1
-
Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies
popular writing as a new form of national pastime
o enlightenment vs. consumption model
o enlightenment = New Novel magazine, founded in 1902 by Lian Giqchao, a
reformer advocating reaching out to the people and mobilizing them through
‘vernacular fiction’ – not v/ popular, only sold 2-3000 copies
o consumption = Saturday magazine, 1914, huge hit, trashy stories
“Confidence in the Game” by Zhu Shouju in Stories for Saturday
Summary:
Intro: Stories portraying scandal among the upper classes were often called heimu or
“black curtain” fiction. These types of stories flourished in the 1910s and were tied closely to
the rise of modern journalism. They show that corruption and other types of immoral behavior
permeated all levels of Chinese society in the early days of the Republic. The fundamental
concern of this story in particular is to surprise and delight the reader with the final twist/con at
the end. The purpose of these stories is to give pleasure to the reader.
The story starts by discussing the social power that wearing a diamond conveys. The
narrator asserts the importance of how one appears and what is on the surface in Shanghai at that
time. Often people pretend to be much wealthier than they are by taking great care of their
appearance and living outside their means. One such person is the main character Wang Sanxin.
Sanxin wears a four-carat diamond ring that only two people know the origin of, and this
remains a mystery to the reader.
One night, Sanxin is spending more money than he ought to, as usual, and he has his taxi
driver drop him off at a hotel so he can gamble with other wealthy men. When he is leaving the
hotel, he sees a beautiful, young woman in the elevator, and he is immediately attracted to her.
He follows her cab in another cab and stops when she gets out at the house of the Zhou Family,
which he knows to be a prominent family. He goes home that night, but decides to return the
following day and keep watch. Unfortunately, he does not see the girl. Sanxin continues to
watch her house four days in a row, but doesn’t see her.
The next day he sees seven or eight women in heavy makeup leave the house and take off
in rickshaws. One of them is the woman he saw on the first night, so he follows them to a fancy
restaurant and then a theater. The women sit in a reserved box up front, but since Sanxin didn’t
plan ahead, he stands in the back. The woman and one of her companions get up to use the
ladies’ room and must walk past Sanxin on their way there. He coughs as they pass by, and the
woman turns and smiles at him. When they return to their seats the woman frequently looks
back at him. Since Sanxin knows he cannot approach her personally in front of all of her
companions he decides to slip her a note requesting that she meet him at the theater the following
afternoon.
The woman shows up the next day, and the two of them talk for a while in the theater.
He learns that she is the eldest daughter in the Zhou family. Sanxin doesn’t want to miss out on
the opportunity to spend more time with her, so he boldly asks her to get a room with him at the
Hotel Europa. Miss Zhou replies that people there would recognize her and refuses to go. She
rejects all his other suggestions, but then agrees to go to the Paradise Villa. It is a very expensive
place and Sanxin begins thinking about how much money he will have to spend on this woman.
2
The couple gets a room and shares a meal together. Miss Zhou comments on Sanxin’s
diamond ring and asks him to take it off so she can look at it more closely. She slips it on her
own finger. They continue to talk about other subjects, and Miss Zhou does not take the ring off
her finger. Sanxin becomes very anxious about getting the ring back, but he feels that he can’t
say anything to her about it without risking her affection. Eventually, Miss Zhou says that she
must return home before her parents start to wonder where she is, so she asks Sanxin to get the
room for the next day. Sanxin hopes she will return the ring once they arrive at her house, but
she leaves the cab without taking it off.
Sanxin fears that his wife will notice the missing ring when he gets home, but she
doesn’t. Sanxin meets up with Miss Zhou every day for a week without her returning the ring.
Sanxin has been spending way too much money on the hotel room and the cab rides, and he is
beside himself with the thought that he might never get the ring back. He feels he has no choice
but to keep spending money to keep her happy since she is in possession of his ring.
Sanxin is at his wit’s end, so he goes to his friend Mr. Resourceful to find a solution to
his problem. Mr. Resourceful tells him about a friend of his who is a jewel merchant who knows
how to make a type of “pseudodiamond” that will pass as the real thing. Mr. Resourceful tells
Sanxin about his plan, and the whole thing unfolds several days later.
Sanxin and Miss Zhou are in their room at the Paradise Villa when Huang Hucheng, the
Jewel Merchant, arrives to visit Sanxin. Sanxin tells Miss Zhou that the ring she is wearing
belongs to his wife who noticed it was missing and demanded to know its whereabouts. He tells
her that he asked the jewel merchant to meet him so that he could buy a larger diamond ring for
Miss Zhou and take the smaller one back to his wife. Huang Hucheng produces the larger
“diamond,” and Miss Zhou readily takes off the other ring and puts on the new one. Huang tells
Sanxin that he needs at least $1,000 up front because of his financial situation. Sanxin rushes off
to get the cash, but he returns with only $700 claiming that the banks are closed and this is all he
can get. Huang Hucheng insists that he needs all of the money now. Miss Zhou does not want to
have to return the ring, so she says that he can take the diamond earrings that she has on, which
cost at least $500 and can be sold to a pawn shop for $300. Huang Hucheng accepts the
exchange, and Miss Zhou says that Sanxin can keep the pawn ticket so that he can easily buy the
earrings back for her the next day.
Sanxin never returns to Paradise Villa and never sees Miss Zhou again. She shows up
there a couple times looking for him, and even searches around the various theaters for him,
without knowing what she would say if she ever found him.
The story ends with Sanxin’s wife telling him that she would like a pair of diamond
earrings, and Sanxin smiling and replying that he has had his eye on a pair for her, and once he
gets enough money together he will get them for her.
The Bridal Palanquin by Yan Fusun—Summary by Gage Caligaris
-Huiyun, the daughter of a man who has a business renting bridal palanquins, which are bright
red in color and shaped like a coffin. Chinese brides are carried in them on their wedding day as
part of the procession.
-She has been betrothed to another guy when she was 7 and he was 8 for the price of 200 dollars,
which her father spent in three days.
-Huiyun sees many of the palanquins come back stained with tears and she cries out of pity for
those girls and for herself, because they are both doomed to terrible lives in unwanted marriages.
3
-She writes a story for a magazine that describes the powerful sadness that she feels, and it is
read and liked by her favorite author Jueping, who writes sad stories that make you emote with
every sentence.
-Jueping and Huiyun start writing to each other for a year and a half and they love each other, but
her fiancée Lan Puren has grown up to become a bad man who steals from his father’s meat
business. When Lan’s father dies from grief at having such a horrible son, Lan inherits the estate.
-Lan gets such gross boils all over his body and they pop and ooze and he smells so bad that no
one will go near him.
-A soothsayer tells his mother that a marriage will make everything better for him so she
arranges for the wedding between Huiyun and Lan Puren to be soon.
-Jueping resigns his positions at the magazines and stops writing to Huiyun.
-Huiyun despairs and kills herself with a paper cutter in the Bridal Palaquin as she is being
carried in it to get married to Lan.
-Jueping goes slightly crazy and laughs and cries at random times after he reads the sad news of
her death in the paper.
-He writes her story so that her pain will be remembered, but he can’t read it through without
crying
-His mother arranges for him to be married, and when he sees his wife’s bridal palanquin he
vomits blood and faints.
-When he wakes up he has renewed energy and goes down and sees the palanquin.
-All the red color of the palanquin reminds him of Huiyun’s blood and he faints and dies.
Other Info
-part of Mandarin Duck and Butterfly fiction
-themes: changing ideas about love and marriage (arranged vs. free choice, a wealthy husband
vs. true love)
-MDB fiction as the consumption model of popular culture.
The Windmaster by Zhang Mingfei
(I’m pretty sure this story was never assigned as a reading, but here’s the summary anyway)
-Example of a wuxia story (for another example, see Fox Volant of Snowy Mountain)
-Gallantry always a popular theme in Mandarin Duck fiction
-Chinese literature is used to combining reality with fantastical elements
-This story’s plot seems kind of pointless; the main appeal of the story seems to be the adventure
/ excitement of the fantastical
Plot Summary:
-Story about character named Liang Mengxian who accompanied a tea merchant on business
-Three years later tea merchant notifies family that Liang was dead because he had run into a
windstorm in the desert
-Now it is eighteen years later and Mengxian’s youngest son is getting married, with the mother
arranging the wedding, Madame Sheng
-In the middle of the feasting a stranger turns up and it’s actually Mengxian
-Now, eighteen years later, he is dramatically changed physically, aged a ton but proved his
identity by revealing a mole on his chest
-Mengxian then told his story:
-He got caught up in a huge windstorm in the desert and then blacked out
4
-When he came to he was lying on a mountain slope, and saw a young man around 30
who asked him how he was
-Mengxian replies he can’t stand up so the man takes ahold of him and they fly from
mountain to mountain until they get to a small thatched hut in the middle of some trees, where
there is food and water within
-The man warns Mengxian not to go outside on account of the lions and tigers, then he
leaves
-The next morning he wakes up, goes to the creek, and feels much better. Upon his
return he encounters the man at the door of the hut
-Mengxian agrees very cheerfully to live in the hut for the next ten /twenty years because
the man saved his life
-The man then flies Mengxian to another place where they eventually encounter a house
with a shed, which the man asks Mengxian to guard
-The man opens the shed and shows Mengxian there is nothing inside, and then tells
Mengxian that he cannot ever go inside the shed
-For the next ten days they live in the house together, and then the man leaves, telling
Mengxian that his name is “Windmaster”
-Six years later the Windmaster returns when Mengxian runs out of salt, and then decides
to tell Mengxian his story
-Windmaster’s story:
-The Windmaster’s father owned a ranch, as well as a rare piece of hibiscus jade
-His father often invited guests to stay with him who needed housing, and
extended the hospitality to a Manchu named Jide, and they became best friends
-After his father shows Jide the jade, however, he tells the Manchu regional
official of the province that the father owns this jade.
-The Manchu official was trying to get a promotion, and Jide tells him tha will
surely get it if he obtains the jade and offers it to his boss
-The Windmaster’s father refuses to sell the jade, so the official seized it and
threw Windmaster’s entire family in prison after setting him up for a false crime
-Jide tricked the Windmaster’s father in signing a false confession and the whole
family was sentenced to death – the Windmaster was 12 years old
-The mother passed away but a Mongolian Lama suddenly showed up and helped
the Windmaster recover when he was on the verge of death
-The Windmaster was taught many skills and later sought his revenge by killing
Jide
-After the story was told he left again
-Eight years later he came back and decided to take Mingxian back, and gave him a ton
of tea worth thousands of dollars
-Mingxian tells his mother the Windmaster needed him to guard the house because hew
as practicing to achieve Diamond Impermeability and the only person who would able to guard it
is someone who recovered from a life-threatening event, which was Mingxian because he
survived the windstorm
-Everyone then marveled at the events and the next morning there was a ton of tea that appeared
in the house
Sun, Liaohong, The Sunglasses Society- STILL NEEDED
5
Perry Link, Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies- Gretchen Guo-gguo@fas.harvard.edu
Given that other scholars have focused on the urban laboring classes or the elite, the author here
attempts to understand popular ideas and attitudes in Chinese cities during the 1910s and 1920s
through the study of the urban popular fiction consumed by the Hsiao shih-min, or urban “middle
class.”
Referred to as belonging to the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School, inspirations for this
popular fiction could have been native or foreign, but the major types were the same: 1) love
stories, 2) righteous-hero adventures, 3) scandal, or “muckraking” stories, and 4) detective
stories. What sets Butterfly fiction apart from its literary predecessors was the way it was
purchased and read in private, which was facilitated by the expansion of Shanghai’s printing
industry. Most of the major authors were scholars who had lost their traditional route to success
when the civil examination system collapsed. Even though they pretended a lighthearted
detachment in their stories, these writers were often bitter that they were cheated of proper
outlets for their talent, and thus promoted the message that “life is but a game”, where their
tragic themes demonstrated that there are always people who are worse off then you are.
Influenced by the May Fourth Movement, popular fiction switched from classical language to the
vernacular. They were also serialized in newspapers to increase readership and decrease the costs
to readers. This mass commercial fiction quality of Butterfly fiction resulted in sharp attack from
the may Fourth writers who condemned Butterfly authors as being motivated by unscrupulous
greed and spreading “feudal” ideas. However, Butterfly fiction was still more popular with the
common reader, as May Fourth fiction was too strongly associated with the West. Butterfly
fiction comforted readers and introduced them to the “modernizing” environment such as public
intercourse and general education.
The article then summarize one of the most popular Butterfly stories, Fate in Tears and
Laughter. The story is about how the protagonist, a Chinese student, must choose between
Helena (willful, educated, Westernized) and Feng-his (passive, uneducated, untouched by the
West). The story has many twists, but the end is left ambiguous. A sequel is written, and it’s
more concerned with the national anti-Japanese effort. Plot is very central to this story, and the
author sometimes even sacrifices credibility to the interests of the plot. The story is unique
because it weave together three major types of Butterfly fiction: the love story, knight-errant
story, and “social” novel.
Mei Lanfang, Farewell My Concubine
Farewell My Concubine (Novel) – by Lilian Lee
Main Characters:
Duan Xiaolou (known as Xiao Shitou when younger) – “the hegemon king,” Dieyi’s love
interest who marries a woman
Cheng Dieyi (known as Xiao Douzi when younger) – plays the dan in their operas
Master Guan – the master of Dieyi and Xiaolou
6
Yuan Siye – a wealthy patron that Dieyi has a relationship with
Juxian – becomes Xiaolou’s wife and Dieyi resents her, but is also her friend. They both
love Xiaolou
Plot Summary (Chapters 1-5, with themes bolded):
Takes place in China, begins in the Winter of 1929.
Chapter 1
- From the opening the continual metaphor of life being like a play is introduced:
“After all, life is just a play. Or an opera. It would be easier for all of us if we could
watch only the highlights” (2)
- The book opens with Douzi (9 years old) and his mother (prostitute) on the street. They
watch Master Guan and his apprentices perform a skit.
- Shitou (or Little Rock) performs somersaults, but he messes up and Master Guan
becomes angry. To make up for it, he breaks a rock on his head and the crowd is amused
and gives money.
- Douzi is impressed by Shitou
- Though Shitou saves the show, when they return to Master Guan’s opera school, they are
all punished by being beaten.
- Douzi and his mother are also at the school. His mother gives up her son to the school
and cuts of his sixth finger so that he will be accepted.
- Douzi is welcomed by Shitou who acts as his defender. Beginning of their relationship:
“he came to Xiao Douzi’s aid like a knight-errant saving a traveler from bandits”
(18)
- Also note: the writing style of the book is very emotional, almost like Mandarin
Ducks and Butterfly writing: "Xiao Douzi felt sympathetic tears rolling down his
cheeks” (19)
- Master Guan is very hard on the students, for the life of top peking opera stars is difficult
and requires a lot of work and dedication
o He has to please the owners of the Spring Blossom Teahouse – if the students
messed up, he would get in trouble
o Master Guan teaches them martial arts, singing and acting
- Douzi becomes the dan. He has to learn the “tender maiden” song, but he is
confused by the switching of gender roles. At first he is defiant and forgot his lyrics,
and Master Guan punishes him
- Xiao Liazi, one of the students, kills himself. Reveals that Death is the only form of
escape. (p. 38)
- Shitou and Douzi are paired up as the sheng (hero) and the dan (heroine)
Chapter 2
- Summer time
- Gender roles: the other kids question whether or not Douzi is a boy or a girl. (p. 40
and p. 48) “His once deformed hand became the embodiment of feminine beauty as his
wrists circled elegantly, the posed fingers of his ‘orchid hands’” (40)
- The first performance for the students is at the Spring Blossom Teahouse – the owner and
Master Shi offered Master Guan the opportunity for them to perform
- “They had been transformed from little boys to timeless characters. This would be Xiao
Douzi’s first stage appearance as a beautiful lady” (44)
7
-
Douzi and Shitou have a flirtatious relationship and look out for one another
Off-stage vs. On-stage: As Douzi performs he loses all sense of reality and he
literally embodies the character of his performances (p. 45)
- Last night of summer: the students perform at the Old Gentleman’s House
- Political Climate: “they were all still loyal to the vanquished Qing dynatsty. Some
were holdovers who longed for the good old days (52)
- Master Ni – the old gentleman. Molests Douzi. Describes Master Ni as having smoke
opium – symbol of opium as a drug that removes reality and allows for sin,
throughout the book.
- Start of division between Douzi and Shitou, they assume the gender roles of their
performances. Douzi says, “Today, I’m buying handkerchiefs. Later I’ll save up to buy
the best costumes I can. And props and headdresses and jewelry, too. Everything I use
will be all my own” (65)
Chapter 3
- Douzi and Shitou graduate and join an “itinerant opera company”. Their most popular
piece becomes “Farewell My Concubine”
- Douzi becomes Cheng Dieyi and Shitou becomes Duan Xiaolou
- Dieyi is perfect at being a dan and can do sword fighting of Yu Ji well
- Everything in life becomes a performance for Dieyi. When they’re getting a picture
taken, “He felt somewhat embarrassed at being photographed, but as long as he reminded
himself that it was just another performance, he would be able to carry it off” (75)
- Politics and Peking Opera’s removal from it. This theme runs throughout the book
with regard to Japanese imperialism and the assertion of Chinese nationalism (p.
76-77)
o “It was 1939, the twenty-eigth year of the Republic of China – the second year of
the Japanese occupation. Evidence of this was everywhere, but ppl ignored it”
(78)
Chapter 4
- The meaning of plays and the suspension of reality: “A performance is a brief
encounter between actors and audience . . .” (83)
- Yuan Siye – a wealthy patron becomes infatuated with Dieyi during one of his
performances. Xiaolou disrespects him when he gives Dieyi a gift.
- The performance becomes reality for Dieyi: “You’re wrong. Yu Ji and yang Guifei are
with me all the time. They are me” (85); “Dieyi’s commitment to his art was allconsuming” (94)
- Xiaolou goes to the House of Flowers, a brothel and meets with prostitutes
- Juxian is his favorite. To save her from hecklers, he promises to marry her
- After a performance, Dieyi starts to write his mom, but can’t bring himself to do it.
- At the end of the chapter, Juxian leaves the whore house and decides to give up that life
and marry Xiaolou
Chapter 5
- The dan has now fully become reality for Dieyi. “He sat before the mirror, just another
woman about to take off her makeup for Xiaolou” (100)
- Xiaolou announces to the company that he is getting married to Juxian. Dieyi is jealous
and makes a big scence. “Now he emerged from the crowd, swaying as he walked, ever
in character” (103)
8
-
-
-
-
-
-
o Description of Dieyi: “He knew how it felt to be an abandoned woman and
remembered and old saying: A woman without a man is a vine with no stakes to
support her” (105)
Depressed, Dieyi goes to Yuan Siye’s mansion
o Dieyi gets drunk
o Yuan offers him a sword, suggesting: “A sword is a gift for an intimate” (109)
o “Dieyi realized that Yuan Siye wanted him, but it was too late to escape” (111)
When Dieyi leaves Yuan’s mansion, Japanese troops surround him (the Japanese had
entered Peking aka Beijing)
Dieyi finally arrives at Xiaolou’s wedding party, though, unhurt
o He is upset and tells Xiaolou: “Now that you’re married, I’ll have to sing
solo” This is indicative of the fact that reality is the stage.
o “The theater was a world of illusion, but it was the only world he knew. The
rest of the world seemed to drift by him, no more substantial than a dream”
(116)
Descripiton of Dieyi’s performances. Simulacrum: “A dan has to be even more feminine
than a woman” (118)
Constant blackouts start to occur from the war. Dieyi, though, ignores the political
climate, almost as if it is not a reality. “The year was 1943. China was under
Japanese occupation, but life had to go on” (125). Unlike many Chinese for who
anti-Japanese sentiment was life, Dieyi feels the exact opposite
Xiaolou is different. He starts to gamble, but Juxian and Dieyi both warn him against it.
He loses it during the Japanese invasion.
Dieyi starts smoking opium as an escape, but Xioalou warns against it
During a performance, Japanese troops come into the theater, making noise and kicking
out Chinese audience members
o Xiaolou shouts: “The show’s over! This damn theater is full of devils!” (131)
o After the show, Xiaolou is arrested for what he did
Juxian pleads to Dieyi to save Xiaolou
o He resists at first out of anger for her
o He agrees to sing to the Japanese soldiers to free Xioalou
Xioalou goes free, but he spits at Dieyi because he groveled for the Japanese – the rift
between the two widens
Mei Lanfang and the Nationalisation of Peking Opera – Summary
Qi Rushan: Theorizing Peking Opera as National Culture
 Although it seems ancient, Peking opera became its own genre around 1845
 4 simple reasons for the spread of the genre:
1. improvement of north-south travel
2. growing urban working classes demanded entertainment
3. elements of the genre were familiar to audiences across the country (because it
was a composite using many different song styles)
4. Peking opera was of higher quality than regional productions
 These reasons ignore the influence of individuals
9

