optimistic women.

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CHAPTER 5. DEATH AND DESPAIR

161

Chapter 5 Death and Despair This chapter will analyze the “death” or “despair” scenes in films. It will introduce the Chinese and German perspectives on death and make a comparative analysis of the use of cinematic space, the use of color or black and white, and close-ups of the face or medium shots to express women. The main Chinese films treated will be Shanghai Dreams (2005), Blue Cha Cha (2005), and Weaving Girl (2009), and also including Red Sorghum (1987), Ju Dou (1990), Raise the Red Lantern (1991), The Road Home (1999), and Perpetual Motion (2005). The main German films treated will be The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975), No Mercy, No Future (1981), Veronika Voss (1982), and Yella (2007), and also including Fontane Effi Briest (1974), The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness (1979), Sheer Madness (1983), and No Place to Go (2000).

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Synopses Chinese films

In Shanghai Dreams, the parents of the female protagonist Qinghong come from Shanghai, but live in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou Province 1 since they were young, in order to support the construction for “Third Front.” 2 Qinghong thinks Guiyang is her home, but her parents desire to return to Shanghai, especially her father. Whereupon the father forbids Qinghong to have a relationship with a local young man Xiaogen, since he thinks they will definitely return to Shanghai sooner or later. Under the rigorous invigilation of Qinghong’s father, she has to say goodbye to Xiaogen who is very upset, however, she is raped by Xiaogen, which leads to hastening their leaving Guiyang. Qinghong tries to kill herself, due to this big blow; fortunately, she is saved. The whole family finally leaves Guiyang, even though in fact they are not sure what will happen in the future. In Blue Cha Cha, there are two female protagonists, Ah Yu and Sister An. At the beginning of this film, Ah Yu comes out of jail with a closed heart, then she finds Sister An, who is her friend from jail, and lives in her house. Afterwards, Ah Yu has two relationships with two men, but both are unsuccessful. This film does not explain clearly why Ah Yu is always unhappy, but only shows her sadness as an emotion. However, a group of puppet show actors appear at the end of this film, and one of them, suffering from autism, is still optimistic. Ah Yu seems to realize the significance of life at this moment, that is, it is not necessary to think unhappy things all the time. 1 The

director Xiaoshuai Wang has had a similar experience to that of this film. See [53]: “The year

1966 marked the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, a cataclysmic decade of violence, destruction, and calamity within mainland China. That year Shanghai, the main stronghold of the Cultural Revolution faction, was the birthplace of Wang Xiaoshuai, son of a factory worker and the leader of a local opera troupe, who would become one of the most important ‘Sixth Generation’ directors. During the unstable period, Wang’s family moved from Shanghai to Guiyang, and eventually to Wuhan.” 2 For the “Third Front,” see [170], [447], and [106]. In addition, the subtitle at the beginning of this film introduces “Third Front” tout court.

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The female protagonist Li Li in Weaving Girl works in a textile factory which is going to close, and she feels her life is repetitive, and without any passion. One day she has a medical check which reveals that she suffers from an incurable disease, and she will soon die. Whereupon she decides to go to Beijing to meet her first boyfriend, and ask why he had not replied to her years ago, something which led to her marrying another man. But her first boyfriend had not received any letter from Li Li and still does not know why. At the same time, Li Li’s husband sells their house to pay for the treatment, but it does not save Li Li’s life in the end. The director Quan’an Wang prefers female themed films, he said: “women have a much closer relationship with fate. It is much easier to touch the substance of issues [295].”

5.1.2

German films

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum tells a story about the terrorism hysteria in the 1970s. 3 Michaela Densmore wrote that this film “opens with a character who eventually will cause the floods of terrorism hysteria to break over her [168].” Katharina meets Ludwig Götten at a party, and they spend a romantic night together. But the policemen burst into her apartment the next morning to look for Ludwig Götten, who has already left, and they tell Katharina that he is a terrorist. Afterwards, Katharina is arrested as an accomplice. A press reporter seeks information everywhere and violates Katharina’s privacy. Finally, beyond endurance, she shoots that reporter, who attempted to seduce her. She is arrested again but that reporter is highly praised at his funeral. No Mercy, No Future depicts how a young woman, Veronika, who suffers from schizophrenia, looks for Jesus everyday. She constantly attempts to commit suicide, has sex with different men, and regards them as Jesus. She often prowls the streets aimlessly. Her bourgeois parents feel sad but powerless. Finally, she is sent to a 3 For

the background for this history, see [435], [47], [24], [437], and [48].

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mental hospital, but she does not stop pursuing Jesus, and many fantastic images constantly appear in her mind. The female protagonist in Veronika Voss is an actress who was well-known for a time. A sportswriter Robert is fascinated by her attraction, and he decides to help her, after finding out she is addicted to morphine. The doctor takes advantage of her position to inject morphine to patients in order to control their money. But Robert fails to help Veronika, who commits suicide at last. Thomas Elsaesser pointed out that “Almost all of the films of that period

4

and many of the later ones end in

suicide [181].” For example, the female protagonists in The Marriage of Maria Braun, Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness, and Veronika Voss all end in suicide. Yella tells a story about “a woman from the East searches for happiness and money in the West. [...] It is an excursion into the immaterial world of money, in which a woman tries to reinvent herself [356].” However, it is an open question whether Yella is dead or not. If one believes that Yella indeed has the experience of that job in the West, then Yella is still alive, and the death at the end of this film is merely her fantasy. If one considers that Yella is dead after that accident at the beginning of this film, then it mainly tells a story about her world after death. Both make sense. This book tends to believe this is Yella’s world after her death. 5

5.2 Perspectives of Death in Different Cultures For a thousand years, Chinese culture was formed and developed by Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. People’s perspectives on death have been influenced by these ideologies. German culture has been influenced mainly by Christianity. These cultures have both differences and similarities. 4 Thomas 5 Dennis

Elsaesser referred to the period around the 1970s. Lim wrote: “Petzold’s Yella (2007), the film is a ghost story, set among the living dead, and

as in so many of his other movies, Petzold inscribes cold, hard truths of class and money into almost every scene, fusing erotic tensions with socioeconomic ones.” In [378].

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Xiangping Li considered that although Confucianism in Chinese culture does not ignore the issue of death, its tradition still pays attention to self-cultivation, prolonging lives, and a good death [366]. For Confucius, when his student Ji Lu asked him something about death, he answered Ji Lu “Wei zhi sheng, yan zhi si?” 6 Dezhi Duan thought, “Confucius’s intention with this answer does not lie in avoiding the issue of death, but the knowledge of death is more complicated than life [174].” However, some scholars have considered this to be an avoidance of death. Xianming He wrote: “The avoidance of death in Confucianism, the premise of its essential idea is that death is softened by means of a method of naturalism. That is, Confucianism weakens the negative effect of death for people and its horrendous visage, relying on a natural explanation and acceptance [256].” Genliang Li wrote: “There is a significant difference between the perspective of death in Confucianism, in Buddhism and Taoism, that is, the avoidance of the world beyond in Confucianism. Confucius never talked about the marvelous, powers, turmoil, and deity, he only discussed ‘this life,’ and transcended death by means of actively experiencing meaning in this life [361].” Xiaojiang Zheng pointed out: “The death wisdom of Confucianism teaches people that ‘death’ and ‘life’ are both products of the universe, and ‘dying’ is as natural as ‘living,’ so there is no necessity to be worried about it. Understanding this, people should be content with what they are and not worry about death. The most important thing is how to open up an enterprise during one’s lifetime [637].” Thereupon the Confucian advances bravely in life towards fixed objectives, giving a meaning and worth to life that makes the fear of death less powerful. Religious, Spiritual, Pastoral & Cultural Care stated that “The Chinese Government officially encourages atheism [258].” But it cannot prevent people from having religious beliefs, and Taoism and Buddhism are important ones. Zhuangzi, one of the two foundational texts of Taoism, said: “The attitude to life and death should be submissive, inevitable, not distressed, and unafraid [533].” Xianyi Pan summarized: 6 This

is Chinese Pinyin, which was derived from [18]. This sentence means: While you do not

know life, how can you know about death?

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“Taoists look forward to and thirst for the celestial world infinitely, this reflects a deep fascination and desire of the ancient Chinese about the ideal of this life [463].” Taoism depicts not only the celestial world, but draws inspiration from it about death. Taoism considers, “Do not feel sad excessively due to ‘death,’ since there is really no need to feel the anguish of sorrow. ‘Life’ comes temporarily, and ‘death’ goes temporarily, thus people neither obsess about ‘life,’ nor urgently seek ‘death.’ This perspective certainly contributes people to get rid of the pain of ‘death’ emotionally, and calmly accept the arrival of death [638].” Therefore, as Yanyong Liu and Xiaoyang Zhou wrote that “There is no need to have a survival crisis and a sense of urgency when people face death, either be obsessed by realistic affairs, but people should take good care of themselves according to heavenly principles and natural rules [385].” These are the Taoist perspectives on death. An Outline of Different Cultural Beliefs: At the Time of Death stated, “Buddhists believe in rebirth and that when they die they will be reborn again. The goal is to escape the cycle of death and rebirth and attain nirvana or a state of perfect peace. [...] Buddhists believe that it is just the physical body that lies in the grave because the person’s spirit has been reborn [303].” Health Care and Religious Beliefs stated: “The time of death is considered the transition point to the next life for Buddhists. They believe that if one dies in a good state of mind, he or she is more likely to have a favorable rebirth. [...] After death, Buddhists believe a person’s consciousness enters a Bardo, a temporary spirit body, while waiting for the next life [97].” Yanyong Liu and Xiaoyang Zhou summarized in their article “Thanatopsis in Chinese Traditional Culture and Its Modern Significance”: “People do not only have a ‘life,’ but numerous lives and deaths: death is such a cycle of endless raw intermediates. The pain of life is the person’s body, and the greatest physical pain is death. It can destroy the body, and the soul can be reincarnated or transition [385].” In a word, as Haibo Li pointed out, “In Buddhism, a human being is the combination of spirit and body, which is inseparable [362].” On the whole, the attitude towards death in Buddhism is strong

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acceptance and reincarnation; in Taoism, it is not to be feared and is the return to Tao [25]. In China, as far as Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism are concerned, this book agrees with the summary of the article “Thanatopsis in Chinese Traditional Culture and Its Modern Significance.” “The perspective of death in Confucianism is in the World and positive, which advocates transcending death by means of making contributions and virtue; Taoism is beyond the World and graceful, which advocates complying with heavenly principles and the natural way, and it is neither pleased with life, nor hates death; Buddhism emphasizes controlling oneself and is negative, which advocates enjoying happiness in the future world via overcoming one’s sensual desire [386].” 2 Corinthians stated: “Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord [279].” Whereupon the body in the coffin is not important any more. An Outline of Different Cultural Beliefs: At the Time of Death stated, “Christians trust they will go to heaven to be with God once they have died and so in some respects a funeral is a time of joy, although also sadness, as the person will be missed by friends and loved ones [304].” “Funeral Rites across Different Cultures” stated that “Christians believe in one God who has revealed himself as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. [...] The resurrection of Jesus-when he returned to life after being crucified-is integral to the belief in Jesus’ claim and offer of a life after death in heaven [209].” Lynne Rudder Baker pointed out, “The various Christian views of resurrection have at least these characteristics in common. First, embodiment: resurrection requires some kind of bodily life after death. [...] Second, identity: the very same person who exists on earth is to exist in an afterlife [27].” John Murray pointed out: “there are two entities in man’s constitution, diverse in nature and origin, the one derived from the earth, material, corporeal, phenomenal, divisible, the other derived from a distinct action of God, immaterial and ordinarily not phenomenal, indivisible and indestructible. There two entities form one organic

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unity without disharmony or conflict. In the integral person they are interdependent. They coact and interact [443].” Loraine Boettner wrote: “The body is as really and eternally a part of man as is his spirit, and the resurrection of the body is an indispensable part of his salvation [58].” Millard J. Erickson thought: “There is a utilization of the old body, but a transformation of it in the process. [...] This new body has some connection or point of identity with the old body, but is differently constituted [187].” Thus it can be seen that Christianity emphasizes life after death. Qun Cheng wrote in the article “A Comparison Between Taoist and Christian Views of Life and Death,” there are many similarities between the Taoist and the Christian about the perspective on death. For example, both of them cherish life— however, “Taoism pays attention to this life and to happiness on earth. Christianity thinks this life is evil and suffering, and regards ‘pursuing the ideal paradise on the other shore’ as a thorough liberation. It does not pay much attention to this life [125].” This reflects the differences between Chinese culture and Western culture. Overall, albeit Chinese culture has ideas about the soul, such as those of Taoism and Buddhism, generally speaking, Chinese people value bodies, and in the filial piety culture, such as “ancestor worship” in Confucianism, the deceased is not only regarded as a member of that family, but also their memorial tablet and grave is believed to be a symbol of that deceased’s extension. Christianity drives to the root of life after death and the other shore, which considers life and death to be matters between each individual and God, and death means the soul extricates itself from the body to obey God. In fact, people should treat death as a natural home, since death and life both are quite natural phenomena, an irresistible law of nature. Cultural differences are always reflected in films. In Shanghai Dreams, Qinghong cannot bear the blow of being raped by Xiaogen, whereupon she wants to die, fortunately she is saved. In Blue Cha Cha, Ah Yu attempts to commit suicide since she is always unhappy. Her boyfriend Xiaohao finds her in time and then declares her to be out of danger. According to the perspective of Chinese culture, they should

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cherish their limited lives, stronger and happier, hence these films bring them back to life. In Weaving Girl, Li Li knows her life will end soon, thereupon she decides to make herself happy in her last days. This reflects how she still loves this world and hopes to live worthily, instead of expecting a life after death. The Road Home reflects how family and friends are sentimentally attached to the deceased and cherish the memory of him. Chinese people pay attention to the body, and it is impossible to come back from the dead. In Ju Dou, Ju Dou’s lover is beaten to death by their son, and their son feels ashamed due to the affair between his mother and his cousin (who actually is his biological father). Thus she is burned to death by herself. Hopelessly, Ju Dou would rather end her own life, since there is nothing worth nostalgia in the world. This character is a rural woman several decades ago, so it is not surprising she has strong superstitions, and probably she thinks she will meet her lover in heaven. Ju Dou’s behavior reflects the perspective of Confucianist that when living well in a limited life, there is no regret or sorrow. One example of these German films obviously representing death is No Mercy, No Future. Veronika is a devout Christian. She frequently hurts her body in order to seek Jesus. Yella, although this film does not clearly state whether Yella is dead or not, it indeed shows this life and the life after death which reflects Christianity’s resurrection. In addition, Veronika Voss, No Place to Go, Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness, and Sheer Madness, all the female protagonists in these films have suicide experiences, but only Ruth in Sheer Madness is unsuccessful. Viewed from the perspective of a Confucian, living is quite important in life. People should live out their own values in their lifetime. According to the statements that were mentioned above, the research into death in Western culture is deeper than in Chinese culture, thus these women in German films perhaps are not scared of death at all. Nevertheless, precisely due to the limitation of life and the asymptotic property of death, people should seize a possible opportunity in the course of life, and take advantage of life to the extreme then giving meaning and value to the existence of life.

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Representation on Cinematic Space

Alexander Sesonske wrote that “Faced with the peculiar question, ‘What is a film?’ or ‘What is the nature of cinema?’ the most obvious starting point may well be the most obvious fact about film: a film is something that we see. Things seen are, necessarily, spatial [507].” Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell pointed out in their article “Space and Narrative in the Films of Ozu” that “the space is ‘used up’ by the presentation of narratively important settings, character traits (‘psychology’), or other causal agents [549].” This section will analyze the ‘psychology’ of characters represented in cinematic space. André Bazin believed that “the cinematographic image can be emptied of all reality save one—the reality of space [46].” Blue Cha Cha creates this “reality,” but with curtains or obstacles occupied on the screen so as to encircle characters or make them hide in a place. The “curtained” space properly displays the idiosyncrasy and emotion of the melancholy Ah Yu. Figures 5.1(a)–5.1(c) show a scene of shots revealing a feature of the cinematic space of this film. Figures 5.1(b) and 5.1(c) are two subjective shots showing what Ah Yu sees in Figure 5.1(a). Most of the spaces in Figures 5.1(a) and 5.1(c) are occupied by obstacles, and Ah Yu seems to be squeezed into a small and closed place. Besides, what she wants to see is quite limited, shown in Figure 5.1(c). This is the filmmaker’s intention. David Bordwell pointed out: “The art cinema motivates its narratives by two principles: realism and authorial expressivity. [...] the author becomes a formal component, the overriding intelligence organizing the film for our comprehension [68].” The director Wen-tang Cheng uses this cinematic space to represent Ah Yu’s characteristics—unsociable, self-enclosed, and also failing to solve problems, in addition, this spatial structure helps the audience understand Ah Yu’s despair, even extending to attempted suicide. This is what Shuliang Liu considered, that a spatial structure can represent the spirit of the artist’s thought and feeling [382]. The article “Blue Cha Cha and The Strait Story—Two Ways of Expressing Feminism

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in Taiwan Films” considered that, Ah Yu does not possess feminist consciousness, but possesses a female sense of independence [171].

7

Nevertheless, Ah Yu indeed

lacks feminist consciousness, and so one is reluctant to decide that she has a sense of independence. Whether her murder is on purpose or involuntary manslaughter, that reflects somewhat on here sense of independence. But if she is identified as a woman with a sense of independence because of this, that would be inappropriate. If she was, she would not rely on Sister An to live, would know what to do in her boyfriend’s apartment and would not idle about. Whereupon the cinematic space formed by obstacles precisely represents Ah Yu’s introversion, and reflects the “authorial expressivity” as well.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 5.1: Cinematic space with obstacles in Blue Cha Cha. The cinematic space in Shanghai Dreams also forms a depressing atmosphere, like that of Blue Cha Cha. Jie Yu discussed about the frame composition: “There are countless frames emphasizing composition: the glass of windows, iron bars, doorframes [607].” All of these frames have a psychological meaning, showing the character’s subjectivity, and the spaces are not for conveying plots but depressing feelings. For example, a white fence always appearing in this film is the biggest 7 The

author Lei Ding wrote in her article: “The female protagonist Ah Yu in Blue Cha Cha only

likes staying at home and lacks feminist consciousness. The keyword for her personality traits is no independence, which can be further summarized ‘depending on men.’ [...] However, the rebellious behavior of crazily crying and going to jail, makes for a female ‘sense of independence’ on the part of Ah Yu, who lacks independent behavior.” In [171].

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obstacle for Qinghong’s father to return to Shanghai, just as the English title suggests, 8 and stands for the love between Qinghong and Xiaogen. Xiaoping Lin also believed, in a similar way, that “For Lao Wu, however, the most frightful obstacle to his plan to return to Shanghai is not posed by the factory authority but by his daughter Qinghong, who is in love with Xiaogen [379].” The cinematic space of this white fence has a meaning of death, since Qinghong is raped by Xiaogen next to it, which causes her attempted suicide. Figures 5.2(a)–5.2(f) show a scene from Qinghong’s attempted suicide.

