Term paper for moive commentary

Screening China

Critical Interventions, Cinematic Reconfigurations, and the Transnational

Imaginary in Contemporary Chinese Cinema

Yingjin Zhang

TER r R HJ E U IV R ITV F MI HI ,A

MICHIG MO GRAPH IN HI ERIE EST ABLI HED 196

Published by Center for Ch.in se Studie The Univer ity of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104-1608

E TUDIE

© 2002 The Regents of th University f Michigan All rights r served

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Zhang Yingjin. er ening China : critical intervention cin matic r configuration ,

and the tran national imaginary in contemp rary Chine e cinema / Yingjin Zhang.

p. cm.-(Michi n monograph in hin e studie · vol. 92) Includes bibliographical r fer nee and inde . I BN 0-89264-147-9 (cloth: alk. paper)-! B 0- 9264-15 -4 (paper : alk. paper)

1. Motion pictur - h.ina. I. Title. II. Michigan monographs in hinese tudie ; no. 2.

P 1993.5. 4 Z54 2 2 791.43 0951-dc21 2002 17516

Seductions of the Body: Fashioning Ethnographic Cinema in Contemporary China

Six

If ethnographic t xts r a me n by which European repr sent to themselves their (usually ubjugated) other , uthoethnogr phic t xts are those the others construct in re p n to or in dialogu with those metropolitan repr nt tions . .. . Autoethnographic tex re not, then, what are u u lly thought of as ' uth nuc" or utochthonou forms of elf- representation . . . . R ther autoethnography involve parti I collaboration

ith and p ropri tion of the idioms of the conqueror. M ry Louise Pr tt Imperial Eyes

My discu sion of main tream film and minority di course in contemp r ry hine e cinem in hapter 5 reveals two mechani ms by which nati nhood, thnicity, and hi tory are construct d in film. On the one hand, a mythified, unitary vi i n of China-based on reputedly hared exp ri nc f glori and mi ri -was imp s d by the omrnuni t r · me in th arly 1 50 and ha continued to b projected

m hine e film v r the past h If entury. n the th r hand, a minority di m rg d around th mid-1980 and ha work d b twe n the tic of the dominant paradigms by op ning up and quc tioning th and notion of p pl civilization, an r volution, among oth r . What happen d in th minority di cour of the late 19 , h w v r, wa that in it £fc rt t r ak fre of th trictur of

mmuni t i ol thr ugh critic J r fl ·ctton on hin ulture and luti n ry hi tory, it h, played an unexp t d r le in

kind f cultur I nationaJi m n th t m k it )f-im d " p tri 1d J" n) on the d m tic front

r r ~ 1th tran n tl n 1 apitali m) in u i Jmhu apt m taph rs, th Fifth Zhan Y1mou "ar trapp d-or mor

7

_o creening Chi11a

accurately have entrapped them elve -in the net' of the global mark t conomy (1993, ).

In this chapt r I first pursu do e r ading of Red orglwm-one of the mo t ignificant transition films in contemporary Chine e cin ma-in terms of an mer · ng ideology of the body in th 19 0 (Section I). The international ucce of thi film mad thnographic cin ma an entir ly new genre in mainland China. But ethnographic cinema may b better und rstood a ' autoethnography in that it con cientiously eks to exhibit all conceivable a pect of th 'body' and th embodied meanings of "ethnic" hin c culture in exotic and ft n erotic forms ( ection II). Th ignificance a corded the body and I nd cape (with their fa inating and enigmatic c ntours and hapes) in ome works of ethnographic cinema requir further examination f tw separate realm of geocultural production: Hollywo d's image of hina during the 1930s and 1940 (in a distinct ethnographic mode) nd th haracteristic devotion to the native soil (xiangtu) in New aiwan in m during the 1980s and 1990s, the latt r arguably con tituting anoth r kind of ethnography or aut ethnography ( ection III). Finally, I plac my inve tigation of

thnographic in ma in larg r fr m work of tran nati nal ultural politics ther by ttin the tag (I r vi into th relationship b tw en globalization , nd hinc e urban in ma in chapter 7.

"National Allegory" in Third World Culture

In tu minal ay, 'Thir<l-W rid Lit raturc in the Era of Mulananona] ap1tah m' (first pubh h d in odal Text in 19 6 and later ch n d to "World Lit rature in an Ag f Multinational pitali m,, in a 1 7 nth 1 ) r dnc Jame n p tulat a th ory of "national all rid tc t . h pnma y of n. tional allegory i he cl m par ntly ommon to all hird W odd cultural pr du t1 n nd r d1 lly d1 tm i habl fr m analo ou cultural

Fir t W rld. "Th [ hird World] t , ev n tho e ccmin ly pnv, t nd inv t d with a properly

nly pr ~c t p litical dimcn i n m th form of the rivat individual de tiny i alway an

f th public Third World culture and ry 1 ba. cd on hi b ervati n of "a

d11ctio11s of the Body 2

radical plit between the privat an th publi , betw n th p ctic and the political ' ( or "Fr ud ver u Ma ") that hara tcriz d much f capitali t culture, th ultur f th W t rn r ali t an mod mi t novel' (1987, 141). Third W rld culture, n th ntrary i "n c - sarily • allegorical in that 'th t llin th individual t ry and the individual experience cannot but ultim t ly inv l c the wh 1 laborious telling of the experience of the coll ctivity i elf (19 7, 15 ) .

Given his mapping of Third World cultural I totality -in comple- ment with anoth r mapping of th nt mporary We t m p tmod rn world Qame on 1991)-J m n' th ory of • nati nal alleg ry' ha obvious relevanc to th tu y of Third W rid literatur and cinema even though the th ory i If did n t ,. ithout an imm diat challeng from th Third World (Ahmad 19 7). My rea n for invokin Jameson s theory her ho\1 ever i n t t critique i hypoth ti al natur or its obviou di regard of th va t diffi r nc mon Third World countrie but rath r to how i th r ti 1 m 1 h uch a th interplay between the pri at and th public, th libidinal nd the ublimated the poetic and th politi al, an b tt r inf; rm our reading f c ncemporary Chinese cinema. With thi in nund I n w tum t Red orglwm the first Chine e film t in th old n B r at the Berlin ilm F rival. My di cu ion nc e. anly tak into ace unt th pr bl m f "national roots ' partly b cau e th film it If i inc rp r ted mt dir ct r Zhang Yimou broad r pr 0c t to arch for th i tin ti fcatur of the Chine e peopl and ultur .

Th e Body: Imag es of Violence and Obsce nity

th vi w r fir t in Red orgl, 11111 i th e xuberancc f d, nvcy d by th dan- h air d nee that is . A th film pen , again t a tting f barren

clan c with red edan

21

Sev ral \ ithin the dan

motion! turned t

Zh ng r·cdo m"

creening hi11a

or more

hinese

n th body i et in the wine wn r ( ugg ted off-

). The male w rkcr again randm. , now th I wner of

rult · f \' me m king: th pouring out c t male p ten y. All partake of the

ed11ctio11s of the ody 211

miraculou ly turn out to be a 'bl in " in di gui e b au e the wine prove better than b for ), th r pr n e of hi mu cul r body intimidates the oth r male , rk and, ignificantly intoxicate " Grandma into a tranc -like tat . With triumphant ir, randpa hoi Grandma und r hi am1 -the primitiv t f the cav man-and trides directly into her b droom. A typical fall le end f r m , n , they live together happily and randpa po iti n i lat r 1 gitimat d by the birth of their on.

From the viol nc , vulgari m, mdcc ncy and abu iv languag highlighted in the e c ne all lo cly linked to the human body, we can se clearly that in Red orglwm th image of the body ar deliberat ly exagg rated, primitiviz d, and pr ~ cted a to fulfill a p cial ideo- logical function, which can be b tter int rpret d in light of Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of carnivali m.

Carnival: The Private Returned to the Public

In Rabelais and His World Bakhtin offi rs an exh u tive examination of what he call the "p pular-fc tivc form " (for ex mpl ating, drink- ing, and cursing) and "the grote qu image of the b dy" ( uch as ex, defecation, pregnancy, birth, and d ath). F r Bakhtin all form of "de- gradation ' in c rnival ar not ju t " ntertainment" in th n of the word; rath r, "with all it ima indecencie and curse carnival "affirms the pe plc' immortal ind tru tible character' (19 4 256).