Qi Rushan – great promoter of national theatre
 Studied Western theatre in Europe, lectured on how to improve Chinese theatre upon his
return to Beijing
 Gave anonymous tips to Mei Lanfang to improve his acting – later became the central
figure in Mei’s intellectual entourage
 Previously, drama had been developed orally, as actors were mostly illiterate and classes
with prostitutes
 This perception changed when intellectuals realized the power of theatre as a social
education tool
Qi Rushan’s Postulate: Jingju=Guoju (Peking Opera = National Theatre)
 1920s – Chinese drama commonly accepted to incorporate singing, Western drama to be only
spoken word
 Kunqu - competitor for title of national drama
 A “refined” drama that married poetry and music
 Often viewed as elitist, but perfectly fit the definition of Chinese drama
 Peking opera – “rough around the edges,” more encompassing of all people, but also refined
because of wealthy patronage it had received from the Qing court
 To edge out Kunqu as the official form of Chinese drama, Qi Rushan changed the definition
of Chinese drama
 Qi argued Chinese drama was “aestheticist” instead of merely musical – it sought to
refine movements and costumes in addition to words and sounds
 This definition shifted the focus of Chinese drama from the aural to the visual, and also
allowed Qi to declare Peking opera as the best representative of the genre
 1930s – Peking opera synonymous with national drama
Mei’s Onstage Image: Licensing the Gaze
 Mei became so popular because his visual performances were so much stronger than his
competitors’
The Stage as a Framed Space
 Traditionally, theatres were noisy teahouses where performances were performed as people
ate and socialized (think of a TV in a sports bar)
 1908 – First Western theatre built in Shanghai - the stage became the primary focus
 Western stages enhanced the need for improved visual performances
 Mei revitalized Peking opera by creating a hybrid female character, the huashan, that was
both elegant and alluring
Between Seduction and Virtue
 Mei’s huashan character attracted both sexes
 Women were attracted to the actor Mei Lanfang
 Men were attracted to the women he portrayed
 Mei remained popular by avoiding being labelled as obscene
 This was accomplished by presenting himself as the opposite gender as the situation
dictated
 Ex. He could portray a beautiful, flirtatious women, but remain virtuous because he was
really a man
10

