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.

If...

The film depicts an adulterous couple who meet with a tragic end, and the families of the couple learn about the affair over the course of the investigation. Unlike Spring in a Small Town, extramarital relations have tragic consequences. But rather than validating conservative values, the setting of Hong Kong (then being returned to Chinese rule) creates an atmosphere and underlines the of instability values within new Chinese society. For both women and men, here are no easy answers, unlike the earlier films.
In City of Glass, obeying ancestral dictates regarding personal life, as advocated in Spring in a Small Town is untenable, but political slogans ring hollow. Using the personal as a vehicle of self-exploitation in a more Westernized model, ultimately ends in tragedy, and the viewer is left to mull over whether the protagonists Leon Lai and Hsu Chi were right to pursue their affair for so many years, even after they had children. In this more recent film, both women and men act knowing they could harm their families. It is perhaps in this equality -- women are not shown as more morally upstanding or politically aware than their male counterparts, that the film is most radical. Women are not simply metaphors for China, but make complex personal and individualistic decisions that are sometimes fulfilling, sometimes hurtful to families and to others.

Works Cited

City of Glass. Directed by Mabel Cheung Wan Ting. 1998.

Spring in a Small Town. Directed by Mu Fei. 1948.

Stage Sisters. Directed by Xie Jin. 1964.