Fig-

ures 5.2(a) and 5.2(b) reveal that the younger brother goes home and finds that Qinghong has slit one of her wrists, and then he immediately runs out. Figure 5.2(c) shows Qinghong’s bleeding hand. Figures 5.2(d)–5.2(f) represent how Qinghong’s mother and her colleagues run home and intend to take her to a hospital. Obviously, most of the shots in this death scene are offscreen by virtue of the window of the kitchen and a door in the room. Noël Burch considered, in his analysis of Jean Renoir’s Nana: “The essential part of the action in this shot (the trajectories of the two men) takes place off screen [86].” This is similar to the usage of offscreen in this film. The actions of death and rescue mainly take place offscreen, which should be more attractive. Although this scene’s protagonist is Qinghong, she rarely appears, by which the cinematic space creates an “intense understatement [87],” and it also tests the endurance of the audience. Xinyu Wang pointed out that “Offscreen expands the vision since it breaks the boundary of the frame, and it shows its openness [576].” Even though the window of the kitchen is closed in this scene, the “openness” of it is still revealed by means of offscreen. Audiences expect to watch what happens in the room. However, the death scene, or the blood shot is not important, but the character’s emotion, subjectivity and psychology are much more significant. In addition, the kitchen in this film is often 8 The English title of this film is, Shanghai Dreams, but its literal translation from the original Chinese

title to English, would be, Qinghong (the female protagonist’s name), or I Am Nineteen. However, the English title reveals and explains the principal question better than the Chinese one.

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shown, whereupon the window in the kitchen becomes a witness so as to uncover the story objectively rather than gazing at the characters actively. Yongqin Jiao believed that “The space of the kitchen undoubtedly plays a key role in this film. It is a closed narrow space, also a space ‘with a view,’ and it becomes a bridge connecting Qinghong’s inner world to the outside world [323].” This space also increases the distance between the audience and Qinghong, and the audience can only speculate about what really happens, relying on imagination. Stephen Teo considered that “space itself is not an emotional entity. Rather than being a channel of emotion, it can actually act as a distancing barrier [547].” This distancing barrier reflects the “authorial expressivity” in art cinema as well.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

Figure 5.2: Attempted suicide scene in Shanghai Dreams. Weaving Girl has a scene depicting Li Li’s desperation in a bathroom of a hospital due to her incurable disease, shown in Figure 5.3(a), and this seems like the suicide scene in No Place to Go, where Hanna smokes in a bathroom of a hospital before her suicide, which will be discussed later. Bo Cheng analyzed the life and death in Weaving Girl, he said: “there is a deep powerlessness in the human heart, albeit on the surface happiness and warmth always appear in life [120].” This book does not

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fully endorse this view. There are indeed some scenes showing the happiness and warmth of Li Li’s family, but most of the time it constructs a dismal atmosphere, just like the space shown in Figure 5.3(a)—Li Li cries alone without letting her husband know. This confined space resembles her confined heart: she shows neither her real side to her husband, nor pours out her fear of death, rather lets her emotions die in this small space. The director Quan’an Wang thought: “The end-result of death is the biggest question for everyone, and in the case that normal Chinese do not have religious belief, nobody tell us how can we face death, so Chinese suffer from it in this respect [586].” This is exactly the result caused by the Confucianist’s emphasis on life rather than death, and Li Li focuses on life instead of thinking about death. The cinematic space in Ju Dou creates a psychological meaning. The dyehouse shown in Figure 5.3(b) is a relatively big enough space, nevertheless, the joining of vertical dyeing cloth and horizontal poles, forms something analogous to a window frame, by which this big space is shrunk and divided into smaller parts to build a disastrous atmosphere and a depressing emotion. This dyehouse, Xinyu Wang said, “is not only a carrier for telling the story, but also has implications at the symbolic level [577].” Hong Sui believed that “Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern use many low angle and high angle shots, to reflect the large closed and strict mansion houses by means of full shots or panorama, and to convey a suffocating and stuffy feeling [532].” This is precisely the contribution of the window-frame analogue. Zonggang Zhang considered that “Yimou Zhang carries forward life, but praises death simultaneously [626].” “Carries forward life,” this accords with the perspectives on life and death in Confucianism; “praises death” accords with the concept in Buddhism. For Ju Dou, she does not fear death, but does not look forward to death either. She dies in this narrow window-frame space, but rather hopes her lover is still alive. Her behavior exactly reveals the perspective of death in Chinese culture. This kind of narrow space also appears in other Chinese films. For example, the window frame in Perpetual Motion that is arranged in a Chinese quadrangle courtyard shown in Fig-

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ure 5.3(c) resembles the function of Shanghai Dreams. This is sufficient to show the space’s limitation, and also sows the seeds of Lala’s madness in the end.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 5.3: Cinematic space respectively in Weaving Girl, Ju Dou, and Perpetual Motion. This parallel composition resembles the parallel perspective or cavalier perspective in Chinese paintings. David Bordwell wrote that “In parallel perspective, a schema common in Asian art, parallel edges running into depth are rendered as such on the picture plane [63].” François Cheng pointed out that “Chinese perspective is different from linear perspective, which presumes a privileged vantage point and a point of convergence. Chinese perspective is sometimes aerial, sometimes as though from horseback level [122].” Ge Huang wrote that “The cavalier perspective gets rid of the limitation of focus perspective physically and physiologically, and increases freedom and flexibility, and also enriches the expressive ability and artistic individuality of Chinese paintings [291].” For example, Along the River During the Qingming Festival painted by Zeduan Zhang is “a typical example of cavalier perspective in Chinese paintings [292],” shown in Figure 5.4. Julia K. Murray wrote that this painting depicts people’s daily life and the landscape of the capital, Bianjing, today’s Kaifeng, from the Northern Song period [444]. This painting itself is not associated with “death” or “despair,” but the cinematic space in Chinese films has learned this cavalier perspective from Chinese paintings, and developed it to carry a negative significance about death visually and psychologically. On the whole, Chinese films use many shots with obstacles or shots divided into

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Figure 5.4: Zeduan Zhang, Along the River During the Qingming Festival (detail), Song Dynasty. Panoramic painting; Width: 528.7cm; Height: 24.8cm; The Palace Museum, Beijing. smaller parts to create a cinematic space to represent a woman’s death or despair. This reflects the “implicit” in Chinese culture: showing something on the screen, but not everything, which resembles the analysis of avoiding displaying the nude in many Chinese films in the chapter “Marriage and Love.” David Bordwell wrote: “an art at once deeply tied to local cultural dynamics [71].” Viewing this in the light of Chinese paintings, François Cheng wrote that “In the Chinese perspective, emptiness is not, as one might suppose, something vague or nonexistent. It is dynamic and active [123].” François Jullien pointed out, “In reality, they do not paint things to show them better and, by displaying them before our eyes, to bring forth their presence. Rather, they paint them between ‘there is’ and ‘there is not,’ present-absent, half-light, half-dark, at once light-at once dark [327].” This “emptiness” is exactly a reflection of the “implicit,” and “there is” and “there is not” also represent the onscreen and offscreen of cinema. These features of Chinese paintings help the audience understand the cinematic space. In addition, this space increases the distance between the audience and the character. On the one hand, it makes the audience think and criticize objectively as calm bystanders; on the other hand, this “implicit” appears to be an appropriate way

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to demonstrate that it is not easy to both search for the good life a woman hopes to possess, and solve problems of the heart authentically. German films normally do not use this kind of shot with obstacles or shots divided into smaller parts to express death. The first example is No Mercy, No Future. Figures 5.5(a), 5.5(b), and 5.5(c) have one thing in common: Veronika is the center of the crowd. The motivation of art cinema is purely “artistic [550].” The cinematic space in this film also shows its “artistic” nature. Onscreen in Figure 5.5(a) there are only other people’s hands, and the situation offscreen is exactly what Veronika expects—quite a lot of people around her and worship her. She gets her security and existence this way. In fact, her realistic space is definitely limited, nevertheless, the space in her imagination is infinite, and she probably has already flown to the heaven to meet Jesus. On the surface all the characters in Figures 5.5(b) and 5.5(c) appear in a limited screen space to make the frames crowded, and most of the people gaze at her, yet these do not meet Veronika’s requirements, because she wants more people offscreen to pay attention to her as the best child of Jesus—that is, as she pursues death. David Bordwell pointed out, “in short any breakdown of the motivation of cinematic space and time by cause-effect logic—can be read as ‘Authorial commentary’ [69].” The ‘authorial commentary’ is the reflection of ‘authorial expressivity’ in the cinematic space of this film. This way, the filmmakers use the method of highlighting the central figure and filling the onscreen to reveal the space’s limitations, and make the audience expect more from what happens in the space offscreen. This is Veronika’s favorite and effective way to pursue Jesus. In addition, she worships not only Jesus, but also hopes to acquire worship from other people simultaneously. However, actually her behavior cannot be understood by others, including her parents, but this film only presents her odd behavior and does not explain them clearly, to let the audience think without providing a unique answer. Steven Taubeneck wrote that “Eventually, to be sure, many directors chose the simpler route of standard Hollywood-style commercial cinema. But, true to her commitment to im-

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prove the industry, Helma Sanders Brahms consistently made films that graphically explored the real, existing problems in everyday West German life by resisting more common types of plots and themes [546].” That is why this film left the audience many questions to consider, and did not simply supply a fixed answer.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 5.5: Veronika is the center of the crowd in No Mercy, No Future. The composition of these frames resembles the linear or focus perspective in classical Western paintings. As David Bordwell summarized, linear perspective is the most famous type, theorized by Renaissance artists and thinkers, being central or “Albertian” perspective. Here, orthogonals converge to a single, central vanishing point [63]. As mentioned in an article “Comparison of Chinese and Western Painting Aesthetics,” Western paintings employ this focus perspective [291]. Albrecht Dürer’s Christ among the Doctors shown in Figure 5.6 obviously reflects the focus perspective. Many people are around and gaze at Christ, which resembles the similar situations shown in Figures 5.5(a)–5.5(c). In addition, Isolde Lübbeke believed that “All four sides of the painting cut off the figures in a way that intensifies the immediate impression of a close-up; [...] The figure of the youthful Christ, depicted frontally, occupies the middle axis [393].” Figures 5.5(a) and 5.5(b) also cut off the figures to emphasize Veronika. Jan Bialostocki wrote about this painting, “The composition is not only overcrowded, but is conceived flatly, and the spatial relations between the figures are so much neglected that we must interpret this lack of three-dimensionality as intentional [54].” Put this way, the cinematic space in No Mercy, No Future is the

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filmmaker’s intentional arrangement, which emphasizes Veronika’s madness about death and the perspective of Christianity.

Figure 5.6: Albrecht Dürer, Christ among the Doctors, 1506. Oil on poplar panel; Width: 80.3cm; Height: 64.3cm; Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid. Another example of showing a closed and narrow space is the suicide scene in Veronika Voss, Figures 5.7(a)–5.7(g) show this scene. Veronika is locked in the clinic by her doctor. This film does not clearly explain why Veronika must die, it only shows her unhappy days and released emotion in that special clinic, just like the director Rainer Werner Fassbinder said: “I think I go further than (Brecht)

9

did in that I let

the audience feel and think [527].” The audience may speculate Veronika cannot bear her lonely life as an average person instead of a celebrated star, and that this is the most important reason for her suicide. Some scenes from Veronika’s lifetime are arranged in this death scene, but this film does not show clearly whether those plots are her dreams or flashbacks: it just provides some clues about her suicide, but no certainties. David Bordwell wrote, 9 Bertolt

Brecht pointed out one of his most important principles “distancing effect” or “defa-

miliarization effect” which derived from the German word “Verfremdungseffekt,” and Rainer Werner Fassbinder was influenced by this concept in his films.

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“spatial and temporal relations ambiguous and thus undermine[s] our expectations” when he analyzed Ozu’s films [66]. This death scene also conveys such an ambiguity: the space offscreen lies in many different places in which Veronika participates. E. H. Gombrich pointed out, if we usually “lose” the screen surface, that is because we search for a recognizable world of objects beyond constructivism [227]. This recognizable world can be employed in this death scene that refers to the space out of this small room, so as to probe into the real reasons for her death. The space of that clinic is a “promoter” to provide an impulse for her death. As shown in Figure 5.7(a), the limited room, the locked door, not big enough window, and the mess on the floor, even the round cover in the foreground, are as if Veronika would be suffocated in it. All of these objective articles in such a closed space make her look forward to death. In her opinion, going to another world is the only way to find peace and happiness, which reflects the perspective on death in Christianity. Theodore Braun believed that “Fassbinder really wants us to attend to this woman as a woman suffering tortured by what she sees on the screen [84].” This suicide scene really constructs a depressing feeling by means of those objects which fill the onscreen. It reveals Veronika’s psychological problem and helps the audience understand her; therefore this space can be regarded as a catalyst for her death. Jiuping Cao said: “Audiences may watch something in one second, and then forget it immediately, but audiences could remember something about the atmosphere on their mind within this second: rooms, props, clothing and so on, which make an impression that is hidden in their mind deeply [95].” The last example of showing cinematic space is the suicide scene of Hanna in a bathroom in No Place to Go, shown in Figures 5.8(a)–5.8(c), which constructs a melancholy and depressing atmosphere. Hanna’s death actually happens offscreen, shown in Figure 5.8(c): she suddenly disappears from onscreen. Noël Burch wrote: “off-screen space has only an intermittent or, rather, fluctuating existence during any film, and structuring this fluctuation can become a powerful tool in a filmmaker’s hands [88].” David Bordwell pointed

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

Figure 5.7: Suicide scene in Veronika Voss.

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out: “Each schema is like a notation system that lets some information escape, and the spectator is often expected to imagine what is absent. There is, in short, a continual give-and-take between the recognition of the depicted space and the awareness of visual style [64].” Whereupon in fact the death shot happens offscreen and lets the audience imagine, which generally speaking is not the classical Hollywood style. In addition, this “information escape” is equivalent to Hanna’s disappearing into the imaginary offscreen space, which only shows her psychological problem and her confused condition, but lacks a sufficient explanation. Accordingly, the audience has to think about what happens offscreen. As Noël Burch believed that “The longer the screen remains empty, the greater the resulting tension between screen space and offscreen space and the greater the attention concentrated on off-screen space as against screen space [89].” The discussion of Weaving Girl has stated that the bathroom scene resembles the death scene in No Place to Go. But the difference is, Li Li cries sadly and she is reluctant to die, but Hanna smokes calmly and would rather die. Anyhow, this narrow space resembles most of the German films in this book: objectively emphasizing death’s arrival and the character’s subjectively facing death. As this film title suggests, it conforms to Marc Augé’s perspective in his book Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity.

10 11

Luana Babini pointed out: “Western European

directors tend to exploit cities in order to explore subjectivity, and represent them as mazes of the human psyche [26].” Hanna does not know where should she go after 10 “Non-Places,”

was an idea pointed out by [23]. This book begins with a story: A Parisian

businessman is sitting in a taxi in a traffic jam at rush hour on his way to the airport. Upon finally arriving, soaked in sweat, he checks in his luggage, then goes to the boarding gate area, this world of glass and leather, Burberry and Rolex shops and glossy magazines. He is no longer carrying anything with him, except for his passport, boarding card and credit cards. The man suddenly feels light and free. Later, in the airplane, over Dubai, there is an echo of reality once more, of the social, as no alcohol may be served in business class while they are flying over Dubai. There is a loneliness surrounding this traveler, one which is not romantic. A modern, still unknown loneliness. 11 This thinking was inspired by [132].

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the fall of the Berlin Wall, thus she is a non-place person, whereupon perhaps the other world is worth pursuing to escape life’s pain and torment. This quiet space— the bathroom seems like the best place leading to the unknown but maybe beautiful world without anxiety. The space is limited, yet her heart is infinite.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 5.8: Suicide scene in No Place to Go. As analyzed above, German films do not employ the smaller parts of cinematic space used in Chinese films. They tend to apply a linear perspective or the focus perspective of classical Western paintings, just as Huizhen Hong mentioned in his Chinese Art in Comparison with the West, Western paintings emphasize the focus perspective [287]. Whereupon this kind of cinematic space emphasizes the main characters, creates a depressing atmosphere of death, and reveals the characters’ psychological problems.

5.4

Color or Black and White

As previous chapters have discussed, some Chinese films indeed use strong colors to reflect a female protagonist’s emotions and situation (like Yimou Zhang does); but many Chinese films always employ blue or grey to construct the whole atmosphere. In most cases, German films use many different colors. They have learned much from traditional Chinese paintings and classical Western paintings about color. The films in this chapter also accord with this conclusion in general. Shanghai Dreams, Blue Cha Cha, and Weaving Girl mainly employ grey or blue as the whole color atmosphere;

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The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, No Mercy, No Future, and Yella prefer many different colors and brighter images than do Chinese films. Nevertheless, this is not the key point of this section. It will discuss colors standing for death in China and Germany, and a unique usage in German films. Guimei He wrote that “In the traditional Chinese perspective, [w]hite makes people tend to think of solemn mourning, which originated from ancient times for color of superstition. White color in China is [a] symbol of death, lifeless performance and bad omen [254].”

12

Tien-Rein Lee pointed out that “white stands for life’s ending

and is used at funerals, expressing the inevitable decay by non-colorful means [353].” This is the meaning of white in traditional Chinese culture, which is different from German or Western culture. White in Germany stands for “cleanness, purity, neutrality, elegance, health, etc [16].” In addition, in the opinion of Westerners, “When the young get married, the bride wears the snow-white wedding dress [254].” Therefore white’s signifying, in Chinese culture, death, does not apply to German culture. Apart from white’s standing for death in Chinese culture, red also symbolizes death. Normally red in China is “a symbol of happy events [297].” For example, wedding dresses, lucky money envelopes [79]. However, the derogatory significance of red should not be ignored. Guimei He pointed out that “In the terrorist times, red is the symbol of the death and the common people have the feeling of danger towards the red color [254].” Red also possesses a negative significance in German culture. Normally red in Germany stands for love, danger, sexuality, anger, aggression, etc [16]. Red also means unlucky in Germany [497]. Thus the negative significance of red is similar in China and Germany. Black symbolizes death as well both in China and Germany. As the article “English and Chinese Cultural Connotation of Color Words in Comparison” summarized, in China, black denotes strength and authority; it is considered to be a very formal, 12 Guimei

He also wrote in [254]: “The white in China also has the commendatory meaning. White

is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection. White means safety, purity, and cleanliness.”