Bakhtin arriv d at thi po itivc view f carnival in a dialectic \ ay through hi re niti n of th ' riginal-and by n w aim st lost or forgotten-m ·aning of the human b dy in We t rn ultur . In th Middle Age n up to the Renai an e, there v a little qu ti n a to th unifying for c ithin th hum n b dy. According to Bakhtin, tw ch racteri tic t ndcn ie e i tcd in I en i . ance phil phy: ' Fi t i th tendency t fin m man th e \l ith all it clcmen nd for , with 1t hi h rand l er tr tum; econd i the t nd ncy t thmk of the hum n b y drawin., t ..,ether the mo t remote phenomena and ~ rces of the c m " (19 4 65). he human b dy, · n in chi Ii ht, i

unity f he~ v n and arth th public and the priv t , and vcn f d th and rcb1r h. hi nm rdial unity, h \l c er, wa lo t in th ub cqucnt d v l pment f hum n (c pe ially hour e 1 ) c1etic .

Bakhtin put 1t, 'in th m dcrn 1m f ch mdiv1du 1 b dy ual h c eating, rinkmg, and dcfc ation h v · radically h n d their mcanin :

212 creeni11g hi11a

they have been transferred to th privat and p ych logical level" (19 4, 321). In other " ord the prev1ou ly public feature of th human b dy hav been tran formed and onfined ·du 1vcly t a privat , p ycho- logized pace. From tlu ob ·ervation one can ee that Bakhtin' theory of carnival carrie with 1t an imp rtant hi toncal nu ion: to return the human body fr m i now pnvat and p ychological tatu to it onginal public domain.

Red org/11m1 may be read a an attempt in the ame direction. In the film, the private pace are c ntinu lly tran gre ed or ev n de troyed. For instance, Grandma' clo ed pac in the edan chair i first metaphorically "penetrated" by ob cene word and th n literally violated by the bandit.

imilarly, th privacy of Grandma' wedding r om i de troyed by Grandpa, who macho b havi r eem to have placed her completely under hi pell. Pnvate act , uch a urinating and perspiring, are p rformed unabashedly in public. Th implication of the e private- turned-public moments, I cont nd, i that they empha ize precisely the interconr1 ctcdn of all human b di . To quote Bakhtin: 'The individual fe 1 that h i an indi lublc part of th collectivity, a member of the p ople' mas b dy. In thi whole the individual body cea es to a certain xtent to be it elf: it i po iblc, o to ay, to exchange b die , to b r n wed .... At th am time th people become aware of their en ual, matcnal bodily unity and c mmumty" (1984, 255). Given th· original unity \I 1thm the human body, the dominance of the bodily image m Red o~~/111111 functi n a · a vi ual index to the reconcep- tualization of a r umon of the private and the public a reuruon cry tallize in th central bject f th film, reds rghum wine.

Wine: A Shared Poetic Spirit

Bee u. e f the carmv le quc natur f R d orglwm, wher images of the b dy d mm t the ere n, " me invite int rpr tation on at lea t three l vcl . ir t, on p pul, r 1 vel, win"' ~ cc mpame fc tivity and i c n umed in elcbration fall kmd. It i b th the product f collective 1, bor nd th re rd for the w rk ·r. Drinking me i , ther ore, "not a bi l gic. l, mm l ct but a i I ·vent" (Bakhtin 1984 2 1). The winery w rkc ' dnnkin and ch ntm to the win god arc good

th1 . In the film' t\: prayrn cenc drink.in i not only a s ial vent but 1 p c1fi ally pcrfonned a a ritual, where it

, cqmr mythi dun n 1 n that outweigh any indi idual concern .

duction if the Body 213

cond on a le iou l v l wine ( r liqu r) i a poetic image d eply rooted in hin ulture. It i , for on • well-kn wn way for a olitary poet to cape hi or h r imm di t r alitie . It i 1 o a spirit that

in pires a poet arti tic vi i n (for ampl , Li Bai' olitary drinkin to the moon and to his own dancin h, dow on the gr und) and further ustain his or her indep nd nt, oft n eclude lift . Win , en from the

perspective of du cultural tradition, ymbolize a worldly passion for an intoxicated c tatic life (rather th n a mediocr , r pr ed one)-a pas ion for a uniqu vi ion of life ith all of i ential m nings uch as vitality, producti ity and er ativity.

Third, on a mer p ific l v 1, \: m in or lwm refe to a pecial type of orghum wm that i br v ed by coll ctive labor magically

"fini h d" with Grandpa' urine given the nam " hibalihong' (red over eighteen mil ) by Grandma con um d by th , orkers in the ritual scene , and finally d pl y d a th dynamite to destroy a truckload of Japanese soldi . It i not difficult t identify everal individual el m nts in the wine, for it i a trange mixtur of many things. Nor is it surprising to see that it b come near th end of th film an object d dicated to the collective m mory of Lu han \: h has I ft the win ry to join the Communi t army and i lat r captur d by Jap nes soldiers and kinned alive in front f the Chine e labor . orghum wine, a locu of the unifi d privat and public, ncompa the cycle of lif; , death and r birth, servin a witne to th gl ry of coll ctiv work and the tragedy of lo t freedom and ind p ndence in the wak f the Japane e invasion.

Wine, th n is a p w rful unifying fj r . A uch, it immediat ly vok anoth r imag in th We t m traditi n-that f Dionysu the re k god f me. In R d or lwm, the vi w r i often touch d-or

intoxicat d-by cen imilar t what Fri dri h Nietzche o nthu ia tically ulogiz in TI1e Birth of Tragedy: "Not nly docs the

b nd b tw n man and m, n com t b forg once m re by the magic of th i ny i~ rite, but natur it If, Ion licnated r ubjugat d ri e a in to eel br tc th rec nciliation with h r prodigal n man' (1971, 637). Th lov '-m km c n in th orghum field i ne uch magic mom nt, a ar th m -praying ritual en . A if all int xi at d by the 1 the char ct in Red oT,Rlwm ften pre th msclve m i tz chc' \J rd "thr u h ong n danc the m mb r[ ] f a lughcr community,' and th ir coll cti p v r 1

214 re ning China

manifest "to the gloriou sati faction of th prim rdial ne"-an ultimate unity (1971, 63 ).

To further illustrat h w an individual can 1 him or h If in th public or communal, I would make two point h r . First in R d

orglmm wine from i initial produ oon to i ultimate u e as a destroyer is closely associated with ndma. ec nd randma 1 virtually the only one in the film endow d con i t ntly with clairvo anc . At the beginning of the film she f; els (and thu ho u ) her f: cmaoon with muscle · in the middle h r aliz th importanc of collectlv work and 1 ads the winery to p t cular busin ucce · in th nd, h senses the moral bligation to a ng th death f Luohan and brings the story to a tragic-heroic cl ur . From thi particular angle offi r d by th symboli m of wine, Red rglwm could w 11 be n a randma tory- a story about h r individual vision har and r aliz d by the public.

The idea of uch a hared vi ion i ffectively d mon trat d in the final ritual cen . Befor tting ut for mbat the mal work rs line up in front of a portrait of the wine god t p rform their ritual pray rs whil drinking wine. rinking our win , th y chant w won't kowtow to the emperor.,, The id a of fighting riginat with randma and i r adily adopted by th coll tive ithout questi n. ignificantly, Grandma see th importance f fighting not in t rm of C mmuni t id ology but imply in term of th loyalty an individual must demonstrat to hi or her own ommunity. Th ir self- acrifice in oth r words, i perform d xclu ively by and fc r th mselv not for illustrating abstract concept uch a nationalism patrioti m and anti-imperiali m. The con picuou absenc of the dominant id ology in the film brings us to the qu tion of cinematic narration in Red orglmm.

An Innocent Narrator: The Politics of Depoliticized Narration

The final sc ne of Red orglwm i of Grandpa and his nin -year-old son (enunciated as My Fath r ') tanding in the mid t of a bombed-out orghum field. randma bull t-ridden body li nearby. A folk song fills

the soundtrack. h n th narrator (Grand on) tell of hi fath r vision of a solar clipse and a blood- tain d world. Thi voic -over, which has been h ard on and off through ut th film, finally pull the vi wer back to a p p ctiv of th late 198 .