Because Chinese drama was focused on aesthetics, or the idealized representation of
characters and movements, Mei’s actions of a man portraying a woman became integral to
Chinese drama
Mei Lanfang’s Offstage Roles: Between Culture and Commerce
 Finding a way to cover the cost of cross-country and international tours was the most
troubling logistic snag. This program was solved when Qi Rushan obtained backing from
KMT educational minister Li Shiceng. Li, however, only backed this plan because Qi
promised him Mei’s venture was to link cultures for public good, not for personal
business profit. When the government stamped this project as “gov’t-supported” soon,
two separate 50,000 yuan loans were obtained from Mei’s banking friends.
 Rise of new mass media was helping to fuel unprecedented commercial explosion in
popular entertainment. But these modern forces contained new social contractions such as
tensions between populism and elitism; altruistic patriotism and crass commercialism.
 In the following sections, we will analyze economic and political changes that affected
the acting profession and how Mei & Co. responded to these changes.
From Jianye to Citizen to Star
 When Mei arrived in Washington D.C. to perform, he was viewed as China’s cultural
ambassador. This feat was especially groundbreaking considering the fact that the general
populace regarded actors before this time as low-life people with demeaning social status
for they could not even marry outside their profession. After 1911, however, actors as a
social group were free to flourish. They, too, were excited at the chance of being
respectable citizens.
 Even though acting groups at this time tried to rid of old, demeaning stereotypes such as
homosexuality and change to accommodate the current social trends, many still lived in
poverty, without sufficient education and subject to social oppression. Mei & Company
tried to keep the press out of his personal life. For those times that the press was let in,
Mei was always portrayed to be strictly heterosexual.
 Mei’s offstage image was regarded as an object for visual pleasure and the subject of
social interaction.
 Unlike the old times, where an acting troupe’s collective identity superseded an
individual reputation, Mei can be classified as a “star.” What changed this? Due to the
introduction of the xifen “play points” system, actors was paid per performance rather
than contracted on the yearly basis (baoyin). Performers had the ability to work for
multiple troupes and relatively free agents. Mei became incredibility wealthy due to his
popularity and his agents clever maneuvering and manipulation.
 An actor’s image was the cornerstone to success. Mei often invited chief editors of
newspapers to dinner in return for good reviews that boosted his status. He was had
connections in the political community. The political elite often needed entertainment for
their foreign guests and Mei’s performances were the perfect match. Through exchange,
Mei began to build his reputation as cultural ambassador.
Shadows of Doubt
 Soon, Mei became one of the two “must-sees” of China – the other being the Great Wall.
Mei was not flawless. He was often criticized for his wealth. People wanted him to lower
the prices to his shows to make them more accessible to the public. They thought if the
country’s opera icon could take this step for his people then other people in the
entertainment industry might follow suit. Sadly, it never happened and reporters
11
condemned Mei and other famous actors for betraying their country to perform for Soviet
soldiers across the border.
 At this time, Chinese national culture was viewed as an oxymoron for China’s lack of
sovereignty and self-determination was viewed as a cultural issue. Debates over Mei’s
ability to symbolize Chinese national culture included the extent of Mei’s patriotism,
class affiliation, moral and aesthetic quality of his performance. Mei’s U.S. tour was a
crucial point to make this happen.
The U.S. Tour as Tactical Orientalism
 When Mei left for the U.S. his mission was viewed as patriotic. With countless
congratulatory banquets, welcoming processions, great media coverage, even private
plane ride and a motor parade through San Fran by the mayor, his six month tour
definitely was a definite success.
 Qi Rushan and Columbia University prof PC Chang covered the extraordinary logistic
demands fairly well. The American audience needed to be informed of Chinese theatrical
practices before they can understand what’s going on. Qi hired stage translators, write
pamphlets, and even published books about how to get this message across to the
foreigners. What was especially important was making sure to explain elements of the
performance that Americans viewed a “primitive” such as the scarcity of stage props,
exaggerated moral stereotyping of characters and especially the use of men to play
female roles. To defends against such arguments, he linked such performances to those of
ancient Greek and Elizabethan traditions.
 Soon. Chinese national culture = national drama = Peking opera = Mei Lanfang
 Because of the immense success, Mei’s tour opened up a breathing space. It was possible
for a national subject to overcome almost insurmountable contractions that colonial
modernity imposed, for Mei embody both authentic tradition and modern national
citizenship simultaneously. Mei’s through was a spectacle within a spectacle.
Conclusion
Mei has become an icon used by cultural conservatives to symbolize a dishistoricized Chinese
cultural essence rather than a symbol of struggle with cultural modernity fought by an entire
generation
The New Woman Incident: Cinema, Scandal, and Spectacle in 1935 Shanghai—Harris
-
don’t forget to mention the idea of narrative fluidity – mix of clips, often pull out, etc
audience is voyeur, but sometimes get’s turned upside down (Ruan’s death, “I want to
live”
simulacrum vs. simulation = simulacrum takes on life of its own
o Ruan became her characters to China
o Is her life a simulacrum of her art or is it vice-versa
film The New Woman opened in Shanghai in 1935
->representative of a time when the women’s movement in China was beginning to be
recognized again
->film important as served as a convergence point for cinematic, journalistic, and social
construction of gendered subjectivity in 1930s Shanghai
->movies offered model for spirit of new women and opposed suicide
12
->characterizes classic archetypes of women and advances a new kind of woman who
makes the “Old” Woman seem pathetic and pitiable
->exciting for women to see what this cosmopolitan life was like
-main female character in film named Wei Ming(played by Ruan Lingyu)—later suicide of Ruan
Lingyu called “The New Woman incident”
-subsequent suicide of Ruan Lingyu and the film depict Chinese culture at a time of crisis over
the degree to which women would be agents, symbols, or victims of modernity
-movie based on suicide of an actress Ai Xia
-film was also politically charged as director, Cai Chusheng, supported putting pressure on
government to focus on foreign enemies rather than domestic ones
-“(im)possibility of public voice” is an important theme in film
->possibility of there being a strong female narrative voice, but instead main protagonist
appears confined and silenced
->Wei Ming is also a sort of blank slate, with her character only attaining meaning when
appropriated by another character—split between agency and passivity
-character Wei Ming has to turn to prostitution at one point in the film in order to support her
sick daughter, Xiao Hong
-recurring theme in film is the “split” subjectivity of Wei Ming
->depicted through various cinematic elements in the film
->many quick transitions between Wei Ming reflecting on something and then becoming
a part of it(such as looking at woman dancing in chains, and the suddenly becoming this
woman—this example suggesting society is chaining women down)
-at end of the film, Wei Ming is in hospital after suicide attempt
->male publishers and media representatives talk about capitalizing on her death
->the story is no longer told from her point of view now, but rather from the point of
view of male characters
->Wei Ming wakes to see depictions of her in the media and realizes they are distortions
*tries to continue, “save me! I want to live!”
*it is too late though
->during death scene, only sound of the whole film is placed in the form of Nie Er’s
“Song of the New Woman”
*revolutionary undertones
-some controversy over whether or not Wei Ming’s suicide was a “correct” ending for a film
called The New Woman
-new woman was supposed to be intense in her speech, to be extreme in her actions, to not
believe in religion or adhere to rules of conduct, yet be a good thinker and have high morals
-people also questioned what would happen to a Chinese Nora(from Ibsen’s A Doll’s House)
after she left home—A Doll’s House and idea of Nora very prevalent in Chinese culture at this
time
->wouldn’t need dreams, but rather money
->could a woman really make it on her own?
-film can be described as depicting three stages of new women
->feudal state of school director
->capitalist stage of Wei Ming(a Nora—leaves marriage with her husband)
->socialist stage of the intellectual, Li Aying
13
-Wei Ming’s suicide was troubling as it made her seem weak to audiences and also because it
made it seem as if the only ending for intellectuals was suicide(so couldn’t necessarily get the
change you wanted through your actions while living
-release of the film was surrounded by controversy as people criticized it for supposedly
promoting suicide
->on International Women’s Day when filmmakers were to promote women’s health at a
fundraiser, Ruan Lingyu killed herself(overdose on sleeping pills)
*huge funeral ceremonies and hoopla in Shanghai after her death
*media feasted on her death
*similar landscapes from the film used in Ruan Lingyu’s funeral
*photographers took shots mimicking scenes in film as well
-upon her death, Ruan Lingyu characterized as a “modern woman” which held negative
connotations
->superficial Westernization, hedonism and avarice
-also characterized as weak and helpless
->unable to stand up to the media
-Ruan Lingyu was a silent movie star and felt pressure at the time of her death because she was
not advanced enough in Mandarin to be able to act in talkies
-felt oppressed by the media too—“gossip is a fearful thing” was a note supposedly left by Ruan
Lingyu before her suicide
-overall much mystery about how a woman should be interpreted—a victim of status quo or a
threat to it, silent by necessity or choice, speak out as an individual woman or as a member of a
class?
-death of Ruan Lingyu represented a loss of innocence, as there came a recognition that press,
film studio, star, and audience were mutually implicated in the production and circulation of
images—a process of comodification
-story of Ruan Lingyu depicted in Stanley Kwan’s Center Stage
Five in a Nightclub
Disjointed storytelling, emphasis on senses = fragmentation of modern world
Johnny = representative of class difference, he had many worse things happen than the others but he’s
lower class so who cares?
Idea of social spectacle (Debord) people are the spectacle, to be consumed (entertainment for other
patrons of club), but underneath all the partying and lights they’re just as messed up as everyone else
Author:
-
Mu Shiying was born in Shanghai 1912, attended Shanghai Guanghua University
-
Moved to HK in 1938 after Japanese occupation of northern China. However, returned to
Shanghai at invitation of a colleague who was collaborating with the Japanese. Mu Shiying was
thus believed to be a supporter of the Japanese regime and was assassinated in 1940. However,
there is evidence now that he was acting as a double agent for the KMT government..
14
-
Best known for modernistic stories that use expressionist technique (including contrasting
imagery and disjointed textual flow) to convey the grim realities of stress and anguish that he
believed were typical of modern life in Shanghai
Characters:
-
Hu Junyi: Gold trader that loses his fortune on the trading floor, greedy commercialism
-
Zheng Ping: Love-struck young man, turned down by Nina (side character)
-
Daisy Huang: Former fashion model, now approaching older age, temporality of beauty
-
Miao Zongdan: official who has just been fired = impersonality of city life
-
Ji Jie: intellectual who is having some sort of existential crisis in his life
Plot:
-
Beginning of story describes the outlined five characters during a single afternoon where they
each suffer a reversal of some sort or a major mental/emotional challenge, including the loss
of wealth, love, beauty, employment, and general direction in life.
-
The five characters converge later that night at the Empress nightclub and appear to be in high
spirits on the outside – many of them have dates with them and they enjoy sharing drinks,
dances, laughter, and conversation with others at the club.
-
However, each character is repeatedly reminded of the misfortunes of the afternoon, and thus
their collective state of stress and emotional pain is not relieved. Examples include Daisy
Huang being stung when two men bet on her age, Zheng Ping seeing his would-be lover (Nina)
in the company of another man, and Miao Zongdan acknowledging wistfully that he no longer
has a job and therefore now lacks the income to continue enjoying the entertainment that the
club has to offer.
-
This oscillation between high energy and spirits and real inner feelings of listlessness, grief,
and depression continues throughout the night as the five characters remain at the club until it
closes in the early hours of the morning. At the end of the night, they wearily leave the club
emotionally drained, only to be shocked by the sudden suicide pistol shot of Hu Junyi.
-
Four days later, the four remaining characters attend the burial of Hu Junyi in the same,
depressed state, and the story ends with a bleak outlook on the unending monotomy and
difficulty in their lives ahead.
Themes:
-
The power of contrasting images as symbols: Evident in numerous cases in the story. One
example is the author’s usage of color references to describe the streets of Shanghai and the
scene of the nightclub. Mu Shiying first describes the neon lights of the city with vibrant colors
(“red streets, green streets, blue streets, purple streets…multi-colored waves, scintillating
15
waves”), but then transitions to an environment inside the club that seems to be composed
almost exclusively of black and white elements that sem stark and austere. In this case, the
contrasting colors seem representative of the dichotomies of good and ill fortune or happiness
and pain that are found within the club and within the experiences of the characters.
-
Word choice and sentence style: Mu Shiying adopts a very abrupt style of speaking for the
story’s narrator. Many of the sentences in the story are not more than a few words long those
that are longer are sometimes composed of several loosely connected phrases rather than one
expressive idea. This gives the story a feeling of disconnectedness that is chracteristic of the
five individuals’ somewhat disjointed lives. It also conveys a sense of shallow emotional
expression to readers, who are generally unable to get more than a few snippets of descriptive
background for any scene or for the characters’ thoughts.
-
Metaphorical expressions: Mu Shiying uses metaphors prolifically to relate the characters’
experiences to powerful images from the natural world, including snakes, smoke, and scalpels.
Ji Jie’s boxes of broken matchsticks describe the crumbling lives of the characters; the five
unfortunate people are each described individually as “popped balloons,” reminding readers of
the lack of energy and substance in their lives. Life itself is a “sprawling city, unending
journey” that is compared to a “sighing” train as it moves slowly down tracks whose end is too
distant to be visible.
Other Interesting Points:
-
Not central to the story but definitely worth noting is “Johnny” Johnson’s character. Johnson is
the drummer for the band performing in the nightclub, and arguably goes through the most
gut-wrenching loss between everyone in the nightclub that night – not being able to be with his
wife as she goes into labor with their child, and then hearing that the birth went badly, with
his baby boy dead and his wife having fainted. However, he is not allowed to leave the club,
and must continue playing and acting happy – which he does, creating a “syncopated
hurricane” of drums towards the end of the night. This might be Mu Shiying’s attempt to
further suggest something about the pathetic-ness of the lives that these people in Shanghai
lead, allowing themselves to wallow in self-pity over comparatively more trivial issues.
-
Also, Johnson is one of the only characters whose thoughts are not revealed to us directly,
which actually highlights the contrast between what he’s doing on the outside and what he
must be feeling on the inside even more, since we can only imagine his feelings after not being
able to be there for his baby boy and his wife.
Discussion Questions:
16
-
Does the story seem to offer any alternative approaches to modern urban life that might
relieve the pain or monotony from which the characters are suffering? Doe it contain moral
elements encouraging a return to traditional or premodern lifestyles?
-
What effect does the author desire to achieve by describing the characters’ lives and actions
separately in the first part of the story, and then intertwining their interactions in the club? Is
he successful?
-
What role does the character of Johnny Johnson play in the story? What thematic points are
revealed by comparing or contrasting his situation with that of the five main characters?
-
What difference is there between Hu Jinyu’s fate and that of the other characters?
Shanghai Express
Chapter 1
Point of view: First-person limited omniscient…told with respect to the events that occur
involving Hu Zhiyun, a second or even third rate banker, as the narrator describes.
Summary:
Hu Zhiyun is introduced as an upper class banker, on the Shanghai Express seated in first class.
Our main character always is preoccupied with class distinctions, trying to discern the class
status of the object of his lust who is seated in the dining car.
A young, beautiful woman with a fine figure attempts to seat herself in first class but is unable to
and as a result is seated in the dining car. Zhiyun develops an immediate fascination with her.
Zhiyun holds a short exchange with his friend Chengfu concerning the state of the first-class
compartment. Of note: Here, westerners are presented in a mocking tone. Ex. Westerner with
the dog in first class. He apparently is rich enough to buy his dog a half-ticket, but does not have
the manners indicative of a first-class citizen.
Zhiyun makes his way to the dining car with Chengfu. After a short conversation, he overhears
the young lady ask the steward for cigarettes, Garricks. The train does not carry that brand, so
Zhiyun offers his pack to be delivered to the young lady. She accepts thoughtfully and smiles.
All the while, Zhiyun attempts to gauge her class level based on appearance, stature, clothes,
choice of reading (Western novel), mastery of English, and demeanor. Young lady offers to pay
the men’s bill.
Chapter 2
Zhiyun is curious about how to handle a situation in which a woman has just offered to pay his
bill. He introduces himself, handing the young lady his business card. Once again, Zhang
(author) draws heavily on detailed description of the interaction, characterizing the character’s
focus on formality and status.
As it turns out, the young lady is named Liu Xichun, niece-in-law of Yang Zilin, a friend of
Zhiyun’s. As a result, Xichun refers to our main character as Uncle Hu, a term of affection.
17
Zhiyun ascertains that Xichun has married into the family, but pieces together that her husband is
a man of little worth, perhaps even a philanderer. All the while Chengfu observes the
interaction, a little wary of the woman’s formal affection. Chengfu stands up to leave, however,
back to the second-class car.
The two continue their conversation, as Zhiyun makes plan his interest in making sure this young
lady without a compartment remains on the train. He offers his compartment and says he will
simply find another male to bunk with. After a short conversation, the two decide that perhaps
they will simply share the same compartment! Zhiyun and Xichun both know the
inappropriateness of the plan, but quickly move Xichun’s belongings into the compartment.
As the train stops at Main Station, the pair decide to stretch their legs off the tracks. Zhiyun
spots the dog-toting man once more, described by Xichun as a former troublemaker in Peiping.
Xichun is spotted by her schoolmate of three years past, Yuqing. Now the scene shifts to the
third-class car, which is described as crowded, noisy, and odorous. Xichun’s friend is married to
a student named Zhu Jin Qing. The smoke in the car is stifling, since all the windows are closed
to combat the winter cold. In conversation, Zhiyun overhears the mention of Xichun’s stint in
Shanghai tenement housing, and questions her about the stay. She readily excuses herself,
saying that was a period in which she lived with relatives. Naturally, Zhiyun still assumes she is
a first-class citizen.
The train moves ahead once more, and as the conductor checks tickets, Zhiyun purchases Xichun
a berth in his compartment. The question of their relationship arises, but the situation is quickly
diffused by Xichun. Our pair converses briefly in the car, arguing over payment. Zhiyun gently
pushes Xichun’s hand, which is holding a ten dollar bill, back towards her…the touch is electric
to Zhiyun, though Xichun makes no note of it. Just then, the dinner buzzer rings, and the two
exit.
Chapter 3
Zhiyun clearly is growing more attracted to Xichun. He formulates a battle plan for gaining her
affection, which as the narrator describes has moved into stage three, which is the stage in which
frivolity and double-entendre play a heavy role…flirtation. Zhiyun hopes to examine Xichun
from a closer frame of reference by asking to see her ring, but he is rebuffed, as the ring is
handed to him from across the table. His feelings are assuaged however by a flicker of a smile
and a furtive peek given to him by Xichun.
On the way to dinner, Zhiyun runs into the dog-man again. Dog-man laughs at him, but Zhiyun
cannot understand why. The two have dinner together, while Xichun shows off her knowledge
of the Egnlish menu, ordering for Zhiyun. The two dine and Zhiyun is enthralled by her
flirtatious looks and comments. Dinner concludes and Zhiyun heads back to the compartment
while Xichun moves to visit her friend in third-class.
Zhiyun is clearly infatuated with Xichun. He stares at her gown in the compartment, sniffing up
her perfume and scent. He begins to ruffle through her purse, finding a letter mentioning her
divorce to her husband. Zhiyun is immediately excited! He closes the purse and awaits
Xichun’s arrival. He sniffs her garment and caresses it as her awaits her return.
18
Zhiyun spots a famous Peiping opera singer, Li Mingxiao, scantily clad and with a gentleman,
turning his thoughts once more to Xichun and increasing his sense of unrest. Xichun paces
wildly, disturbs other passengers with his unrest, and even grows paranoid that Xichun will
abandon his compartment. He overhears a porter talking of passenger movement and he waits,
worried that she is planning her escape, until he realizes the porter is referring to sacks of fruit.
Chapter 4: A Typical Passenger in the Second-Class Sleeper
Liu Xichun is not leaving the compartment, but instead two sacks of fruit that were ruined by
the steam pipe were moved
Hu Ziyun decides to go to the second class coach to chat with Li Chengfu
Second class coach consists of
o Corridor running along a series of compartments
o Noisy, thick clouds of tobacco smoke, difficult to move through
Chengfu’s compartment was crammed with people and luggage
Chengfu and Ziyun discuss “sexy novels,” and Chengfu regrets going in second class rather
than third class
The two men run into Mrs. Yu, a woman who Ziyun referred to as “Old Number 3 from
Soochow” or “Number 6’s mom” because she was a former prostitute, and a mother of a
prostitute
Mrs. Yu also prefers third class to second class because the coach is not divided into
compartments, air is cleaner, and a bit more open space available, but Yu has never been to
third class
Chengfu blames the government for the under-education of poor people, which leads them to
be rowdy in public places
The three passengers (Ziyun, Chengfu, Yu) dub the rowdy passengers as “typical passengers”
Another passenger wearing western clothing comes by and says the Chinese are a hopeless
bunch, and suggests that inspection teams should be on every train and spoke Chinese and
English
This man was considered a “typical modern passenger”
Mrs. Yu wants to now go to the dining car to continue the conversation, but Ziyun is afraid
that Xichun will see them chatting and get the wrong impression
Chapter 5: Some Confusion with Regard to Status
In second class, inviting a person into a compartment will disturb the other passengers, so
going to the dining car is most common
The three passengers (Ziyun, Chengfu, Yu) remain in second class and discuss fruit
The three end their conversation, and Ziyun goes to the dining car to look for Miss Liu, but
then returns to his first class compartment
Miss Liu is asleep in Ziyun’s compartment when he returns
Ziyun tries to put a blanket on Miss Liu, but ends up waking her up by tickling her
Ziyun tries to put slippers on Miss Liu’s feet, but Liu pushes him away and says she will
leave if he continues to be so attentive to her
19
Mrs. Yu comes by Ziyun’s compartment, and Liu begins serving her tea as though she’s
Ziyun’s wife
Mrs. Yu leaves and calls Miss Liu – “Mrs. Hu”
Ziyun and Liu discuss what to do now that Mrs. Hu thinks they are a couple
Ziyun tell Liu to call him Hu Ziyun instead of Uncle
Chapter 6
This chapter takes place entirely in the third class section of the train, and
focuses on Jingqing and his wife Yuqing. It's the middle of the night, and we
get a detailed description of the difficulties the third class passengers have
in sleeping, especially Jinqing. He wonders about life, wealth, happiness,
talks with his wife about the strange atmosphere on the train, etc. He gets
into a short conversation with an old man on his way to get married before
nodding off. He wakes up to soldiers getting on the train "to protect it." He
appreciates that they don't wake his wife.
-Basically every thought that goes through Jingqing's head is about class
structure. He is constantly wondering what it's like in second class/how to
get to second class/if he'll be able to afford second class/if his wife resents
him for not affording second class. It makes the class issue very clear
-Lots of imagery with the train barreling into the night, followed by
descriptions of passengers' lives doing the same.
-Chapter ends with the lovers that just met, and how they appear to be
married. Appearance versus reality seems to be key, especially concerning the
woman trying to be fancy.
Chapter 7
This chapter focuses around Ziyun in first class. He and Xichun wake up and
there's some talk about makeup being like weapons that debilitate men. The
train makes a stop and people get out. Ziyun has a conversation with Chengfu
about Mrs. Yu and her questionable background. He also encounters an old
employee down on his luck, and treats him pretty rudely. Ziyun invites Chengfu
to the dining car, and Chengfu refuses because he wanted to check out the first
class cars. Ziyun finds Xichun in the dining car and overhears suspicious talk
between her and Mrs. Yu, but doesn't catch on that it's strange. He naps and
wakes up with Xichun in the car with him. The old employee knocks and Ziyun
makes a big deal with body language keeping him out of the car. The man asks
for money and Ziyun flat out shuts him down
Ziyun is a huge jerk to his old employee, even though he was his personal secretary.
There's a lot of talk about class structure again. Chengfu talks with Ziyun
about there not being a feasible way to eliminate class. Ziyun wonders how
poverty can change a man so much.
20
Talk about makeup as a weapon seems interesting.
The two women talking suspicious kind of sets up what happens later on. We
know it but Ziyun doesn't. We feel smarter than him and lose respect.
Chapter 8
Xichun, repulsed at Ziyun stinginess, gives Ziming $10. Ziming returned to 3rd class and asked
the Porter for tea. The porter, noticing his ragged clothing, ignored him. Witnessing this
interaction, Jinqing commented on the discriminatory practices toward the poor. A conversation
develops in the car over whether it is better to be dead than poor or not. Then more discussion
on class distinction and the wealth of the individuals traveling in each class (are they faking or
not?). In 3rd class, the ticket taker comes across a country family that was short one ticket. The
father argues with the ticket taker that he cannot afford to buy a ticket for his daughter, but
coldly, the ticket taker demands one person get off at the next station.
Chapter 9
Ziming prepares to pay for half the ticket fare, but then the ticket taker tugs on the father’s jacket
and 10-20 silver dollars fall out of the jacket. The passengers convince the ticket taker to accept
a half fare for the child despite the family’s trickery. After this scene, Xichun returns to 1st class,
but runs into Mrs. Yu in 2nd and asks her about what stop they will do something. They are
definitely up to something. In the compartment, Ziyun leaves to the dining car and Xichun stays
behind, in Ziyun’s mind to do secret women things. However, Xichun rummages through
Ziyun’s bags and pulls out 2 oranges, leaving them on the table. When the two return from the
dining car, Ziyun notices the oranges, and Xichun remarks that she is an amateur thief that left
evidence to incriminate herself in plain view. They talk about their love for each other, but
Xichun could never let Ziyun leave his wife. She would rather just be his intimate friend.
Ziyun, believing Xichun wants him to get back at her husband and not for his money, is amused
at his good fortune. Xichun falls asleep and Ziyun leaves the car. Xichun immediately wakes up
after he leaves and eyes his belongings. Then man with the dog knocks on the door and addresses
her as “Miss Chen.”
Chapter 10
Ziyun and Xichun get off the train a few stops later for a stroll and run into Mrs. Yu. She invites
them to dinner. Xichun excuses herself and heads back to the train. Ziyun and Mrs. Yu remain
on the platform a while longer, then head straight to the dinning car. Mrs. Yu convinces Ziyun
to remain in the dinning car until Xichun returns beaming ecstatically. At dinner, Xichun orders
a bottle of brandy and Mrs. Yu and Xichun proceed to inebriate Ziyun. Ziyun and Xichun return
to the compartment, and Ziyun falls asleep. The train pulls into another station and like
clockwork the man with the dog gets off the train. Xichun, worried, wonders if he will continue
this pattern through the night.
Chapter 11
Manipulating Ziyun, Xichun convinces him to go along with her plan. She will take a ferry
across the river, buy duck, then return at the next stop, and he will remain on the train. Then
they will have dinner and drink the night away. During the crossing, a 4-hour endeavor,
Chengfu comes across Mrs. Yu talking to another woman about a destination again. However, to
21
be proper he avoids the women and returns to Ziyun. The two converse for a bit, then return to
their cabins. As the train pulls out, Xichun is still gone, and depressed, he assumes she missed
the train.
Chapter 12
Xichun pretending to be a ticket taker, surprises Ziyun, appearing at his compartment. She sets
up their dinner and proposes they play the finger guessing game. The terms become: if he wins,
she kisses him (kiss is in English in the original), and if she wins, he drinks. Xichun tricks Ziyun
into drinking past his limits, and he ends up sick. After Ziyun passes out, Xichun “coincidently”
finds Mrs. Yu in the corridor. With the porter near by, she asks Xichun about the books Ziyun
needs delivered, and Xichun gives Mrs. Yu a bag from the compartment. At Wusih, Mrs. Yu
debarks from the train, and Xichun unable to sleep smokes cigarette after cigarette. Then at
Soochow, Xichun gets off the train. The porter, having seen Xichun leave and not noticing her
return, glances into the compartment. Seeing Xichun missing, the porter tells Ziyun Xichun is
missing, but Ziyun fails to wakeup.
Chapter 13
After the porter finally wakes Ziyun and tells him of Xichun disappearance, Ziyun see something
amiss about his briefcase. He opens the case and discovers Xichun cleaned him out. He tells the
porter to fetch Chengfu. The two try to come up with a plan of action. If he tries to find her,
then she will blackmail him, suggesting he paid her for prostitution. If does not find her, the
money disappears forever. Given these options, the two cannot decide what to do. Then the man
with the dog enters the compartment, Qi Youming. He knew of Xichun’s tricks (she conned a
friend of his), but did not tell Ziyun because it was not his place. Apparently, Xichun is an
infamous con artist, and Mr. Qi is surprised Ziyun did not know of her. Mr. Qi suggests Ziyun
consider the money gone and just allow Shanghai to take away his pain. However, Ziyun
decides to visit Xichun’s friends in 3rd class.
Chapter 14
Ziyun finds the couple in 3rd. Belligerently, they ridicule Ziyun and provide him with no useful
information. With his money gone, he solemnly walks back to his compartment. The scene then
skips forward several years to a winter afternoon at the Shanghai station. The narrator describes
the decadent scene of Shanghai and juxtaposes it to the image of Ziyun. Ziyun now finds
himself homeless, filthy, ragged, and destitute. He spends all his money on a ticket for half the
journey to Peiping in 3rd class. As he boards the train, he is astonished at the audacity of the
people in the 3rd class car to scoff at him, simply because they have more money than him.
After thinking he lost his ticket, Ziyun accepts being called a derogatory remark in order to
remain on the train. With no steam in this car, Ziyun remembers he used to complain about the
1st class car being too hot. Another passenger remarks, “you can afford to die, but you can’t
afford to be poor.” When the train pulls into Soochow, Ziyun thinks he sees Xichun.
Frantically, he yells and chases after the woman. On the platform as the train pulls away, Ziyun
continues shouting his warning of being taken in by beautiful women. The narrator concludes
that the warning will fall on deaf ears, because “men in pursuit of the fairer sex will expend
every last ounce of their energy in pursuing them” (238).
22
Selling Souls in Sin City: Shanghai Singing and Dancing Hostesses in Print, Film, and
Politics, 1920-49 Andrew D. Field
1930s: Dancing became a favorite pastime among Chinese elite city dwellers (Shanghai)
- “cabaret girls” were professional singers and dancers, also dabbled in prostitution
- new space of cabaret halls had bit impact on popular culture of city
- modern dancing violated the Confucian precept that men/women must keep separate
in social settings
History: “sing song girls” of Qing Dynasty  modern singing hostesses
- “sing song girls” were social/sexual courtesans catering to scholar class, but they
could not continue in modern urban culture because of abolition of prostitution
system (1905) and decline of scholar class
- growth in magazine, radio, recording, film industries helped movie stars,
singing/dancing hostesses increase in fame and money
- singing hostesses worked for a particular dance hall or company, were hired to
accompany groups of men at parties
- Chinese first had a tendency to exoticize/sexualize and exaggerate the institution of
the dance hall, so dance halls weren’t open to Chinese, only foreigners
- Chang Kai-Shek helped open dance halls to the Chinese public
- Students contributed to the growing popularity of dance halls
- Dance halls were targeted as “dens of vice,” but could be divided into the high class
(for rich businessmen) and low class halls (where soldiers and sailors went)
- Dance halls made a competitive, $$$-making industry, even when the economy
suffered as a whole
Situation for Singing Hostesses: Prostitution was allowed in some halls, and prohibited in
others, but often selling one’s body was an economic necessity
- girls earned very little at the hall, so outside relationships with clients was beneficial
- the cabaret girl career was attractive to many women because of rise in social and
economic status, even if they had to ‘sell their souls” to the nightlife
- protocol: men must arrive in cars, eat a large meal, dance with a cabaret girl, and
charm her with gifts
- Dance halls often were regulated by police/government for fear of spreading
Communist sentiments (remember this is before the Communist revolution)
- Families often pressured their girls to avoid the cabaret industry, or conversely to
pursue it for monetary reasons
Portrayal of Singing Hostesses: either as licentious and greedy or as victims of harsh capitalist
society
- women’s magazing Linglong showed sympathy for cabaret girls’ situation, they were
liberating themselves from years of feudalism, fantasy life vs. harsh realism
- Mu Shiying (1912-40): wrote many short stories where cabaret girls are protagonists,
create sympathy for them
- Film also served as commentary for victimization of women in a commercial society
23
Week 6:
Andrew Jones, Yellow Music- Stephanie Mok –smok@fas.harvard.edu
Mass Music and the Politics of Phonographic Realism:
-
-
-
-
1932: Nie Er- studied music under Li Jinhui (founder of Bright Moon Song and Dance
Troupe)
o Witness to Japanese invasion of China (2nd Sino-Japanese War)
o Incited musician’s passion for Revolutionary Music (to excite the laboring
masses)
o Turned against European classical music & Yellow Music
o Mass music= Phonographic Realism:
 Leftist works serve as “phonographs” to record struggles & aspirations of
proletariat—played back to society for political mobilization
o Yellow Music: jazz/Chinese folk music hybrid
 Pioneer : Li Jinhui
Influence on Nie Er’s development of Revolutionary Music:
o Modern warfare (Japanese invasion)
o Rise of mass-mediated culture industry
o 1932: composed leftist anthems & screen songs
 soviet-inspired musical representations of working classes
 dockworkers, female workers, sing-song girls, laborers
 music to “cry out on behalf of masses”
o Recording Technology:
 Means of allowing intellectuals to represent/convey lives of the oppressed
 Removes “’taint’ of cultural producer’s bourgeois subjectivity”
 Mandarin= unitary voice of unifed national body
 Utilized Media technology (phonograph record) for mass political
mobilization
o Nie Er’s Revolutionary music—written for musical screen/gramophonic
reproduction
 March of the Volunteers: national anthem of PRC
 Musical screenplays = New Woman, New Year’s Coin
Criticisms of Yellow Music:
o Gender bias towards mass-mediated Sing-song girls—associations to prostitutes,
courtesans
o Representation of sing-song girl as “prostitute” of imperialistic forces (Japan):
Betrayal of nationalistic ideals
o Leftist filmmakers: utilized sing-song girl as “means of figuring China’s
humiliation and prospect of national salvation”
 i.e. New Woman
o Yellow music: “decadent sounds,” “portent of social dissolution to be eliminated
for sake of national reconstruction,” “flagrant and fleshy appeals to the audience”
Gender distinctions between “soft” feminism of yellow music to “hardness” of
revolutionary art
24
1934: KMT bans Li Jinhui’s yellow music compositions (Peach Blossom River, Little
Sister I love You)
- 1936: imposition of strict new policies on broadcasting of music (by KMT Ministry of
Transport and Communications)
- Rise of National Revolutionary Mass Music: 1930s
o “leftist films habitually portrayed the assimilation of the mediatized figure of the
sing-song girls into a larger group of mobilized and desexed citizens singing
nationalist anthems.”
o Mass-singing rallies: “organized as a means to stirring up patriotic fervor in
support of resistance against Japanese territorial encroachment, represented a
direct attach on the culture of consumption in which the leftists were themselves
implicated”
- Nie Er’s Mass music:
o Consistently represents the problems of oppressed groups
 i.e. newspaper boys, bricklayers, coolies, road builders, female factory
workers, child laborers..
 sing song girl = “figure of oppression, national humiliation, and national
resistance”
o Acoustic Sound: open-throated, deeper vocal production (martial, strident
marches/chants)
 Vs. Yellow Music’s high-pitched, nasal melodies
 Sonic culture of mass music conveyed: masculinity, strength, resolution,
collectivity of unified voices
 “The fetishized female star is subsumed by the collective;
commercial exchange is replaced by ideological solidarity and
voluntarism; the gendered consumer becomes a desexed citizen
participating in a ritual enactment of national solidarity”
Love in a Fallen City (Eileen Chang)
-
In Love in a Fallen City, Liusu is regarded by her family as the black sheep. When she tags along
on a date between her sister and a wealthy bachelor (Liuyuan), the two hit it off and she departs
for Hong Kong on a whirlwind romance. She remains distant and coy with Liuyuan, despite her
affection for him, because she knows of his playboy lifestyle. When things come to an
ambiguous halt, she returns to her village and he goes back to Shanghai. After some time, he
calls her back to Hong Kong and in the midst of the city’s destruction by the Japanese invasion,
they embrace their fears, cast aside their games, and become “an ordinary married couple.”
Chinese literature of the 1930s and 1940s (Henshui, Shiying, Chang) share a thematic interest in
the dynamic between traditional Chinese and Western culture. While Shiying tends to portray
this relationship as a conflict, Chang embraces the ambiguity in this relationship.
Everything about Liusu goes against the grain of Chinese traditional culture—her remarriage, her
apathy toward family, her disinterest in social norms. Yet at the same time she regards herself as
a traditional Chinese woman (“I am a country bumpkin,” she says).
25
Liuyuan, on the other hand, is a product of modernity and Western influence. Educated in
England and seeped in a Shiying-esque hedonistic lifestyle, Liuyuan can be regarded as the
opposite of a country bumpkin. Yet he also has an affinity for traditional Chinese life. His return
to China, his interest in Liusu, his fascination with Liusu’s Shanghai qualities, reflects an
underlying interest in his Chinese roots.
For a while it seems that these contradictory and conflicted tendencies cannot be reconciled.
Liusu and Liuyuan part ways and return to their respective lives. However, unlike the changes in
China at large (which culminate in war and social upheaval), the social conflicts between Liusu
and Liuyuan are ostensibly
“Sealed Off”
-This story represents the culture during wartime
-Shanghai, once a bustling city filled with extravagance, now quieted because of the air raids
-Story initially focuses on the eerie quiet that swept through the city, and then how people “filled
this terrifying emptiness. Lu, read parts of the newspaper and ate dumplings, people looked at
store signs, Cuiyan graded papers (she is an English teacher)…
-Gender issues apparent. Cuiyan gives a paper an A because it talks of the filth in Shanghai, the
bars etc. She appreciates that this student says such things to her, and treats her as an intelligent,
“as if she were a man.”
-“A girl in her twenties teaching at a university, set a record for women’s personal
achievements.”
-In order to avoid his nephew, Lu begins to flirt with Cuiyan.
-He tells her that his wife doesn’t understand him and that he doesn’t understand her.
-We see glimpses of them getting very close as they both blush when they looked at each other.
“They were in love.”
- “He had never thought he could make a woman blush, make her smile, make her hand her head
shyly. In this he was a man.” More gender issues.
They discuss the logistics of it…..and talk about things in terms of these days. For example, she
says these days 34 is not so old.
-She is appalled that he won’t get a divorce but wants a concubine instead.
-After the raid ended, everything returned back to normal, and Lu returned to his own seat.
-“The whole of Shanghai had dozed off, had dreamed an unreasonable dream.” “They lived for
that one moment.”
The Marriage of Young Blacky
Most important feature to keep in mind is that this is a simplistic propaganda piece, with
all its plot to be read as the benefit for the people represented by the Communist party
Xing and Wang are evil men who aspire to come to rule in their village
Liu the Sage's family lives in this village with two songs: Big Blacky and Young Blacky
Xing, Wang, following a period of chaos, opportunistically seize power
26
They choose old and powerless committee members, except Young Blacky, whom they choose
as Anti-Japanese Youth Vanguard
Young Blacky was good friends with Qin, daughter of Third Fairy
Third Fairy, despite being old, continued to dress young and lusted after Young Blacky
Liu Sage agreed to take on a young, starving girl that he wanted to raise for Young Blacky's
marriage - Young Blacky opposed this
Xing and Wang both wanted to exact revenge on Qin because she had rejected them both
Young Blacky, suffering from malaria, missed a militia practice and was censured for it
Qin was censured by the women's committee as well
Blacky refused to admit wrongdoing and was let go - but their romance was exposed now
This upset Third Fairy who realized she could not have Young Blacky if Qin loved him
Third Fairy swiftly decided to try to marry her daughter to someone else - Wu offered nice
engagement gifts, but of course, QIn objected
Blacky and Qin are once again arrested, and they consent to the arrest, confident they have done
nothing wrong
Liu the Sage pleaded for his son's release, but Blacky insisted it was not necessary
Responding to worried parents, Big Blacky went to the district military office to see what was
happening with Young Blacky
Third Fairy came to Liu's home and argued and tussled with Liu's wife
Big Blacky returned pleased, with a messenger, who called for Liu and Third Fairy to report to
district government office
The district chief demanded to know Liu's marriage plans - the chief opposed the marriage of
Young Blacky to a 12-year old girl
He also opposed forcing Young Blacky to a marriage he doesn't want - and he upheld Young
Blacky and Qin's right to marry, citing that arranged marriages are no longer the practice
Liu the Sage was then taken away
Third Fairy was of course pleased that Qin had been arrested, hoping she would be punished
The district chief similarly censured her approach to Qin's marriage, and also berated her trying
to appear young despite her old age
The women of the village even came and echoed this derision
Third Fairy ashamedly consents to the chief's demands
Finally, 3 militiamen arrive to investigate Wang and Xing's crimes
The villagers slowly gained the confidence to speak out, citing extortion, blackmail, driving
people to suicide, robbery, rape that occurred through Wang and Xing
The people became emboldened and elected new cadre
Upon his return, Liu the Sage continued to bemoan the astrological conflicts between Blacky and
Qin (the reason for his opposition) - but now his wife insists he throw out his astrology charts
The two were finally married and Qin moved in with Young Blacky
The story closes with Third Fairy being mocked for believing in "heaven-ordained marriages"
and Liu the Sage for fearing that "their horoscopes don't match"
27
Mao Tse-Tung's Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art
May, 1942
In the introduction, Mao defines the purpose of the forum to "fit art and literature properly into
the whole revolutionary machine as one of its component parts, to make them a powerful weapon
for uniting and educating the people and for attacking and annihilating the enemy and to help the
people fight the enemy with one heart and one mind."
He defines three problem areas, and how each should function:
Standpoint: artists and writers must adopt the correct standpoint, that of the proletariat
and the broad masses, adhere to Communist Party "spirit" and "policies"
Attitude: "Should we praise or should we expose?"
Towards enemies: expose cruelty, point out inevitable defeat, encourage the
fight against Japanese imperialists
Towards allies: promote unity and criticism—support the resistance to
Japan, criticize lack of active resistance to Japan; combat opponents of
Communism
Towards the people: praise them for their toil, struggle, party loyalty and
army; educate them of their own shortcomings to help them; depict the
process of social "remolding"; "enable them to unite, to advance and to stride
forward with one heart and one mind"
Audience: workers, peasants, soldiers are the audience, and artists and writers must
attempt to understand and become one of them
Mao next addresses 4 problems which address the larger problems of "working for the masses
and of how to work for them."
Problem 1: For whom are our art and literature intended?
First, for the workers who form the class which leads the revolution
Second, for the peasants—most numerous and loyal allies to the revolution
Third, for the armed workers and peasants—armies
Fourth, for the working masses of the urban petty bourgeoisie and its
intelligentsia
Problem is that many writers and artists have no contact with the masses and are more
concerned with the petty bourgeoisie; Mao says it takes a long time to come close and
understand the masses.
28
Problem 2: How to serve the masses? Elevation or popularization?
"Popularization means extending art and literature among [the masses] while
elevation means raising their level of artistic and literary appreciation."
Because the masses remain illiterate and uncultured, popularization is more
pressing task (widespread campaign of enlightenment). Elevation must be not a
"raising up" to the bourgeois intelligentsia's level, but an advance of the proletariat;
popularization and elevation work together.
Mao states that the only source of art and literature should be the life of the
people:
"In the life of the people itself lies a mine of raw material for art and literature,
namely, things in their natural state, things crude, but also most lively, rich and
fundamental."
Literature and art can reflect life in a more organized and focused way,
highlighting the struggles and instructing the people, "can awaken and arouse the
masses and impel them to untie and struggle to change their environment."
Problem 3: Criteria of art and literary criticism
a)
Political criterion
States that motive and effect cannot be separated: a work is judged as good (facilitates
unity and resistance to Japan, encourages masses to be one mind and heart, promotes
progress) or bad (undermines unity and resistance to Japan, spreads dissension among
the masses) based not on the author or artist's declaration of intention but the effect of
his work.
Criticize and repudiate all artistic and literary works against nation, sciences, people
and communism
b)
Artistic criterion
Artistic distinction between good and bad art is based on quality, but also must depend
on social effect
c)
Relation between political and artistic criteria
Demand unity of politics and art: political criteria must come first, and artistic second.
A work that is against the Party's political criteria but is artistically successful is
dangerous, and the more artistic it is, the stronger its effect will be on the people and
therefore the more important it is to reject it.
Problem 4: Muddled ideas stemming from lack of political knowledge
29
a)
The theory of human nature
Mao states that there is no human nature that transcends class; that the theory of human
nature presented by intellectuals is actually just bourgeois individualism
b)
The fundamental point of departure for art and literature is love, the love of mankind.
Love is a concept which is only produced through experience; there is no such thing as
an all-embracing "love of mankind" while class distinctions exist
c)
Objectivity of art and literature
Literature and art does not always equally portray the bright side and the dark side of
life; only revolutionary artists can achieve this balance by knowing what to praise and
what to expose
d)
The task of art and literature has always been to expose
Mao argues that the task in not just to expose—this is limited strictly to the oppressors
and aggressors, never exposing the people—but also to praise
e)
No more need for satire?
Satire is a valuable form, but should not be abused, and where revolutionary artists and
writers are given full freedom, satire is not necessary
f)
Reluctance to praise and eulogize
"Works which extol the bright side of the bourgeoisie are not necessarily great, while
those works which depict the so-called "dark side" of the proletariat are certainly
poor."
Leo Lee, “Eileen Chang: Romances in a Fallen City,” Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of
a New Urban Culture in China, 1930-45
-background on Eileen – on cult-type of adoration around her by her death, strange childhood,
went to University of HK, returned to Shanghai to finish in 1941, but Shanghai occupied by
Japanese at that point, as well, but this inspired her to write – 12+ short stories and many
essays, but quickly disappeared by 1950s
-author thinks Eileen interesting because writing “runs counter to the prevailing ethos of
nationalism and revolutionary progress at the time. I am interested in the ways in which
Eileen Chang was able to draw a kind of allegorical closure by bringing to an end an entire
era of urban culture that had nurtured her creativity (1920s-1930s peak, over by 50s)
Shanghai through the Eyes of Eileen Chang
30
-Eileen self-proclaimed Shanghai “petty urbanite” – saw Shanghai people as “distilled from
traditional Chinese people under the pressure of modern life; they are the product of a
deformed mix of old and new culture”
-loved sights, smells, sounds of city, mix of traditional and Western – describing a world of
“small public and private spaces,” China as “a country of patchwork”
-importance of detail to her writing – can put together details to reconstruct her world –building
is: either typical Shanghai alleyway courtyard - which is warm and familiar, or Western style
house/apartment – often a site of estrangement and disturbance; same juxtaposition in
transportation, home decorations, etc. –
-“this wealth of objects – the old juxtaposed with the new – bespeaks a deep-seated
ambiguity toward modernity that is the distinct hallmark of Eileen Chang’s fiction,” not to be
confused with nostalgic traditionalism
Movies and Movie Palaces
-loved movies, personally, so they often come up in her writing – especially loves American
screwball comedies, which are part of the emergence of the “new woman” with her witty
repartee
-movie theatres as the “cheapest place” - stories with scenes at movie theatres often mimic
movie plots, but in familial context, showing strong women breaking away from traditional
paths (eg concubine); getting re-married
“Contrast in De-cadence”: Eileen Chang on Her Writing
-critique of the content of Chang’s stories – love and marriage as only theme with stories as
many variations upon it, characters flirting but ignoring their inner truths
-Chang’s self defense “My Own Writing” – characters are not heroes but “carry the general
burden of this age” – not intentionally weak, simple, but this is how people appear in this age
-Ackbar Abbas “de-cadence” – Chang defines in terms of colors, contrast in “de-cadence” is as
between peach and scallion; a strong contrast is between red and green, but reveals nothing
-“power and glory of war and revolution” = masculine; “aesthetic state of sorrowful desolation”
= feminine
A Technique of Popular Fiction
-wanted to be a “popular writer” – concerned with audience reception – must be out with the
people, know what they want, then take it a step further – her audience nurtured by Mandarin
Ducks & Butterflies, and Saturday school, but she brings her “unique” outlook of desolation
– how make them work together without disorienting her readers?
-likes sorry – necessary precursor to happiness – but most of her stories end unhappily
-features “almost omniscient narratorial voice” that hovers and bemusedly comments on
characters – not often found in popular fiction – but doesn’t want to stifle the story, lets it
take the lead – narrator actually represents author’s own voice
A Philosophy of Desolation
-preface opens with plea to “Hurry, hurry, otherwise it would be too late, too late” – presumably
about her desire for fame, but also showing fear that time moves quickly and desolation
awaits (written with Sino-Japanese war happening)
-tradition and modernity so oddly juxtaposed, metaphor that a single female opera singer
survives better, can find a place in any society, than a large symphony - “reaction against
modernity but also a return to native Chinese sources for intellectual nourishment and
aesthetic pleasure”
31
-purpose of writing fiction “find the ordinary in the extraordinary and also to find the
extraordinary in accounts of the ordinary”
Romancing the Ordinary
-“Sealed Off” (1943) – action takes place in tram car, sign of modernity, which closely observes
time (would keep moving, except the air raid) – now time and space suspended - “a fantasy
narrative framed by a realistic setting” so as the city is sealed off, so, too, is the inner story of
sentiment sealed off from the external reality – allows attention to detail, also suspends male
control and allows for woman to fantasize about a romance that cannot really exist
-“Love in a Fallen City” (1943) – best “aesthetic subversion of the ‘master narrative’ of history”
– unusual for Chang because has happy ending with unusually sophisticated characters,
exotic setting of Hong Kong
– story of remarriage (reconciliation, forgiveness, achievement of a new perspective) – like a
screwball comedy in the mismatch of the characters, bringing out “mistaken intentions and
personality clashes in the initial courtship” – requires long and intricate courtship game with
mistrust and misunderstanding, and only at the last moment do they really fall in love and get
married – but here, real “metamorphosis” occurs because of Japanese occupation
– but not like American movies, Chang’s characters fall in love because of war, not in spite
of it, don’t escape into leisure and luxury, instead aware that they are short on time
- Liusu not a “gay divorcee”, must get re-married – but takes on this role when goes to Hong
Kong in order to catch Fan Liuyuan, struggles to find identity as non-traditional (divorced)
woman – but this means that Liusu (like the female opera singer) can survive and adapt in
different settings
- heroine “not bemoaning the passing of an era but rather wishes to liberate herself form it” –
not nostalgic
- certain scenes unfold like a movie – eg the “I love you” via telephone scene, seduction
scene, too, in “shot-by-shot” action
- marry, but because of outside circumstance – he plans to leave for England with her as
mistress, but can’t leave because of attack and so they decide to marry – “Hong Kong’s
defeat had given her victory”
-Chang’s own experience during the siege – all uncertain, insecure, “in a desperate bid to cling to
something dependable, people got married”
Lao She’s Teahouse: A Play in Three Acts
Biography of Lao She (1899-1966)1
 He was one of the most important fiction writers and playwrights in the pre-1949 era.
 Born in Beijing in 1899, he worked his way through Peking Teacher’s college. He
London from 1924-1929. Upon returning to China in 1931, he began writing about the
futility of the individual’s struggle against society as a whole.
 The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) radically altered his views.
 During the 30s and 40s he was regarded as the best observer of social injustice and
corruption, and as the most powerful storyteller of the morals of the grand city of Beijing.
 His first important novel, "Camel Xiangzi," or “Rickshaw Boy,” published in 1936, is
considered a classic of modern Chinese literature. It became a US bestseller in 1945.
1
Author information from Lecture 20 Mar 2007, Wikipedia.com, and Litweb.net.
32