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elegant, and prestigious color; black stands for the evil omen in traditional Chinese culture; black implies gloom, disgrace, misfortune, extreme anger, and so on. In Western culture, black is the sign of darkness; black not only symbolizes death, evil and disaster, it also has the connotation of sobriety and stateliness; a black suit and a black dress are both the favorite traditional clothes for Westerners [255]. Black in Germany normally means death, sadness, evil, cruelty, mourning [16]. Figures 5.9(a) and 5.9(b) are two examples of using white in Shanghai Dreams. Qinghong’s white sweater stands for not only her purity, but also is a metaphor for destroying her life. At this moment, the audience cannot realize a tragedy will happen later in this film, but it conveys a bad feeling little by little, just as the director Xiaoshuai Wang said: “I do not think my films are tragedies, but a sense of tragedy still exists [574].” White is a symbol of death in Chinese culture, whereupon the meaning of the white fence in Figure 5.9(b) seems especially obvious—a metaphor of Qinghong’s miserable experience. That is, coincidentally she is raped beside this white fence, which looks like a tomb prepared for her. Figure 5.9(c) from Raise the Red Lantern also shows white symbolizing death. This scene depicts several servants dragging the third concubine to a closed room on the roof, to kill her due to her affair with another man. Songlian follows them since she really wants to find out the truth. The third concubine’s white pants seem like a mourning dress prepared especially for her. This woman certainly made her husband happy; however, her shortcomings (wayward) and wrong behavior (affair) lead to forfeiting her own life. Therefore her white “mourning dress” is, sarcastically, made exactly by herself rather than others. Besides, the thick snow in this picture precisely constructs a miserable atmosphere to express the omen of death. In addition to this, white is often used in Songlian’s clothes. Yanjin Li also mentioned the color in her article “An Analysis of the Artistic Conception of Color in Raise the Red Lantern,” she said: “Songlian always wears white clothes in this film. At the beginning, white means she is cold and lonely, and later it means desolate [370].” But Songlian’s white

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clothes later shown in this film express not only desolation, but also convey her fear. For example in Figure 5.10(b), Songlian wears her white clothes again but suffers from psychiatric disorders. Her mind and body show the desolation, as well as that she is scared to live in this mansion since she witnesses that terrifying death scene. She cannot return to normal. These illustrate the negative significance of white in Chinese culture. Figure 5.9(d) is the funeral of Ju Dou’s husband. White occupies most of the space in this image, to construct a sad atmosphere. This is a direct reflection of white’s symbolizing death in Chinese culture. Figure 5.9(e) shows a scene after the female protagonist’s husband’s burial in The Road Home. The black-and-white image is the filmmaker’s intentional arrangement. The memory part of this film employs colors to express romantic love, and the real part (funeral) employs black and white. The director Yimou Zhang said: “This is a story of three days, also a story about a funeral. There is neither a smile, nor a happy emotion, only a painful memory that is sentimentally attached to the deceased. Besides, there is snow in the winter. So I want to use black and white, which conveys this feeling better [621].” White and black both symbolize death in Chinese culture: this usage exactly accords with cultural significance and audience psychology. Figure 5.9(f) shows the death scene of Jiu’er in Red Sorghum. Her white coat also seems like a shroud especially made for her, which has a similar function to that in Raise the Red Lantern. All these examples demonstrate the meaning of white in Chinese culture, as symbolizing death. In Chinese culture, red also has the meaning of death. Figure 5.10(a) shows a pair of high-heeled shoes that Xiaogen gives Qinghong. It witnesses to the love between them, but also represents something evil that will end their love. In this way, “red” perfectly reflects the depressing meaning of Qinghong and is a symbol of death. Caihong Zhang pointed out that “There is neither drastic conflict, nor the struggle between life and death, but rather a reflection of weeping without a sound, of sadness, frustration, and death [615].” Albeit this film does not represent death

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187

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

Figure 5.9: White symbolizing death and despair respectively in Shanghai Dreams, Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou, The Road Home, and Red Sorghum.

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and the depressing scene dramatically with strong images, it silently expresses the characters’ emotions and makes the audience think. The red lanterns in Figure 5.10(b) obviously show the color red. Yanjin Li believed that “Red plays a leading role in this film. Red stands for pristine beauty over the years, and symbolizes happiness in festivals; red also stands for cruelty and blood, and every person in the world of red is filled with frustration [369].” The camera pulls back in the last scene, and several shots are added together. Songlian, from a close shot, becomes a small figure. The red lanterns around her seem like many big cages to control and trap her. Thus red in this film reveals not only a positive aspect—happiness, but also conveys a negative aspect—death. Figure 5.10(c) shows the last scene, the big fire lit by Ju Dou. On the surface, the fire is yellow, but the significance of red in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan is communism, celebration, government, fire, etc [79]. In addition, as Tien-Rein Lee wrote that the quality of fire in color is red [354]. Therefore this fire is a symbol of death. Zonggang Zhang believed that “The great, glorious, and terrifying destruction at the end of this film, the raging fire, symbolizes a heated rebellious spirit resembling a roaring flame [627].” This red is different than that in Shanghai Dreams, Blue Cha Cha, and Red Sorghum, which make the audience feel sorry for these women. But Ju Dou’s death reflects that she loves life but hates that society. Death is her reluctant but only choice. Black in Raise the Red Lantern mainly expresses the terrible atmosphere and characters’ emotions, shown in Figures 5.11(a) and 5.11(b). Béla Balázs pointed out, “Colour and particularly the change of colour can play a dramaturgical part, can influence the course of the action. It may also have a symbolic significance [28].” Before putting on the black covers, the whole courtyard is full of happiness with red lanterns. But the change from red to black erases all Songlian’s happiness and honor, and everything in this courtyard loses its vitality, albeit Songlian still wears a red coat shown in Figure 5.11(b). This contrast between black and red highlights the asymptotic property

5.4. COLOR OR BLACK AND WHITE

(a)

189

(b)

(c)

Figure 5.10: Red symbolizing death and despair respectively in Shanghai Dreams, Raise the Red Lantern, and Ju Dou. of death and desperation. Ming Liang and Li Li pointed out in their Film Chromatology: “It is easier for an audience to actively ‘discover’ stories in black-and-white film. Generally speaking, a variety of colors would be a distraction [376].” This is a prevalent perception. However, it does not apply to Yimou Zhang’s films, which always use strong colors to express characters, atmosphere, and stories. For example, the red, white and black used in Raise the Red Lantern, Red Sorghum, and Ju Dou serve the whole stories quite well, taking advantage of their different meanings rather than being a distraction. Figure 5.11(c) is a convincing example of mixing red, white and black together in Perpetual Motion. It shows insane Lala (a female protagonist). The sofa with red and white seems like a comfortable cage in which to trap Lala, and she joins the group of red and white with her black coat without reluctance. The most important colors symbolizing death and despair in Chinese culture are all shown here. Moreover, the red goldfish in that fish tank seemingly presage her future—a psychiatric hospital which locks her inside. The unique usage of color in German films showing death is black and white. But this part will briefly mention some colorful shots representing death. Figure 5.12(a) shows Veronika attempting to commit suicide in No Mercy, No Future. Red is used directly, and the blood makes her a little bit afraid. However, she has this experience

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(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 5.11: Black symbolizing death and despair respectively in Raise the Red Lantern and Perpetual Motion. many times, so this behavior makes the audience keep thinking why she does so. The director Helma Sanders Brahms has three strong commitments to “(1) make better films, (2) rely on fantasy and imagination, and (3) resist the conventions of the culture industry [545].” Audiences must interpret this film relying on their fantasy and imagination, and try to understand her psychological problem, since Veronika is searching all the time, by means of death. The color in Figure 5.12(b) also helps in comprehending the narrative in The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum. That reporter comes to Katharina’s apartment and insults her. In this image he stands exactly in front of that red part on the wall on which Katharina had thrown something, to vent her emotions several days ago. This red part seems like the reporter’s blood spurting from his body. Later Katharina really shoots him: this red has conveyed a hint of death. Katharina’s behavior is forced by this reporter, and his death is caused by himself rather than others, because as Elaine Martin wrote, “Katharina loses, step by step, everything through the relentless hounding of the press: her job, her apartment, her mother, her anonymity, even her identity [408].” In a word, red in these two films reflects something of negative significance in German culture. Brian Price pointed out: “Color has been a privileged aesthetic element of melodrama, its status owed to a seemingly unique ability to depict interiority, the central preoccupation of the melodramatic imagination [476].” Besides, as in the analyses in

5.4. COLOR OR BLACK AND WHITE

(a)

191

(b)

Figure 5.12: Red symbolizing death and despair respectively in No Mercy, No Future and The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum. the previous chapters, classical Western paintings pay much more attention to color than do traditional Chinese paintings, and generally speaking, German films use more colors and brighter images than Chinese films. This section will not repeat that analysis. Interestingly, however, five German films in this book employ black and white to show death and despair, and three of them—Fontane Effi Briest, Veronika Voss, and No Place to Go—totally adopt black and white throughout the whole film. Figure 5.13(a) shows Effi’s last words before her death. The first reason for using black and white lies in the story itself. Effi’s marriage with her husband is distinctly unhappy. Effi always feels guilty later in the film due to her affair. Besides, she does not have many opportunities to spend time with her beloved daughter because of her fault. It is as if there is neither color nor hope in her married life, which only maintains an unhappiness, whereupon her death seems especially sad: hence the black-and-white images seem like a mirror of her real life. A second reason is that black and white images normally focus the audience’s attention on the contents and plot, because there is no other color to help the understanding. After Effi’s death, the

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screen fades to white 13 with a black frame, which stares at the audience. 14 It is, so to speak, a symbol of Effi’s tomb; the black-and-white only intensifies the atmosphere of death. Figure 5.13(b) shows the suicide scene of Veronika Voss. Employing black and white emphasizes Veronika’s negative aspects, her unfortunate and painful experience behind her being a successful movie actress. In addition, the identity of Veronika Voss is based on “the real-life actress Sybille Schmitz

15

[178],” thus this film com-

memorates her in this way in order to create the identity of this film star who was in favor in the period of black and white in the 1930s and the 1940s. Figure 5.13(c) in No Place to Go shows Hanna wearing her favorite Dior coat wondering where should she go. Hanna cannot see the positive aspect of life any more after the fall of the Berlin wall. Moreover, she does not find her personal identity any longer: in spite of wearing that expensive Dior coat all day long, she still has lost her self, and has to search all the time, till death. Hence, black and white precisely depicts her real situation and the tendency to suicide at that time. Johannes von Moltke also wrote about this: “Through its brilliant black-and-white cinematography with noirish undertones, No Place to Go constructs the melancholic vision of a woman utterly out of place [560].” 16

Sheer Madness is a color film, but some shots are in black and white: these coming from Ruth’s inner world or fantasy. Figure 5.14(a) shows her appearing in court at the end of this film because Ruth has shot her husband. The filmmaker deliberately made it black and white to show Ruth’s world from her eyes as a subjective shot. 13 As

to why Rainer Werner Fassbinder used this method instead of the standard fade to black, Leo

A. Lensing believed that “he compares them with a blank page that allows the reader or viewer to think rather than remain caught up in the narrative.” In [355]. 14 Elke Siegel also held a similar opinion: “The screen stares at the viewer, mute, while one hears of Effi’s last wish and the empty words feeding on the last affirmation of that society [513].” 15 Sybille Schmitz was a German actress. She committed suicide in 1955 with an overdoes of sleeping pills. 16 See also [210].

5.4. COLOR OR BLACK AND WHITE

(a)

193

(b)

(c)

Figure 5.13: Black and white respectively in Fontane Effi Briest, Veronika Voss, and No Place to Go. She is used to observing this world without color. Moreover, the topic discussed in court is Ruth’s husband’s death. Hence, this scene uses black and white on purpose to reflect Ruth’s introversion and uncommunicativeness. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum also has some noteworthy black-and-white images. Figure 5.14(b) is an image from a camera in this film which is held by a policeman or an authority. The white frame conveys that this man is being tailed as a terrorist—perhaps he will be arrested immediately. Figure 5.14(c) is also an image from a video made by the authorities to confirm the suspect, which exactly symbolizes being arrested even in death. These images simultaneously seem like a newspaper headline, no matter whether it deserves belief or not. Hans-Bernhard Moeller and George Lellis wrote, “Schlöndorff and von Trotta use black and white, in particular, to construct a relationship between police and Bild [436].” In addition, Elaine Martin believed that “Both the novel and the film explore the terrorist aspects of the media, specifically the tabloid press and how a non-violent woman is driven to commit murder [409].” The media puts Katharina in a position in which she has no place to go. Therefore the collocation of black and white increases the seriousness and urgency of death, while attacking and satirizing the negative effects of the media as well. This is an era of Technicolor, and, as Béla Balázs has pointed out: “Colours can by their changing express emotions and passions which mere facial expression without

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(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 5.14: Black and white respectively in Sheer Madness and The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum. colour could not convey [29].” Thus black and white images representing death in German films are noteworthy. Jennifer M. Kapczynski believed that “Indeed, these days, choosing to film in black and white appears distinctively ‘arty’ [331].” This is related to the “authorial expressivity” in art cinema, which has mentioned in the previous section. In this way, “authorial expressivity” can be seen as an important reason for this singularity. Béla Balázs also pointed out: “there is also the point that the black-and-white picture was much more homogeneous, much more of one material [29].” In addition, as Ming Liang and Li Li pointed out in Film Chromatology: the use of black and white inside a color film can represent the character’s inner world [377]. In this way, filmmakers of art cinema express their own perspectives about death and despair by means of black and white images.

5.5

Whether There Is a Close-up of the Face or Not

This section will analyze whether German filmmakers or Chinese filmmakers prefer a close-up of the face to represent the moment of the coming of death and despair. Our conclusion will be that German filmmakers prefer to use close-ups, but Chinese filmmakers prefer close shots, medium close shots, or medium shots. Béla Balázs wrote that “The close-up has not only widened our vision of life, it has also deepened it [30].” David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson considered that

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195

the close-up has the effect of “shock [72]”; Tom Gunning pointed out that the effect of a close-up is “jolting and excessive [243]”; Jan Olsson thought that the close-up has an “aggressive” meaning [456];

17

Per Persson analyzed “threat” and “intimacy” as

being two functions of close-ups, and also stated that directing attention is perhaps the most obvious one [465]. All of these functions can create the feeling of the tension of death. Figures 5.15(a)–5.15(c) show the suicide scene of Hanna in No Place to Go. When Hanna sits down in the bathroom, there is no music. Thus the sound of flicking a lighter seems especially clear in that closed, small, and gloomy space, and her gasp of smoking seems quite obvious. Figure 5.15(a) is a close shot revealing Hanna’s smoking. In the period of uncertainty and confusion when Hanna looks for her identity and a sense of belonging, she cannot live without cigarettes, which can be seen as a “good medicine.” She finds a relief from sorrow by depending on cigarettes, and stays awake temporarily. Then some music with an ominous warning starts, and the camera zooms in quickly to display Hanna’s face, shown in Figure 5.15(b). She looks in the direction of the camera. It is as if all the events in her life flash upon her mind, resembling a fast motion, to accelerate her determination to die. Gilles Deleuze believed: “As Balázs has already accurately demonstrated, the close-up does not tear away its object from a set of which it would form part, of which it would be a part, but on the contrary, it abstracts it from all spatio-temporal co-ordinates, that is to say it raises it to the state of Entity [162].” Mary Ann Doane considered that “the close-up will, even if only momentarily, constitute itself as the totality, the only entity there to be seen [172].” Therefore this close-up without Hanna’s forehead and jaw as an entity of her face and an abstraction of the whole body, gives the audience a “shock,” is “aggressive,” and even somehow makes the viewer shudder from this very close distance from her death. The director uses this, since he pays homage to his own mother. Joanne Leal 17 The

word “aggressive” was translated by Per Persson.

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wrote, “Die Unberührbare is in many ways a highly personal film. On one level it can be read as Roehler’s attempt to understand the life and death of his mother, the novelist Gisela Elsner, on whom its central character is based, and who had debuted to critical acclaim in 1964 with the satirical novel Die Riesenzwerge [351].” Then the camera zooms out quickly to a close shot shown in Figure 5.15(c), and the music disappears immediately, which means that her life will end at once.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 5.15: Close-up of Hanna’s face in No Place to Go. At the end of The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, Katharina shoots the reporter. The camera zooms in from a close-up shown in Figure 5.16(a) to a nearly extreme close-up shown in Figure 5.16(b). Hugo Münsterberg said: “The close-up has objectified in our world of perception our mental act of attention and by it has furnished art with a means which far transcends the power of any theater stage [442].” This close-up attains this effect. In addition, when audiences watch a close-up of a face on the screen, what they see is “not a figure of flesh and bone, but an expression or in other words when we see emotions, moods, intentions and thoughts [...] [31].” Actually viewing this from Katharina’s eyes, it is difficult to find an emotion of liberation, but rather someone frightened of and upset about death. The “intimacy” of this closeup gives the audience a “shock.” Although Katharina even knows that she will be arrested after shooting this reporter, nevertheless, she persists in doing so. She vents her anger for herself, and also for the spectator. In this way, these close-ups reflect not only the female protagonist’s emotion, but also that of the spectator’s mind, who is worried about the consequences of the murder.

5.5. WHETHER THERE IS A CLOSE-UP OF THE FACE OR NOT

(a)

197

(b)

Figure 5.16: Close-up of Katharina’s face in The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum. A scene in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness shows that Maria fantasies that she is dead: this is shown in Figure 5.17(a), and Anna looks at her, as shown in Figure 5.17(b). Gilles Deleuze pointed out: “the reflecting face is not content to think about something. Just as the intensive face expresses a pure Power [163].” Béla Balázs said: “Facial expression is the most subjective manifestation of man [32].” A pure power is precisely revealed from Maria’s terrible dead face and Anna’s smile with tears in her eyes. These two close-ups exactly reflect the women’s emotions in detail. Maria is always affected by Anna after Anna’s death, whether in her dreams or in reality. Anna takes vengeance on and tortures Maria, but she still loves Maria, hence she has tears in her eyes, as shown clearly in the close-up. Thomas Elsaesser believed: “In Sisters, Maria finally accepts the Anna within herself, ending the process of repression and projection that killed her sister, but also hinting that she might be in danger of going mad herself [182].” Thomas Elsaesser referred to the end of this film when Maria realizes her own problem by means of Miriam’s leaving, and begins understanding Anna’s world. However, at this time Maria is often tormented by Anna’s soul in this scene, she has already been in danger of going mad herself. The extreme close-up isolates a detail, and magnifies the minute [73]. The extreme close-up of Maria’s mouth near the fire shown in Figure 5.17(c) in The Marriage of Maria Braun, highlights Maria’s action of lighting a cigarette. Brian Gallagher believed that “the face standing for the whole body, for the whole larger presence [213].” Thus

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this close-up exactly represents Maria’s whole emotion and behavior: she is someone who wants to be extricated from a predicament. Besides, it also can be regarded as a metaphor that “love” sometimes gets people in over their heads, and leads to a tragedy. Just as the director Rainer Werner Fassbinder said: “love seems to be the best, most sneaky and effective instrument of social oppression [487].” Regardless of whether it was intentional or unintentional, Maria is both the director and the victim of this tragedy. In addition, there are other close-ups which will be presented without detailed analyses, but simply shown here so as to confirm the conclusion: Figure 5.17(d) is one close-up of the suicide scene in Veronika Voss; Figure 5.17(e) shows Ruth in court facing everyone calmly after shooting her husband in Sheer Madness; Figure 5.17(f) shows Yella opening her eyes suddenly by the riverbank after her death, although strictly speaking, this is a close shot, this section only emphasizes Yella’s resurrection face, something that reflects the influence of Christianity. Now this section will provide some examples from Chinese films. Figures 5.18(a) and 5.18(b) are, respectively, a medium shot and a close shot in Blue Cha Cha and Shanghai Dreams. The effects of “shock,” being “aggressive,” and the “intimacy” of close-ups in German films are greatly weakened here. However, they reflect the features of cinematic space and color mentioned in the other sections of this chapter. A piece of furniture or a wall in the foreground in Figure 5.18(a) squeezes this space into something even smaller, and gives Ah Yu a limited activity space that is revealed from this medium shot. In addition, the space with curtains or obstacles as a feature of Blue Cha Cha is reflected here again. The obstacle in this image prevents not only the audience from watching all the objects onscreen (in the kitchen), but also prevents opening Ah Yu’s mind to others, which provides her a reasonable excuse and opportunity to try to commit suicide. Qinghong’s red scarf in Figure 5.18(b) confirms again that red sometimes symbolizes death in Chinese culture. 18 18 A

positive aspect of red is that it possesses a poetic beauty, as the favorite color in China. The

meaning of death definitely makes sense, but viewing it from the opposite point of view, objectively,

5.5. WHETHER THERE IS A CLOSE-UP OF THE FACE OR NOT

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

199

Figure 5.17: Close-ups respectively in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness, The Marriage of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss, Sheer Madness, and Yella.