A triking c ntra t, th n exis in Red orghum b tween the visual vent and th narration. Whil on actually e th winery work rs'

eduction of the Body 215

lives, one also list n to the v ic that att mp to ncode th ir lives in more overtly political termin 1 gy. For ample, at one moment the narrator ay that Uncle u han tried to mobiliz local armed bandits into anti-Japanese fore -an announcem nt be ond the comprehen ion of the win ry work within th film' <liege is. uch a contra t amounts to an embarra sing confe ion that th 'innocent' narrator, peaking on behalf of the pre ent generation kno ery little of the richne of the narrated story. The narrator lack of knm: ledge at once foregrounds his limited p rsp ctiv at a fully politiciz d pre ent nd evokes an ever- increa ing earning for the 1 t meaning of that primitive life.

From the narrative point of i w ther for v are confronted with a strang id ol gical phenom non in R d orghum: the entire story is pre ent d in uch a way a to r due it political overtones to a nurumum. his deliberat l depoliticized narration i 'strange' and non- canonical in th ov rall cultural and political context, wher Communist policy dictates that literatur and art rv politic .

2 Yet thi phenom non

is not so str nge if one takes int con ideration the 1980s trend in Chin liter tur and art c ard d politicization in narration, a trend exemplified by th Fifth en ration dir ctors in cinema and by the roots- searching and avant-gard fiction rit rs-including, not surprisingly, Mo Yan, th riginal author of Red orghum.

3

It must b evid nt by now that R d orghum belongs out ide main cream id ology. Th marginality of th film is particularly telling in a numb r of bviou mi ion in the te t. First, the setting of the story-in a r m te in distillery-indicat a deliberate absence of the hi torically a · ultura1 mode of pr duction in Chines ociety, what Jam son call the great bureaucratic imperial systems (1987, 140). Its eel bratory pr entation of another mode of production, that of "primitive or tribal oci ty' Oam on s term), with all its backwardness, vulgarism and blasphemy plac the film in clir ct opposition to traditional alues of Chine e ulture and civilization. Second, the d politicized narration in Red or, Imm brin about a complete disregard

2 This party Jin w origmally laid down by Mao Zedong in the early 1940 and has been

k pt consi t ntly ever since, thou h the present v rsion-literature and art mu t serve o ialism, one with Chm e characteristics-IS comparativ ly mild in tone ( ee

Mc ou 1119 ). For Chine e avant-garde \l riters, J. Wang 1996; X. Zhang 1997, 101-2 0. For Mo

Yan, see Duk 1993; T . Lu 1995 129-54; Zhu Ling 1993.

216 creening him1

for clas distinctions (such a ma t r- rvant) and political con ciousne (like th cliche f self-con ciou patriori m) in the film. Luohan, the only character with a political vi ion i given littl narrativ function in the film; v n worse he i portrayed a a h lple victim of J panes brutality. The gruesome s ne of Luohan being publicly kinned alive shows that hi torically, Zhang Yimou ha join d Wu Ziniu in a cinematic project of desublimation by projecting cen of d capitation and violent death (see chapter 5). Third the pnmitive, communal life- tyle poeticiz d in the film po es a fundamental challenge to traditional moral valu . Instead of exemplary virtuous wom n in m in tr am film , Red orglmm ndorse the tran gre iv b haviors of Grandpa and Grandma, both of whom are significantly depriv d of proper name . Tru randma at one point insi ts that her workers call her Jiu' r (literally, "the ninth birth") but that is actually her nicknam and d not ignify her social statu a a widow in patriarchy. By tratcgically d nying its protagonist th ir proper names, Red orglwm aspires t a mythic rcprc entation of th primitive life, which thriv only n unrestrain d p sion . Invigorated by win and reg nerated by sorghum field , uch primitive pa sion give poetic expr s ion to an mergin id logy of the body in hinese cin ma.

The d politicized narration in Red orgh11m thus t tifies fully to the ubversive r r belhou natur of it h n marginality. The film' self-

po itioning out id main cream hin ·e filmmaking and dominant Communi t id I gy enable -a tually mp 1 -th vi wer to reflect cntically on lar r cial and ultural 1 u m cont mp rary China.

Ideology of the Body: The Search for Cultural Roots

Th cpoliticizcd n rration m Red r~/111111, I would argue i in part achi ed through procc of "degradation of , h t used to be the g ntle (in hum n b hav1or) the cl cent (m human pe ch), th moral (in human relati n ), and the h norabl (in cial interaction). The purpo e of d dati n, , khtrn mt ut, i "the low ring of all that i high, piritual, id al, , b tract" (19 4, 19). Dy radical twi t, the civilized

b me un iv1liz d, th ind ·c nt gl rificd • nd the bla ph mou blessed. And th r u]t f uch de rad ti n i un voidably a r tructuring of the f orld r r.

h t Bakhtin nthu ia ·tically mbrace in hi rmval] i u id of and contrary to all existing

n true and political or anizati n which is

cd11ctions of the Body 217

su pended for the tim of fe tivity' (19 4, _55). ' rnival wa the true feast of time, ' he continue "th fe t of b corning chan and ren wal. It was ho tile to all that a immortaliz d and compl t .... Carnival celebrate the de truction of the old and the birth of th n w w rld" (1984- 10 410). Just a th ub rsivc and de tructivc f• rce i true and real in Bakhtin' fom1Ulation of carnival, o i it m an 1d ology of the body-an ideology not only articulat d in Red or /111111 with much fanfar but al o ascertainable in varying degrc s in the \: ork of Chinese cinema literature, and literary theory in the 1980 .

The ential principle of the id ology of the b dy i to r tum the body to it primitive origin. Th image of the body can be a human body, thu r turning it to it mo t ba ic b1 logical ne ds uch as eating, drinking, d fi eating, lov -making child bearing and rearing-theme or motif that ar con istently cxplor cl in A Girl J,0111 Ht1nan [Illu tracion 20], Horse TI1ief, and Old Well.

21 er e11ing China

The image of the body can al o b the body, in an abstr t en e of one's ontological statu thus returnin th long-forbidden topic of

subjectivity to th Chinese inc ll ctual millieu a in Liu Zaifu a theac projects of literary subjectivity (19 5- 6 and 19 6· ee al o J. Wang 1996 196-206). The imag of the b dy can be extended much further, even to that of the entire nation thu r turning hin e culture to its original cradle, th Loe s Plateau a i clearly the ca e in Yellow arth and Ballad of the Yellow River.

A much-studied Chin e cultural ph nomenon of the 19 Os "the earch for cultural root " (x1111ge11), can al o b m aningfully discu ed in

t rms of the emerging ideology f the body (Ji Hongzheng 1989· J. Wang 1996, 213-24). A in the ca e fan ideology of th body, the search for cultural r ot in hina ntail a cone ptually "do nward' movement, exploring the mo t fundamental cl m nt of human life. Not surprisingly, what i con idered m st 'nati nal" r ' hin s " is often rediscovered in ritual , folk cu t m , and religiou c r monies, all invariably and significantly set in l cal remote from China's contem- porary cultural and politi al enter . The arch for root th refore, is frequently e ecuted in th form of myth, with all it empha e on legend ritual and ven u per tition.