Between 1946-1949 Lao She lived in America (when Communist Revolution broke out).
After October 1, 1949, with the establishment of the People’s Republic, Lao She returned
to Beijing. His writing began to fall very much in line with state ideology.
He served on many Party boards including the Government Administration Council and
National People’s Congress. (litweb.com)
He was named a 'People's Artist' and a 'Great Master of Language' in 1951. (litweb.com)
Chairman Mao was quoted as asking: “How can we not afford to have a break lighter like
Lao She as part of our new nation?”
With Teahouse, written in 1957, Lao She was trying to write a new series of plays that
talked about the suffering people had to go through under old regime.
He was attacked as a counterrevolutionary during the Cultural Revolution.
Greatly humiliated, he drowned himself on October 24, 1966. His family salvaged his
writings.
Teahouse (1957)
Written in a way to commemorate the founding of the new republic, but was banned after 3
shows. This was because the title of the play was, in essence, articulating the name of traditional
cultural space where people gathered, showing a nostalgic look into the old days.
Lao She wrote the play in 3 acts in order to show his audience how the nation had developed.
With 70 characters, there are multiple interweaving plot lines (there is a good summary of the
character backgrounds included in the beginning of the story).
Act One - Staged in Beijing,Yutai teahouse in 1898
The audience is introduced to the Teahouse of Wang Lifa during a period in which China has
been reduced to a very weakened state. People from all backgrounds congregate in the teahouse.
The peasants, like Sixth-Born Kang, are forced to sell of their own children in order to eat.
Realizing this, Qin Zhongyi discusses his desire to start a factory to save the peasants of the
nation while Fourth Elder Chang articulates that he believes that the “Great Qing dynasty is
about done for.” Moments later, Eunuch Pang enters the teahouse hoping to purchase a bride
(Sixth-Born Kang’s daughter, Kang Shunzi, that Pockface Liu has promised him). Song Enzi and
Wu Xiangzi, two old style police officers, approach Eunuch Pang to give their respects, shortly
after which they arrest Fourth Elder Chang calling him a traitor for speaking against the dynasty.
Act Two- Yutai Teahouse 1920’s after the fall of the Qing dynasty – “Civil war is endemic” (23)
The scene begins with the reformed teahouse being prepared for reopening. The teahouse has
been one of the only to last, despite the hard times, as a result of changing to fit the demands of
the Republic. People are described as being worse off than ever and the law is equally as corrupt
The audience is told of the many jobs that people hold in order to make money; however, most
continue to scrape for food. The underpinnings of a revolution are prevalent as people are more
and more dissatisfied with their situations. Only Soothsayer Tang and Second Elder Qin are
doing well financially, both dependent on the hard time of the nation. Kang Shunzi returns and
asks Wang Lifa for a job. Song Enzi and Wu Xiangzi assist two deserters that are making a deal
to buy a bride from Pockface Liu for payment. They then single out Pockface Liu to the
execution officer who takes him away.
33
Act Three – Yutai Teahouse autumn 1949 (Professor Wang notes that it is on the eve of the
Communist Revolution; China has been victorious over the Japanese
The scene opens with Kang Shunzi discussing leaving to be with her adopted son, Kang Dali,
highlighting the notion of revolution. As the scene unfolds it becomes apparent that the political
situation has become even more corrupt. People are making money through professions that are
harmful rather than constructive to society (Little Pockface Liu wants to expand his father’s flesh
selling business and Little Edrizi makes money by mugging students). The teachers in the city
are on strike, and the audience is led to believe that Kang Dali influenced them to rebel. Wang
Lifa is informed that Little Pockface Liu wants to take away his teahouse, at which point he
decides to “leave.” He discusses his failure with Fourth Elder Chang and Qin Zhongyi, and he
hangs himself as the men arrive to take his teahouse.
Themes and Interesting Quotes
The Foreign versus The Domestic
 “What I’m trying to figure out is why we all have so many foreign things…” (12).
Old versus New
 “You’re the only one who’s managed to turn all the reforms and changes to good
account” (31).
 “[The business] is fine, thanks to old customers like you” (31).
 “We’re losing out to popular songs and vulgar operas…what really pains me is that our
art may die out in a few years. That would be really letting the old masters down…right
now we’re swamped with new trends, and our traditions are rotting away – roots and all”
(57).
Poverty
 “It’s because it’s impossible for us peasants to get by these days. If we could manage
even a bowl of gruel a day for each of us…” (10).
 “Those bastards in the Imperial Family still live a life of luxury, but I can’t even get
enough cornbread to fill my belly. It doesn’t make sense” (74).
Reform
 “Reform! Everything’s taking on a new face, and the newer the face the more faceless it
is” (24).
 “Reform! I’ve never forgotten about reform, change – keeping up with the times” (74).
 Qing Zhongyi’s factory gets taken by the government, even though he was trying to help
the common man, “I’m just a little guy so there’s nothing I could do”
Labor
 “If we don’t work ourselves to death, the guns’ll get us. That’s not blather, that’s the
truth” (26).
 “I’m a peasant woman. I’m used to hard work” (39).
 “Don’t you think it’s time you earned an honest bowl of rice?” (62).
Decay
34