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Figure 5.18(c) shows how Li Li tries to commit suicide in Weaving Girl, but gives up finally since her son suddenly comes home. Li Li’s head in this image seems a little bigger than normal, because her upper body leans forward in the direction of the camera: thus she looks a little top-heavy. Li Li shows a superficial calm to everyone, but is full of pain deep in her heart. The filmmakers reject employing a close-up to show the extreme details on her face, keeping rather a distance from the audience. She dies at last, nevertheless, her rebirth is arranged at the end of this film. Xiaoyun Chen believed that “The poetic mode of the character’s death, weakens this film’s tragic trait to a certain degree, but possesses a significance beyond life [113].” Just as shown in Figure 5.18(d), the reborn Li Li stands near the window to appreciate the beauty of fireworks, albeit this is a medium close shot back to the camera and her face is not shown on the screen, the audience is still invited to speculate by virtue of their imagination what she thinks at this very fantastic moment. Lin Xiao wrote, “At the doorway of death, the character’s fate in this film does not directly trigger rage and suspicion of the society. Most of the time, Quan’an Wang is only a sober person for recording, he basically does not include emotional conflict or preach, and lets the audience slowly appreciate while they watch this film [586].” However, this time the director is not merely someone soberly recording, he conveys his emotion about Li Li and his perspective on death. This film reflects rebirth according to Buddhism, but it does not praise death but advocates living well, which resembles the perspective of the Confucianist. It encourages people to face death, no matter whether it is sinister or peaceful. This is the enlightening significance of this rebirth scene through this medium close shot of Li Li’s back. Figure 5.18(e) is a medium close shot from Red Sorghum. The female protagonist looks like a martyr falling on the battlefield, which seems extraordinarily solemn in the a nineteen years-old girl like Qinghong with a red scarf is so charming, she seems like something in a poem. Xuguang Chen also talked about the poetry: “Shanghai Dreams possesses the native or abstract beauty of being prosaic, simple and straightforward, which comes from being absolutely splendid, and this is the source of the special image poetry in this film.” In [115].

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201

sunshine. Actually, Jiu’er can be regarded as a martyr in her village, since she is killed by Japanese soldiers on the way delivering meals and sorghum liquor to reward her husband and other male villagers. She does not kill any enemy, nevertheless, precisely due to her death (there is another village woman walking with Jiu’er, who dies as well), the men’s momentum for fighting the enemy is fiercer, and their action is more determined. The audience cannot watch Jiu’er’s countenance in this backlit shot, and this shot has nothing about “intimacy” and “threat,” but she falls down slowly, resembling a silhouette under the sun, and there are other men hiding in the dark who intend to kill the enemy. In addition, this is a slow motion shot: it seems like a moment of condolence for Jiu’er to both the audience and the characters. At that moment, the medium close shot transforms the theme of love into the theme of the Anti-Japanese War. Figure 5.18(f) is an image from the last scene in Ju Dou. Ju Dou sets the whole dyehouse on fire with her own hands, and she is also engulfed in a sea of flames. This close shot reflects not only the Ju Dou’s action of holding the torch, but also displays her facial expression: she looks at this sea of fire painfully and desperately. A close-up cannot accomplish this combination of representing action and expression in one image. The last example is the last scene, of mad Songlian, in Raise the Red Lantern. This scene firstly applies a close shot to show Songlian hopelessly wandering at the window as dull as a goose, as shown in Figure 5.18(g). Then the camera zooms out little by little, and each step of the zoom out is superimposed by using a dissolve on the last image, which fades away gradually, as shown in Figure 5.18(h). At last a high angle shot shows this big mansion, and Songlian becomes an insignificant pathetic figure in this firm cage. Her husband will forget her, so do other people in this mansion, and finally she will disappear from everybody’s sight and heart as does this dissolve shot. This section absolutely does not assert either that Chinese films have never used

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

(h)

Figure 5.18: Medium shots and close shots respectively in Blue Cha Cha, Shanghai Dreams, Weaving Girl, Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, and Raise the Red Lantern.

5.5. WHETHER THERE IS A CLOSE-UP OF THE FACE OR NOT

203

close-ups to represent death or despair, nor that German films only employ close-ups to show death. Rather, it has emphasized the main differences in cinematography, which primarily derive from the perspectives on death of these two cultures and the differences in paintings in China and Germany. Alain Masson believed that “Film does not shoot images at random, it forms a style or constructs an atmosphere using objects or a kind of object, to promote plots by borrowing images. This borrowing is a representational technique, to decide what to draw from an appreciative standpoint [414].” The perspective of most German films employs close-ups to reflect death, but Chinese films do not. On the one hand, as in the discussion in “Perspectives of Death in Different Cultures,” Western culture (coming from Christianity) thinks and studies a world after death more deeply than Chinese culture (coming from Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism); in this way, female characters in German films seem to dare to face death somewhat more easily than Chinese female characters. Thus the close-up is prevalent in German films for facing death directly, but the close shot and medium shot make Chinese audiences feel more comfortable. On the other hand, as Steven D. Katz wrote: “Jean-Luc Godard once said that the most natural cut is the cut on the look [332].” This is obviously a perspective of European artists. As discussed in previous chapters, Western paintings study the body and profile of figures relatively deeply, and Western audiences are familiar with watching the human body and face, therefore the close-up and extreme close-up do not make them uneasy. However, Dazheng Hao wrote, “The scale of framing in Chinese paintings is clearly larger than that in Western paintings. In other words, the portion of space occupied by human figures in Chinese paintings is considerably smaller. [...] In traditional Chinese films, [...] Close-ups served only as a source of uneasiness in such films. Medium shots, which clearly portrayed the activities of the

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characters without revealing much detail, were preferred [247].”

19

This provides a

convincing evidence for not using close-ups often in Chinese films. Moreover, some Chinese films in this chapter were directed by the fifth generation directors, some by the sixth generation directors, and some by Taiwanese directors, and there are indeed some differences between the different generations, 20 between Taiwan and the mainland, but they had received a similar cultural education and painting aesthetics. As a result, it is not surprising that rarely are there close-ups of the face or close-ups without a forehead or chin in Chinese films. On the contrary, German films like to carry forward the characteristics of close-up to reveal a figure’s emotion and develop the plots. Steven D. Katz wrote: “Not only can the close-up reveal the intimate, it can make us feel as if we are intruding on moments of privacy or sharing a moment of vulnerability—as if the person on the screen has opened himself up to us [333].” 19 In

a note of [248], Dazheng Hao went on to state: “The early Chinese audience concerned itself

merely with the characters in relation to a certain plot. They wanted to see human characters ‘in’ a plot, rather than an isolated close-up without a visible plot background. They were so unaccustomed to photographic techniques that a close-up might make them think of a severed head. Almost all classical Chinese figure painting and portraits depicted the whole body.” 20 For example, some differences between the fifth and sixth generation as written by Jason McGrath: “These directors were among those hailed as the ‘Sixth Generation’ of Chinese film-makers—an appellation that served to distinguish them from the so-called ‘Fifth Generation’, the first group of film-makers to train at the Beijing Film Academy after it reopened following the Cultural Revolution. Led by Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou and Tian Zhuangzhuang among others, that generation had achieved a new global profile for Chinese cinema with its grand historical allegories, lush cinematography and exotic ethnographic portraits of often oppressed yet vital and sensuous peasants. In contrast, the Sixth Generation was said to be interested in the present rather than the past, quotidian life rather than historical melodrama, and gritty urban geography rather than scenic rural settings. Another important distinction, however, was that the Fifth Generation, for all their artistic daring and occasional trouble with the Communist authorities, had made their signature early achievements within the state studio system, while many in the Sixth Generation were making films entirely independent of that institutional structure.” In [426].

5.6. CONCLUSION

5.6

205

Conclusion

In summary, Confucianism pays attention to ‘this life,’ Christianity pays attention to the world beyond [257]. Taoism does not fear death, Buddhism has a concept of rebirth. Different perspectives on death have influenced people in different countries. In “Representation on Cinematic Space,” we found that Chinese films employ many shots with obstacles or shots divided into smaller parts to convey a depressing atmosphere, and this is associated with the “cavalier perspective” in traditional Chinese paintings; German films show many narrow and closed spaces to represent death, which is related to the “focus perspective” in classical Western paintings. Chris Lukinbeal believed that “When cinema retains its sense of place the mise-en-scène spatial meaning remains open to interpretation [394].” Whereupon this section analyzed the “authorial expressivity” in space of these art films. Color “is peripheral to questions of narrative comprehension. Moreover, it is seen as excess, a source of abstract visual pleasure and perceptual play that resides somewhere above questions about the film’s meaning [477].” But white, red and black standing for death in Chinese films indeed help the audience understand the plot. The feature of German films about color lies in black and white images to build a miserable atmosphere and immerse the audience in the plot rather than color. Moreover, this chapter also pointed out German films employ many close-ups of faces to represent death scenes, conveying “shock,” being “aggressive,” expressing a “threat” or “intimacy”; Chinese films prefer close shots or medium shots instead, and the reasons for this come from the different painting styles and cultural attitudes to death in China and Germany.

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CHAPTER 6. DREAMS AND DESTINY

207

Chapter 6 Dreams and Destiny “Dreams and Destiny” is the last chapter in the five themes of this book. The films in this chapter primarily describe women’s behavior of pursuing dreams, and their final destinies. The main Chinese films considered are Lunar Eclipse (1999), Millennium Mambo (2001), The Story of Ermei (2004), Peacock (2005), You and Me (2005), and And the Spring Comes (2007); the main German films considered are The Left-Handed Woman (1978), The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (1978), Marianne and Juliane (1981), No Place to Go (2000), A Fine Day (2001), Marseille (2004), Windows on Monday (2006), and Barbara (2012). This chapter will also mention films belonging to other themes, due to the interplay between dreams and marriage, birth, work, and death.

6.1 Synopses 6.1.1

Chinese films

In Lunar Eclipse, directed by Quan’an Wang, the female protagonist, Ya’nan, learns by chance from an amateur photographer, Xiaobing Hu, that there is another woman called Jianiang who looks exactly like her. This arouses Ya’nan’s curiosity, whereupon she tries to become acquainted with Jianiang, and also understand herself. Nevertheless, in Ya’nan’s fantasy, she witnesses Jianiang’s death, “witnesses the death of

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her part of life [114],” finally she returns to her previous life. This readily reminds people of The Double Life of Véronique (1991) 1 directed by Krzysztof Kie´slowski. Jian Hao believed that “this film borrows the structure of The Double Life of Véronique quite successfully [298].” Quan’an Wang considered, “Two characters are the same person in The Double Life of Véronique, only film can realize this assumption [295].” 2 This is not a plagiaristic film, as expressed from Jinhua Dai’s viewpoint, “The intertextual relationships between films have become a basic cultural fact. Some films indeed copy other films, but not this one [299].” In The Story of Ermei, also directed by Quan’an Wang, Ermei goes to the town so as to avoid marrying. However, after finding out that her boyfriend had been cheating her, Ermei returns home, heartbroken, and marries a man whom she does not love. This film expresses not only Ermei’s dream, but also her destiny. Ranran Li also thought, in a similar way, that “This film not only shows Ermei’s poor life, but represents a woman’s destiny [250].” Peacock and And the Spring Comes were both directed by Changwei Gu. Peacock tells the stories of a sister, her elder brother, and her younger brother. But this is a female-themed film since the plot-line is about the sister, Weihong. Jiali Mo wrote that “Only the sister’s story almost has relations with all the characters in this film [433].” Changwei Gu said: “Peacock is really the story of the elder sister Weihong, a young woman who is part daydreamer, part romantic, and ultimately a realist, as most Chinese had to be in those days [228].” But her dream ends in failure. Cailing Wang in And the Spring Comes has a great love of singing opera, and always daydreams about singing at the Paris Opera. However, she finally does not realize her dream and has to return to an ordinary life. The actress Wenli Jiang said: “And the Spring Comes tells the story about the pursuing of dreams of some average persons living in a remote town in China, their love, disappointments, and destinies [319].” 1 This

film also describes the lives and destinies of two women who look exactly the same, but do

not know each other. 2 Quan’an Wang also said in [295]: “I only wanted to make a film with imagination and creativity, a film belonging to film.”

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You and Me tells the story of a nonlocal female student Xiaoma and a lonely elderly woman who leases out a little room to her. At first they do not like each other at all, but over time they gradually need each other. Xiaoma dreams about her beautiful future, and the elderly woman dreams of spending her remaining days happily. This film was inspired by the director Liwen Ma’s own story. 3 Vicky in Millennium Mambo dreams of being a happy woman, whereupon she escapes from her boyfriend and the city where she lives, and pursues another man, but she finally does not succeed. The interesting thing is that although this is a film in 2001, the voiceover says this story happened ten years ago in 2001, so it uses a time in the future. As Ara Osterweil wrote, “Told completely in flashback to 2001 from ten years into the future, Millennium Mambo (2001) is Hou’s pop meditation on fin-de-siècle youth [457].”

6.1.2

German films

The Left-Handed Woman is a typical female themed art film, directed and written by Peter Handke. Marianne pursues an independent life after her husband returns from business in Finland. Nevertheless, she does not make herself happier, and she is still confused and searches for real happiness in her mind. The Second Awakening of Christa Klages and Marianne and Juliane are early works of Margarethe von Trotta. Anna K. Kuhn evaluated that “Since her debut as sole director of The Second Awakening of Christa Klages in 1977, von Trotta has become the leading woman filmmaker of contemporary German cinema [345].” 4 This film tells a story about, how three people, including Christa Klages, rob a bank in order to 3 Liwen

Ma said: “The inspiration originated from my personal experience. While I was studying

at the Central Drama Institute, I rented a room from a lonely elderly woman. When I heard the news that she had passed away last year, I felt regret and I decided to direct a film to record the joys and sorrows that we experienced in those days when we lived under one roof. I tried my best to depict the natural emotions of the common people.” In [619]. 4 Jenifer K. Ward pointed out: “von Trotta’s film can be seen as a document of feminist history

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support a kindergarten. After Christa Klages is arrested by the police, the witness Lena deliberately does not identify her, which gives her a second chance and a second awakening. Marianne and Juliane is a story about the different dreams and perspectives on society of two sisters and their different destinies. Hanna Flanders is an author in No Place to Go. She travels in Germany by herself and searches for hope after the fall of the Berlin Wall, since she considers the communist society to be good. But it is hard to find someone to understand her, whereupon she finally ends her life. Paul Cooke wrote, “The actual inspiration for the film’s narrative came from the life of Roehler’s mother, the Marxist writer Gisela Elsner who gained success on both sides of the Berlin Wall in 1964 with her first novel Die Riesenzwerge [135].” Barbara also depicts German history, “a melodrama set in preunified East Germany, are about people who either try to figure out how to escape Germany [3].” Barbara tries to escape from East Germany to meet her West German lover. But she finally stays in East Germany and gives this chance to a girl Stella, nevertheless, ending up finding the happiness and freedom she had been pursuing. A Fine Day, Marseille, and Windows on Monday all represent women’s pursuing dreams in their lives. Deniz in A Fine Day is a dubbing speaker and hopes to become an actress. Many scenes show Deniz walking in the city and gazing at something or someone. She is always searching. This is about the living condition of Turkish youth growing up in Germany. Marco Abel believed that “The question to ask is thus precisely not the identitarian question of, ‘what are you: Turkish, German, TurkishGerman, trans- or hybrid’ [4]?” Sophie in Marseille “surrenders herself to the [strange] city

5

[267].” She also searches for happiness or how to express a different feeling

grounded in a specific historical, national context, but also in a context of international theorizing about women’s morality.” In [580]. 5 The following information derived from [267], the director Angela Schanelec wrote for the press release for the premiere of the film, “A young photographer travels to Marseille. The more she becomes fixated with the city, the harder it becomes for her to return to her former life. She must deal with the consequences.” Also see [407].

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in another environment. But she does not find the answer, and then continues to search. Windows on Monday mainly represents Nina’s confusion about her life and her pursuit of happiness. Marco Abel wrote that “Montag kommen die Fenster, which centers on Nina (Isabelle Menke), who one day ‘decides’ to abandon temporarily her husband and preschool daughter and to roam the woods surrounding Kassel, another provincial city [5].” Although Nina hopes to see changes in her life, she fails to achieve what she wishes.

6.2

Representation of Different Cultures on Films

This section will discuss the “setting” and “props” in films. As analyzed in previous chapters, Chinese films employ many elements of Chinese culture, such as, a red lantern, the Beijing Opera, and the traditional Chinese courtyard. This also applies to films about dreams and destiny. Examples of this include, for instance, the red wedding dresses in The Story of Ermei and Lunar Eclipse, the traditional Chinese courtyards in Lunar Eclipse and You and Me, the mourning dresses in The Story of Ermei, the Chinese fan dance in And the Spring Comes, and the acupuncture of traditional Chinese medicine in Peacock. Nevertheless, many elements of Western culture are also represented in Chinese films. Some settings or props are arranged on the screen, shown in Figures 6.1(a)–6.1(d), which illustrate the input of Western culture in the recent few decades. Figure 6.1(a) shows Ermo watching a foreign program in a department store in Ermo; Figure 6.1(b) shows a Western sexy picture in The Story of Qiu Ju; in Figure 6.1(c), a couple takes a photo in front of the simulated background of the Titanic in The Story of Ermei; Figure 6.1(d) shows a movie poster—Piglet’s Big Movie. The audience understands the plots and experiences the characters’ emotions by means of the shots shown on the screen, which resemble a window or a door, something which conforms with the perspective of Thomas Elsaesser and Malte

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 6.1: Western culture respectively shown in Ermo, The Story of Qiu Ju, The Story of Ermei, and You and Me.