What Nietzsch ay at th end of The Birth of Tra~edy i illuminating in thi connection: "Man t day, tripped of myth , stands fami hed among all hi pa t and mu t dig frantically for roots, be it among the mo t remote antiquitie " (1971 641). It i a if the "modem man, having lo t hi vital tie with hi t ry and nature, an only mov backward and downward t ear h f• r hi lo t origin -the mythic home ( or , omb?). In the context f 1 0 hin~, it i a if only by moving away from the int rfcring for e f political d gma and doctrine-a movement mdicati c non thcl f the p , crful " orkings of the politics of abs nee nd marginality-c. n a new idc logy be fully cstabli h d, an id I gy th t r unit th h1 ,h and th lo\: , the far nd the near, all in a truly material, tangibl , an hence c mpr hcnsible elf, th body.

nc f Red o~~l,11111' me Ii, i cl ar: it eulogize th life of a namcle c upl h c unaba he c nfrontation " ith their own bodie create f• r u a n w 1dcol gy f the b dy. The body in question t borr w Dakhtin • pt c pt 1 n, 1 not "the bi logical b dy " hich

If in the n encrati n , but preci ely the hi toric, f m nkrnd" (l 4, 67). Fr m h re I ould contend

d11cti 11s of the Body 219

following Bakhtin furth r, that an id logy of th body i "not ab tract thought about the futur but th livin n th t ach man bel ngs to the immortal people who er at hi tory'' (19 4 3 7). Ind d it i the body of the p opl n t dogma and d trine that i imm rtal, and it is this immortality that Zhang Yimou o hip in R d org/111111. 4

Liberation: Third World Allegory and Third Cinema

The final tragic ne in Red org/111111 confom1S in a en e to what Jameson call th Third W rld "life-and-death strug I with First World imp rialism (19 7 140). uch a truggl by i very d finition must be a p litical struggl . Jam on in i t nee on the political nature of the allegory form in Thir World culture may find upport in th di cussion f Third Cinema in th We t. Initially propo ed by Fernando

olanas and Octavio etin in a mani~ to in 1969 "Third Cinema now r fers to ' a cin ma of d colonization and for liberation, (Gabri 1 1982, 1; c also olana and Getin 1976· Pine and Willemen 1989). Given the political agenda built int th prop ition of Third inema it i no surpri that i tyle mu t b ubver ive and r volutionary, "full of the imag ry of gu rilla comb t (Arm 1987 99).

Judging from thi political rit rion Red orglwm does not fit perfectly into the catcg ry of Third inema. While th re i no denying that rec nt Chine film al o m k u e of major theme in Third

xism armed truggle--to varying oncept of Third Cinema may be

more u fully appli d t a tudy f hin 1 fti t film in the 1930 which ar mark d by a h • vy id I gical mpha i n anti-c lonizati n and anti-imperiali m (B rry 19 9). The appar nt di r pancy b twe n the r voluti nary politic ·plicit in hird inema and th eemingly d politi ized narration f Red orglwm ( nd th r r c nt hine e film ) pre en an obvi u pr bl m.

H w v r, thi di er pancy al n d e not rul out oth r D r h c ntr.l t n t f lib rtti n' in hird in ma, Dr

m tanc i till min ntly evid nt in Red or h11m. What n ed t b diffc r ntiated t thi p mt ar th ari u l v l t hich th cone pt f lib rati n i ppli d. At the t p I l th t f n t1 nho d th lib rati n

far a to II Zh n Y1mou "the Dion u f today' hin "

ere 11i11g hina

f untry fr m th Jap n 11nper1 h t I v rely ct the und the tory. At r 1 el that f th mdividual, the

bb ratJ n of \ omen fr m patn rch 1 pprc 10n I touch d n in the film. Yet th . n: kind · f hbcratl n c n titute nly a mall p rt of the film. Red o~~lmm 1 ually pro l. 1111 , t tal hb ration nd triumph of the b dy. It i th1 1d ology of the body that undermine th r political concern in the 1lm. By nd pnm1ti , , y of hvin and th unplc natur f the hin p plc free from any f• rm of political

mdoctnnation or r pr . 1 n-Red- orglwm a p1re t a lib rati n of the hum 11 body a lib rati n that r turn th hine c pc ple from the1r unif• rm lif• tyl and tcnle v ay f thmk.in t th tr nurturing, rcgen rating rigin . Ind d th t p and c lebratory m d of Red

org/111111 ar m ant to awaken an r turn hi11e e viev r to their lo t vitality, thu r juv nating (th· b dy of) the whol nation.

Red orglwm 1 , th ref• r , n t a tory f any individual. Its p ett 1zed n rrati n, n m tt r h w d p litic1z d it appe , i ultimat ly p liti al m natur . In the final n ly i th pirati n to liberate thought from p liti l in trinatt 11 t subv rt the e mingly in urm untabl auth rity f the min nt 1dc l gy, , ncl, in h to advocat a n w id 1 o th dy m m mp ra mu t be, a political a pirati n rn lt If. It is in thi . ns th t J me n' the ry f national allc c n b me nin ully , phed t r /111111. Th xpcri ·nee far h p l randp and

d lit1c1z ·d ultimately n m lving th f the v h I thi inv i n,

hin fth p liti I in n. tur , the e rlicr nc .

II

thnogr phic Cinem : Th Cons quenc s of Marching to th World

nth 1 hird 10cm , Paul Willem n

11

11at1 nal- ultural alth ugh n t

hre opt1 n

eduction. ef tl,e Body

are available to hird W rld rnt 11 ctual. nd ro t. . Fi t, "t with the d minant and d mm, tm cultur-, wh1 h i · m trop litan intellig n 1a"· ccond "t <level p the nta m tic naoonal identity by e kmg to re nnect with tradm n chat wer di plac d r di tortcd"; thud, "parti ul r a t

221

are elected and elevat d mt ntializ d yml I f the national identity: the local an \: r t imp riali m' tcrcoty • " (19 analyz d abov Red or /,11111 ch sc the c nd option and in 1 cond half, launch an appar ntly anta m tic m vc a m t Japanc impe- riah m. evcrthclcs I Willemen p rceptivcly p m

thi [second] option pr cnts cons1d rablc difficultie nd dangers The main one deriv from th n d to r invent tr dition. , to nJurc up n 1111 g of pre-coloni I inno ence nd authenticity The r ult 1 mo dy no talgi for a pre- Ionia! oci ty wlu h in fact nc r cxi tcd, full of idyllic village and communitic peopl d by " uth ntic" (r d fc Iklon ) mn cen in touch with the "re l" v lu pervert c.l by 1mpcnah m r, m the mo t naiv

er 1011s, perverted by technology. ( 19 9, I )

Prec1 ely due t an ur nt need t reinvent traditi n, a practice mor evident in hi ub equ nt film u h ju D011 and Rm' e the Red LAntem ( cc lark 1989), Zhang Yim u proceeded quickly from the second option t the third, and the re ult wa the immcdiat popuJarity f ethn gr phic mcma in mainland hin dunn the e rly 1 9 .

13 ar in mmd that "cthn gr. pluc cmcm " di cus. d h r • r fcrs t particular kind f fi ti n, l film, n t cthn aphic I d fimti n, ethnographic on tni ti n nd pr ~c ti n)

culture, Ian thcr ty

di h •

111

19' 6.

222 Ct'. ening China

r a means by hich Europ an r pr nt to thems Iv their (u ually ubJugated) others autho thnograpluc t ar th e th oth con truct

in r spon e to or in dialogue with th m tropolitan r presentanon ' (1 92 7). Whil it i true that Pratt ba her diffi r nci tion of these two mode of ethno phic writing on h r cudy f urop an era 1 wntings of the ei ht enth and nineteenth centuri " hat happ n in th cultural arena of tran nati nal capitalism in th 1 te twenti th entury, I would argue i that th p w r tructur of domin tion (th W st) and ubordination (the non-Wet) ha r m ined fundamentally unchanged ince th arlier periods of colonization and imp riali m.

In her ritical work n pnnunv pa i n , Rey how insists on approaching cont mporary hinc e cin ma " a kind of po tm dern self- writing or autoethnography ' which i 6 t and foremo t exhibit d for the gaze of the We c and which, th r f• r n titut a p cial type of "the Ori ntal' ori nt lism" in its " If- ubalt mizing, elf-exoticizing visual g ture ' (1995, xi 171). I argu d in hapt rs 2 and 4, to cla ify all of contcmp rary hine inema a auto thno phy i urely an ov rstat m nt, nd th lab l "p tm d rn' al o alls for furth r quali- fication and cont xtualization ( c ch pter ). Howev r "autoeth- nography,' a a n w kind f thn aphy h w id ntifi in Zhang Yimou' early films, d a p rf• ct d ignation for hi cm matic pr ~ect.

Zh ng' film h v ricing about

w

nd cc ible form of rmagin rive edly pa t but whos ideological

h w e a the 1gnific non in Zhang s films

udi nc . Larg ly third ption in

r" r respon rdcr v nt) t ' imp riali m' r v nt). I h ve more to ay in

eductio11s of the Body 223

ection III about an arlier pha "ethn graphy' in Hollywood imaging of Chma but mu t count 6 r Zhang Yimou' witch from th anta ni t an ubv ive ( mentioned m Section I) to t~e submi siv , c mphcit po iti n in ju ta fi w yea .