“The teahouse is no longer the handsome place it was… everything, from the building
itself to the furniture, is dull and shabby” (46).
“…I often wish I was dead. At least my corpse would be my own. But this kind of workI’m slowly rotting away” (49).
Loss of Self
 “Myself? I love my country, but no one gives a damn about me” (75)
The Red Lantern
We only read a short summary of the first 7 scenes:
Li Yu-ho is a railroad switchman who lives with his adopted mother, Granny Li, and
adopted daughter, T’ieh-mei. Each is the sole survivor of working families killed by warlords,
and each has become a strong supporter of the CCP in its resistance to Japan. Li has the task of
delivering a secret code to a guerrilla unit, and he is to ID himself by carrying a red lantern.
Wang Lien-chu betrays the mission to Hatoyama, chief of Japanese gendarmerie. Hatoyama
arrests Granny Li and T’ieh-mei to extract info on Li, who earlier did inform them of the code’s
location. Just before the arrest, Granny told T’ieh-mei she was adopted.
Scene 8: Struggle on the Execution Grounds:
Hatoyama, having failed to gain information via interrogation, has a hidden microphone
put on Granny to hear what she says to Li when they eventually meet. Hatoyama shows Granny
where her son will be executed, and she replies by calling them criminals for killing the Chinese.
The Japanese gendarmerie brings Li out, who sing the song “yuan pan,” in which he declares
how unbreakable his will is, how China will “shine like the morning sun” once the “storm is
past,” and how “revolutionaries fear nothing on earth, / They will forever march forward.” He
embraces Granny, who tells him how proud she is of him. He then sings “erh hunag erh liu,”
going on about how the Party brought him up to be a man of steel who never gives ground, and
sings that his only regret if he should die today is that the code would not have been delivered.
T’ieh-mei joins the singing once she arrives; she embraces her father and tells him that “[he] is
[her] own father,” not caring about the lack of biological relation.
Li then sings “erh huang wuan pan,” proclaiming that class love outweighs all other types
of love. T’ieh-mei sings as well, claiming that the treasure Li leaves her is so vast that a thousand
carts and ten thousand boats couldn’t carry it all.
The three revolutionaries are marched up to the tune of “The Internationale,” in a very
heroic, death-defying way. Li shouts “Down with Japanese Imperialism,” they all shout “Down
with Japanese Imperialism! Long live the CCP!” and guns are then fired. Hatoyama lets T’iehmei get away.
Scene 9: Advancing Wave Upon Wave (in Li’s house):
T’ieh-mei mourns the death of Li and Granny, and says she is determined to deliver the
code to avenge them. She sings about how much she hates the Japanese, and how she’ll never
yield, and has no fear of what they might do to her. Hui-lien comes into the room, and Aunt
T’ien has the two exchange jackets to help T’ieh-mei hide. T’ieh-mei is afraid of getting Aunt
T’ieh into trouble, but Aunt T’ieh replies they are both working-class families, and have a shared
bitterness and hatred for many years, and no matter how risky it is, she must help T’ieh-mei get
35
away safely. T’ieh-mei goes into an inner room, while Hui-lien, in T’ieh-mei’s jacket, leaves,
and the spies follow.
Scene 10: Ambushing and Annihilating the Enemy (on the road to Cypress Mountains):
T’ieh-mei runs into “Uncle Knife-Grinder,” who travels with two guerrillas. The
Japanese show up, and the guerrillas and Knife-Grinder kill them all, running Hatoyama through
with a sword.
Scene 11: Forward in Victory:
T’ieh-mei gives the code to the Guerrilla Leader. She holds the Red Lantern up as the curtain
slowly falls.
-Major Points:
1. Obviously, a lot of super-masculine Communist propaganda, especially as represented
by Li and his little fight songs.
2. Subversion of idea of family as a means to raise pro-CCP sentiment.
3. And of course, the Japanese as the source of evil imperialism.
Witness Against History: The Purloined Lantern
Maoist Semiotics and Public Discourse in Early PRC Film and Drama
– Summary –
by Yomi Braester
This work explores the previously ignored literature of the Maoist period (1949 – 1976)
and the “Maoist break” with May Fourth through analysis of control of artistic output and the
censorship of public debate. The themes/messages condoned by Mao and his wife Jiang Qing
delegitimized dissent. After Mao’s talks at Yan’an writing no longer to be an avenue for social
and political criticism. Prime examples of “Maoist art” were for example the modern
revolutionary operas (model plays), which were, as required of Maoist art, accessible to the
proletariat. The literary and cinematic works of the time worked to highlight the Party as “the
sole arbiter of ideological content”. These forms were easily controllable due to their reliance on
stages of postproduction and distribution already monopolized by the state. Lastly, the
prominent opera themes of transmitting undeciphered codes and handing down secret signs seem
to “hand over” overall interpretive authority to the Party while abrogating public debate.
The Cultural Revolution was the culmination of efforts to completely control of stage
production. Literary criticism was now a tool solely allowed to the state to discredit political
rivals and its use became more fierce as the Cultural Revolution progressed.
Political intervention led to the creation of model plays under the direction of Jiang Qing
who wished to restructure traditional opera into a new revolutionary form. Jiang Qing and Lin
Biao (the minister of defense) selected the initial four works to be “revolutionary modern Beijing
operas”. The count of official “model plays” later grew to eight in total. These were proclaimed
to be Jiang Qing’s “model plot” which implies that they would be continually reworked by Jiang.
36
These model plays provided both a model for other works of art and an ideal of how the citizens
were to live and act.
The first play chosen was The Red Lantern and it was given Mao’s seal of approval after
a showing on June 11, 1964.
Conflicting accounts of exist of the modification made by Jiang Qinq due to her inclusion
as the leader of the Gang of Four. However, one sympathetic account tells of Jiang’s specific
instructions to continually revise and perform the play. She intervened in decisions about every
aspect of the play and those who objected, including scriptwriter Wen Ouhong and director A
Jia, were thrown into “cowsheds”.
The plot of The Red Lantern revolved around the question of succession and legitimacy.
It takes place in occupied Manchuria during WWII (The Anti-Japanese War). A messenger
arrives in a village to give the local communist contact man (Li Yuhe, a railroad switchman) a
telegraph code to be delivered to the communist guerillas. One of the Party members turns Li
over to the Japanese who execute him, but his daughter Tiemei slips away and delivers the code.
The plot implies the need to find the hidden enemies of the state (internal and external).
Many other works of the period tackled the “imperialist” danger in specific the infiltrators
working with the Taiwan-based KMT. The turncoat Wang Lianju, is emphasized as the enemy
of the people and Li Yuhe is emphasized as the model hero. The play also functions as
propaganda vilifying the KMT government which continued to rule in Taiwan. More
importantly, the mole theme was directed at the enemies vying with Mao from the Party. This
other center of power was Liu Shaoqi. The Red Lantern’s two main themes of love and struggle
can be applied to the struggle within the party and the importance of the successor (Tiemei) to
have to correct ideological state (love). The happy ending of The Red Lantern foregrounds the
importance of ferreting out the enemy within.
Similarly, such friend/foe determinations were also made with all artistic devices which
were either labeled beneficial ro detrimental to dominant ideology and dealt with accordingly.
Li is also described as comporting with the sublime thus endowing him with “absolute
authority”. He serves as a model for adoration on par with Mao himself. His prominence
throughout the play is distinctive and his heroism accentuated by his family’s sacrifice. The
Three Prominences Theory can be seen extensively here. The theory states “Among all
characters, give prominence to the positive characters; among the positive characters, give
prominence to the heroic characters; among the heriod characters, give prominence to the main
heroic characters.” Examples can be seen in the number of arias and heroic poses Li performs.
Revolutionary rhetoric about the sacrifice of body to emphasize the ideological rectitude can also
be seen. Li’s command of the stage allows him to demand submission from both enemy and
fellow revolutionaries. Lastly, here “the sublime” is used as a term of praise and thus
implements the totalitarian strategy of silencing the audience and privileging the character as role
model.
37
Li Yuhe’s dominant position, like Mao’s Yan’an Talks call for the “unification of politics
and art”, abrogate the spectator’s judgment and legitimize leadership’s action in the name of the
masses. Conflicting dialogue is cut out to make way for writers to express only the will of the
masses as dictated by the state ideologues, thus allowing the party to maintain complete control.
The continual changes made by Madame Mao of the model plays allowed her to maintain
her authority over the arts much like the continual political flux caused by the Cultural
Revolution allowed Mao to maintain his total power.
Public “discourse” of the play was fully orchestrated such that the audience was informed
of their own opinion as “the masses”. Viewers were required to suspend all their own judgment
and fully identify with the enunciator of revolutionary ideology. The state presents itself as the
ideal subject to which all people should aspire and yield all will and authority.
The task of delivering a secret telegraph code has no significance of its own and is more
of a “eternal truth” whose possession allows for the successful reception of the leader’s
messages. The whole theme resonates with the leaders’ concern with controlling public
discourse and delegitimizing other centers of power. The emphasis is the successful delivery of
the communicating Party’s commands and not in the possession of the object in question. This
“secret code delivery” theme can be seen in many other works of the era. The code implies a
totalitarian relationship between the work of art and its audience where there is no possibility for
outside interpretation. The Party maintains its monopoly on interpretation in general and literary
criticism.
The red lantern also functions as a “code” as it is used to assist in successfully identifying
other members of the underground movement. It follows all the aesthetics elements set forth by
Jiang Qing, red shining and bright and clearly invokes the Great Helmsman. Mao is also often
described as “the bright red sun.” The stage lighting is also exploited to emphasize the red/bright
lighting. The red light not only represents Mao but also unmitigated triumph and when used
prominently the “blinding red light” also forces out any potential for individual interpretation.
The lantern also plays a role in the importance of proper succession of authority as it is handed
down to Tiemei for use only after she learns the “tricks of the trade” and proper
codewords/signals to be effective in the underground. The lantern is used for more complicated
code exchanges to ensure contact has truly been made with a member of the underground and
prevent infiltration by fake messengers. Tiemei also proves that she is capable of cleverly
misguiding and working secretively when she gives over the almanac as the “codebook.”
All these tricks are used for the sake of the masses which take prime precedence. The
audience and authors were “joined” by Mao but simultaneously he also denied free debate.
Literature and art became solely modes of communication
Summary: Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain
By Jin Yong
38
The main characters are descendants of four myrmidons (surnames Hu, Tian, Miao and Fan)
who aided Li Zicheng, the Dashing King, in trying to prevent the Manchu takeover of China.
The story goes that Myrmidon Hu deserted the other three myrmidons and went to serve the
Qing (Manchu) court. The other three myrmidons eventually found Hu many years later and
killed him, but after hearing the true story of Hu’s “betrayal”, all committed suicide. The
descendants of the three myrmidons who killed themselves believed that the Hu family was
culpable for their fathers’ deaths, and a long-term family feud ensued.
Dueling factions of knights errant arrive on the summit of a snowy mountain, including
descendants of the Tian, Miao and Fan families. Among them is a Buddhist monk named Tree.
They are waiting for a fight between Phoenix Miao, who is rumored to be invincible, and Fox
Hu. Two teenage boys in their teens, who appear to be twins, bring a message from Fox Hu
saying that he will come to the fight. Curio Cao, who is of a bad temperament, picks a fight with
the twins, which turned out to be an enormous battle.
Orchid Miao, the daughter of Miao Renfeng, arrives on the mountain and pacifies the twins
by giving them a pair of jade stallions. The twins noticed that Orchid looks like the daughter of a
wealthy, aristocratic family, and not the daughter of an outlaw. Then there is a fight over a
poniard, the heirloom treasure of the Dragon Lodge. The fight was called to a halt when the
basket to bring people up and down the mountain was cut by the twins, stranding everyone.
Orchid starts to tell the story of the four myrmidons, which ended with Gully Hu’s fight with
Phoenix Miao. Hu died and left behind a child (Fox), for whose well-being Orchid seemed
extremely concerned.
Curio tries to push Tree down the mountain and snatch the poniard, but instead is thrown
down the mountain and saved by Fox who was ascending. Orchid goes out to meet Fox, and tells
him about her father’s intentions for peace. Apparently Phoenix Miao wants to end the feud, and
did not teach Orchid martial arts. Fox is in agreement with this idea. The two eventually begin
romantic relations. However, Phoenix becomes enraged at the time he arrived on the mountain,
thinking that this man abused his daughter. Phoenix does not know that Fox is Gully Hu’s son,
though he is struck by their similarity in appearance, but Fox does not tell him who he is. The
two have a fierce fight that ends ambiguously, with Fox uncertain of whether he should kill
Miao. He doesn’t want to kill the father of his beloved, yet he would be killed otherwise, and the
fight scene ends. Orchid Miao is left to wait for the outcome.
Notes
Jin Yong wrote in an “elitist” style that calls upon the Chinese literati tradition. He wrote
for a largely émigré audience outside of mainland China (i.e. Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc.) He
makes many classical allusions in his writing, tying his works to the Chinese literary tradition
and requires readers to draw on their Chinese cultural heritage. There is an emphasis on
continuity with the past, family history, and cultural purity. This was particularly important for
people who were isolated from mainland China. Jin Yong’s work allows the readers to recreate
history for themselves, and use this common heritage to unite all overseas Chinese.
Paper Swordsmen: Jin Yong’s Early Fiction and Postwar Hong Kong
39
·
its changing population
o
During the political upheavals of the 1930’s and 1940’s, refugees from distant
regions fled to Hong Kong
o
Prior to this period, the population of HK had been made up of people originally
from nearby areas who sought economic opportunity in HK, but frequently went
back to their places of birth on the mainland
·
hoping to stem the outflow
of human resources) and British (wary of the refugee burden)
·
China’s isolationist policies in the following decades
·
f Jin Yong’s fiction, the consciousness of exile was a crucial element in his work
·
“outland” papers: local papers written in Cantonese focused on HK matters, outland papers
written in Mandarin and were oriented toward mainland affairs
·
(over months or even years), so the structure serves as a token of continuity and 2) shared
the pages with non-fiction reporting about their environment
·
entertainment” in the newspapers
·
Book and Sword utilizes many familiar themes from the Guangdong School of
martial arts fiction: enmity between Han and Manchu, secret-society lore
·
Guangdong school are vast: re-foregrounds the Han-Manchu struggle in order to question
dynastic authority, reference to current events (Han-Manchu struggle would have brought to
mind the recent civil war)
·
revolved around simple blood feuds and power struggles, Jin Yong introduced complex
moral and psychological responses to problems of loyalty
·
which indicate an increased national consciousness and a putting aside of traditional northsouth cultural differences (JY’s new focus: interior vs. borderlands)
·
Central Plains syndrome”): a hierarchy of
40
cultural differentiation derived from geographic, territorial, and cultural boundaries between
the mainland core and the outlying periphery\
o
Borderlands: a terrain of political exile and contention
·
The Sword Stained with Royal Blood, the main character takes
refuge in a Hong Kong-like island
·
“chronotope”: a set of geographic
and temporal parameters inalienably implicated with certain emotional resonances and
ideological associations
·
omedies of displacement: comedic situations that arise when individuals from different
cultures suddenly find themselves in vastly different environments
o
The primary motivation of these types of works is satire: provides a critical
outsider’s perspective on the local environment
o
This fiction articulates the experience of displacement: the struggles, triumphs,
and absurdities of HK life
·
due to the anecdotes’ supposed factual basis, and the awareness of political and historical
contingencies (which enable a feeling of nostalgia among readers)
Rocking Tiananmen by Liu Yiran in 1988
Summary:







Semi-autobiographical of a young adult living through the Tiananmen Square Incident times.
Begins within description between a kiss between Yuanyuan and the main character.
Description appeals to all the senses, “She has this incredible smell…The face of the
goddamn moon is green, and the sun is coarse…”
Reality intrudes in the elevator with the old lady interrupting the kiss, “your polite little
cough isn’t going to force us apart, old lady”.
Also mention of authority figures through Yuanyuan’s father who’s also associated with
international items, “”If only I were Superman. If only your father and those French shoes
weren’t home. If only…”
Introduction of break dancing, and rock ‘n’ roll, “I’m one funky kindna dude and one day,
I’ll be in some movie or I’ll do a benefit gig in Tiananmen Square for African famine
victims” and anger at his dance troupe who doesn’t let him break dance, “I’d rather face a
butcher’s knife than spend a lifetime dancing that traditional crap.”
He enters the practice auditorium and is angry at superficiality, “even girls who are usually
real cool are talking like bimbos” but becomes happier after seeing Yuanyuan who dances
beautifully.
Then, it’s his turn, and he sends out his message, “black temptation” and starts breakdancing, “nothing can hold me back, not even gravity”… but it makes the choreographers
41



mad who only see “perverted madness” and he gets kicked out of the practice session.
Yuanyuan then gets mad at him.
He tries to apologize to Yuanyuan, who tells him that he should “stop treating your future
like some sort of joke” who retorts that “we’re living off the past. We can’t keep doing the
same steps our grandparents did, can we?...When you’ve got nothing to live for, life sucks,
why not try--”. They make up.
He then has a meeting with Youth League in the morning. That evening, he goes to the
Forbidden City right behind Tiananmen to spend the evening, and hears “thunderous wave
of rock music” and sees people dancing, break-dancing, kung-fu, and as he starts breakdancing, he feels like he’s really living, “My life starts now…I enter a realm of pure
freedom”.
He then breaks up with Yuanyuan later that night, and later, quits the dance troupe. “He
directs a hit fashion show, has a short-lived affair w/ the designer, and finally leaves the
company. He ends up living with a woman sign painter…” At the end, he also talks to a
director, Tian Zhuangzhuang, who later goes on to make the film, Rock ‘n’ Roll Youth,
which failed to capture the spirit of the original.
“China Diversified”
Nimrod Baranovitch
Return of Liuxing Music
 Gangtai music like “The Moon Represent My Heart” – antithesis to party songs like
Chairman Mao because they focus on romantic man-woman love, rather than love for the
homeland – associated with “decadent” “bourgeois individualism. Deng Lijun is noted as
the ideal gangtai singer – soft, sweet, and whispery.
 Gangtai music challenged the previous revolutionary period musical style of “yang over
yin” (masculinity over femininity) and was helped along by cassette technology
 Gangtai music classified as one of 3: “low-class and filthy, pure love songs, and songs
about ordinary life and homesickness for the mainland” – only the last was “acceptable’
 Popularity of liuxing music despite official disapproval reflected negative effect Cultural
Revolution had
 Transformation of Guangdong serves as example of relationship between economic and
political reform – likes and dislikes of society became more influential and powerful that
ever
 New music: zouxue: “going to the caves” – temporary gigs, musicians now had freedom;
one example was Cui Jian
 Incorporation of liuxing/ tongsu music by the state reflected the fact that even official
culture was now constructed through negotiation rather than from above orders as in
revolutionary period; even sweet romantic songs played a role in this
The Northwest Wind – xibeifeng
 Xibeifeng songs were loud, forceful, and rough
 Xibeifeng songs were a way for mainland to re-establish hegemony for Taiwan and Hong
Kong because it evoked images of a strong, masculine, national identity – search for
artistic past
42