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Hagener, of cinema as window and frame, cinema as door [184]. Culture is also reflected through the shots. Many props in films convey a specific expression and a personal character. Richard Barsam and Dave Monahan pointed out that props “help us understand the characters by showing us their preferences in such things [42].” The accordion in Peacock as a prop reflects Weihong’s preferences and her personal character. Figures 6.2(a)–6.2(d) show one shot with Weihong playing the accordion, and it is the first shot of the opening of her story. This medium close shot shows the sister concentrating on playing the accordion, and reluctant to pay attention to the boiling kettle nearby, but rather insisting on playing. These details plainly convey the characteristics of her personality [591]. Changwei Gu said “he was ‘totally absorbed’ by the story and felt once again the strong desire of a young heart to escape the confinement of a closed, small, and somewhat boring place and to embrace the great world outside [228].” In China, the accordion is exotic. Both Weihong and her nominal father like playing it but they are often marginalized by others. Hence, the accordion can be seen as an “excluded” symbol for them. Weihong just concentrates her efforts on work she enjoys, and she does not expect an ordinary life. However, this behavior was rejected by conservatives like Weihong’s parents. Therefore, even if the accordion is replaced by a Chinese instrument, it still expresses Weihong’s personality. Nevertheless, a Western instrument makes people’s spiritual world be far away from life in the 1970s and the 1980s, and produces a dissonance that highlights the contradictory conflict stronger than would a Chinese instrument. Changwei Gu said this film exactly “pays close attention to the existence of individual life [232].” Weihong “is unwilling to be manipulated by fate (external forces) [434].” This film also incisively and vividly reflects the sister’s romantic spirit and hard-won self-consciousness in the 1970s and the 1980s, besides, both the accordion and the parachute are symbols of approaching her dream. Her self-consciousness is not controlled by Western culture, but influenced by it, which is unacceptable and incomprehensible to most of the people around her.

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 6.2: Weihong plays the accordion in Peacock.

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In The Story of Ermei, the place where Ermei’s friend Maonü works is a narrow hair salon called “Dream Paris.” Maonü, Ermei, and most of the people around them have not been to Paris, and they do not even know Western culture. They rather use a strange name to stand for fashion. But this behavior is hypocritical and illusionary. Xiaoyun Chen pointed out that “The name and essence of ‘Dream Paris’ provide Ermei Guan/the audience a new cultural imagination about ‘city’ and ‘modern’ [113].” The production designer “organizes the narrative through design [15].” David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson wrote that “In manipulating a shot’s setting, the filmmaker may create props [77].” There is a poster of Michael Jackson on the wall as a significant prop in Ermei’s room shown in Figures 6.3(a)–6.3(d), which reflects Western cultural directly. Ermei counts money and does not care at all about who is Michael Jackson. This is because her aims in town are quite clear— to escape marriage and make money—and Michael Jackson cannot help her achieve her aims. The blue of the poster and the red of the quilt nearby form a sharp contrast between the faraway “King of Pop” and the Chinese young rural woman who totally does not know fashion. But the director considered that this does not influence the peasants’ kindness and loveliness.

6

Chinese urban areas accept Western culture more easily than do rural

areas, but there are “adjustments, reform, and cultural blending [483]” between urban and rural areas. Liye Meng considered that “This film conveys a relatively strong social critical spirit and a cultural introspection, and reflects concerns and thinking in remote areas of China [251].” Just like Ermei, she does not know Western culture, but leaving the countryside is a good beginning. However, she finally returns home, which will be discussed in the section “Return or Continue to Seek Dreams.” And the Spring Comes also includes many elements of Western culture. Cailing Wang loves Western opera, Sibao Huang likes Western oil painting, Jinquan Hu is 6 The

director Quan’an Wang thought: “After arriving at rural areas, I found that kindness and

loveliness of those people do not disappear, even though they live in a harsh environment. I suddenly felt confident. These people are more attractive as art and as human, and they represent Chinese people better.” In [565].

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 6.3: A poster of Michael Jackson on the wall in The Story of Ermei.

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infatuated with the ballet, and Yu Zhou is fond of the poems of Pushkin. This story is set at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, during the period “Reform and Opening-Up” carried out for about a decade. Er Kang wrote: “Everyone wanted to do something, but most people did not know what they should do and how to do it. [...] To be exact, the independent imagination of residents in small towns about Western culture suddenly became an object pursued by young people [329].” Some people reject Western culture due to big cultural differences, but some people like Cailing Wang love it and are even obsessed. But Cailing Wang’s ugly appearance does not match her beautiful song, she is, so to speak, both “vulgar and great-hearted [36].” The actress Wenli Jiang who plays Cailing Wang said: “The audience would think there is more distance to Cailing Wang’s dream if she is designed more ugly, but she still holds fast to her dream under such circumstances, and so her encounter would arouse more of the audience’s sympathy [320].” Figures 6.4(a)–6.4(c) are a pan shot showing Cailing Wang as a model helping Sibao Huang finish an oil painting, which is similar to Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s Grande Odalisque. This is a direct reflection of Western culture. David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson wrote that “The filmmaker may control setting in many ways. [...] the filmmaker may choose to construct the setting [78].” Besides, Béla Balázs believed that “the panorama never lets us leave this space. By force of identification, we explore it in the company of the camera and our time-sense measures the real distance which lies between the various objects [33].” This pan shot reveals the setting, the narrow space where Cailing Wang lives, that is constructed by filmmakers. Moreover, one of the functions of the pan shot is that it “attempts to replicate what we see when we turn our heads to survey a scene or follow a character [43].” The audience follows this pan to appreciate Cailing Wang’s unbeautiful body and tries to understand her dream about Western culture, whereupon this pan is as said as Béla Balázs, “more subjective and lyrical than cutting [33].” Daoxin Li believed that “The unique representation of the body in this film under-

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takes not only an important narrative function, but also intertwines with society, historical culture, the inner spirit shown by the director, and the personal ideal pursued by the character [234].” This nude is neither related to eroticism nor to voyeurism, but refers to open observation. Cailing Wang helps people who also have dreams, and accompanies them in their strivings. But conservatives like Sibao Huang’s mother feels ashamed when she sees the nude, and she cannot accept Western culture.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 6.4: Sibao Huang creates an oil painting in And the Spring Comes. As analyzed in previous chapters, the main function of mirror shots in Chinese films is for make up or just for checking women’s appearance. Most of the mirror shots in And the Spring Comes also conform to this conclusion. But there are two mirror scenes which are similar to the first scene in Woman–Demon–Human—Qiu Yun’s distorted face when she and Zhong Kui look at each other in a mirror. Cailing Wang’s head is distorted due to the mirror’s crack shown in Figure 6.5(a); Jinquan Hu’s body is cut into two pieces because of the seam of the mirror shown in Figure 6.5(b). Xiaodan Xu believed that Cailing Wang makes “the love of art transform into an unrealistic illusion [594].” However, this mirror, as a prop, uncovers the cruel realities after Cailing Wang’s dream is shattered, as it does with Jinquan Hu as well. The poster for this film states: “Every time when spring comes, my heart springs like the posthibernation insects, and I always think something important will happen. But nothing happens after spring.” Changwei Gu admitted that this implies a contradiction between ideal and reality [229]. He also said: “People in this city in And the Spring Comes do not enjoy ordinary lives. They bring this city a more unusual vitality, color

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and gloss than in ordinary everyday life [235].” However, are they really talented as they thought? The jury of the 27th Golden Rooster Awards thought that “it depicts some talented person but buried [37].” Nevertheless, Sibao Huang always fails to be admitted into the Academy of Fine Arts, is it only because of his bad luck? Cailing Wang fails to find employment in the Central Conservatory of Music, is this merely since they do not need any new staff? These factors do exist, but if one thinks in a different way, they are not as excellent as they thought. When Cailing Wang hears Beibei Gao’s beautiful voice, she realizes that many people sing better than her, that is her own problem rather than due to merely external factors. Therefore, on the one hand, Figures 6.5(a) and 6.5(b) show their distorted minds and imaginations. On the other hand, these two frames convey their emotional ambivalence while struggling with dreams and reality.

(a)

(b)

Figure 6.5: Distorted faces in And the Spring Comes. German films mainly reflect Western culture. Western-style villas in The LeftHanded Woman, Windows on Monday, and No Mercy, No Future; bars and discos in Marseille, No Place to Go, The Marriage of Maria Braun, The Days Between, and Lucy; Christianity in No Mercy, No Future, and Madonnas; dancing parties and evening dresses in No Mercy, No Future, The Left-Handed Woman, Marianne and Juliane, and The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum; Western brand name clothes in No Place to Go; the

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Statue of Liberty in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness, all of these are typical symbols of Western culture. Barbara displays Western culture. This story is about escape, it takes place when the GDR still existed [498]. The director Christian Petzold said this story was inspired by two books, 7 and he also said that “My parents fled the GDR when I was still very young, so I grew up in the Western part of Germany [307].” Thus the director has deep feelings about this film. Barbara plays the piano at home, as shown in Figure 6.6(a). Obviously, the piano is a Western instrument. The piano for Barbara, so to speak, an instrument for releasing herself, reducing stress, even imagining her future life and “longing,”

8

simultaneously is an important prop. Barbara is reluctant to talk more with her new colleagues, and always shows a serious and indifferent face. Put this way, she does not care about anything except her escape plan. Anke Leweke wrote, “Once people have made the life decision to leave their country, they perceive their surroundings only very selectively. The doctor Barbara has had it with the DDR and wants to flee [358].” Therefore, although she cannot escape taking this piano with her, it still helps her flee closer to the place she dreams of. Besides, Barbara and André discuss a painting on the wall, as shown in Figure 6.6(b)—Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. This is also Western culture. This setting, as Richard Barsam and Dave Monahan believed, “provides the characters’ 7 Christian

Petzold said: “There are two books that served as an inspiration for me this time:

Hermann Broch’s novella Barbara, which is set in 1928 and tells the story of a female doctor who takes a job in a rural hospital in order to hide her communist activities from the police, and Werner Bräunig’s novel Rummerplatz. In Bräunig’s book a doctor’s son is consumed by physical work for the first time in a uranium mine. He defines himself through this work, which is interesting because work as a theme had almost completely disappeared from the literature and cinema in the West. Another aspect that appealed to me was that the book tells how women replaced the workers who had been wooed by the West, which somewhat gave those women a new purpose and self-understanding, and I wanted to tell a story about this.” In [307]. 8 Anke Leweke pointed out about this film that it is “a story of longing.” In [357].

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social, educational, and cultural backgrounds and other identifying factors vital for understanding them [41].” The detailed discussion about this painting proves that the characters are deeply influenced by Western culture, which is active in their everyday life.

(a)

(b)

Figure 6.6: Western culture shown in Barbara.

German films sometimes show non-Western culture, but this is not common. In this whole book, there are only three obvious examples. The first example is A Fine Day. It is a story about a Turkish-German woman’s ambivalence and confusion. 9 The director Thomas Arslan is a Turkish-German: “my 9 For

more information about Turkish-Germans, see [6]. “Arslan, born in 1962 in the north-central

German city of Braunschweig, spent most of his formative years in the heavy-industry city of Essen but lived between 1967 and 1971 in Ankara, Turkey, where he attended elementary school. His parents arrived in West Germany as part of the first generation of Turkish immigrants who came to the country as a result of the Anwerbevereinbarung (recruitment agreement). West Germany had signed with Turkey in 1961 [...] During these years, West Germany was in the midst of its so-called economic miracle; the country’s economy was booming to such a degree that the German population could no longer supply a sufficiently large labor force required by the industry. In response to this potentially debilitating shortage in the ‘native’ labor force, West Germany decided to sign these treaties in order to encourage the regulated, legal influx of immigrant workers. However, from the point of view of the government, and undoubtedly of the large population, the immigrant-workers were meant to be merely temporary guests of West Germany (hence the German word Gastarbeiter or guest worker). Yet, many immigrants ‘forgot to return,’ as Fatih Akin puts it in the title for his film about his immigrant parents, [...] (When

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father was an immigrant as well, and Germans are usually considering themselves living in a country that’s being ‘invaded’ by foreigners [611].” Thus he feels strongly about Deniz’s condition. Deniz grows up in a different cultural environment, cultural blending seems especially important and inevitable. Therefore it is a reflection of this cultural blending, as shown in Figure 6.7(a), that Deniz and her sister go to a Chinese restaurant. The staff are Chinese who live in Germany or ethnic Chinese. They live exactly in two cultures. Therefore it is easier to accept this hybrid place for Deniz, and the Chinese in this restaurant understand Deniz’s feeling easier. In addition, “The locations she enters, such as coffee houses, restaurants, UBahn stations, seem to lack of ethnicity [1].” In these places, Deniz feels stronger about her existence, and searches better for her own identity. The second example is No Mercy, No Future. Veronika makes love with many different men in order to search for Jesus. Some of them are Germans and some are Africans. Veronika dances with an Asian at a ball, shown in Figure 6.7(b). For Veronika believes that there are no national boundaries for the pursuit of Jesus, and she does not care at all where do those men come from. Thus, not surprisingly, this film mentions some scenes about Asia and Africa. The last example is The Days Between, where Lynn falls in love with a Japanese man, who obviously belongs to a non-Western culture, as shown in Figure 6.7(c). All these examples indicate that Chinese films display Chinese native culture, and also often reflect Western culture. But most German films embody Western culture, and rarely show non-Western cultures. It is similar to Ella Shohat’s saying: “the Third World is inundated with North American films, TV series, popular music, and news programs, the First World receives precious little of the vast cultural production of the Third World, and what it does receive is usually mediated by multinational corporations [512].” The world has entered the era of globalization today, whereupon I think of Germany—we forgot to return, 2001)—a ‘forgetting’ that continues to affect Germany’s sociopolitical discourse to this day.”

6.2. REPRESENTATION OF DIFFERENT CULTURES ON FILMS

(a)

(b)

223

(c)

Figure 6.7: Non-Western culture respectively shown in A Fine Day, No Mercy, No Future, and The Days Between. political, economic, and “cultural interaction”

10

among countries are increasingly

frequent. But Chinese films and German films are very dissimilar in the aspect of reflecting indigenous cultures. The first reason is the communication among countries. China carried out the Reform and Opening-Up policy. Lianhui Zhang and Lingyun Zhao wrote: “Since 1978, the CPC has consciously and systematically explored how to transform the mode of economic development and successively proposed the three theories for the transformation: blazing a new path of economic development, realizing a fundamental shift in the mode of economic growth and accelerating the transformation of the pattern of economic development [620].” Apart from economic reform as a primary target, cultural diplomacy was also a target. Dianjun Zhang wrote, “After Reform and Opening-Up, the Chinese government has treated culture as an important channel and a specific domain for pursuing national strategy. The Chinese government takes the cultural diplomacy of the country very seriously. It constantly and actively seeks for cultural exchanges and cooperation with other countries, and expands the channels of cultural exchange, so that the world can know and understand China better [617].” All the Chinese films analyzed in this book were made after 1977, thus their often showing Western culture has a lot to do with Reform and Opening-Up. East Germany established diplomatic ties with the PRC in 1950. West Germany 10 The

phrase “cultural interaction” was inspired by [191].

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established diplomatic ties with the PRC in 1972 [455]. Chiu-Ching Kuo wrote: “After the diplomatic relations were established in 1972, German–China relations have developed with frequent high-level political exchange as well as economic and cultural changes [348].” There are some statements in the article “Sino–German Cooperation Opportunities of the 40th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and Germany”: “In 2011, China and Germany convened the first consultation meeting of their governments. It was very successful in the history of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Germany, and was the highestranking, with the largest number of participating officers, and of the widest scope. [...] The Hannover Messe was held in Germany in 2012. China was the guest of honor of it. On the 22nd of April, the prime minister Wen Jiabao was invited to attend the opening ceremony of the Hannover Messe. This provided a wider platform for Sino–German cooperation with broad prospects between both countries [398].” Thus the diplomatic policies of both countries promote communication in many aspects. Nevertheless, as seen in Chinese films, the Chinese are tremendously influenced by Western culture in their daily lives. Examples include Western-style food, clothing, household items, cars, medical treatments, music education, film and television media, and these factors are bound to affect the goals for pursuing dreams among Chinese people. In contrast, Chinese culture does not directly affect too much the life style of German people, but influences politics, trade co-operations, academic communications, etc. The second reason is the implications of culture. Most Chinese films about dreams and destiny obtained awards on some international film festivals. Thus Western audiences gradually understand Chinese culture. They fawn on neither Western audiences due to the Western culture reflected in these films, nor lead to curiosities of Western audiences and then gain sympathy because of the unenlightened and poor conditions in some Chinese rural areas shown in films, but rather, there are more and more cultural communications between China and Western countries in these decades, which

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make more westerners gradually know Chinese culture, even like Chinese culture. For example in Germany, there are many cooperation projects between Chinese universities and German universities, 11 many Confucius Institutes 12 and “China week” in Germany, and so on. Nevertheless, the thought “to revere everything foreign and pander to overseas powers, or blind worship of foreign goods and ideas” still exists in China. It is understandable if one is pursuing foreign things simply due to their good quality. However, people need to carefully consider whether something is welcome in China merely because it comes from abroad rather than for its qualities and purposes. For example, many Chinese celebrate Western festivals, such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Valentine’s Day. There are indeed some organizations and activities in Germany to help Germans conveniently learn about Chinese culture. But, as stated above, Chinese culture does not directly affect too many westerners in their daily lives. Some scholars have pointed out that the Western festivals are very hard to imbue with traditional Chinese ethics [640]. There are also different opinions, as Bin Zhang said, “Whether it is a Chinese festival or a Western festival, above all there should be an emotional atmosphere, and then people express different feelings through festivals [314].” In brief, the policy of Reform and Opening-Up really made an everlasting contribution to China’s position in the world, and the world is learning more about China gradually. The foreign relations between Germany and China have made Germans know China better. Nevertheless, in the globalized world today, no matter how dif11 For

example, the home page of the University of Siegen has three languages selection: German,

English, and Chinese. There are some cooperation projects between the University of Siegen and Chinese universities, such as, Beijing University of Technology, Nanjing University, Northeastern University, Qingdao University of Science & Technology, etc. 12 Dianjun Zhang wrote: “China has established 322 Confucius Institutes and 369 Confucius Classrooms worldwide so far, which are distributed in nearly 100 countries and regions. They have become global cultural brands to promote Chinese teaching, transmit Chinese culture and studies of Chinese ancient civilization as well, and establish overseas base of Chinese culture simultaneously.” In [618]

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ferent cultures interact, a country should not develop itself at the cost of sacrificing or forgetting its national culture.