Dai Jinhua has furnish d an int r tin r adin f Zh ng Yimou' arly cinemati project. For h r, th ultur 1-r flecti n mov ment of the

1980 was plagued by a profound c ntradiction. n the one hand it aspired to reconnect with th May Fourth p1rit nd cl ar away the obstacle to modernization by negating traditional hinese culture. n the oth r hand, it relied on the pr of root -searching to bridge the cultural gap (/iegu) er ated by revoluti n and t r tum to th origin of national culture. "Thi inh r nt contradiction " Dai peculates determines that the art of th Fifth n ration directors ha only built a

'broken bridg ' (duanqiao).' In other word , theirs was an incomplete project that ended with King of the Children which feature Lao Gan (Xie Yuan), tubbom, "rebelliou on with hi imagin tive but doomed message f "anti-her i m, anti-patriarchy, anti-hi tory' (1993 16, 29).

According to Dai Red orglwm charts a n w path with the return of formidable arch typal imag of th hero, patriarch, and hi rory. Thi return simultaneou ly compl te the belated "initiation rite (chengren sht) for th Fifth nerati n and their "ritual f pardoning (shemian shi), which pardon ... d th m abov JI b cau e from th n n th y would be willing to addr "My randp " in " ubmi ive attitude (cherifu zita1) (1993, 29- 30 41). M ving gr. efully from the rev lutionary history to th myth of a timelc s hina, Zhan ha tran formed, with ju Dou, an

ricntal tory of repre ion, abu e, and patricide int beautiful leg nd ubject d to the inten gaze f th W t rn audien . imilarly, with

Raise the Red Lantern, h ha f; · iliz d hin hi t ry and ulture and di played it lik a gor u spe im n m mu um hibit. In thi \ ay conclud Dai, Zhang Yimou ha pr id d u with a typical p tcoloni, l cultural 111 d l" (1993 6) a n lu 1 n har ·d by ral other hinc ritic (W ng mg 19 5· Zh n Yi u 19 3).

Lik ai h n Xi min al b licv that "R d org/111111 m rk b th n nd nd a b 7 13 ): th t i an nd t the cnu al

ti n and th guming f n hibiti ni t mo f cc h " Zh ng Yimou b nd n hi e rlicr

m m ( r flc t d in th cmergm but hort- liv d b dy) aft ·r 1t p • ta ular intemat1 nal ucc nd

224 creening hina

quickly took up a complicit po ition cultural 1magm ne m th We t \l dialecoc of ubv rsion and ubmi ion trategie h employed and tran nutte

mamland hina.

i -a-vis dominant tran national uld tak a cl er look at lu v ell a om of the t tual

to hi fell w filmmakers in

Seductions of the Female Body: Dialectic of Subversion and Submission in the Films of Zhang Yimou

In Red orglum1, de pite it imprc ivc taging of ubversive acts ( uch a the murder f two cont nde for th "Name of the Father '-th leper [patriarchy] and Luohan [ ommuni m]) Dai Jinhua ees a di turbin ign of ubmi ion to the ath r ignified by the male narrator's repeated refc r nces to "My Grandp . " What is more di turbing to Dai is "the ne e ity of returning the 'Father' Woman,' of a rificing woman and femal imag to th altar of hi t ry' (1993, 41). According to this narrative lo · , Grandma i twice acrifi d. The fi t tim , she lie in the field weanng r d clothe (indicating d ir ), eag rly acrificing h rself to the altar male d ire and male initi ti n. The econd time, she runs with open arm in slow motion ( uggc ting c ta y) y t falls dead to the ground v c ring whit (indi ating crificial rite ) a victim offered to the altar oflu t ry.

If m R d org/111111, the dominant ima c of th male body somehow conceal a v1 tinuzation- f-woman ubt t, in ub equcnt film Zhang Yimou ·ffi·ct a mpl t reversal f hi cinemati attention from the mal t the fi 111 le body an apparently " . thetic move with far-reaching id olo ·c 1 implicatton . Lydi Liu b . erve in th context of modem Chm . literatur , " mp red with the male b dy the female body

m n' I ck f contr I r herd tiny, not o much b cau e b au e patriarchy determine the

h n c the fi male body rve the int re t f m n' (1 5, 2 5). hi i · tly wh t Zh ng ha att mpt d t h v in hi film r m ju Do11 a11 th \J y t 11,e tory of Qiu ]11 and

l1an.~l1ai Triad: th · m le b dy rvc th mtcre t f m n r gardle of a p rtt ul r 1lm' p, ti 1, gr phi , and temp ral etting. in everal

th ·r film of th mid- I u h irl from H11na11 and A Good Woman, Zh ng' hav t cinematic e hibition of "th imp , \ 1 ty: the p tri rchy d ir her

d11ctio11s of the Body

bod demand her cha tity, an puni he her f; r tran gr 1v ac

225

., (L.

Liu 1995 2 6). Much ha b en writt n b ut Zh ng' film , nd

cho en to d1 · u h1 ambivaJ nt tr atm nt f fi m~ I have

10n a an appar nt victimization di cours .

6 y rguc. that

• ven though Zhan ' int r t i not mh r ndy rn , m n prob] ms them Ives, h relic for hi cultur - ritin on a focahzation, a zoom-in' on the worn n charact rs" (1995, 14 7). he r ult 1 'a fi tl h1zat1on of worn n that an . . . b mor accurat ly de nb d a a se!f-exotici:::ation through th tactic of vi uality (19 5, 14 ). The play ith i uality furth r lea Chow to unrn that ' [ )hat Zhang fi t1 hiz • 1 pnmarily cinematography it elf' (1 95 14 ). h c mbin d £feet of Zhang's doubl fetishization 1 hi art of du ti n:

[T)he duction of Zh ng' film -th ppe l of hi vi u l ethnography-i that they keep cro ing bound ri and hifung mto n , pher of circul tion. The wi h to "liberate" hine , omen . . . hifi into the liberation of" hma," which h1fi into the hbcratJon of the "1m ge" of

hina on film, which hifl int the hberat1 n of " hma" on film m the intern tion I culture m rk t, nd o on . (1995, 149)

Parallel to "Oedipalizati n u e of narrativ phy i al imp t these, h w

fcti hiz tion f w men

nc hand an l t

mcnt,oncd in thi

hi reliance on the the

uo d1.1nyin

226 creenin China

As early a 19 1 Ma Jun. ian had noti d th impact of inter- national fame-or, more pr ci ely, the r p 10oning in global capitalism-on Zhang Yimou s ub quent film. If Red orglum, aims to deconstruct the di cou e of r olutionary hi tory (th th m of cla struggl includ d) by imultaneou ly taging ac of patricide and reimagining a new patriarch' in th pr - ommuni t p riod in Ju Dou Zhang reexamine the theme of patricide from an entially ' conformist pcrsp ctiv ,

7 and th overall mood chan es from a

carnival que celebration t d p ration and fatali m. ontrary to th imaginary cla I world of Red or, lwm, in Ju Dou all the characte ar squarely situated in the pre xi ting patri rchal order a hu band and wife, uncle and n ph w, fath r and on, ld r brother and younger brother. It etting a se lud d family-run dy factory, further sugg t the oppre ive

nature f the patriarchal society which e erci e its power by legitimating and p rp tuatin the "Nam of the Fath r' (pr nounced in the film a 'th ance to ' rules,, that c uld never b alt r d). Unlike the pmmtiv ac of taking th patriarch' oman and claiming h r son in Red orglwm, in ]11 Dou th a t of ual and m ral tran gre ion are committed land tinely (including p p-hole v yeuri m) and with an ov rwh lming n of guilt. Tianqing (Li B otian) th biol gical father

f Tianbai an never mu ter en ugh c urage to laim hi on, ven after Ju ou ( ong i) ann unc the fact t ianbai. To be ure, Tianbai tv ice comm1 patricide in the film but Zhang pr nt the e patricida1 ac not a a clir ct hall n to patri r hy but a part fa natural cycle thr ugh which patriarchy perp tu te i el( After taging the final triumph f th "L w of th F th r ' Zh ng aband n his patricidal fanta ie and Ma Jumoang b h d "th me wa ov r (1991 132).