Root-seeking movement: attempt to renew identity in post-revolutionary era, being
deprived of history and tradition after the Cultural Revolution
Prison Songs
 1988-1989 – second fad: “prison songs” – in contrast to xibeifeng songs, prison songs
were slow and lyrical, weepy; celebrated non-officialdom and anti-intellectualism and
associated with Wang Shuo and “liumang/ hooligan” culture; characterized by dark
realism, despair, cynicism, and social alienation
 reaction of public to rumors that the government had banned the style were indications of
the growing split between state and society, and of the increasingly cynical attitude of the
latter toward official culture and policies
The Rise of Chinese Rock and Roll (Yaogun)
 Chinese rock associated with Beijing
 Cui Jian and song “Having Nothing” – individualism, nonconformism, protest,
rebellion; was antithesis of traditional Confucian aesthetics of moderation and restraint as
well as antithesis of official communist esthetics of polished and disciplined
professionalism; symbolized frustration and sense o floss harbored by disillusioned
generation
 Cui Jian song “Opportunists” – contradicting messages; both supports student movement
as a whole, but also mocks participants in the movement
 Fisk would say that is determined by prevailing governmental attitudes , b/c government
was constantly tryin to influence popular culture, so rock rose up in reaction
o PC is determined by government, but is reaction to it so is opposite
Rock Becomes a Fad
 “rock spirit” (yaogun jingshen) – rebellious attitude; also suggests strong desire to reach
out and adopt cosmopolitan, Western attitude, use of English
 celebrated negation of Confucian values like hierarchy, obedience, and suppression of
individual self and desires for personal freedom
 decline of xibeifeng in late 1980’s and rise of rock fad  nostalgia and romantic embrace
of Root-Seeking changed to fierce negation
Decline of Rock: Tiananmen, Commercialization, Karaoke, and Nationalism
 around 1993-1994, state started to put more restrictions on
 decline of rock largely attributed to young people losing idealism; victory of state over
idealism; victory of materialism
 commercialization of 1990’s – musicians more concerned about profit and prosperity
than idealism
 disillusionment about Westernization, including U.S. involvement with Taiwan situation
The Mao Fad (late 1980’s, early 1990’s)
 author says it can’t be attributed to one cause
 fad – burst of popular nostalgia; through revival of leader, constructed an idealized,
stable, euphoric past
43



singing praise songs to period that Deng Xiaoping had reacted against – way to challenge
current leadership
official response – encouragement, then attempt to suppress it
despite ideas about subversive nostalgia, parody of Mao, and challenge to Deng’s regime,
Mao craze could be interpreted as early manifestation of wave of nationalism that swept
the mainland in 1990’s
The Story of Hong Kong by P.K. Leung
According to the author, past writers have focused on a wide variety of perspectives
about Hong Kong; some of these perspectives focus on sex, adventure, natural disasters, highstake business ventures, and all of these portray the most absurd side of Hong Kong. Its story
always seems to revolve around its international structure, creating a fleeting, colonial sense of
culture, as if Hong Kong lacks its own cultural identity overall. Mainland artists focus on the
negative side of capitalism and colonialism. For most people, Hong Kong’s culture is an
empty box waiting to be filled.
Two stories usually told:
- Hong Kong as an international city: stresses the status quo
o Seen as reflections of European cities.
o Stability and prosperity reign, due primarily to the lack of democracy
 Some say that colonialism has to be endured due to lack of democracy
o Search to maintain English language as an international indispensability or a
means of being useful to China
o ALL REFLECTIONS OF DIFFERENT AGENDAS
- The nationalistic story
o Since the May Fourth movement and Wen Yiduo’s poem “Hong Kong” seen
with a theme of rape or victimization, with the colony being compared to a
“yellow panther” separated from its mother but protecting the palace gates.
“Mother, my post is strategic, though lowly my state.”
o Irony: these same writers boasted about great films seen in Hong Kong to
friends in Shanghai
Really no story?
- Artists tend to stay away from this debate and focus on cultural issues at the border
of things; i.e. past and present, native and foreign country, commercialism and art,
policy and implementation, grand narrative and plain, low-key story
- BORDERLANDS ARE RICH WITH STORIES
- Examples: Newspaper supplements which included: The Story of Shrimp Ball comic
version, martial arts fiction. EMBRYONIC SENSE OF IDENTITY. Different sets
of identities.
- Focus on Margaret Thatcher’s visit to China in 1982, as well as obsessions with the
1997 turnover, emigration.
- Always shown to have special features.
- A chorus of perspectives helps to understand the texture and complexity of Hong
Kong.
44
Red Rose and Bastard Horse
By Xin Yuan
Week 12—Hong Kong Pop
This is a chapter from Xin Yuan’s novel Crazy Horse in a Frenzied City, a mock spy-satiricalpolitical farce set in the years before the return of Hong Kong to China. The protagonist Ma
(“horse”) works as a newspaper photographer in Hong Kong and thinks he may be working for a
man he believes to be the illegitimate son of a prominent Chinese leader. Added to the story is
his run-in with former girlfriend Red Rose.
The chapter begins with Horse wandering through the streets looking for a disguise or hideaway,
having just made a narrow escape—though from what exactly, the story does not say. After some
hesitation, he decides to go to Red Rose’s boutique to see if any of his leftover clothes could give
him a quick disguise. Red Rose decides on a long Chinese robe for him, and so Occidental Horse
becomes Oriental Horse.
However, this scene only reminds Horse of the time when they were together and how her taste
had always been a problem for him. Red Rose had come to the Community Centre to learn
photography but to Horse, she had always curiously harbored a resentment towards art. Horse
then goes on to recall how she would cling to any “gweilo” foreign man, buying into the gifts the
gweilo invariably showered upon her. Horse admits that this made him a “despicable, jealous
Chinese male.”
Even so, Horse cannot help but be still tempted by her confidence and style. In his mind, he tells
himself to resist, becoming Alert Horse. He decides then to leave but just as he does so, a
towering Australian man comes in, clearly Red Rose’s new lover. Unable to sneak off now, they
enter a conversation about how the Aussie enjoys Zhang Yimou’s films, especially Red
Sorghum, yet Horse cannot understand what is so romantic about the movie. He makes a
sarcastic remark, but neither Red Rose nor the Aussie picks up on it, and Horse admits that he
“lost that round.”
At the Aussie’s mention of a TV program on Hong Kong history that he is working on, Horse
tries to sustain a conversation about his view on the topic, only to be ignored by the Aussie and
Red Rose who busy themselves by engaging in an embrace. The Aussie then returns to the
conversation to say that intellectual talk about Hong Kong traditional culture is all “a lot of
junk.” This infuriates Horse, and as he is fuming, the Aussie goes on to say that because Chinese
culture is all a sham, “there were no native Hong Kong people in the first place, everything here
was a postmodernist hybrid.”
Horse wants to fight back, but then he realizes that he himself cannot speak Mandarin Chinese
properly and acknowledges his admiration for the West. He sees himself in the mirror in the long
Chinese robe and admits defeat.
Throughout the story, Horse’s name is modified as Foolish Horse, Occidental Horse, Oriental
Horse, Rotten Horse, etc. depending on the immediate situation. The question of his identity
45
points to an identity crisis of sorts shared by all of Hong Kong
The Hazards of Daily Life
 Written by Hong Kong author Xin Yuan in 1996
 One of the chapters from novel “Crazy Horse in a Frenzied City”
Plotline
 Crazy Horse is sent to a bar, by the Chinese leader he works for, in order to deliver a
message to a British official
 Horse becomes quickly annoyed with the actions of the foreigners – all the want is to discuss
sex, tell stupid jokes
 The meeting deteriorates as one man stumbles into another, choking him
 Horse delivers his message
 Suspicious that he is being watched, he attempts to escape through a bathroom window
where he becomes stuck until he finally falls to the ground
 Dazed and bruised, Horse wanders home
Themes
Crazy Horse is faced with many of the same problems facing Hong Kong at the time
 Horse has no clearly established identity, he is a man dressed as a woman – Hong Kong has
an ambiguous culture, neither Asian or Western
 Crazy Horse is not content with his situation, feels ashamed that he has “fallen to this sorry
state” of sneaking around in disguise, becomes stuck in a window between the bathroom and
the outside world – like HK, Horse is “one body in two places, one country, two systems”
Hong Kong lacks independence, is dominated by British and Chinese governments
 Caucasian men in bar naively discuss Hong Kong politics, claiming that the region takes no
part in Sino-British negotiations – Everyone passes their own judgment on HK society
 Crazy Horse exemplifies this state of dependence when he falls from the window, escaping
the constraints of British/Chinese control – Crazy Horse is now “an abandoned newborn
babe...without a past, without a future...cut, bruised, and exhausted”
The “One country, two systems” plan is not working out for Hong Kong
 Crazy Horse hopes for a smooth transition to unite his body and soul (escape the window) –
Hong Kong needs to escape and establish itself
The Centaur of the East
Is Hong Kong heterogeneous or hybrid in character? Is it the “Centaur of the East” or a
“Bastard Horse”?
The Book of Imaginary Beings Borges
Notes that the centaur is one of the most harmonious of creatures, but heterogeneous
character is overlooked
Despite harmoniousness, it is two separate and distinct halves
Such a mythic creature arrangement (man splendidly blended with horse) does not exist in
Chinese culture
Often, Chinese imaginary creatures are jumbled mixtures of animal parts
e.g. xi wang mu (mother queen of the west) is a human with a leopard’s tail and a
tiger’s teeth which howls
46
Two Possible Models of Hong Kong
two distinct cultures harmonious joined together
model fits with the geographic arrangement of HK; distinct British and Chinese
districts joined together
distinctly English road names the British areas, and Chinese names in the
Chinese areas
British roads named after visiting dignitaries and governors
Chinese roads take indigenous names
British areas have British architecture (…how enlightening!)
a composite whole of many individual parts and pieces
first model refuted as an oversimplification
no evidence of a state dichotomy within HK
hybrid elements pervasive throughout the city which cannot be disentangled
from each other
“xi wang mu” paradigm now the fashionable model to accept
The first model is still popular among scholars who like to call HK “The Centaur of the East”
Borges points out the following (crack pot) paradox to refute this old model
The horse of a centaur matures earlier and dies earlier than the man. Thus, at the age of the three,
the horse part is mature, while the man is a child, and the horse dies 50 years before the man.
This is a clear, logical refutation of this model!
Ackbar Abbas: Culture and Politics of Disappearance
Author:
-
Abbas: Pakistani born in Macau and immigrated to HK with his family as a child, educated in
U.K., understands Cantonese but not Chinese.
Overview:
-
Abbas opens by discussing Hong Kong film and criticizing critics’ oversimplifications on it.
However, he himself essentially describes it as overcommercialized, and always attempting to
incorporate “pop” features such as established stars, genres, and “spectacle” to the extent
that their budgets will let them. Though he acknowledges that the cinema is now changing and
has a place for films more focused on artistic aspects, then, he maintains that Hong Kong is
still essentially a giant package of pop culture that tries too hard to appeal to each person,
resulting only in mediocre appeal to everyone.
-
Abbas then turns to address cultural identity in Hong Kong cinema – saying that while it remains
popular and commercialized, it now addresses a public in the process of changing, and that the
“public [is] suddenly anxious about its cultural identity “because so many issues of social and
political liberties hinge on that question.” (pp. 23)
-
“Problematic of disappearance” is addressed by recounting descriptions of Hong Kong in the
economic and political spheres, and then noting that in the cultural sphere these descriptions
47
were much more elusive. Hong Kong was considered a “cultural desert,” and stories of Hong
Kong generally turned into stories of other places, getting away from the subject of “Hong
Kong culture.”
-
Abbas then outlines his theory of deja disparu, which he believes is what Hong Kong is going
through. According to the class notes, deja disparu (vs. déjà vu, which is the uncanny return of
memory), is:
o
return of the future as if it is from the past. Invention of the past, so that in the
future, we have a past to cherish. Double disorientation of temporality. What is new
about a situation is already gone.
-
“New localism…investigates the dislocations of the local, where the local is something unstable
that mutates right in front of our eyes…” vs. the older Cantonese movies which are more
narrowly defined and have no place for foreign elements
-
Abbas then begins his discussion about the changing nature of coloniality in Hong Kong as
represented by cinema, beginning with the kung fu/martial arts genre. To summarize, the kung
fu genre (to him) can be taken to represent the changing nature of Hong Kong’s national
identity, from strongly xenophobic during Bruce Lee’s nationalistic films, to kung fu comedy
carried out by Jackie Chan, to kung fu nostalgia films in the 1990’s that describe the battles of
legendary Chinese masters in the present (but the focus is now on the special effects and
technological advances, having shifted away now from the stunts done by these actors and
hence representing a shift away from the past).
-
Finally, Abbas selects four films to represent new Hong Kong cinema: Wong Kar-wai’s As Tears
Go By (1988), Ann Hui’s Song of the Exile (1990), Stanley Kwan’s ghost film Rouge (1988), and
his Center Stage (1991), which many of us have seen. He highlights how these films each make
use of deja disparu all in different ways within their frameworks as different genres (hero
movie, domestic melodrama, ghost film, and biopic)
Themes/Points of Discussion on Hong Kong (taken from class notes):
-
HK can be treated as a transitional space, a trans-port, we see the momentum of the
continuous shift, polyphony of multiple languages.
-
Politics of changeability - Site of economic transaction – mutations & changeabilities.
Handover as holdover or hangover?
-
Politics of continuous re-appearance, theatrics & simulacrum – projecting images of Disneyland
to the mainland. Sinification of HK or Hongkongization of China?
Summary/perspective two points (from class notes, again):
-
Aesthetics and politics of disappearance – HK had always existed as a physical site, but
politically, HK always suffered from a transient identity, as a trans-port, an intermediary
48
space. Politically it is a colony, but local HK merchants’ wealth outstripped colonizers’ power.
Is HK’s story nationalism vs. colonialism? Island vs. mainland? We have fallen into ideological
fixations. HK used to be a no-place, but to maintain its transient consciousness. People in HK
should not identify themselves with outgoing colonizers or incoming Communist rulers, but to
sustain its charm and power.
-
Abbas projecting his own anxiety and nostalgia into the theory. The future has already become
a cliché before it has been invented.
Wild Kids
 SYNOPSIS OF WILD CHILD
 Wild Child has an entertaining but extremely dark plot
Can be compared to The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield

Important Characters
o Big Head Spring, or Hou Shichun: 14 year-old high school drop out and runaway
who was born into a successful, wealthy family
Nicknamed “Bull-boy” because of the Chicago Bulls shirt he would always be wearing
after he ran away
o Zeng Ahzhi: Member of gang; one eye much larger than the other; can see ghosts
Contributed to the unreal, fantasy, imagination aspect of the novel



o Little Horse: Has no concept for numbers; father is the director of a hospital; does
not want to, and cannot really become a doctor as his father wishes
o Horsefly: Ruthless opposing gang leader
o Uncle Xu: Runs parking lot; leads gang
o Annie: Deals with car wreckage; used to be locked up in a rooftop jail for three years
by an old gang leader to take care of his mother; 10 years older than Big Head
Spring, who likes her
o Hoop: Gang member who “belongs” to Horsefly; betrayed Uncle Xu and his
followers
o Mr. Hippo: School principal
Big Head Spring (narrator) drops out of school and runs away from home after attacking his
school principal in a fit of anger after being falsely accused of burning exams
As he ran away from home, Big Head Spring gambles in a casino and later finds out that he
won the money gang member Young River was supposed to collect, accidentally finding
himself in the middle of a gangster war.
Learns the life of living in the streets with a gang and the danger of “knowing too much”
 THEMES IN WILD CHILD
 Disappearance and Death >> Temporality? Wild Child is a story without a past.
o Big Head Spring: “Everything began with the sudden disappearance of my father.”
o The ghost of Tarō
Ahzhi can see ghosts, and mentions him various times. Even though they only knew him
for five hours, he haunts them. Gang members face death everywhere and seemingly
can’t escape from ghosts.
49
o Big Head Spring: “…either you end up docking at some filthy port, or you forever
float, drifting around some unknown place like a ghostly apparition.”
The gang members are like ghosts - without a future, already gone?
o Annie: “All the cars in the junkyard were wasted before they were even delivered
there.”
One recurrent idea: wasted youth.
 What do the frequent reminders of ghosts, death, and violence suggest about life? Do the
uncertainties of life render life pointless? Is there much hope for Big Head Spring? Does
he belong in the gang community?
The prevalence of images of death and violence is a reminder of the temporality of
life. Big Head Spring was so excited to master the first several steps to operating a
heavy-duty crane, but when he reaches the final step, he realizes how short and
futile life is (understands Ahzhi’s attitude).
Annie asks Big Head Spring what he was doing living in the streets with “losers.”
Big Head Spring is unlike the other gang members who do not have homes to which
to return and do not have terrible memories to forget. However, he is running away
from his responsibilities and duties.

Escapism and Forgetting
o Running away from home
o Most of the action in the plot is relayed through characters’ story-telling
The most morbid details and events are never directly relayed. For example: Horsefly
forward somersaults after being shot twice, and then kills old gang leader; the murder of
Young River
o Big Head Spring used to play a game with his father about forgetting and
remembering
Novel actually ends with Big Head Spring and Annie playing the forgetting/remembering
game.
 From what are all these characters running away? Do any of the characters escape from
life? What role does forgetting play in escapism? How does this relate to the current
events of Taiwan during that time period?
The gang members are running away from society and from themselves, from their
family responsibilities and social pressures, and from the harsh reality of life. Little
Horse’s father wants him to become a doctor, but that is impossible for him.
Big Head Spring and the gang do not really know where they belong.
Ironically, the gang members turned to the constant dangers of life in a gang as their
form of escape—but benefits in not having to deal with reality/expectations, winning
independence, achieving freedom from authority.