6.3

Representation of Gaze and Thinking

The previous chapters have mentioned Laura Mulvey’s concept of “gaze”—men are always “look” and women are always “looked at” in Hollywood films, which is also appropriate for Chinese and German female themed art films. This section will discuss women’s gaze again, but the standpoint lies in neither “women are looked at” nor in women’s nude shots as “to-be-looked-at-ness,” but women are “look,” and other people and things are “looked at” by women. The first group of examples are from Figures 6.8(a)–6.8(e). They separately come from Barbara, A Fine Day, Marseille, No Place to Go, and Windows on Monday. They have two common characteristics. First, all the women are in moving vehicles, as if they want to search for something by virtue of moving objects; second, all of them are looking out of the windows, and their “gaze” conveys that they are thinking something or they are confused by something. Albeit they pursue the lives they expect, they do not know where should they go. Their behavior and expressions confirm once again the concept “Non-Places” which was mentioned in the chapter “Death and Despair.” The first impression of A Fine Day is how Deniz is always moving. She walks either on the road, or by vehicles so that even if she is sitting in a place she is still moving. The purpose of her frequent “moving” is for “searching.” As to what Deniz wants to search for, this film does not provide a clear explanation. Nevertheless, it can be observed that she searches for happiness by virtue of the conversations between characters. This “happiness” begins with searching for “identity.” Marco Abel wrote that “in Der schöne Tag, Deniz, as Arslan puts it, ‘has other things to do than permanently worry about her identity’ [7].” As discussed in the previous section, many Turkish-Germans have this problem.

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This film does not have an explicit mainline to connect its loose plots, so it would make the audience think, what exactly does this film express? Katja Nicodemus pointed out that the director Thomas Arslan “follows a budding actress on her paths through Berlin, from casting to a café, to her mother’s place, to a flirtatious date [449].” These “everyday situations [8]” reveal the details of Deniz’s life. It conforms with the features that David Bordwell summarized in his Narration in the Fiction Film,

13

such as “gaps,” which is derived from Wolfgang Iser’s concept “Leerstellen [306].” A scene like Figure 6.8(b) always appears in this film, and this is a reflection of women’s “look.” This situation gets rid of the staticness of a “woman is always looked at,” and reveals a woman’s initiative and self-consciousness. Besides, Deniz does not reconcile herself to be always regarded as an object, to be looked at by men all the time. Simultaneously this is a representation of “Non-Places.” Notwithstanding that Deniz’s body appears to be busy all the time zipping around the city, she still does not know where should she go, and where can she pursue the happiness she expects. Whereupon Deniz keeps on searching for it till the end of this film. The second group of examples reflect women sitting somewhere, deep in thought, as in Figures 6.9(a)–6.9(c), which separately come from A Fine Day, Barbara, and Windows on Monday. These scenes without many plots or dialogues are exactly descriptions of the female protagonists’ psychological conditions, which is also a feature of art cinema. As Johannes von Moltke said about No Place to Go: “No Place to Go is the psychological portrait of an ageing artist, the case history of her suicide [561].” Most of the other films in this chapter also reveal women’s psychological problems rather than emphasize plots. The women in these three pictures get lost in thoughts alone at home. They “look” at nothing, and they do not want to be “looked at” by others. Put another way, this behavior shows their resting, or a pause in the process 13 David Bordwell believed, “We could say that the syuzhet here is not as redundant as in the classical

film; that there are permanent and suppressed gaps; that exposition is delayed and distributed to a greater degree; that the narration tends to be less generically motivated; and several other things.” In [60].

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(a)

(b)

(d)

(c)

(e)

Figure 6.8: Gaze and think respectively shown in Barbara, A Fine Day, Marseille, No Place to Go, and Windows on Monday. of searching “Non-Places.” In addition, coincidentally, these women are located close to the light source, however, they do not face the light source directly. This is an immediate response of escape, and they also question the possibility of having the satisfying lives they really pursue. About Windows on Monday, Christoph Hochhäusler said: “Montag kommen die Fenster (Windows on Monday, 2006) could be understood as an (unconscious) alternative take on my Milchwald, in that it also deals with a woman who neglects her maternal duties and flees her unfinished house [268].” The difference is, Milchwald is based on two lost children, but Windows on Monday is based on the mother running away from home. Rajendra Roy believed: “They are in the midst of a home renovation, but for Nina, the banality of their life cannot be repaired by a new coat of paint and better windows. Though married and a mother, she is utterly alone and at a loss to understand why [495].” Marco Abel asserted that Nina is regarded as a “Rabenmutter—a woman who is seen to affirm her own desires at the expense of her family, even if in this

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case she cannot formulate what exactly these desires are [9].” Shown in Figure 6.9(c), Nina’s behavior makes her family confused: even to herself, she cannot explain the reason clearly. Perhaps that is a kind of illusory “sense of security.” However, her husband loves another woman, whereupon this “sense of security” disappears. In addition, “happiness” is another of her goals, but their incomplete house does not make Nina happy. The director Ulrich Köhler said: “The interesting question may be: Do people really suffer from abstract problems, or do only characters in novels do that [438]?” Some people and things in stories do not happen in ordinary lives, but art is an enrichment and extraction of life, and sometimes art also represents something by means of a more detailed method. Consequently, the characters in stories sometimes can be seen as mirror for the average person.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 6.9: Gaze and think respectively shown in A Fine Day, Barbara, and Windows on Monday. The third group of examples show women sitting or standing by windows. The chapter “Marriage and Love” has mentioned the window shot in Martha, and offered Moritz von Schwind’s painting The Morning Hour to analyze in comparison. A scene shown in Figures 6.10(a)–6.10(c) reflects Marianne in The Left-Handed Woman is located by the window, and “the woman is often shown reading or sewing or just gazing [468].” What Marianne is gazing at is the outside world, shown in Figure 6.10(c). When Gilles Deleuze analyzed the empty spaces in Ozu’s films, he wrote: “They reach the absolute, as instances of pure contemplation, and immediately bring about the identity of the mental and the physical, the real and the imaginary, the subject

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and the object, the world and the I [166].” This function is similar to that of this scene by the window, which also reflects pure contemplation and conveys psychological conditions. Marianne is not the object of “looked at” of Laura Mulvey any more, but dominates herself as a leader of “look,” who deliberately separates from her husband. However, even she does not know quite clearly what does she look for, but her self-consciousness promotes such behavior. This film emphasizes the depiction of Marianne’s emotion, and also has permanent and suppressed gaps which let the audience continue to think after watching. Hence this is a typical art film. No Place to Go also has some scenes showing Hanna by a window, Figures 6.11(a)– 6.11(h). Hanna gazes at something outside the window, and simultaneously, as if there is someone who also stares at Hanna, just like Sergei M. Eisenstein wrote: “Cutting out a fragment of reality by means of the lens [176].” This scene displaying “by the window” expresses Hanna’s inner restlessness, and the rough “searching” road. Thomas Elsaesser and Malte Hagener wrote that “The window implies a diegetic world that extends beyond the limit of the image while the frame delineates a filmic composition that exists solely for the eyes of the beholder [185].” Both The Left Handed Woman and No Place to Go reveal the women’s gaze and their contemplations by means of windows. Mattias Frey wrote: “Hanna is shot immobile, framed by portraits of Prussian nobles. Furthermore, she crosses the city according to outdated maps, sleeping ever still in the decidedly outmoded Hotel Excelsior [211].” All this behavior reflects Hanna’s nervous and uncomfortable mind in the process of pursuing her dream, which conforms to the description given by this film’s title. Nevertheless, she always covers up her loneliness of spirit, even wants to escape. Buying an expensive Dior coat, wearing an exaggerated wig, and wearing heavy makeup: these are means of dissimulating herself, but in fact she deceives herself. Joanne Leal thought the same way, “signalling her desire to assert herself as a confident and attractive woman but

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also her need to hide from the reality of her experience [352].” Thereupon “gaze” and “thinking” are approaches to portraying characters.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 6.10: Marianne’s gaze in The Left-Handed Woman.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

(h)

Figure 6.11: Hanna’s gaze in No Place to Go.

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These shots by the window showing women meditating are closely associated with some Western paintings, for example, Caspar David Friedrich’s Woman at a Window shown in Figure 6.12. Its model was the painter’s wife, as William Vaughan wrote, “a touching poignancy by the image of his wife peering out of the lower window opening. While the bare walls and window frame have been organized to emphasize their rectilinear structure with austere elegance the leaning figure [...] [556].” Brad Prager wrote: “The subject is both included in and excluded from the image. The obscuring of the open window impedes graspability; it impedes the capacity to wander into the frame [472].” The “subject” refers to the frame in this painting. This frame resembles the windows in the films. Besides, showing the parts rather than the whole is exactly like art cinema. Ricarda Vidal wrote: “Like Friedrich’s paintings, they go beyond factual representation. [...] Friedrich’s working method closely resembles Lartigue’s ‘eye-trap’. To a certain degree, the painter, like the child Lartigue, turned himself into a camera [557].” Actually, Marianne and Hanna by the windows can be regarded as cameras searching for the lives they expect by using contemplation, and they also give the audience a thinking space. Just as Peter Bialobrzeski said: “Friedrich anticipated a lot of the developments that later happened in photography. He no longer describes what is really there but paints pure contemplation [466].” 14 The painter Caspar David Friedrich said: “Close your physical eye so that you can first see your painting with your spiritual eye. Then bring to light what you have seen in the dark so that it may rework its effect from the outside inwards [212].”

15

The action of gazing into the distance in this painting can be seen as an inspiration for gaze and thinking in German films. There are some shots showing women gazing and thinking in Chinese films, but only a small number compared with German films. Lunar Eclipse is one example. Xiaoping Wang pointed out: “It is essentially a creation of ‘realism,’ with an appearance of ‘female-themed film,’ a form of ‘art cinema,’ and a spirit of ‘critical realism,’ but it 14 This 15 This

information came from [558]. information came from [559].

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Figure 6.12: Caspar David Friedrich, Woman at a Window, 1822. Oil on canvas; Width: 37cm; Height: 44cm; Old National Gallery, Berlin. superfically sometimes displays an image style of ‘postmodernism’ [573].” This is a story of searching for identity, at this point, it is similar to some of the German films in this chapter. Figure 6.13(a) shows Ya’nan gazing at a knife belonging to Jianiang. Ya’nan undertakes the role of “looking” at this moment, and Jianiang undertakes the role of “looked at.” However, they have the same appearance, whereupon the identity and contradiction of the dual roles make Ya’nan confused. Although she searches for another herself everywhere by virtue of the narration from others and her own imagination, yet she still feels powerless. In this respect, this film also reflects the connotation of “Non-Places.” Bo Cheng believed: “The external life and the inherent spiritual world revealed by the ‘double life’ in Lunar Eclipse have big differences, but they are unified in the same appearance and body. They make the differences of life entangle itself with the extension of life [121].” However, this “entanglement” is full of contradictions and confusion. Actually, there are many similarities between Ya’nan and Jianiang. For example, both of them love art, have genetic diseases, and ache

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in the right eye; they also both have an ambiguous relationship with Xiaobing Hu, besides, they separately fall on the road at the beginning and at the end of this film. Whereupon, their double lives become one in these respects. Viewed from the aspect of pursuing a dream, Jianiang does better than Ya’nan, and knows what kind of life she wants. There is a medium shot showing Jianiang and Xiaobing Hu talking about their dreams in Xiaobing Hu’s taxi. Jianiang immerses herself in a beautiful imagination of her ten-year plan to become an actress. At this time, a neon light nearby gradually rises, and projects onto the transparent car window, which is impassioned just like a flame, as if it is cheering Jianiang on. Nevertheless, Jianiang finally fails to realize her dream, just like the neon light, which is beautiful but illusory. The other example is Millennium Mambo. Vicky always searches for happiness, nevertheless, the process of her pursuing her dream is not smooth sailing, as shown in Figure 6.13(b). Vicky sometimes gazes at something in a daze or gets lost in thought, and knows neither where her life should go, nor is she sure whether her present life conforms to what she expects. Yuan Gao believed that “Millennium Mambo is composed of many episodes of memories or fantasies [220].” Many of these fantasies are exactly what Vicky dreams of. In Figure 6.13(b), the candle in the foreground and the room in the background are artfully blurred, and only Vicky in the middle is highlighted as a distinct object. This setting indeed highlights the main character, even shows her clear expression—mournful eyes and puzzled look. But more importantly, Vicky is seemingly surrounded by everything near her and is stuck there, which adds up to a great barrier for her “pursuing a dream.” Zhangbin Li believed that “The ‘divided city’ in this film means that life belongs to the city, and we merely survive and observe lives. The life itself is already rent to this city, we all are spectators of this city [374].” It mentioned, “we are spectators,” which means we are “look,” that is understandable. However, apart from the identity of spectators, we are, more important, participants as well. Some stories actually happen

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to ourselves or people around us, therefore, people do not merely hear of or see those stories, they also have their personal experiences. Vicky is merely a common example in contemporary society. As analyzed about And the Spring Comes previously, many people want to do something but neither know what they should do, nor how to do it, and so are similar to Vicky. She always searches for happiness, but there is no great progress in her life all the time due to the people and things around her as obstacles and her own infirm heart. Her occasional gaze and thinking are exactly her inner reflection of hoping to quicken the pace of pursuing a dream.

(a)

(b)

Figure 6.13: Gaze and think respectively shown in Lunar Eclipse and Millennium Mambo. In the part on the German films, this section looked at one painting Woman at a Window, but there are a lot of analogous paintings on the theme of women gazing and thinking. Likewise, there are some Chinese paintings expressing this theme, but they are quite rare. This section only finds three examples, one of them is Wei Cui’s Portrait of Qingzhao Li, shown in Figure 6.14. The woman in this painting is lost in thoughts stroking her chin and sitting on a big rock. Jianghong Ji evaluated that “The character’s expression is depicted finely, the drapery and posture are gentle and natural, and the lines are smooth. The background is empty and vague, and the character is distinct and prominent with a graceful style [313].” In addition, this

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painting was influenced by the painting style of Shining Lang. 16

17

The expression

and posture of this woman involving gazing and thinking are similar to the female protagonists in Chinese films. Thus it can be seen that Chinese films are still influenced by Chinese paintings in this respect, although this theme is not quite as popular as in Western paintings.

Figure 6.14: Wei Cui, Portrait of Qingzhao Li, Qing Dynasty. Chinese ink and colors on silk; Width: 56.8cm; Height: 56.7cm; The Palace Museum, Beijing. On the whole, German films have relatively many shots showing women gazing and thinking, which are focused on revealing the women’s psychological conditions, contradictions, struggles, and confusions in the process of pursuing their dreams, and then express the women’s personal characteristics and leave enough thinking space to the audience. But Chinese films have relatively less of this kind of shot. This is not to say that Chinese women reflected in Chinese films do not like to think deeply and German women think more often. But it is closely bound up with themes 16 His Chinese name was Shining Lang, but his original name was Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766):

he was an Italian Jesuit lay brother who served as a missionary in China, where he became a painter at the court of the emperor, normally the Chinese and Western arts were fused together in his paintings. 17 This information was derived from [471].

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and features between Chinese and Western paintings. Film as a mobile drawing has learned much from painting, such as, theme, style, color, etc., as has been mentioned in other chapters. As stated above, there are many Western paintings based on depicting women gazing and thinking, but there are only three well documented Chinese examples in all. The most important reason leading to the dissimilarity between Chinese and German films is the difference between Chinese and Western paintings.

6.4

Return or Continue to Seek Dreams

This section will analyze the endings of female characters after pursuing their dreams or searching for the lives they hope for, or their destinies. Destiny is an abstract topic, but this section will only pay attention to whether women stop pursuing their dreams at the end of these films. Basically, there are two endings: first, the woman returns to her old life after making efforts to pursue her dream; second, the woman does not stop pursuing her dream, and continues to seek the life she wants. The section “Representation of Different Cultures on Films” stated that Peacock shows Weihong’s romantic spirit and hard-won self-consciousness. However, this film is both warm and cruel [583], Weihong’s dream finally ends in failure. She neither becomes a paratrooper nor has achievements in playing the accordion. She remarries, and lives a simple and ordinary life with her husband and daughter. This film directly reveals the brutal aspect of life. Just as Xiaoping Lin wrote: “Toward the end of the film, Weihong is again forced to return to a harsh reality [380].” Figures 6.15(a)–6.15(e) show a scene in a zoo at the end of this film. Weihong’s family, the older brother’s family, and the younger brother’s family walk through the camera to watch the peacocks, however, the peacocks do not show their tails. After all these characters have left, one peacock finally unstintingly shows its proud beauty, as shown in Figure 6.15(e) with nobody to appreciate it. The scriptwriter Qiang Li titled this film Peacock, Zheng Tan believed that “the

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implication is that the peacock is an ornamental animal, humans watch other people or animals, and they are watched at the same time. I think people watch peacocks and peacocks also watch people, just like humans enjoy the scenery, and they are simultaneously scenery [233].” This is similar to the relation between “look” and “looked at” mentioned in the previous section, which is reflected in this film as the characters walk past the peacocks. At the same time, this film conveys a downside of life, that people are always unsuccessful when they want to do something, but once they decide to give up, then life seems to give them hope. Do people complain about destiny, or does destiny mock at people? There is not a clear answer. But this film exactly discusses the relations and gaps between ideal and reality, the association and contradiction between dreams and destiny, based on the different destinies reflected in the Gao family. Bin Lu also considered as follows: “Peacock actually spatially explores the source of destiny [387].” Even though Weihong is not a successful example of pursuing a dream, after all her efforts have been rewarded, and she is not similar to the majority of people around her who give in to fate. Richard Barsam and Dave Monahan wrote: “In addition to its physical significance, the setting creates a mood that has social, psychological, emotional, economic, and cultural significance [40].” The fence keeping the peacocks in their big cage in this setting provides a deep implication for this film. Ostensibly people watch the peacocks, but the camera is shot from the angle of the peacocks and makes them to be the foreground, the people as the background, and this fence is precisely located between the peacocks and the people. The last paragraph mentioned that peacocks and people look at each other. Nevertheless, this scene actually creates the illusion that the people are shut up in this cage, with the peacocks being free animals instead. Therefore, no matter how hard Weihong struggles, she still cannot escape this artificial fence, which raises many barriers for her pursuing her dreams, and ultimately leads to “has to return to an ordinary life.” Caihong Zhang believed: “Women are connected to the earth, so their wings are definitely heavy when they let their dreams fly. Their

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destiny looks like a broken halberd buried in the sand and a flying moth darting into the fire. So when women are eulogized, are praised highly, and also become aesthetic objects, then their tragic destinies become inevitable endings [616].” This fence just seems to be the heavy wing when Weihong pursues her dreams, whereupon, she that climbs high falls heavily.

