Liberation of China Women \'As

liberation of china women 'As women go, so go the nation' -- women as metaphors of nation liberation and stasis in Chinese cinema

In Maoist and pre-Maoist era cinema, such as in the films Stage Sister and Spring in a Small Town, the situation of women in China was used as a metaphor for the oppression of the Chinese people as a whole by stifling social and political forces. In the 1964 Stage Sister, the political activism of the heroine proves more empowering than finding personal fulfillment through love. But the 1948 Spring in a Small Town reflects a prerevolutionary belief in the value of honoring one's commitment to the past, such as an arranged marriage made by one's family. Only in more recent cinema, such as the 2998 film City of Glass, has Asian cinema attempted to depict female choices in a more complex, less binary fashion. Choices about relationships may be affected by politics and family, but they cannot be reduced to these forces.

The use of women as metaphors for the oppression of the populace is seen perhaps paradigmatically in the starkly political film Stage Sister, directed by Xie Jin, whereby Jin's film uses prerevolutionary times as a contrast with the more enlightened post-Communist era. The film does occasionally transcend its communist ideology to provide wider critique of the difficulties of women who seek to find a voice outside of highly rigid modes of expression, in this case, the Chinese opera. But Stage Sister was released during 1964, during a period of heavy Maoist ideological domination of the Chinese media. By selecting a prerevolutionary context to open the film, Jin can at times mount a more subtle critique of the way women are treated in society. But the presumption is always that in the new Maoist era, women do not suffer such abuses as oppression by men and in-laws, although by depicting such difficulties on screen, even contemporary women could conceivably identify with the heroine Chunhua's struggles in her past.

The main character Chunhua is a young and beautiful widow, suffering the tyranny of her in-laws, separated (as is the custom), from her own family by marriage. To escape her in-laws she flees her home and becomes a singer in a traveling peasant opera troop. She finds a new sister, and creates a gender-blurring alliance with Yuehong. But the two women are still treated like commodities, as they are sold into another opera company. The decadence of the new company is manifest when the formerly 'masculine' Yuehong leaves her 'stage sister' for Tang, the domineering and patriarchal leader of the company. This shifting of Yuechong's affections demonstrates how alliances between the oppressed, like women, can be manipulated and broken. But Chunhua is undaunted by her friend's betrayal, and begins to infuse her performances with radical political ideas about worker and gender equality, inspired by a local women journalist. The evil Tang tries to ruin Chunhua's career and blind her, but eventually flees the country after the Communists liberate the countryside. Chunhua is thus liberated as a woman and as a member of the peasant class, with whom she has allied herself. As a result of the revolution Yuehong understands the error of her ways, and the stage sisters unite once again at the end of the film.

On one hand, the film functions as effective propaganda, making communism seem both liberating and attractive -- Maoism is personally as well as politically beneficial for Chunhua's performances. But this political message also allows for socially transgressive ideas, like the fact that female alliances are more life-sustaining than ones with males. The female alliances of the film even have potential lesbian implications, particularly since Yuehong is a cross-dressing singer. Also, Chunhua is motivated to see the political nature of her oppression by a female journalist. Regardless, in the film the condition of women is used to show that adhering to an ideology beyond the interests of the individual, is more liberating while romance (such as Chunhua's marriage and Yuehong's affair with Tang) is constructed as negative because it is purely personal, and thus selfish in nature.

The film Spring in a Small Town, directed by Mu Fei released in 1948 stands in contrast to the ideology of Stage Sisters. The film shows a family tragically ruined by war, but rather than chafing against oppressive structures, and seeking to flee like Chunhua, the young woman at the center of the film remains mired in stasis. Unlike Chunhua, the unhappy Yuwen is still married, not a widow, and her haunted nature is exemplified by the ruined house in which she lives, and the sickly husband to which she is shackled: her voice over-says that she does not live in the future, but in the past. Most of the drama of the film occurs within Yuwen's mind, often articulated in voice-over narration, and possibilities for movement in her life are only introduced, never fully realized.

At the beginning of the film, Yuwen's reencounters the true love of her life. Trapped in a marriage to a sickly husband, personal rather than political fulfillment is her goal. But unlike Chunhua, Yuwen chooses the past over even personal gratification: she remains in her arranged marriage, which means that she will spend her life tending to ancient, oppressive obligations rather than giving her life to someone who is healthy. Symbolically she remains a caretaker of her husband and stays in her arranged marriage in the country, rather than leaving for the city with the doctor she cares about. The value of ancestral loyalty, embodied in feminine self-sacrifice, is idealized in the film, just as Stage Sisters idealizes feminine radicalism.