Yet th m ~ a far from v r. inc ]11 Dou Zhang has been ngag d m L n ntircly d1ffi rent t f game , be t ex mplified in Raise the

Red Lant m, which 1 t in a l r , Id rural family compound. Five t k t th t g by tum; c ch ut her d sir and fanta ies,

nd puni hment , a1J pr detennined by npt cl t erve nly th intere t of th

, 1 1fic ntly, J n er fully ho n). Dai Jinhua intcrpr f: nuJy c mp und thi v ay: in addition t 1 r mblance

eductions of the Body 227

to an thnographic mus um locat d in th n tivc land it al o evoke the architectural structure of Michel ucault' famou p, n pticon the pri on with a central surveillance tow r. rom a Fouc uldian perspective the five wive appear to b no b tter than pri n inmat ho e fat are ealed and who e performanc of any ubversive act i but a futi1 gesture

against the repressive invi ibl but all-p rva ive pow r. Raise the Red Lantern Dai suggests thus complet a double displacement of the initial heroic efforts of the Fifth n ration. Fi t the repre entation of "unrepresentable Chine e hi tory and culture (becau e of its "unfathomable • depths) i di pl c d by the hibition of the urface of Chinese hi tory· econd. th urface of hine e hi tory are further displaced a pure exotica to the W t m gaze (1993 5).

The nature of th otica i cl arly illu trated in W ndy La on s chart of characterization chang in three of Zhang's early films. ach film follow a imilar narrativ movement centering on erotic d ire and its fulfillm nt or puni hm nt: "The 6 male charact r played by Gong Li is position d between two m n, n an older man who i di eas cl perverted, or cruel •... and the oth r a younger man who ... i attract d to her er tically' (Laron 1995, 215). From Red orglwm t Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern, th 6 mal character' power to chall ng patriarchy b come pr e iv ly weaker and the young male character Io e hi earlier ability to fight for r v lutionary change. Conv r ly, the old male character ge trong r and tronger, to the point f being omnipre ent and, ind ed. omnipotent in Raise the R ed LAntem. C rr p nding to th ideological hift from ubv r ion to ubmi i n, Zhang change th settin in hi lat r film from the liberating uter pace of primitive natur to th clau trophobic inn r spac of traditional ultur . As Lar on obs rv :

Th m n' world of Red orghum- pl c of 1r ction, rth, nd power- h b n repJ ced by the worn n' orld of Red .umt ms [sic]- place of gam , r om , and form. Th v t c untry id ha hrunk ... into a imple

of rooms, and th m rk of the ut 1d rid nd th pr gr i n f historical tim h v . lm t d1 pp ared. Thr ugh Grandp , Ti nqing, nd the ph ntom h mo xual lover, the alt mative pos ibility of r ma uliniz rion through tr ng dy an • firm mind dimini he v h1l th con rv tive, orthodox p wer f th p, t 111 r a . (1995 223)

22 cree11ing China

adly Zhang ems to be submi i not only to th con ervaave po'-1 r of th pa t but also to the r pr r gime f hi pre nt rul r. In To Live a film about the political r pr ion and pe cution in the

ommuni t revolution that would otherw1 d mand a critical, if not oppositional, tance (a embodied m TI1e Blue Kit a 11 a num rou film from the 19 0 uch a Hibisws Town and liina, My orrow (Niupeng, 198 ]), one encounters v rywhere ac of submi ion conformity and complicity, hich ar miraculously elevated to the level of being true "virtue ' of th hinese people. In the word of one critic Fugui (Ge You) and Jiazhen (G ng Li) de erve prai for repr senting "ordinary folk in a great country with five thou and years of civilizati n." Moreover, the fact that th y have ndured and urvived hard hip of ev ry con ivable kind i it elf a te timony: 'If Chinese culture and the hine people can ev r tand firmly in th odd, it all dep nd on (the will power ofj i ordinary folk to liv " and endure (P. Ch ng 1994, 99).

Neverthel , in h r r ading f To Live, Rey Chow criticizes pr cisely thi tim -honored " hin ' philo ophy of liu :

In Zhan 's film, the convention 1 notion of enduranc a strength is not simply repro uced but con ciou ly tag d, nd it i through such staging, such dr mat1zation or melodram tiz tton, that a cru ial fanta y which props up " hm "-" h ther a culture, a nation, a family, or a common per on-i r v led. "We, the hin , are the olde t culture, the olde t people m th \! orld,' du fan y y . "The trick of our success i the ability to tick it out-to b orb ev ry extern. I difficulty into our elvc , to

nernie mto our ulture. W end ure, th refore we

eduction of the Body 229

According to Zhang To Live i 6 t and for mo t a dramatizati n of a uniquely ' hine e" quality: the attitud f ju t t kin what mes and living on" (Larson 1999, 189).

Reproduction of "Art": The Flourishing of Ethnographic Cinema

In omuch a Chin s film hi tory i c nc rn d, th dialectic of ubversion and ubmi ion in Zhang films may carry far I ignificance

than what hi att ntion to ethnic or thnograph1c det i1 h ng nd red in ub qu nt Chin c film production . To th wedding and \: me- drinking rituals in Red orglmm, Zhang ha added among other thin the rituals of naming the new-born on and blocking th patriarch s coffin forty-nine tim in the fun ra1 proce i n m ju Dou, and the rituals of rai ing th red lantern, the foot ma ag , and op ratic inging m Raise tlie Red Lantern. 'Ritual, it can be said, emb died the unity and the diversity of China-Chine ene in all its complexity" ( utton 1994, 32). It i und rstandable that after Zhang' unpreccd med ucce in the international film market, many Chinese filmmakc would ompete in rcstaging and r inventing exotic rotic ritual and other thnic cultural clement , and together they fa hion d a new typ of cthn phic cinema from th late 1980s to the mid-199O . Tale f all-p rva i patriarchal opprc i n in atiabl f; male de ire, ual eduction, illicit r incc tuou affairs, utragcou moral tran gre sion, graphic c rp ral puni hment, mal impotenc and ca tration, ev n patricide and infanticide w re relea ed

ne aft r an thcr. What Berry report a the ommuru t overnment' n ·w pob y f tightened id ological c ntrol aft r the Tian nm n event in 1989 (1994a, 44-5) e med to have no imm diat effi ct on the pr ducti n f thnographic cinema in Chin, t 1 a t n t until the late 199 , v hen th number of coprodu tion with I Ion Kong and Taiwan dropped c n id rably und r increa in official pre ure.

It 1. ignific nt th t mo t of the thnographic film m nti ncd ab v re fin. nc d- t I a t partially-by tran national p1tal nd billed

" rt film . " f ou , ccpt for tho e wh firmly b ·hcv m cultural authenticity, fc w ould exp ct all rituals and ethnic d t il in th e film t be hi t ri lly a curat •. F r thnographic filmm kc , • m r pr' in qu ti n i h w t g n r t a h ight n d ffe t f "the r •al , by m ·an f intriguing narr tivc. and p tacular vi ual . Jean B udrillard th ry m y b u ·ful f• r u t m a ur th ' rti tic" dIJn n 1 n rn hrne thn phi in ma: "A po ible d finiti n f th r l 1 : that for 111hich it

23 ere 11i11g hina

is possible to provide an equival nt repres 11l ation." Accordingly ' th rk of rt r d ubled i If manipul t1 n of th igns fart ,, and ' art ntered

th pha e of i n mdefirut r production' (1 145 147). Ind d fr m ritual and ft lk cu t m t · onal Ian cape and narrative

ugge te to ethnographic e ually activ

wh 1 gitim cy, p i foregroun unpr dictabl arly ca in p int i

Black Mountain Road,

in r c nt hine e film may be only on c rtain elem nt in the

, power, ual pot n y. What

the nigmatic,

manner Jin Z1 d fies th h d pi es her

ed,utio11s of the Body

n n dictating h r

f• nn r hu band's fre d m t m t h r lover Lu at

"hr m J

ntr v ial (Liu

n qually

2 1

u 1 hf• , do ly Xia gin 5), Liu

tr ng-willed Woman for

ry tin Id ll ctor who

r,

' cc R ·y h w' n ly I of the c ry, tran.l ced "B1 1 ter Liu" (19 lb, I 5-50).