(a)

(b)

(d)

(c)

(e)

Figure 6.15: Return to reality in Peacock. And the Spring Comes also directed by Changwei Gu has similarities to Peacock about shots. Figure 6.16(a) shows that Cailing Wang leans on a fence on Tiananmen Square at nightfall in winter, and looks at the city gate tower and people in the distance. Changwei Gu said: “This image indeed represents dreams, which is both cold and warm [236].” The beauty of this setting lies in the using of this fence. Its function is similar to the fence in Peacock between the peacocks and people. It is a symbolic sign of Cailing Wang, which is the biggest obstacle blocking her from pursuing dreams. She seemingly is not far from the city gate tower, however, if she gets close to it, she would burn herself, even at the expense of her whole life, thus Cailing Wang daunts. Changwei Gu said: “If a person survives and spends most of the time with her

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ideal, her life will be wonderful [230].” But Er Kang believed that the director wanted to praise Cailing Wang, but the real effect expresses how Cailing Wang’s “pursuing a dream” actually ignores reality, and disregards the changing circumstances. Her life is unpractical, which is just the opposite of the director’s original intention [330]. Nevertheless, this book does not agree with that perspective. Changwei Gu also said: “I understand that the audience would prefer to watch a person achieving his/her dream due to hard struggle and persistence. It must be comforting and cheering, also very exciting after walking out of the cinema. [...] Would everyone achieve their dreams because of persistence and concentration? I think this should be discussed [231].” With regard to Cailing Wang’s dream of becoming a celebrated opera singer, the director praises her persistence, unremitting endeavor, and her spirit so as to achieve the dream. In this film, Sibao Huang and Yu Zhou give up their dreams and give into life; Jinquan Hu does not pursue his dream either, and shatters it by himself. As a matter of fact, Cailing Wang also compromises her life, but her persistence in pursuing her dreams lasts a little longer than the others. She named her adopted child Xiaofan Wang, 18 exactly hopes the child will become an ordinary person to face reality, and not be stubborn like herself. Figure 6.16(b) shows that Cailing Wang finally overcomes the fence to walk into Tiananmen Square. This means she eventually overcomes the obstacle in her heart and then returns to ordinary life. Thus the filmmakers admit Cailing Wang’s vanity and impractical behavior, and she finally realizes her own problems, otherwise she would not appear in the matrimonial agency to do the things she had disdained before. Put another way, under the premise of respecting Cailing Wang, the director not only eulogizes but also sneers at her, however, the former more than the latter. Ermei in The Story of Ermei returns to the rural area after experiencing the excitements and frustrations of pursuing her dreams in town. She marries and then has a son, and lives an ordinary life as a common Chinese rural woman. Jian Hao be18 The

Chinese character “fan” in this name “Xiaofan Wang,” means “ordinary” and “common.”

6.4. RETURN OR CONTINUE TO SEEK DREAMS

(a)

241

(b)

Figure 6.16: Return to reality in And the Spring Comes. lieved that “This is a realist film, and authentic with connotation [250].” It is regarded as authentic, apart from all the frustrations Ermei encounters and documentary-like shots, the other cause is that Ermei ultimately returns to her rural area, her previous ordinary life. Jian Hao wrote: “The images of Ermei and her living conditions are described quite calmly, and the plots are also flat. Nevertheless, the description of her life’s circumstances is very dispassionate, and has the harshness of dashing every beautiful fantasy. Ermei’s fantasy is thoroughly sunk, and her dream is abnormal, thus at this point, this film is exactly the countryside version today of Peacock [249].” If viewed from the endings of these women’s pursuing their dreams, The Story of Ermei and Peacock definitely have a resemblance, because both women finally have to return to their previous normal lives, and Cailing Wang in And the Spring Comes also does so. However, Weihong is much prouder than Ermei, and possesses a stronger romantic emotion. Weihong disdains to become a person like the others around her, but actually she is just another average person. Ermei does not have this unusual idea, she just does not want to obey her parents to marry, and then runs away from home. Weihong ultimately does not achieve her dreams, and simultaneously, she feels very sad when she sees the man she had loved and worshiped ever since her youth also living an ordinary life like most people. Ermei returns to the countryside just since

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her boyfriend in town deceives her feelings, and she has to leave sadly. In contrast, Weihong’s dream and behavior are more abnormal than Ermei’s. There are also some settings or props as symbols to prevent women from pursuing dreams like Peacock and And the Spring Comes do. Ermei works in a restaurant in town as a waitress. Shown in Figure 6.17(a), Ermei gazes at the fish trapped in a fish tank, as if she sees herself also trapped somewhere. This fish will be killed to be cooked, just like Ermei’s broken dream. Figure 6.17(b) shows that Ermei returns to the countryside and continues to feed the pigs. But who is trapped in this pigsty? The pigs or Ermei? She wonders about this at that moment. Hence, the fish tank and the pigsty become symbolic signs to stop searching for her dreams. In addition, at the end of this film, Ermei sits on a children’s train embracing her son, revolving round and round. Although Ermei amuses her son and says “This is France,” the director Quan’an Wang believed that it implies that Ermei can never walk out of this circle [644]. Ermei expects that her son can realize the dream which she had not done, and hopes her son will live happier than her.

(a)

(b)

Figure 6.17: Return to reality in The Story of Ermei. The fence in the zoo, the pigsty at home, the fish tank in the restaurant, all of these are facilities inside of which animals can be shut up. People watch animals through them, but actually people may not be freer than those animals. This kind of use of shots is similar to how women live under roofs just like circles or even prisons, as

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analyzed in the chapter “Marriage and Love.” In addition, as analyzed in the chapter “Death and Despair,” Chinese films use many shots with obstacles or shots divided into smaller parts to represent women’s death or despair, and another implication of this is that women’s dreams and hearts are stuck in these settings, something which is similar to the analysis presented in this chapter. Compared to the “return” of women in Chinese films, most German films adopt another ending—continuing to seek their dreams, as if there is no end. For example, there are many shots showing Marianne’s walking on the road in The Left-Handed Woman, which is similar to Deniz’s moving in A Fine Day. Marianne walks in the woods, on the street, and on the road. Figures 6.18(a)–6.18(d) show a scene of her walking. As a matter of fact, she simply does not know where should she go, and she just moves, following her mind. Ostensibly Marianne lets her husband leave this family, and she expects an independent life due to her “pursuing dreams.” However, she does not have any experience of independent living, so does she have ability to live independently? Marianne is a translator, which means she has a job; she lives with her son, which means she does not live completely independently; sometimes she chats with a friend, which means she has someone with whom to communicate; occasionally she meets her husband, which proves she does not abandon him; her father visits her, which represents some relatives’ concern for her. But what kind of life exactly does she want? Unfortunately, there is not a certain answer. This film only reveals Marianne’s episodes of life, with some delightfulness and some sadness. At the end of this film, she neither lets her husband return home to live together, nor does the film imply how long this behavior of self-containment will last. But viewing her walking scene and her uncertain expression, seemingly she will continue to seek. This is a film from 1978, but considered in terms of the subject’s content, shoot technique, and representation of characters, it resembles the films from the Berlin School. One of the features of the “Berlin School” is that “they do not allow audiences

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to identify with characters by providing us with easily legible signs by which we might be able to assess to what degree we should emotionally invest ourselves in the protagonists [2].” This ambiguity is exactly one feature of art cinema. Another two German films in this section also have this characteristic.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 6.18: Continue to seek dreams in The Left-Handed Woman. Mainly there are two parts in Marseille, one part is Sophie’s life in Marseille, the other part is Sophie’s life in Germany. The narrative mode of this film is quite different to classical Hollywood cinema based on David Bordwell’s work Narration in the Fiction Film which is always mentioned in this book. Rajendra Roy pointed out features of the director Angela Schanelec of this film, ”By extending her characters’ conversa-

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tions beyond the traditional boundaries of plot and narrative, she desentimentalizes domestic life, drilling into its deeper meaning and exposing raw truths [496].” According to David Bordwell’s perspective mentioned in the section “Representation of Gaze and Thinking,” this is a typical art film. Figures 6.19(a)–6.19(d) show a shot in which Sophie is walking aimlessly on the streets of Marseille, and often takes out her camera to capture the street scenery. Not surprisingly, Sophie looks for inspiration and objects of photography on the road as a photographer. Nevertheless, her “search” makes people somewhat confused, as if that is not only for her work, and the significance of “aimless” is completely revealed. In this way, Sophie’s short stay in Marseille can be associated with the female protagonists in The Left-Handed Woman, A Fine Day, and The Days Between, who also wander around aimlessly in cities, but these films do not explain clearly their thoughts in deep hearts. Marco Abel pointed out: “Schanelec’s work might constitute the secret heart of the Berlin School, as Lukas Foerster suggests, insofar as her films reduce the element of narrative, or story, to such a minimal degree that many viewers find her films quite literally unwatchable [10].” 19 Marco Abel also wrote that “Schanelec takes away this redundancy of narrative cinema’s address of the senses [...] [11].” Sophie’s “aimless” walking is a reflection of this being “unwatchable.” Actually the “unwatchable” is not obviously reflected when Sophie is in Marseille, however, after Sophie’s return to Germany, the ambiguity of the “unwatchable” plots is presented more obviously. For example, the relationship between Sophie and other characters is not quite clear. Besides, when Sophie goes to Marseille again to continue to enjoy her “pursuit of her dream” at the end of this film, but is unexpectedly involved in a crime, this film does not clearly explain the reason, nor does it provide an ending. This definitely makes the audience confused, even the characters in the film also have to doubt their 19 Also

see [207].

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behavior. Therefore, “speculation” is an appropriate method, even the only method to interpret this film, because of the scattered plots and emotions of the characters. This film shows a seaside scene in Marseille at the end, and perhaps Sophie is in the crowd. But it is unimportant whether she is there or not. The important thing is, she is still searching, and does not cease pursuing progress. Marco Abel wrote in his article “22 January 2007: Film Establishment Attacks ‘Berlin School’ as Wrong Kind of National Cinema”: “the so-called Berlin School—that has received considerable acclaim not only from those German film critics who harbor low opinions of German mainstream films but also from a slowly but steadily growing group of cineastes and critics outside of Germany [2].” This positive assessment would encourage some directors to insist on their features, such as, “unwatchable” and “ambiguity.”

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 6.19: Continue to seek dreams in Marseille. Windows on Monday also makes people confused about its ambiguity to a large

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extent. The director Ulrich Köhler said: “Authors who think they can completely explain their characters have lost their belief in human freedom. Precisely the irrational, surprising, amoral behavior of characters is one of the great fascinations of the movies [438].” Besides, this film “does not rely on traditional patterns of identification [12].” 20 This is the most obvious feature of this film. This couple’s relationship does not improve at the end. This film finishes with unsuccessful sex between Nina and her husband in a car. With regard to Nina’s “surrealistic” behavior of pursuing a dream, this film does not interpret it clearly, till the end. Nevertheless, the film shows how, after Nina has finished her run away from home, she finds the windows are still not well installed, which makes her restless again. Rajendra Roy also believed, in a similar way, that “with the windows not yet installed and her soul still unsettled, there is still a chance she may flee [495].” This is just speculation, and is just an indication towards Nina’s future behavior. But this speculation makes sense. Although this film does not state distinctly the real reason for Nina’s absence, its immediate cause is that unfinished home decoration. Windows are exactly the important facilities that insulate people from the outside world, and they cannot satisfy Nina. Whereupon she rather wanders around in the streets or the woods aimlessly searching for her fantastic dream. It was discussed, in the chapter “Death and Despair,” whether the female protagonist in Yella was dead or not. This book tends to believe that Yella was dead, and most of the plots tell of Yella’s world after her death. A similar question also arises in Windows on Monday. Whether Nina runs away from home or not, whether that is her personal experience in the hotel in the forest, or is only her fantasy so as to escape from real life. Marco Abel also pointed out the same question: “does it exist or is it merely a fantasy? [...] Nina stumbles upon this scene as she meanders through 20 Marco

Abel explained this point, he wrote: “Not only does Montag kommen die Fenster refuse to

allow any of its protagonists to indulge in sensations of successful escapism, but it also denies us any such narrative pleasures of escapism, and instead forces us to take a close look at ourselves, at our reality, precisely because the film does not rely on traditional patterns of identification.” In [12].

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the hotel and seems unsure about what she is witnessing, as if doubting her own eyes [13].” He also believed: “for it is one thing if one cannot escape reality in reality, but it is altogether different if one cannot even escape reality in one’s fantasy, in one’s imagination, or (as is the case in Yella) in one’s dream [14].” Although filmmakers do not provide a certain answer, this book tends to consider that Nina has this unusual memorable experience. Because of its, to some extent, illusory and uncertain condition, Nina thinks it is necessary to return home to meet her family. But after coming to that unfinished home, she seemingly has the desire and determination to escape again. Compared to the shots including fences in Chinese films, German films normally show women wandering around in cities or forests without limitations or obstacles, to pursue their dreams. On the whole, in most cases, Chinese women in films tend to escape from their original living conditions first, after they have encountered failures or had some achievements, and then they decide to give up continuing pursuing their dreams, and finally return home. Apart from the examples in this section, in Lunar Eclipse, after Ya’nan’s fantasy about Jianiang’s death, she does not know how to continue to search for her other self, and then gives it up; in Millennium Mambo, Vicky fails to find the man she wants to rely on, then gives up for pursuing the life she expects, at least temporarily; Ermo finally buys the biggest television and then returns to her ordinary rural life in Ermo; after Xiaoyan has worked for a short period as a prostitute in Hong Kong in Durian Durian, she returns to her hometown; in Kuei-mei, a Woman, the whole family finally returns to their hometown after living in Japan for many years. Women in German films tend to continue pursuing their dreams. Apart from the instances above, in Marianne and Juliane, Marianne’s son lets Juliane tell him his mother’s story, which is the beginning of continuing to seek; in A Fine Day, Deniz still pursues her dream till the end of this film; in No Mercy, No Future, Veronika still searches for Jesus at the end of the film; in Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness, the older

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sister continues to explore her younger sister’s thinking; in The Days Between, Lynn still does not know how to choose between two men, till the end of the story. There are also some German films about “return,” for example, Barbara decides to stay in that clinic in Barbara. On the one hand, that is for the injured girl Stella, on the other hand, she maybe falls in love with her colleague André. Hanna in No Place to Go returns neither to her former life, nor continues to pursue her dream, but she chooses to commit suicide instead, which is another way to escape. The first reason for this difference between Chinese films and German films is, viewed from the aspect of personality, that normally Germans are relatively more independent than Chinese. In his book Chinese Characteristics in 1890, Arthur H. Smith pointed out that one of the characteristics of Chinese personalities is “solidarity” which is quite different from Western concepts [522]. This book was written more than 100 years ago, but this personality trait of the Chinese still exists. Longji Sun believed that “Chinese ‘being together’ is directly related to the tendency of ‘solidarity’ [536].” This shows that Chinese tend to “dependence,” which also causes people to repress their individuality. Longji Sun also wrote: “Chinese do not tend to appreciate someone’s ‘individuality,’ but enjoy ‘not alienating oneself from the masses,’ ‘not lagging behind,’ and being ‘like everybody else,’ [...] [537].” Actually Chinese certainly have “individuality,” however, they express themselves relatively implicitly. Many women in Chinese films have “individuality,” but most of them finally return to ordinary lives. In addition, “Chinese do not tend to consider that there is an abstract ‘personality’ lurking in the concrete interpersonal relationship. This tendency is probably related to the Western-style concept of the individual soul, which does not exist in Chinese culture [538].” This chapter approves of this perspective. As analyzed in the chapter “Death and Despair,” the concept of the individual in Western countries is related to the “soul” in Christianity, that is, life and death are matters between each individual and God, and death means the soul extricates itself from the body to obey God. But in China, the deceased is not only regarded as a

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member of their family, but also his/her memorial tablet and grave are believed to be symbols of that deceased’s extension. Thus it can be seen that Germans inwardly have a stronger independent spirit than Chinese. What about the conditions of Germans or even Westerners? According to the value display of the “Big Five personality traits” in psychology, this includes the five factor modes—Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness. Results from the article “The Geographic Distribution of Big Five Personality Traits: Patterns and Profiles of Human Self-Description Across 56 Nations” mentioned the conditions of Western Europe (including Germany) and East Asia (including China). In most cases, in the respect of Neuroticism, the behavior of people from East Asia is similar to people from Western Europe, and sometimes even higher than Western Europeans. But in the other four aspects, all behaviors of Western Europeans are higher than East Asians. This means that Western Europeans are more open, and more extraverted than East Asians. 21 They are related to Germans’ obvious “independence.” They are also related to the condition that, in some aspects, the shots in German films are more direct than in Chinese films, as analyzed in previous chapters. Besides, in their article “Personality Trait Structure as a Human Universal,” Robert R. McCrae and Paul T. Costa Jr. also provided similar results [420]. Therefore, Germans behave more prominently in the aspects “Extraversion,” “Agreeableness,” “Conscientiousness,” and “Openness” than Chinese. It is not easy to form the feature of Chinese-style “repressing individuality” in Germany, but it is easier to form the concept of independence, if the individuality is not repressed. Consequently, women in German films continuing to pursue dreams make allowance to themselves, that is, independence, rather than others. In addition, the differences with respect to individuality are also reflected in an aspect of daily life: eating. As analyzed in the chapter “Professional Women and Housewives,” the Chinese “Gather Dining System” emphasizes eating with emotion, 21 The

results of this comparative data derived from [503].

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251

consanguinity, and culture, and it conveys “solidarity”; and the German “Individual Dining System” is regarded as a more hygienic way, and reveals “independence.” The second reason, in most cases, is that the endings in German films imply that the women will continue to seek. Put another way, they are open endings. David Bordwell wrote: “the ‘open’ ending characteristic of the art cinema can be seen as proceeding from a narration which will not divulge the outcome of the causal chain [65].” Most of the art films mentioned in his book are European films, and it has been shown that the open ending is one of the most important features in European art films. According to most of the features of art films summarized by David Bordwell (this book has mentioned them many times), most of the Chinese films in this book belong to art films, however, only the “ending” does not conform to that feature, which is rather like that of a Hollywood-style film. In other words, the “open” ending in Chinese films is not quite as prominent as in German films, however, notwithstanding the fact that sometimes the endings are ambiguous and not like Hollywood-style “happy ending,” they still provide some hints. David Bordwell also pointed out: “In particular, a stylistic tactic that emerged in European art cinema of the 1970s and 1980s becomes quite relevant to understanding another way in which Chinese cinema has gone global [70].” Therefore, it is practicable to interpret Chinese and German art films employing the same methods.

6.5

Conclusion

This chapter to begin with briefly summarized the films considered, in synopses. Then it analyzed the connotations of the shots and different cultures in the subsequent three sections, to be reviewed as follows. “Representation of Different Cultures on Films” analyzed how, in most cases, Chinese films reflect many elements of Western culture while simultaneously displaying their Chinese culture. But German films mainly show Western culture rather than being base on any elements of a non-western culture. There are two main reasons,

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constituting a kind of “cultural interaction.” The first one is the communication between countries. The Chinese Reform and Opening-Up policy, and the diplomatic ties between China and Germany, have both made a significant contribution to “cultural interaction.” However, Germany is not influenced by Chinese culture very much in daily life, whereas the situation in China is just the opposite. This leads to the second reason, that is, the implications of culture. The section “Representation of Gaze and Thinking,” considered that women’s gazes and thinkings could be seen as necessary rests or pauses in the progress of pursuing their dreams, so as to reflect their emotions. German films possess plenty of examples of this behavior, nevertheless, Chinese films have relatively less instances. The main reason lies in the differences about themes between Chinese and Western paintings. The last section, “Return or Continue to Seek Dreams,” comparatively analyzed two endings of women’s pursuing their dreams. Chinese women tend to first escape from their original living places, and then after a period of time they ultimately give up continuing to seek their dreams, and return home. However, German women tend to continue to seek their dreams. The first reason is that Germans are relatively more independent than Chinese in terms of personality. The second reason, seen from the perspective of an art film’s characteristics as to endings, German films use many more “open endings” than Chinese films. Put another way, German art films are used to employing open endings, but Chinese art films do not. Whereupon Chinese films normally provide endings, although with some ambiguity, but German films leave enough space to the imagination.