Childhood Innocence vs. Maturity
o Big Head Spring displays the innocence and excitement of a child
o Big Head Spring’s imagination indulges in stories that later become true
Mixture of fantasy and reality; What is the truth?
o Cartoons at the beginning of each chapter contributes to childlike environment
o Still demonstrates maturity: questioned father’s decisions and plans when father
comes back secretly and goes climbing the mountain together
o After calling his one of his old classmates, he feels as though he would never have a
childlike mindset ever again
 How does the paradox of the manifestation of both maturity and childlike behavior affect
your interpretation of Big Spring Head’s experience living on the streets? Does Big Spring
Head truly grow up in the novel?
Contributes to escapism, avoid growing up when he feels that he has to call old
classmate
50
Fantasizes about Annie, irony of dark reality of life and wild im
High Culture Aspiration and Transformations
Btwn the late 1970s and late 1980s, Taiwanese (TW) Mainstream literary culture largely
characterized by a middle-class genre that was politically conservative
However, the genre continued to be influenced by lingering high culture aspirations from
previous literary movements
The Modernist movement of the 1960s had promoted strong high/low literary hierarchies
Even the Nativist movement of the 1970s, which had attacked the Modernists for elitism,
stressed serious literary content, further bolstering high/low literary distinctions
In addition, the literary field was increasingly separate from the political and writers thus
competed for “properly cultural legitimacy”
Literary culture during the period was Fukan-dominated; Fukan were literary supplements in
newspapers
Mainstream writers used different ways to negotiate the forces that were competing to
define “properly cultural legitimacy”: the lingering high culture impulse, market
demands, and changes in the larger social sphere
From “Boudoir Literature” to the “Aesthetic of the Commonplace”
“Boudoir Literature” was a subgenre of women’s fiction centered on romance, marriage, and
extramarital affairs written by women writers
The genre was primarily a product of the literary field’s internal forces, including the changing
nature of the clientele in the cultural marketplace, competition between the two major
fukan sections, the socially constructed personal dispositions of baby-boom writers, and
lingering high culture impulses
Examples:
Yuan Qiongqiong: Transitions to a Professional Writing Career
TW’s women writers were heavily influenced by Zhang Ailing (1940s Shanghai writers), but
unlike Zhang who was actually from an aristocratic family, TW’s women writers were
solidly middle-class
Yuan Qiongqiong’s stories, typical of Boudoir Lit, displayed 1) a preoccupation with women’s
lives and 2) a subtext registering overall improvement in TW’s economic condition
She also responded well to new market imperatives by exploring sensational mrurder and
abnormal psychology stories, as well as mini-short stories
Yuan thus represented the pop trend
Zhu Tianwen’s High Culture Quest
Zhu Tianwen’s works were influenced by ultraconservative culturalism of the Double-Three
Club and the high culture aspirations of the TW new cinema movement
Her works share Boudoir Lit’s sentimental appreciation of daily life but contains a mildly
cynical and melancholy tone that moves it away from the middle-class genre
In addition, it echoes an interest in high-culture ideas like postmodern deconstruction, gender
and sexuality, gay and lesbian rights and the plight of TW aborigines
51
Zhang Ailing and the “Aesthetic of the Commonplace”
Writers promoted an “aesthetic of the commonplace,” an idea traceable to Zhang Ailing
Celebrates “that which is familiar to ordinary people in the context of everyday life”
The idolization of Zhang was part of the cultural nostalgia of the early 1980s, driven partly by
second-generation mainlanders’ homesickness for China of the past
Reopening of mainland China around the same time made pre-revolution Shanghai into an
object of popular cultural fantasy
Neo-Nativism, Western Cultural Trends, and the “China Complex”
Neo-Nativism contains some of the ideas of the Nativist movement, which stressed literature’s
capacity to reflect sociopolitical reality, but developed as an essentially emotionally
identification with TW as “homeland”
Old Nativists had called for a resistance to western intellectual trends
We will consider how writers dealt with transnational cultural flows and the reemergence of
mainland China
Cultural Flows and Elitist Criticism
General climate favored Western influences
Transnational cultural flows surged because of cheaper travel and improved international
relations, resulting in a large number of returned students (most had pursued
graduate studies abroad in the US, including Prof. Wang) who shaped literary
culture
Fukan also played a role in facilitating transnational cultural flow by maintaining close
relations with writers/scholars in the Chinese diaspora
Writers pulled in different directions critics and commercializing market
Zhang Dachun and Competing Critical Protocols
Zhang Dachun (author of Wild Kids) has tried to meet both the literary fields elitist ambitions
and its popular requirements, gradually slipping towards the latter
Zhang initially seemed to be a promising postmodern writer who explored themes such as the
question of “truth,” but has since moved into more commercial works in a field
increasingly defined by popular demands and professional success
Mainstream Writers’ Ambivalent Relationship with “China” and New Self-Positioning
Mainland China’s reemergence to the international community shook TW’s claim to
“authentic Chinese identity”
Most Mainstream writers shifted away from imaginary “China” that they had constructed
towards TW itself
Wang Shuo “Pop Goes the Culture?”, From Jing Wang’s High Culture Fever
52
Disclaimer: This chapter is pretty rambling, generally pretentious writing, and the points he
makes seem relatively confusing and useless other than learning a little about hooliganism. It
was not fun to read or try to summarize, at all, so don’t be upset if you’re bored too.
-The demise of the 1980s is celebrated as the beginning of a new “postapocalyptic age”—known
by the neologism houxinshiqi (post-new-era)—Wang Shuo can be singled out as the most
conspicuous and articulate marker of the transition between the 1980s and the 1990s
-the piece focuses on Wanzhu (The masters of mischief) and Wande jiushi xintiao (What I am
playing with is your heart beat) from 1987-1988.
-first specimen of a “marketized” literature that promotes “bestseller consciousness” above all
else
-The conscious appeal to the entertainment and commodity value of storytelling marks Wang
Shuo’s distinct departure from the more playful and impious experimentalists before his time
Some History:
-In 1992 Beijing witnessed swarms of discontented youths wearing the soon-to-be-banned
“cultural T-shirts” which had 2 large characters, mei jingr (depleted), one of Wang Shuo’s
heroes’ favorite phrases.
-The new era started with a transition from the pristine 1980s into a caricutre that vaunts a new
cult of pleasure-seeking and foul play.
Post-New-Era: Epochal Wares
-Very consumerist society that was satirized in the new literature.
-“Cadres, entrepreneurs, and burgeoning new classes such as lawyers rose to the occasion of
Deng Xiaoping’s 1992 southern excursion talks . . .China should be more audacious . . .leaving
behind the once-privileged Five Red Elements—workers, peasants, and soldiers. Everyone went
into business.
Where have the Good Old Days Gone?
-Some intellectuals reacted against the national mania for profiteering.
-In the 1990s the market usurped the elite as the new legitimate maker of public opinions.
-The CCP was called upon to make a macroscopic adjustment of the cultural market on behalf of
traditional intellectuals.
-but the popular appetite for “spiritual opium” and “cultural garbage” only grew stronger in 1989
with soft and hard porn, novels about violence, and divination handbooks all over the place
-new culture flourished in rock music concert areas, karaoke bars, dance halls, TV soaps, etc.
-post-new-era witnesses the return of a national nostalgia for the traditional discourse
characterized by ethical conformism.
-Wang Shuo’s charm consists in his penchant for telling the story of all the desires and
transgressions faced by the lower echelons of society
The Cult of “Hooliganism”
53
-Wang Shuo’s shady characters are not merely social constructs—represent the reality of modern
urban China, “the last proletarians” who are byproducts of the new market economy: make a
living by swindling, drinking, gambling, etc.= Masters of Mischief
-Wang Shuo claims that they thrive on the dropping of “high culture”
-It’s ironic that the group that most buys and reads Wang Shuo’s writing are the intellectuals who
he is trying to spurn
-Also ironic that WS’s characters are trying to turn everything inside out, but that WS is
profiting from selling “literature” . . . exactly what he is ostensibly against. Hooligan style is
trendy!
The Hooligan Chronicle:
You should just read Wild Kids or watch the movies, as this is a description of the lawlessness
and pimping of the hooligans who came out of the 1960s and 1970s. Unemployment, roaming
aimlessly through the Cultural Revolution and into the 1980s.
Philosophy A La Hooligan
This stuff is pretty wishy-washy. I can’t see how it’s going to be particularly useful on the exam:
The true significance of the “Wang Shuo phenomenon” is that he is a genuine voice of a cultural
eclecticism that taps the sources of indignity on the one hand and carries on a clandestine affair
with hauteur on the other. Remember that.
Wang Shuo “Pop Goes the Culture?”, From Jing Wang’s High Culture Fever
Disclaimer: This chapter is pretty rambling, generally pretentious writing, and the points he
makes seem relatively confusing and useless other than learning a little about hooliganism. It
was not fun to read or try to summarize, at all, so don’t be upset if you’re bored too.
-The demise of the 1980s is celebrated as the beginning of a new “postapocalyptic age”—known
by the neologism houxinshiqi (post-new-era)—Wang Shuo can be singled out as the most
conspicuous and articulate marker of the transition between the 1980s and the 1990s
-the piece focuses on Wanzhu (The masters of mischief) and Wande jiushi xintiao (What I am
playing with is your heart beat) from 1987-1988.
-first specimen of a “marketized” literature that promotes “bestseller consciousness” above all
else
-The conscious appeal to the entertainment and commodity value of storytelling marks Wang
Shuo’s distinct departure from the more playful and impious experimentalists before his time
Some History:
-In 1992 Beijing witnessed swarms of discontented youths wearing the soon-to-be-banned
“cultural T-shirts” which had 2 large characters, mei jingr (depleted), one of Wang Shuo’s
heroes’ favorite phrases.
54
-The new era started with a transition from the pristine 1980s into a caricutre that vaunts a new
cult of pleasure-seeking and foul play.
Post-New-Era: Epochal Wares
-Very consumerist society that was satirized in the new literature.
-“Cadres, entrepreneurs, and burgeoning new classes such as lawyers rose to the occasion of
Deng Xiaoping’s 1992 southern excursion talks . . .China should be more audacious . . .leaving
behind the once-privileged Five Red Elements—workers, peasants, and soldiers. Everyone went
into business.
Where have the Good Old Days Gone?
-Some intellectuals reacted against the national mania for profiteering.
-In the 1990s the market usurped the elite as the new legitimate maker of public opinions.
-The CCP was called upon to make a macroscopic adjustment of the cultural market on behalf of
traditional intellectuals.
-but the popular appetite for “spiritual opium” and “cultural garbage” only grew stronger in 1989
with soft and hard porn, novels about violence, and divination handbooks all over the place
-new culture flourished in rock music concert areas, karaoke bars, dance halls, TV soaps, etc.
-post-new-era witnesses the return of a national nostalgia for the traditional discourse
characterized by ethical conformism.
-Wang Shuo’s charm consists in his penchant for telling the story of all the desires and
transgressions faced by the lower echelons of society
The Cult of “Hooliganism”
-Wang Shuo’s shady characters are not merely social constructs—represent the reality of modern
urban China, “the last proletarians” who are byproducts of the new market economy: make a
living by swindling, drinking, gambling, etc.= Masters of Mischief
-Wang Shuo claims that they thrive on the dropping of “high culture”
-It’s ironic that the group that most buys and reads Wang Shuo’s writing are the intellectuals who
he is trying to spurn
-Also ironic that WS’s characters are trying to turn everything inside out, but that WS is
profiting from selling “literature” . . . exactly what he is ostensibly against. Hooligan style is
trendy!
The Hooligan Chronicle:
You should just read Wild Kids or watch the movies, as this is a description of the lawlessness
and pimping of the hooligans who came out of the 1960s and 1970s. Unemployment, roaming
aimlessly through the Cultural Revolution and into the 1980s.
Philosophy A La Hooligan
This stuff is pretty wishy-washy. I can’t see how it’s going to be particularly useful on the exam:
55
The true significance of the “Wang Shuo phenomenon” is that he is a genuine voice of a cultural
eclecticism that taps the sources of indignity on the one hand and carries on a clandestine affair
with hauteur on the other. Remember that.
Jean Baudrillard- Simulacrum and Simulation
begins with a general introduction of the idea that 'simulacra' have displaced
reality and even ideology
what was once a representation of something else has taken on its own permanence
as a thing unto itself, and the reality has been abandoned in the process
The Divine Inferences of Images
images and Idols are exemplary of what has happened to faith and perhaps to God
himself
Eastern Orthodox Christians of the Byzantine Empire were violently opposed to
the use of any images or statuettes in their worship
this may have been prescient, because the use of symbols of God's power can,
when people start to believe the image as much as the source, usurp that power
and demand the worship that was intended for God
if the images are believed, then the images become imbued with the 'power' of
God, and the reality of God ceases to exist
God is gone and only the agreed-upon symbols that have taken up his power remain
this may mean that God never did exist and that the use of symbols was a mask
that took on a reality that was never there to begin with
in the end, allowing images and idols may be smarter than forbidding them,
because they can be used to mask a non-reality that members need to believe
lies behind the images
Hyperreal and Imaginary
Here, the example of Disney land is used to show how the simulation can be used
to create a belief in a 'reality' that is itself an illusion
Disney Land is fun because it is supposed to be a silly exaggerration of
'Americana' to which people can briefly escape from their day to day reality
however, the fact is that Disney has succeeded in creating a simulacra of
reality that itself creates and sustains what people believe to be the 'real'
America
the 'real world' that visitors return to isn't as different from the fantasy of
Disney as they may think, because that 'real world' is a creation, a
reflection, of the simulated America that is perpetuated by Disney. The real
world is a simulation of a simulation that has taken on the affective power of
56
reality and more
Political Incantation
Here, the author uses the Watergate scandal to show how a simulated political
reality creates crisis in order to justify and affirm itself
the Watergate scandal was in no significant way different from the usual doings
of Washington
however, if the people who exist within the simulation of a 'Liberal Democracy'
are to sustain their faith in the illusion they occupy, then from time to time
a scandal has to be 'fabricated' that 'proves' by contrast, that the principles
they believe they live by are real
the truth is that the system and the values have long since been replaced by
simulations of what people want to believe that they believe
the great illusion must be bolstered from time to time by a 'scandal' against
which to measure its virtue
Moebius: Spiraling Negativity
Here, the author examines the 'struggle' between conflicting political
ideologies
where one group blames acts of political violence on a rival group and that
rival blames the original for attempting to skew reality by instigating the
violence itself
in the end, it doesn't matter, because all of the groups are equally involved in
the perpetuation of created reality where signs and symbols have replaced what
they had at one time been meant to represent
since they are all involved in the same kind of deciet, it really doesn't matter
who attacked who, or which group will win 'power' because the differences
between them, and the 'power' they seek are all illusions
Strategy of the Real
Since reality has for so long now been overtaken by simulacra that have rendered
the real immaterial, there eventually reaches a point where 'reality' senses its
immenent demise
therefore, in an ironic turn, the reality that has only too willingly yielded to
the simulated, must struggle to try and reassert itself as itself 'in reality'
Such a reassertion may be an impossibilty, but the grounds for a perpetual
struggle between the real and the hyperreal
Thanks so much for compiling this. Here is the summary of the first 25 sections of
57
"The Society of the Spectacle"
Guy Debord 1967
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction- Still Need a Summary
Society of the Spectacle (First 25 Sections)
-
Begins with a quote that suggests disillusionment with the present age,
preferring the "representation to the essence," valuing the illusion over the truth
-
Critiques societies which produce things as just "accumulating spectacles" and
moving away from truth
-
"the spectacle is the autonomous movement of the non-living"
-
The spectacle presents itself as society and is a "social relation among people,
mediated by images"
-
Argues for the spectacle to be exposed as the visible negation of life, while the
spectacle "claims" to be the affirmation of social life
-
Society which rests on modern industry is fundamentally "spectaclist"—it has
no goal, only development
-
-
The spectacle subjugates men in the same way that the economy does
The economy dominates social life and the definition of all human realization
changes being into having
It elevates theology and degrades philosophy
-
The specialization of power is at the root of the spectacle. Power is the "oldest
social specialization"
-
Division of labor and the formation of classes is part and parcel of the spectacle.
Community and "critical sense" are dissolved in the movement of the spectacle
The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception
basic thesis: The /culture industry /churns out homogenized
products to keep people passively entertained but politically apathetic
Adorno realized that (capitalist) society had not become more
unstable or close to collapse, as Marx had predicted
58
- He credited the stabilizing influence of culture
Suggested that culture industries churn out simple, sentimental
products to appease the masses but prevent them from actually
questioning life
This representation of culture has replaced more 'difficult art'
Since all the industries are related in one big web, it's nearly
impossible for something new to break out
Singers rely on radio, talent scouts, agents, etc
·Anyone who succeeds is thus inherently tied into the system
Impossible to 'break out'
Producers make all the decisions: what's entertainment, etc
Culture industry creates /false needs/ in people, which it then fills
Advertising creates demand, production fills
Everything conforms to the same /idiom/
Hegemony
Since the 19th century "hegemony" commonly has been used to indicate "political
predominance, usually of one state over another." This sense of hegemony, as articulated by
Lenin, referred to the leadership exercised by the proletariat over the other exploited classes:" As
the only consistently revolutionary class of contemporary society, [the proletariat] must be the
leader in the struggle of the whole people for a fully democratic revolution, in the struggle of all
the working and exploited people against the oppressors and exploiters" Italian Communist
thinker, activist, and political leader Antonio Gramsci . uses "hegemony" to theorize not only
the necessary condition for a successful overthrow of the bourgeoisie by the proletariat and its
allies (e.g., the peasantry), but also the structures of bourgeois power in late 19th- and early 20thcentury Western European states. Gramsci defines hegemony as a form of control exercised by a
dominant class, in the Marxist sense of a group controlling the means of production; Gramsci
uses "fundamental group" to stand in euphemistically for "class."
For Gramsci, hegemony was a form of control exercised primarily through a society's
superstructure. A major piece of Gramsci's project is to show that civil society's ways of
establishing and organizing human relationships and consciousness are deeply political, and
should in fact be considered integral to class domination. The superstructures of civil society are
like the trench-systems of modern warfare. In war it would sometimes happen that a fierce
59
artillery attack seemed to have destroyed the enemy's entire defensive system, whereas in fact it
had only destroyed the outer perimeter.
According to Gramsci, one of the most important functions of a State is "to raise the great
mass of the population to a particular cultural and moral level, a level (or type) which
corresponds to the needs of the productive forces for development, and hence to the interests of
the ruling class.
The Nation as Imagined Community
This reading described the idea of what is meant by the word “nation” and breaks down
the 4 different components





Definition of nation is: an imagined political community, that is imagined both a limited and
sovereign
It is “imagined” because the members of even small nations will never know most of the
other members of the nation, meet them, learn of them
 However, in each person’s mind there is the imagination that those they will never meet
to exist and that they may commune one day
 This is not a fabrication of the nation, but rather an imagined or creative one
 Communities are to be distinguished by the style in which they are imagined
The nation is “limited” because even the largest of nations that encompass the most people
still have finite boundaries
 Beyond these boundaries are more limited nations
 No nation imagines that it is the only nation or “coterminous” with mankind
 Even those most committed to nationalism do not believe that all members of the human
race should join their nation as it was when Christians wanted an entire Christian planet
The nation is “sovereign” because the concept of nation originated at a time when
Enlightenment and revolution were destroying the legitimacy of the divinely ordained,
hierarchical ideology
 People were confronted with pluralism of religions
The nation is imagined as “community” because regardless of the inequality and exploitation
that exists in each nation, the nation is always thought of as a deep, horizontal comradeship
 The fraternity that exist makes this possible; the idea that it is not ideal to kill, but to die
for the nation and its imaginings
 “These deaths bring us abruptly face to face with the central problem posed by
nationalism: what makes the shrunken imaginings of recent history generate such
colossal sacrifices? Answer: lies in the cultural roots of nationalism”
Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World.
“Carnival” is Bakhtin’s term for a bewildering constellation of rituals, games, symbols, and
various carnival excesses that constitute an alternative “social space of freedom, abundance, and
equality, expressing a utopian promise of plentitude and redemption.”
60
Carnival festivities and the comic spectacles and ritual connected with them had an important
place in the life of medieval man.





Carnival is not a spectacle seen by the people; they live in it
Everyone participates because its very idea embraces all the people
While carnival lasts, there is no other life outside it
During carnival time life is subject only to its laws, that is, the laws of its own freedom
Universal spirit

Popular festivities during the medieval period were intimately intertwined with the
vegetative and climactic cycles of nature
Explains why carnival symbolism was heavily invested w/images of growth,
regeneration, and fertility
Logic of the carnivalesque:
 All that is new (springtime, vegetation, phases of the sun and moon, agricultural
cycles, etc) portrayed as regenerative and positive
 Carnival itself personified as “nature”
 Festive period – universally considered to be a time when the normal rules of
civilization were suspended/overturned


Notion of carnival = spatial + temporal envisioning of human existence in the world
However, understanding very different from the modern perception of human life
Bakhtin stresses the sensuous, concrete forms of carnival gesture & ritual b/c its whole meaning
derives from the physical materiality of the human body  that is, the tremendous size, huge
protuberances, and vast excretions and appetites are all represented in gross and exaggerated
form to celebrate this physicality.
Laughter and its forms represent... the least scrutinized sphere of the people's creation.... The
element of laughter was accorded to the least place of all in the vast literature devoted to myth, to
folk lyrics, and to epics. Even more unfortunate was the fact that the peculiar nature of the
people's laughter was completely distorted; entirely alien notions and concepts of humor, formed
within the framework of bourgeois modern culture and aesthetics, were applied to this
interpretation. We may therefore say without exaggeration that the profound originality
expressed by the culture of folk humor in the past has remained unexplored until now.
Understanding Popular Culture- John Fiske

Popular Culture (PC) is paradoxical at first glance
o Industrialized, in that components are produced and distributed by profitmotivated industry
o However, also of the people, and the people’s interests are not the industry’s
 To be made into PC, a commodity must bear interest of people
61

The people cannot and do not produce their own commodities (in an
industrialized society)

The people are a shifting set of allegiances crossing all social categories
o Re-formations made within power structure
o Social allegiances have a sense of with whom and against whom
o PC has to be relevant to immediate social situation of the people
o There can be no popular dominant culture, for PC is formed in reaction to, and
never as a part of, the forces of domination
 PC is thus determined by the forces of domination to the extent that it is
reactionary
 Produced under conditions of subordination

PC is not consumption, but culture- the active process of generating and circulating
meanings and pleasures within a social system
o Never can be fairly described in terms of buying and selling commodities
o PC is the “art of being in between”

PC cannot be imposed from without or above
o Culture industries only produce cultural resources for formations of people to use
or reject in the process of producing PC
o PC is “the art of making do” with what the system provides
o Meanings are the only elements in the process that can be neither commmodified
nor consumed
 Consumption is the production of meaning
o Products attempt to deny social differences, yet the shifting matrix of social
allegiances oppose this marketing
 “The double movement of containment and resistance” is inside PC

Example
o Production studies produce a program => sell to distributors => commodity
o Commodity is consumed by audience => program becomes producer and
audience becomes product
o Audience sold to advertisers
Week 12: Notes on “Camp” by Susan Sontag
Basics
 Published in 1964, became popular term in 1980s
 Examined an alternative sensibility to seriousness and comedy, gesturing to the “so bad
it’s good” concept in popular culture
62