232 creeni11g China

It must b e ident by now that the menage a trois formula involving an aggr sive £i male charact r wa not in nted by Zhang Yimou (who must be er diced correctly, though a the mo t influ ntial practitioner rather than the ol riginator of hines ethn graphi cinema). Nonethele , in the wake of Zhang' pectacular succe thi "local" formula ha become one of th mo t important "global' 1gnatures m Chinese ethnographic cinema sine th arly 199 . A cla ic e ·ample i Red Firecracker, reen Firecracker (1994; hereaft r Red Firecracker) which £i atures Chunzhi ( ing Jing) a a cro -dre ing heroine wh i brought up as a boy (for lack of a male child) to run th family-own d fireworks busines after th death of the patriarch. Her repre ed e ual fc lings are aroused by th arrival of Niu Bao (Wu Gang), a poor but arrogant itinerant artist hired to paint door g ds who care v ry little about the age-old rule of thi wealthy family. Again t the warnings and evil schemes of th fc r man (Zhao Xiaorui), Chunzhi pu ue Niu across the Yell ow Riv r and to th a toni hm nt of her clan m mbers tarts to wear woman cloth after her s ual adv ntur .

A comp titi n ov r th own rship f her body i held between Niu and the foreman, two qually ma uline charact rs (thu a variation on Zhang' ema culated or impot nt m n a ne of the exual triangles). A di play of male ourage £i llow when Niu and the foreman take turn playing with fir crackers in th ir bar hand , feet, and m uth . A en o ed p ctators watch a p werful fir racker udd nly explodes when Niu tri t launch it from b tw n hi le . Inevitably castration re ul , and th ound d iu 1 earned y. Th ironic meaning in the metaphor of exual e plo ion in the hin title then become clear:

P oda huangden " hterally m an "th twin l mps exploded by the firecrack r th l mp ymbolizin ., th te ticl , which in tum are int nded b the dir ctor t mb liz 'a revitalizing force" in the

d lifi f th lun • ' ( ai Jinhua 19956 2 9-95). In dy, th ilm mana to end on an optimistic note:

nt but det mun d t rai h r ill gitimate child. We h wn th pn n-hk n lo ure of th ai compound

hunzhi a , m r pupp t, although h i dr ed in th1 tim.

d11ction if the Body 233

Red Firecracker offers thr type of ri ntal thnic p ctacl rn addition to the di play fr pr d female de ire.

9 First th architecture

of the traditional Chine c f: mily comp und (borrow d directly from Raise the Red Lantern) repr cnt the If- tabilizing y tern of oppre ive patriarchy, which, peaking in th name of ance try, dictat the fate of Chunzhi regardle of h r tatu a th nominal h ad of the Cai family. Comparing the Cai compound to Lu Xun metaphoric ' iron house " Dai Jinhua notices a r vision her , incc Niu, a a r juv nating outsider (a lone romantic hero) ha pen tratcd into th uffocating interior and effected a permanent chang in hunzhi (from the a exual head of the family to an expectant mother) (1995b, 2 9-95). cond exotic items of folk culture are woven int the narrative to nhance the ethnographic atmosphere. Apart from paintin f door g d , the film stag n: o all- male folk-religiou danc . Th fi t i p rformed by monks with paint d faces outside of Chunzhi' bedroom a ritual t dri e a" ay the e il spirit that uppo dly ha taken p ion of h r, and th econd by m n wearing demon ma ks (a refi r nc t imilar c ne in Horse Thief) who dance around the two cont tant right b for th firecracker competition, while a crowd f nlo k ch r. Finally, the he r power of the river landscape (captur d fr m m re dramatic angl s than tho e in Yellow Earth) add to thi tal f educti n and tran ion in a timeles

hina. As Dai points ut the I ation h otings in two officially cla ified "nationally pr t ct d k y cultur I r lie '-an ancient mountain town in hanxi and a f; rry b rd ring hanxi and haanxi province --are ab olut ly ne ary for the p ctacularizati n f thi ri ntal tale for th gaze of W t m ulturc (19956 2 5). It i probably n t an aggeration

ay that n t only are rotic u,1 de ir , c otic folk cu tom and tradit1 nal ar hitecture r pr uccd f• r th W t rn gaz , but en the natural land ap alon th Y llo ivcr i "f; iliz d" by cm matic t chniqu int m kind of pcnn n nt di play it m in th gl bal cultural mu cum for th gratificat1 n f W t rn view a adventur u

t-t un t " ( c ch pt r .... ).

' An intcm ti n lly ucce ful cthno phic film, Rt,I Firecracktr, on the nd priie t the 19 4 H , ii Film c tival, among othe , nd m · de it into art-h u • the tc in the U . It , - even popular en u ,h to bee me v ilable t m.ijor b k. t re nd 1de - t re ch. in .

23 er nin,R ltina

From Savage Landscape to Decadent Cityscape: Variations in Ethnographic E:inema

Love triarlgl and primitive p i n in a a ag l nd cap are al o a feature in many thcr ethn graphic films of the late 19 Os to the mid- 1990s. For e. ampl , in Ballad of the Yellow River, the concubine of a bandit hi f cap , nd fall in lov ith Danggui, an itin rant ork r wandering along th b rr n 1 nd a f the Y llo Riv r playing orrO\i ful tune on hi suom1 (a trumpet-lik in trum nt). But she i soon

recaptured, and the bandit chief fi an iron ring permanently on Danggui' coll rbonc a puni hment. ecadc later, th aging Danggui en ounters th bandit hi f, nd learn that th concubin has died. The film nd with anggui inging ballad whil di app aring into the wildeme . Appar ntly, Ballad of tit I/ow River in orporate narrati e and audio-vi ual I m nt f ellow art/, and Red orglwm in order to hi hlight it ethnogr phi n, tur .

The Black Mo1111tai11 Road i the t ry of a savage woman who liv s with an ld nc-ey d man and fi r -looking dog; together th y op rat a mak hift inn in an ab ndon d hur h in the jungl . One day, a bandit aring m. k bl ck , m r hant band 1 d by Brother Gong (Zhao Xiaorui). Durin th fi ht, n i injured in the leg, and the bandit v h ha be n kill d in th fight, turn out to be th one-eyed man. laim "W man ( he i called throughout the

n ay, v ntually educing a y unger man (Xie ·u 1 t n i n 1 r lv d in • ub equ nt fight ith Japan se

tro p . " m n i. h t t d ath, n n and Woman y ung lov r d h into th fray king rev ng . n from an ethnographic point of v1 \i , 771e Black 1111tai11 Road nt, in a coll e f ingr di n from e. rli r film uch a Red or~l11m1 n ]11 D 11.

In an th r film f tn n 1 • nd a . 10n, 111e Wood nman's Brid , a y un bnd 1 kidn p d by nd1 n her " d ing cl y but i r cued by a p rt r n m d uku1. he om h , cv r, di in an plo ion in hi f; m1ly c mp und. h m' cha tc m th r Liu kin to prove th · bn ' v1r u 1 • anun ti n in which th naked bnd he . If h n ze ith ut disturbing th

h , h d. n 1 b rat· fun ra1 ii r th groom t a wo d n fi.gur of her

ca trat1 n). Predictably the bride uku1. When th ir affair i e po cl

d11ctiot1 of the Body

her Achill s t ndon ar , nd h i h in

n ummaun th ·tr Ill, rri

t implrt

235

to th wooden

(zhenjie to Red

236 creening China

One night, the ationali t troop de cend and con cript all abl - bodied men from the village and hip them to Tai an. The town becomes a village of w1do . The fir t ister drown h rself and the second i ter misse her hu band with whom sh r fused to ha e ex earlier. Only th third ist r manag to break the rule and become pregnant before her hu band is taken away. Near the end of the film she brings her new baby and join the second i ter m mourning the first sister and praying for a r union with their husband . hot with such ethnographic intere t, Widow Village xoticize regional exual culture.