CHAPTER 7. CONCLUSION

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Chapter 7 Conclusion Molly Haskell wrote, “Movies are one of the clearest and most accessible of looking glasses into the past, being both cultural artifacts and mirrors [253].” In this book, I explore the differences in the representation of women in Chinese films and German films, by virtue of their respective living conditions, the most important life stages in women’s lives, and their experiences and emotions. I analyze cinematic space in two chapters. First, the chapter “Marriage and Love” is about how Chinese films show many “roof shots” to convey a situation that women are trapped in their houses in order to show their unhappy married lives. These shots visually look like cages and prisons and still have an open door, but the women cannot escape. German films also convey the similar implication as Chinese films, but they use another means. They do not designedly provide a possibility for the female protagonists to escape, rather directly represent a closed indoor environment to show women’s married state. In the chapter “Death and Despair,” the differences of cinematic space are also shown in the two countries’ films. For example, many shots are visually divided into smaller parts, and shots with obstacles, such as curtains and walls, are generally used in Chinese films to convey the female protagonists’ sad feelings. But German filmmakers prefer to employ narrow and closed interior spaces to represent women’s death moments or their feelings of desperation. Viewed from

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composition point of view, “cages” and “prisons” visually are filled with railings horizontally and vertically. This is similar to the shots divided into smaller parts, and people see the world through the slits from this point of view. This kind of composition resembles the “cavalier perspective” in traditional Chinese paintings; however, the representation of narrow interior space in German films can better highlight the characters’ facial expressions and actions, and this resembles a “focus perspective” in classical Western paintings. These painting techniques themselves are not connected to the women’s fates, but they reflect the influence on films from paintings and the correlation among different art forms. In this book, I discuss the different uses of color in three chapters: “Marriage and Love,” “Professional Women and Housewives,” and “Death and Despair.” In these different three topics of films, color shows its similarity in both countries’ films, respectively. Chinese filmmakers prefer to employ one or two colors as the dominant hue so as to establish an overall atmosphere for the films and to represent women’s status and situations in their marriage and family and in the death moments by means of the visual effects the colors bring. The most frequently used colors are blue, grey, yellow, and red. However, German filmmakers prefer to make films more colorful and brighter, even when the female protagonists do not live happy lives. Similarly to cinematic space, the use of color in both countries’ films is also influenced by paintings. Generally, color in classical Western paintings is richer than in traditional Chinese paintings. This does not mean that Chinese paintings do not emphasize color; rather, they employ different means of expression. Chinese paintings focus on spiritual things and delineate an idea, rather than giving a realistic imitation. Therefore, many painters choose colors to convey their feelings. To some extent, this is a distortion, but this is just a feature of Chinese paintings. Western paintings have a tradition of realism. Their imitation and representations of the real world reflect the characteristics of precision and three-dimensionality. However, the use of color in German films, as I discuss in the chapter “Death and Despair,” is completely opposite

255 to the choices made in Western paintings on color, that is, black and white images. The main reason lies in that the filmmakers want to employ a unique way to create a miserable atmosphere of the female protagonists, and this also reflects the “authorial expressivity” of art films. The functions of mirror shots are analyzed in the chapters “Marriage and Love” and “Professional Women and Housewives.” Normally in Chinese films, the mirror shots show the mirror’s basic function: a reflection of the person looking into the mirror. The female protagonists watch their appearances or check whether they are beautiful or not. The example of Woman–Demon–Human shows an opposite function in Chinese films, but it is in accordance with the metaphor function in German films, that is, women’s meditation and introducing a doppelgänger in order to better express women’s psychological problems. In this book, I explore the concept of “gaze” in the chapters “Marriage and Love,” “Birth and Motherhood,” and “Dreams and Destiny.” Generally, Chinese films do not show women’s nude images as directly as German films often do, and filmmakers normally use an obscure method to represent women’s bodies. No matter which approach, both countries’ films reflect the status of women in a patriarchal society: “to-be-looked-at” by men based on male’s desires and fantasies. One of the main reasons lies in the idea that Chinese paintings do not have a history of drawing nudes as Western paintings do. Thus both countries continue to follow their own cultural traditions in films. The other reason is based on the relevant policies in each country, such as the motion picture rating system. The motion picture rating system still has not been carried out in Chinese films, but it is clear in German films. This reason also can be used in the delivery and abortion scenes, which are very obscure in Chinese films, but very direct and bloody in German films. Actually, this is a disguised form of expression reflecting the idea of “gaze”—that women are watched by men. But at this point “to-be-looked-at-ness” is shown more directly in German films than in Chinese films. However, “gaze” changes a lot. As discussed in the chapter “Dreams

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and Destiny,” women are no longer in the position of “to-be-looked-at-ness,” but are actively “looking.” This behavior of women in films normally reflects the idea that they are searching and thinking something, and that they are confused about their lives. The filmmakers try to show more about women’s inward world. In this book, I investigate this kind of shot and found it more frequently in German films than in Chinese films. This phenomenon also happens in similar paintings. This theme of showing women’s gaze is rarely used in Chinese paintings, but is often used in popular Western paintings. In the chapter “Death and Despair,” I analyze close-ups. German filmmakers employ many close-ups of the female protagonist’s face when they show the moment of death to express the characteristics of shock and aggression. However, Chinese filmmakers normally do not like this direct and aggressive way to show women’s deaths or despairing moments; instead they employ close shots, medium close shots, and medium shots. Western culture studies the world beyond more deeply than does Chinese culture, which makes it more difficult for Chinese filmmakers to create women characters who face death than for German filmmakers. In addition, the differences in their uses of close-ups are also related to paintings. Chinese paintings do not have a history of observing humans and the human body to draw them, but Western paintings do, which results in their paying more careful attention to the human shape and facial features. In addition, the proportion occupied by human figures in Chinese paintings is normally smaller than in Western paintings. That is, the technique of using close-ups to show the theme of death and despair is more popular in German films than in Chinese films. In this book, I discuss the cultural aspects that are represented in the films in the chapters “Professional Women and Housewives” and “Dreams and Destiny.” Normally Chinese films show plenty of traditional Chinese objects and Chinese culture, and German films represent many Western elements and Western-style modernity. Viewed from the director’s cognitive level for things and the audience’s receptive

257 psychology, it is very normal for filmmakers to show the respective cultures in both countries’ films. However, in the theme of narrating women’s dreams and destiny, Chinese films show a large amount of Western elements simultaneously to including the Chinese culture. Nevertheless, German films rarely show non-Western culture. Germany is a developed country, and people’s daily lives are not influenced much by Chinese culture; however, China is a developing country with a relatively fast rate of development, so the influence from Western culture increases in many respects every day. In this book, I demonstrate that all countries should learn from and that they are influenced by other cultures while still not forgetting their own cultures. In every chapter in this book, I summarize the relevant cultural issue. These differences in culture are exactly the root of affecting women’s status, behavior, thinking, and emotion in China and in Germany. First, monogamy has been a standard in Germany for a long time. Therefore the situation of a man marrying more than one woman does not appear in German films. However, after the establishment of the PRC, monogamy has been implemented effectively. Thus women’s pain and their inferior status coming from polygyny are often shown in Chinese films. Second, the Chinese family planning policy and the German pronatalist policy cause there to be entirely different concepts of child bearing and family patterns in the two countries. Simultaneously, this difference also becomes one of the important reasons for the different understandings about abortion, as the Chinese accept abortion more easily (the other reason lies in their different traditional concepts and cultural backgrounds). Third, the traditional views both in China and Germany support women staying at home as housewives and do not support women working. However, this is not consistent with the standards of contemporary society. Generally, the proportion of professional women in a developed country is higher than in a developing country. But China does not conform to this rule. The female labor participation rate in China has long been higher than in Germany. In addition, the issue of the lack of education of Chinese women (especially rural women) is often

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represented in Chinese films. But the theme of women’s lives being influenced by their lack of education does not appear in German films. Fourth, the study and thinking about death in Western culture are deeper than in Chinese culture, which focuses on this life. Hence compared to the Chinese, Germans accept death more easily. This influences filmmakers’ different creative orientation when they show women dying or being in despair. Fifth, different behaviors and endings are shown in the two countries’ films when women pursue their dreams. In most cases, Chinese women pursue their dreams, but eventually give up for various reasons, or they go home, accepting limited achievement. However, women in German films do not offer an outcome in the future to the audience and just hint that the protagonists will continue to pursue their dreams. This theme is related to the cultural situation that in Chinese films, women are relatively less independent than German women by personality. All above is the conclusion of the main comparative study points of this book. In this book, I only analyze two visual effects elements in films: mise-en-scène and cinematography, but I do not explore the aspects of editing and sound. They will be the research target about female-themed art films from China and Germany in the future. I hope that this book can become a reference for the people who also do a correlational research, and I expect that I can make a modest contribution to comparative film studies.

APPENDIX A. FILMOGRAPHY A

259

Appendix A Filmography A A.1

Female-Themed Art Films from China

• 1985 A Good Woman (Liangjia funü), directed by Jianzhong Huang • 1986 Married to a Child (Xiangnü Xiaoxiao), directed by Fei Xie and Ulan • 1986 Kuei-mei, a Woman (Wo zheyang guole yisheng), directed by Yi Chang • 1987 Red Sorghum (Hong gaoliang), directed by Yimou Zhang • 1987 Woman–Demon–Human (Ren gui qing), directed by Shuqin Huang • 1990 Ju Dou (Ju Dou), directed by Yimou Zhang and Fengliang Yang • 1990 Mama (Mama), directed by Yuan Zhang • 1991 Raise the Red Lantern (Dahong denglong gaogao gua), directed by Yimou Zhang • 1992 The Story of Qiu Ju (Qiu Ju da guansi), directed by Yimou Zhang • 1993 Woman Sesame Oil Maker (Xianghun nü), directed by Fei Xie • 1994 Red Rose White Rose (Hong meigui bai meigui), directed by Stanley Kwan

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• 1994 Ermo (Ermo), directed by Xiaowen Zhou • 1999 The Road Home (Wode fuqin muqin), directed by Yimou Zhang • 1999 Lunar Eclipse (Yueshi), directed by Quan’an Wang • 2000 Durian Durian (Liulian piaopiao), directed by Fruit Chan • 2001 Fish and Elephant (Jinnian xiatian), directed by Yu Li • 2001 Millennium Mambo (Qianxi Manbo), directed by Hsiao-hsien Hou • 2004 The Story of Ermei (Jingzhe), directed by Quan’an Wang • 2005 Perpetual Motion (Wuqiong dong), directed by Ying Ning • 2005 Stolen Life (Shengsi jie), directed by Shaohong Li • 2005 Dam Street (Hongyan), directed by Yu Li • 2005 Shanghai Dreams (Qinghong), directed by Xiaoshuai Wang • 2005 Blue Cha Cha (Shenhai), directed by Wen-tang Cheng • 2005 Peacock (Kongque), directed by Changwei Gu • 2005 You and Me (Women lia), directed by Liwen Ma • 2006 Tuya’s Marriage (Tuya de hunshi), directed by Quan’an Wang • 2006 Summer Palace (Yiheyuan), directed by Ye Lou • 2007 Teeth of Love (Aiqing de yachi), directed by Yuxin Zhuang • 2007 And the Spring Comes (Lichun), directed by Changwei Gu • 2008 Knitting (Niulang zhinü), directed by Lichuan Yin • 2009 Weaving Girl (Fangzhi guniang), directed by Quan’an Wang • 2010 When Love Comes (Dang ai laide shihou), directed by Tso-chi Chang

A.2. FEMALE-THEMED ART FILMS FROM GERMANY

A.2

261

Female-Themed Art Films from Germany

• 1972 The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant), directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1974 Fontane Effi Briest (Fontane Effi Briest), directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1975 The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum), directed by Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta • 1978 The Left-Handed Woman (Die linkshändige Frau), directed by Peter Handke • 1978 The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (Das zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages), directed by Margarethe von Trotta • 1979 The Marriage of Maria Braun (Die Ehe der Maria Braun), directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1979 Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness (Schwestern oder Die Balance des Glücks), directed by Margarethe von Trotta • 1980 Germany, Pale Mother (Deutschland, bleiche Mutter), directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms • 1981 Lili Marleen (Lili Marleen), directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1981 Lola (Lola), directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1981 No Mercy, No Future (Die Berührte), directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms • 1981 Marianne and Juliane (Die bleierne Zeit), directed by Margarethe von Trotta • 1982 Veronika Voss (Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss), directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

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APPENDIX A. FILMOGRAPHY A

• 1983 Sheer Madness (Heller Wahn), directed by Margarethe von Trotta • 2000 No Place to Go (Die Unberührbare), directed by Oskar Roehler • 2001 The Days Between (In den Tag hinein), directed by Maria Speth • 2001 A Fine Day (Der schöne Tag), directed by Thomas Arslan • 2004 Marseille (Marseille), directed by Angela Schanelec • 2005 Molly’s Way, directed by Emily Atef • 2006 Lucy (Lucy), directed by Henner Winckler • 2006 Windows on Monday (Montag kommen die Fenster), directed by Ulrich Köhler • 2007 Madonnas (Madonnen), directed by Maria Speth • 2007 Yella (Yella), directed by Christian Petzold • 2008 The Stranger in Me (Das Fremde in mir), directed by Emily Atef • 2012 Barbara (Barbara), directed by Christian Petzold

APPENDIX B. FILMOGRAPHY B

263

Appendix B Filmography B B.1

Other Related Films from China

• 1949 Daughters of China (Zhonghua nüer), directed by Zifeng Ling and Qiang Zhai • 1950 Zhao Yiman (Zhao Yiman), directed by Meng Sha • 1959 Song of Youth (Qingchun zhige), directed by Huaiai Chen and Wei Cui • 1961 The Red Detachment of Women (Hongse niangzijun), directed by Jin Xie • 1975 Hai Xia (Hai Xia), directed by Jiang Qian, Huaiai Chen and Haowei Wang • 1976 Mountain Flower (Shanhua), directed by Wei Cui, Fu Sang, and Guoquan Liu • 1989 The Village of Widows (Guafu cun), directed by Jin Wang • 2000 Breaking the Silence (Piaoliang mama), directed by Zhou Sun • 2011 A Simple Life (Taojie), directed by Ann Hui

264

B.2

APPENDIX B. FILMOGRAPHY B

Other Related Films from Germany

• 1973 Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave (Gelegenheitsarbeit einer Sklavin), directed by Alexander Kluge • 1974 Martha (Martha), directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1981 Christiane F.–We Children from Bahnhof Zoo (Christiane F.–Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo), directed by Uli Edel • 2005 Summer in Berlin (Sommer vorm Balkon), directed by Andreas Dresen • 2006 Four Minutes (Vier Minuten), directed by Chris Kraus

APPENDIX C. ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

265

Appendix C Additional Statements In this book, I use double quotation marks when I cite other people’s arguments, such as [491] in the ”Bibliography.” When the opinion of others is translated by myself, then “my translation” is added into the ”Bibliography,” such as [383]. When the arguments of other people are summarized or relayed by me, then there are not double quotation marks, but the reader still can find the source of these arguments in the “Bibliography,” for example [177]. I also use some footnotes in this book, when some words, contents, background, and quotation need to be introduced or explained. For example, footnote 1 in the chapter “Marriage and Love” introduces where the words “The iron house” derive from. Footnote 4 in the chapter “Death and Despair” explains which period Thomas Elsaesser referred to in his discussion. As to Chinese names, they consist of a family name, followed by a personal name, and the order of the name is different from Western names. My family name is Xu and my given name is Ning. Chinese call me Xu Ning, but Germans call me Ning Xu. For example, the article “Searching for Female Sexuality and Negotiating with Feminism: Li Yu’s Film Trilogy” in the book Chinese Women’s Cinema: Transnational Contexts, the name “Li Yu” is a name in the Chinese order, but the book’s author “Shuqin Cui” is a name in the Western order. In order to maintain consistency of the name order, I use

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the Western style in my arguments, such as Yimou Zhang, Shuqin Huang, etc., but I do not change the order of the name in the quotation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Bibliography [1] A Spatial Analysis of Thomas Arslan’s Berlin Triology 3: Der schöne Tag. Available at https://cinemanaive.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/a-spatial-analysis-ofthomas-arslans-berlin-triology-3-der-schone-tag/. Accessed: 10–08–2015. [2] Marco Abel. ‘22 January 2007: Film Establishment Attacks ‘Berlin School’ as Wrong Kind of National Cinema’. In: A New History of German Cinema. Ed. by Jennifer M. Kapczynski and Michael D. Richardson. Rochester: Camden House, 2012, p. 605. [3] Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School. Rochester: Camden House, 2013, p. 72. [4] Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School. Rochester: Camden House, 2013, p. 65. [5] Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School. Rochester: Camden House, 2013, p. 274. [6] Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School. Rochester: Camden House, 2013, pp. 31–32. [7] Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School. Rochester: Camden House, 2013, p. 45. [8] Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School. Rochester: Camden House, 2013, p. 50.

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[9] Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School. Rochester: Camden House, 2013, p. 284. [10] Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School. Rochester: Camden House, 2013, p. 111. [11] Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School. Rochester: Camden House, 2013, p. 128. [12] Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School. Rochester: Camden House, 2013, p. 288. [13] Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School. Rochester: Camden House, 2013, p. 285. [14] Marco Abel. The Counter-Cinema of the Berlin School. Rochester: Camden House, 2013, p. 287. [15] Charles Affron and Mirella Jona Affron. Sets in Motion: Art Direction and Film Narrative. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1995, p. 12. [16] Okan Akcay. ‘Product Color Choice and Meanings of Color: A Case of Germany’. In: International Journal of Business and Social Science 4.14 (2013), p. 8. [17] Liu An, ed. Huainanzi. Green Apple Data Center. p. 201. [18] Analects of Confucius. [19] Rudolf Arnheim. Film as Art. London: Faber and Faber, 1958. [20] Rudolf Arnheim. ‘Remarks on Color Film’. In: Color: The Film Reader. Ed. by Angela Dalle Vacche and Brian Price. New York: Routledge, 2006, p. 55. [21] American Bar Association. Current Legal Framework: Divorce in Germany. Available

at

http://www.impowr.org/content/current-legal-framework-divorce-

germany. Accessed: 10–08–2015.

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Brief description: This book explores female-themed art films from China and Germany and seeks to illustrate how the cultural difference between the ways of representing women and narrating women’s themes is shown in both countries’ films, by means of analyzing two film elements: mise-en-sc`ene and cinematography. This book analyzes female-themed art films in five topics: Marriage and Love, Birth and Motherhood, Professional Women and Housewives, Death and Despair, and Dreams and Destiny.

Logos Verlag Berlin

ISBN 978-3-8325-4404-1