In 11,e Wedding Maidens, all conceivable situations uffered by young wive -from arranged marriage at an early age, phy ical and psychological abuse, and punishment for adultery t life-threatening childbirth and endless hous hold chor -are pre ented one by one to five village girl aged sixt en to ninet en, who then realize what a misery married life will be for them. Prompted by a witch wh believe the oul of a virgin girl will oar like a white bird to the heavenly garden if she hangs her elf before the wedding, th fiv girls d cide to commit group suicide. They dress thems Ive in red, gather in a de rted hou out ide the village, and hang then1S lv on a piece of I n white cloth. The ol witnes to this tragedy i an idiot who utter m thing unintelligible a the house crumble , and a flock of white bird flies ov r the river in alarm. Compared with Fiv iris and ,1 Rop , a Taiwan pr duction based on the ame story but set in orth rn hina ( ee chapter 2) The Wedding

Maidens r veal Wang' preference for poetic land capes in outhem China and hi tendency tow. rd ae th ticizati n. Moreover these two films, m d m th , m y r but in differ nt locations al o sugge t that an ethnography of " omen• uffcrin and confinement in the patriarchal tradition tend t tran c nd geographical a v ell a temporal boundarie (h nee, the recumng 1ma of th "tim le hrna"-a geographically un pec1fi d villag or t wn m an und tcnmned hi torical peri d).

AJ ct in ouch rn hina, Wom n Flowers ( iir n hua, 1994) xamin another l cal e. ual practice in the P arl River Delta around uangzhou. he bj ct f tudy 1 th oci ty f" elf-combed sisters"

(zis/111 nu), in l wom n wh wear their h 1r in a bun and ho have rcnounc d e ·. I ny member bre, ks the rule , he i puni hed by dro\ nm . J-Vo111 11 Flowc,l pre en t\J c of tran gre ion. One \i m, n omm1t. u1cidc bee u c f h r pregnancy, but another is rescued from th nvcr by h r I vcr. han M ~u, head f the I cal elf-combed

eductions of the Body 237

si ters, is portray d a a negativ ch r tcr not only b cau e he enforces the regulation without m rcy but al becau h turn ut to be a le bian. Mor ov r to upport he If, hang ad p youn girl , brings th m up a ' i t r £lo - ' who ar exually attra tive and killed in mu ic and singing, and then sell them to official and m rchants a concubines. N ar the nd of th film, one of th' 1 t r fl w rs realize that she i m r ly a commodity and kill herself in front of her buyer.

hang goes in ane and the film thu pa Jud ment on th "insanity ' of the self-combed sisters' collecti r i tance to patriarchy.

What i mi sing in Wang Jin worn n tnlogy and oth r works of thnographic cinema di cu d in thi chapter i , a in many thnographic

works, "a harp critiqu of a cla i que t-e oticist anthropological ori ntalist-for pur tr dition and di crete cultural differ nc (Clifford 1997, 5). Under the pretext of an anthropological tudy of pur traditions nd cultural differenc , ethnographic cin ma tends to indulge in

intriguing elements of thnic culture thu diluting the tone of i ideological critique. In Wang' c , each of his thr e films may be regarded s a critiqu of patriarchal id ology ( pecially it equation of woman to a r productive machin piece of xchangeabl commodity, and a source of ch ap labor). But Wang critiqu is it elf marked by a fundamentally male p r p ctiv . A ordingly, Widow Village and Women Flowers give pre i n t a yearnin fc r mal p tcncy and male salvation while Th Wedding Maid ns offe up five virgm ·r1 as acrificial item to th altar f patriarchy in uch a fatali tic mann r a to imply that ther i ab olut ly n oth r w y out for y ung women in rural hin .

Am ng r c nt film bcarin vi ible thno aphic ignatures, I hav found tw to th d minanc of mal p r p tiv , and both ar et in hrna and ar r lat d to the th ·m of con mic

reforn1. 11

Lik m, ny thn phic title , Th tory of in~l111a f• regroun _ xual pr ductivity nd effi mma y in tw m le charact wh comp t for th ffi cti n f m hu . A rich ntrcpr ·ncur in • m untain villa e, Wangl i purch c hi pr tty v i · Xm hua " ith 5 yuan, but gr \: w m d vhen ftcr t\ years he f: il one 1v - I I bus h r at h m and h, n ith an th r m n, a m th r f thr , h pmg

the d minanc • of mal • p pectiv i ~ omen's tory While follow111g three untry omen int the city durin th refc nn era, thi film I n t ethn phic in n,llurc but 1 r thcr ritic I o th pcl"!li tcncc f patriar h I value in contcmp rary him .

23 ere ning China

sh will give him an heir. In th m antim , Xinghua fall in love with Fulin, an ducated youth ho ha tarted a mall tr farm. When Xinghua announces her pr gnancy to Wanglai and d1 do es Fulin a the real father Wanglai i enraged and de troy Fulin' tree . Fulin cannot overcom his financial lo , and Wanglai di in an accident when he ignores warnings and trie to dig up a le ndary gold toad under a watch tower in a section of the reat Wall not for from the village. The film ends with the pregnant Xinghua leaving her ping lover and her husband's prop rty behind, determined t tart h r life an w.

In a nse Enno b gins wh r The tory of ir,g/ma l aves off. As the ole bread-winn r in th family, Erm (Alia) t ils at night making

noodl and during the day goe t market t ell them. At the suggestion of her neighbor Xiazi Qit rally, "Blindman '), who has gotten rich driving a run-down truck to tran port g ods b tween th mountain village and the nearby towns Ermo leav h r old, incapacitat d hu band (a former village chief) and her young on at hom and tar her dventure in the city. H r goal i to earn enou h mon y to buy the bi g t television in the county. radually, h d v lop a cxual r lationship with Xiazi, but she angrily br aks it off when h l am that h ha b en ubsidizing her restaurant wag . An ag e iv , s lf-d termin d, and often stubborn woman rm i fr h d partur fr m the oppr ed, b client, and self- acrificing women wh populat mo t thno phic film .

Ann iecko and h Id n Lu b erv , by m n of a trademark ' elf-orientalizing, thnographi approach," nno "participates in the mark ting f con um bl ymb I of rural 'Third World' China through the r workin of ima e r gi naJi m, primitivi m, and exoticism which hav p rad1gmati and ymptomatic of the Fifth

en r ti n-and intrin ic t gl b l cone ption and r c ption of hin art cinem " (1 7 ) . Ind ed, Enno i r plete with

ethn graphi d tail , rangin fr m th ht hly charg d erotic sho of nn kn din n dl d u h with her bar fc et, to sc n of wild

m untain , ·n t which truck zi gs al ng th dirt-cO'Vered r ad with full 1 ad of b . k m1 er aming atop th driver cab.

h on i t nt u nt d 1 al dial t invite compari on

duct ions of th Body 2

with The tory of Qiu ju n th adult ry f th trong-minded, enterpri ing Enno i r mini c nt f Wom n from the LAk of c nt d 011/s. 12

Mor ov r, rm ' adv ntur m th city u that th kind of auto thnography chara t riz d by,.,. lf- 'rubitt m m and lf-oriental-

. izaaon may tak plac in urb n mtli u 11, p cially in ancient 'cultur d" citi and to n in outhern hma \ hich provide settings for Blush Family candal and Temptr, s oon. If 74 mptress Moon is an expre ion of nostalgia for lo t childhood innocenc ( chapter 7) then Enchant d by Her Long Braid (Da bianzi d youhuo 1995· hereafter Enchanted), a coproducti n f Pearl Riv rand th i brothers in Macau articulat a no talgia for the colonial years in th Portuge e colony.

The film op n ith At hinto on his y to a party. He i enchant d by a leading play r in the Chine li p dance who turn out to be a charming woman with a long braid. He pursue her to the Chines quarter and th re fall madly in lo with her. Hov ever their liaison disturbs both th hin community an At hinto' aristocratic family, and both of them are driv n out to liv in pov rty. At one point Ah Ling (Ning Jing) almost 11 h r long braid which i ft ti hized as a sexual object, a natural t n i n of her xoticiz d body. Through hard work and his own sincerity, Ato hinto v ntually c n inc Ah Ling' adoptiv moth r of hi comrnitm nt t th m m . Th film nd with a c l brati n of the birth of Ah Ling' hild and th int rracial coupl into the hine from th p rsp ctiv f Ato hint a a romanti in th ri nt-a n rrative d vice that b m trendy in th I t 19

hapt r ), th film hi hli ht At hint ' mal potency and hi incr dibl urvival kill am n th ubju t d nativ .

1 A "hen vol nt'

c 1 niz r,Atohint r pr nt th fth imp ri 1 y.

film , Womt11 from tl,c I...Akc of m,tcd outs featur lam r pl cd in h rp contra t to ch trong-\: ill d fem I

i 77,c mp ror's l,adotv, in hich a th pnnc , -. ho h been cnppled for yea