Providing a groundwork for the popular understanding and reception of popular Chinese
culture
Understanding “Camp”
 A sensibility that revels in stylization, theatricality, irony, playfulness and exaggeration
rather than content
o All Camp objects contain a large element of artifice
 An aesthetic in which something has appeal because of its bad taste or ironic value
 Camp is a critical analysis and at the same time is a big joke. Camp takes “something”
(typically a social norm, object, phrase, or style), does a very acute analysis of what the
“something” is and then takes the “something” and presents it humorously
o The whole point of Camp is to dethrone the serious. Camp is playful, anti-serious.
More precisely, Camp involves a new, more complex relation to "the serious."
One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious.
o “Camp is art that proposes itself seriously, but cannot be taken altogether
seriously because it is ‘too much.’”
 Camp taste is, above all, a mode of enjoyment, of appreciation - not judgment.
Lecture Notes:
Feb 6
Timeline 1839-1997
1839-1842 Opium Wars
Fought bought Britain and China, triggered by British outcry against Chinese
confiscation of British opium
The trety of Nanjing opened up five treaty ports in China to unrestricted British trade and
residence and resulted in the cession of Hong Kong, among other concessions.
1894-1895: First Sino-Japanese War
China’s defeat in this way leads to the signing of the humiliating Treaty of Simonoseki,
in which Qing Dynasty China cedes several territories to Japan, including the island of Taiwan.
This was was a huge blow to China’s pride
At the end of this war, China was miserable defeated
To reform this country, could now have a traditional monarchical system
October 1911- founding of new Republic of China
New nation founded- new cultural and political premise
1918 Publication of Lu Xun’s first story, “Diary of a Madman” founding father of
modern Chinese literature
Story scandalized contemporary readers
In terms of overall ideological underpinnings
1919 May Fourth Movement
Chinese College students took to streets against concessions made by Chinese
government in signing of Treaty of Versailles
63
Known subsequently as the May Fourth Movement, it has been used ever since to symolize the
various reform initiatives of the New Cultural Movement, including the widespread adoption of
Western political ideas, opposition to various Chinese customs, and advocacy of the use of the
vernacular language for all literay and discursive purposes.
Result in a rethinking of Chinese politics
Truly a crucial moment
Moment of Chinese Renessaince
1921- founding of Chinese communist Party
1922- Sun Yat-sen reorganizes Nationalist Party along Leninist lines, leading to eventual
political alliance
1936-1937- Full scale invasion by Japan results in loss of much of urban China for the next eight
years- second Sino Japanese war, 20 million Chinese died
May 1942, Mao Zedon’s Talk at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art
1945 Japan surrenders. Civil war between Nationalists and Communists begins almost
immediately
Return of Taiwan back to China
Taiwan was conceded to Japan
1949- Great National Divide- civil war that culminated in Chinese communist takeover of the
whole mainland- Beijing restored as national capital
1957 Suppression of the Hundred Flowers policy that had briefly encouraged critical speech.
Beginning of “Anti-Rightist movement.
1966 Beginning of “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
much more to say about the 10 year disaster, or more severely about 10 year holocaust
that happened to Chinese people
All literary and cultural practices were streamlined
Only a handful of novels were made available, only 8 movies were produced
1976 Death of Mao Zedong
1977 Deng Zioping reinstated as vice chairman of the CCP
Under his leadership was China about to take a milder approach to the socialist
reconstruction project
1989- tian’anmen Incident- study movement that broke up right in Beijing city where 100,000
participants participated before
3,000 students protested ironic reminder
1997- return of Hong Kong
All events will serve as background of class information
1990 Boxer Rebellion
Anti-Christian, Anti-foreign uprising by mostly poor peasants practicing a kind of martial art
(hence the name “boxers”
More secular dimension of Chinese historical making
64
Go back to early moments of Early Chinese history- 1902
In Japan, a fiction magazine was published in Yokohomo
Magazine was titled New Fiction
Total circulation was not very large
Publisher of this magazine was Liang Qichao (1873-1929)
Very talented young man- recruited by a group of enlightened conservatives
Participant of the 1898 cultural and political reform movement
Movement that was managed by the young emperor
Culminated in a failed coup
As a result- emperor was under house arrest
Other participants of this movement had to flee China or would hav been executed
Many members of this were executed or put in china
1899- no disillusioned that one could reform China
China was so corrupt
Traveled in Japan- in 1902 decided to start a fiction magazine
For Mr. Liang- thought it was a preface to renoate the people of a nation- the traditional
fiction and religion, manners, learning and arts- fiction must first be renovated
Need to renew people and improve their character
Fiction exercises impowerable magnitue of manking
Talks about superpower of fiction
Wanted to create a new venue to publish fiction
Fiction is extremely crucial to re-fashioning of new China
Fiction magazine was poublished in Japan- how many Chinese people would be able to access
this fiction?
How many people I China at the time would really read and understand the different
styles of fiction
Who are the writers of new fiction?
If you are an intellectual want to be part of the national system of bureaucratic exams
Chinese intellectuals can put knowledge to use
Three key words for your reference
People who have been excluded from traditional exercise
1). Want to call upon people to solicit their help
Want them to participate in new project of rebirthing China
Discovery of new and collective subjective
2). Nation or nationalism not talking about Ching or Mind dynasty- not thinking about China or
one and only monolithic power
Nation has to be part of the international stage
Has opened a notion and a new concept
China has new kind of political organization and sovereignty
3), Literature-something new, paradox involved here
Practicing poetry prose
Literature is something imbued with nation
Literature is tiled with new imagination of China
Chinese people can be educated and rejuvenated
Traditional literature has to be overthrown- must celebrate noble genres
65
For new generation will be talking about fiction
Only people who don’t have much education, who don’t want to engage in serious matters- can
read fiction
Trying to turn upside traditional hierarchy
What used to be celebrated is now condemned and vice versa
Fiction is now the magical genre
Discovery of a new genre- discovery of a new kind of readership
Late 19th century Shanghai
Infrastructure of new fiction
Talk about implied or ideal audience
Two to four million of Chinese readers who are ready to read
Literacy is an issue
Chinese intellectuals found themselves by being denied entry by civil service
Engage in new career of writing fiction
Became all the more urgent- when civil service 1,000 year long system was abolished
Having lost the final chapter, wanted to redirect energy into something new
How new fiction was going to be printed and circulated, who would be the audience
Who would read and consume and be enlightened by new fiction
Booming industry of print industry- served the foundation of the boom
Street famous for publishing houses and bookstores in Shaghai
Commercial press- largest of printing house
Represent final edific of the final publications house
Building was bombed in 1931 by Japanese
Printing technologies were now being introduced into China
Pictures of large printing house
New fiction- new invention of modern Chinese popular culture
Booming printing industry facilitated the circulation of books
Consumed literature of new fiction
Writers have strong enthusiasm about renovating China
Still believe in the power of language
Don’t want to teach Chnese audience confucious
Want to teach them fiction!
National imaginery fiction
Fiction being celebrated to a new historical high
Chinese readers thanks to introduction of prtinting access
Could access something sexy, something erotic
Dame introduced to China
Weekly tear-jerkers
Spontaneous response to call for new fiction
Grandiose discourses
Thousands of Chinese people now have fun reading erotic romance
Probably constitutes the scene of reading for fun
66
Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies: Popular Romance and the Pleasure of Reading
Feb 8 The rise of Chinese pictorial journalism; urban culture and the taste of petit
bourgeois; criticism from leftists
(continued from Feb 6th)
Literacy is a huge issue at this time (very low levels)
4 forms of introducing fiction
1. Newspapers – Shen Bao 1872, 1892
2. Fiction magazines
3. Tabloids
4. Book forms
Western fiction introduced by means of translation
615 novels (1899-1911)
1,016 titles introduced to China (1840-1911) – Dickens, Tolstoy, etc.
Fiction’s role in pedagogy – way to teach, enlighten
*Enlightenment model of popular culture – mainstream writers of next generation pick up where
Liang Qichao left off
Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies:
Refers to traditional Chinese novel that emphasizes sentimentalism, happy ending, love stories,
talent-beauty fiction (17th and 18th centuries)
Turn of 20th century – this term comes to describe new incarnation of this form, name given by
critics of the form as a derogatory or pejorative term
Genre was denigrated, but nevertheless during 1911-1949 more than 2,000 titles were published
(at least 113 magazines featured such stories)
Stories for Saturday
3 historical/material issues:
1. New audience – young readers, living in the cities, low wage, jobs, want to consume new
form of entertainment
2. Print industry/print culture
3. Chaotic time in China, because time was troubled, interest in this genre is heightened
Saturday – most popular magazine in 1910s and 1920s
Very different than “New Fiction” – not transmitting national ideals, etc
New historical understanding of time and temporality (Saturday and Sunday as rest days)
67
Promoter – Zhou Shoujuan (penname meaning “undernourished lovebird”) (1884-1968)
Most male writers take on feminine, romantic names, writers carefully cultivate public
image, and write to entertain
New Type of work ethic Mon-Fri, work hard rest, enjoy entertainment on Sat and Sun
Turbulent time, entertainment form changes, save money, stay at home and read
magazine
Body cultivated and disciplined in new way
Comparison to carrying around ipod – shows you are fashionable carrying around
magazine
Read it in private – new notion of privacy among petty urbanites
Tremendous power of print, capitalism, entrepreneurs saw potential in print industry
Women constituting emerging group of readers
Older people did read these too, not just young urbanites
Around 1905, 5,000 or so elementary schools (Civil Service Exam is abolished, becomes
30,000 in short time)
Literacy increase is very important factor in its popularity, but still, mainstream discourse
denigrates this genre
After 1949 this genre is abolished
Mandarin Ducks and the Butterflies:
Very sad, weepy romances, death as solution to despair, why read such a depressing story
to relax?
Fiction provides buffer zone for reality, feel relief about own life, could be worse
Come to terms with new identity in New Republican China
Fun, but also sentimental, educational, etc
Chinese affective modernity – resources of emotive capacity responding to changes in
society
Many subgenres under this umbrella
1. Trashy romance
2. Chivalric
3. Scandal
4. Detective
5. Fantasy
*Compare and contrast these subgenres in your reading
Old and new in intense conflict in this time
All honoring moral occult – shared experience of writers and readers underlying everyday lives
Political thrust behind this too
Feb 13 lecture notes
-1921 April 6 Beijing
a new Chinese opera play premeired—Farewell My Concubine
-before the movies Peking opera was the most popular form of entertainment
68
-there was a new theatre with 2000 seats
-the play is based on a historical event of 2200 years ago took place in 2nd century bc.
-the hero of the play is Xiang Yu (232-202bc) battling Liu Bang in a series of battles in
competition for the rulership of china
-Xiang Yu was superior in all counts except for hubris and was finally defeated surrounded on
the banks of the Wu River. Now only couple hundred helpers plus one woman, Lady Yu, his
favorite woman—she still pledged her love. The day before the final defeat he hears Liu Bang’s
troops singing songs of his hometown and he despairs.
-Lady Yu dances her final farewell dance and commits suicide.
-Xiang Yu kills himself.
-Liu Bang becomes emperor of the han dynasty.
-The meteoric rise and fall of Xiang Yu inspired many playwrights and poets. it’s the Chinese
response to Anthony and Cleopatra.
-Why new play? Why so powerful? MEI LAN FANG?
-Mei was so feminine and beautiful they wish they were Xiang Yu. Lady Yu is more beautiful
than all real women.
-Female impersonation was the core of the industry. He/she obsessed one generation of Chinese
from all social classes, not only pop culture but also national and political culture.
MEI LAN FANG biographical info: born 1894, died 1961. born into a family with tradition of
opera singers and musicians. Beijing opera was degenerate form of profession in 1890s.
Sent to study Chinese opera at 9. not precocious but grew up to be good impersonator, singer.
When kids were young, picked by trainers at age of 10 to train as dan.
he has to train boys in a feminine way.
17th or 18th century tradition of training boy female impersonators in Europe: often castrated,
voice often higher in pitch and lighter in tonality.
Chinese: no castration, very few able to survive the training and keep their high voice by age 18
or 19.
Play: 1921, Farewell my Concubine. mei demonstrated power of singing and his ability to arrest
their hearts. he became a national star.
Why female impersonators and not real girls?
1. female impersonators are capable of generating a more powerful voice, strength plus
range is greater.
2. gender plus sexual issue: don’t just go for singing, also watch gender spectacle, to see
men looking like women, shifting of perspective and sensibility. men can assume role of
a woman.
3. bizarre circulation desire. heterosexual + homoerotic, generate more subversive form of
desire. males saw beautiful woman, female saw beautiful woman but knew inside it was a
man.
No longer an enlightenment model of pop culture. mei lan fang was too effeminate for
intellectuals. Intellectuals didn’t necessarily like him but he capturecd the nation, upsetting May
fourth revolutionaries.
69
Enlightenment model vs. consumption model:
3 dimensions. biological attributes-boys trained harshly, cultivate. gender politics: may fourth
writers and revolutionaries didn’t like this, wanted masculine and strong modernity. political
consideration: patronage from rich intellectual fans helped him reach stardom.
he’s the first star in a modern sense. First he’s patriotic. Second, media promotion spread his
myth.
Maneuvers of cultural politics to make him national star: became popular as international star.
1920s: trips to Japan. 1930s: trip to United States, DC, NY, SF, LA, Hawaii. in America, it was a
period of Depression. he is a cultural ambassador. 1935: took trip to Russia on behalf of Chinese
culture, even more successful. 1939: performance in Hong Kong. Japanese wanted him to
performed for the puppet regime, forced him to stage show. 1943: posted picture in Shang Hai
newspaper. he sacrifices career, doesn’t reform.
Foreign Cultures 67 Feb 15, 2007
I.
Unfinished Business Mei Lanfang: issue of gender not just biological attributes or sexual orientation, social
expectations, cultural fashioning of a gender construct in a specific social environment
 Each society has its own kind of rules for gender behavior
 From issue of gender we move to the issue of performance
 Impersonation can also be understood as part of a social recognition of various role
prescribed and endorsed by the construct of our social environment
 At end of last class, when Mei let his mustache grow it may have been a different way of
playing his national hero role; his mustache helped him take on a new social role
 Exactly who is entitled to represent his or her country?
 It seems only men with a mustache seem eligible to represent masculine, patriotic Chinese
citizenship
 Mei wanted to prove that even a female impersonator is capable of loving his land
 Genre politics - literary genre
 What kind of genre is the best possible to represent a nation?
 May Fourth would have said realistic novels, new fiction that can best represent Chinese
patriotism
 Just like mandarin ducks, Chinese opera was suffering from a crisis
 The war has brought a new momentum
 Mandarin ducks and Chinese opera may be a different form of representing Chinese culture
 The Structure of Feeling - talking about sentiments of desire
 During the ar time Chinese were thrown into a new situation where they had to struggle to
understand their own role sin society
 Watching Mei’s performance, these audiences were encouraged to rethink exactly what Mei
is representing
 1940s two models of pop culture are brought together to form a new expression or
articulation
 The model of consumption - concerned of fate and relaxation
 Consumption in economic or effective terms
 Find a vicarious form of emotional construction
 The enlightenment model was geared toward one purpose - pop culture was to further the
70













nation, not serve as relaxation
After 1949 there was a new nationhood, called the People’s republic of China, all Chinese
people were told they are finally earning their Chinese citizenship
This country has its own gender role to negotiate
Early 1950s were characterized by masculinity
What is Mei and his clan to do?
Pop culture was in need of a new form of expression
After 1949 Mei had to change his image - what would he do? Joining the party
1959 Mei was sworn into the Chinese communist party as if this membership will exonerate
his bad associations of a woman-like man
In late 1950s early 1960s the last years of Mei
His final role was as a female heroine defending her country
After 1949 Mandarin Ducks was regarded as the number one genre which had to be weeded
out
Those writers found themselves in a rut
For the next four decades no more info of mandarin ducks was allowed
No more female impersonation until early 1990s
1960s and 1970s
China was reinforcing its gender policy
 This kind of gender performance found a new stage overseas - Hong Kong, Taiwan
 1950s Ren Jianhui idol for millions of hong kong people - she is good at roles of male
scholars
 1950s and 1960s Hong Kong gender impersonation was still hot - no more female but rather
male impersonation (it is alright for women posing like men)
 Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai - male impersonators in order to go to school
 Novel written 1985 - made into a movie in 1992 the funding came from Taiwan from a
female producer
 Le Be Wong was writing for pop consumption in 1980s Hong Kong
 Lee Be Wong rewrote farewell my concubine
Lecture Summary, 20 February 2007
Movies as a Cultural Industry in 1930s China
History of the Chinese Film Industry
 1896 – The first films come to China
o Featured in Shanghai teahouses, not taken seriously
 1905 – First feature made in China, 5 min long, showed Chinese opera performance
 1913 – A Difficult Couple made
o Short slapstick comedy with a plot
 Late 1910s – Chinese film industry begins to grow on the strength of comedies
 1921 – First full length feature released in Shanghai, plot based on a 1920 murder
o Commercial success, people realized the value of film
71









1921-1931 – Boom in Chinese film industry
o Low quality productions, but the audience still enjoyed them
At the same time, Hollywood films being shown in China
3 common genres of Chinese films:
1. Domestic melodrama
2. Martial arts
3. Fantasy
Late 1920s – Chinese film industry begins to decline
o Audiences become tired of movies
o Occurred at same time as political turmoil and economic crisis
1931 – First ‘talkie’ film, starring Hu Die (Ms. Butterfly), Ruan Lingyu’s rival
o Hu Die was a northerner, could speak Mandarin (standard language)
Ruan Lingyu already a star
o But Ruan was a southerner, spoke Cantonese
o Therefore Ruan could not act in ‘talkie’ films
Ruan was an artist of an actress
o Knew what she was doing in creating her ethereal and aloof image
o Her fan base was selective and educated, had a lot of university students
Hu Die was more accessible to a more diverse audience
1934 – Ruan acts in Goddess, her breakthrough silent film
o Film about a prostitute trying to leave her profession, eventually kills her patron
o Showed good acting to Chinese audiences
New Women - 1935
 1934 – Ai Xia, a filmstar, committed suicide
 Ai’s final movie was A Modern Woman
o This film and Ai’s death inspired New Women
 Plot summary:
o Ruan plays an educated girl, Wei Ming, who runs away from an arranged marriage for
true love
o Her lover leaves after the birth of their daughter
o Wei gets by as a teacher in Shanghai, but attempts to become a writer
o Publishers will only accept her novel if she puts her picture on it, as they are only
interested in her beauty
o Wei’s daughter is ill but there is not enough money, so Wei considers being a call girl
o Wei follows a patron to a dance hall, but realizes this is not what she wants and leaves
o Wei is later implicated in a media scandal and her daughter’s health continues to worsen
o Feeling she has no way out, Wei attempts to commit suicide using sleeping pills
o In the hospital, surrounded by friends, Wei shouts out “I want to live!” before collapsing
Who Is Ruan Lingyu?
 Born 1910, committed suicide in 1935 at age 25
 Came to Shanghai at age 15 and began acting
o In her early roles she often looked sad, which intrigued her audience
 Ruan lived with a common-law husband for 8 years, but never loved him
o Ruan was involved with another man who wanted to be with her permanently
72








Social dilemma: Ruan was not officially married, but socially she was with her ‘husband’
and could not end this relationship
1934-1935 – Ruan’s ‘husband’ threatened to sell the story of her affair to the media
Around the release of “New Women,” the story of Ruan’s affair broke
In addition, Ruan was having trouble competing with Hu Die, who could speak Mandarin
8 March – Ruan committed suicide by using sleeping pills
Ruan left behind 3 letters
o One letter was simply “People’s gossip is most fearful”
After her death, Ruan was still a show and a Ruan Lingyu craze existed for a year
o Tabloids highly publicized her funeral, took photos like shots from New Women
o 100 000 people attended her funeral
The incident begged the question: Is art imitating life, or life imitating art?
Two Notes about New Women
1. The film was conceived and consumed as if it was a woman
o It was frail, enchanting, and projected a sense of intimacy
2. The film marked a change in performance in China
o Female stars were beginning to replace female impersonators
o Women were now allowed to watch films and go to opera houses
o Audiences began to be trained to quietly watch performances instead of having them in
the background, making performances more passive and feminine
Significance of the New Women Title
 The title highlighted the new social status of educated women
 The title also questions the complex identity of the film as a gendered form
Feb 22 Lecture Notes
How Ruan Lingyu’s charm was consumed. Ruan on and off screen was attractive; always victim
on screen and publicized as a victim of society. She also exerted her agency by inspiring many
girls trying to emulate her image. Her power as a symbol of film as a genre. Film was probably
understood and consumed as a feminine genre. Ruan embodies the gendered power relationship
between the audience and the screen. The untimely death of Ruan as a social spectacle;
newspaper, tabloids, photos, etc. As an audience, also part of the social spectacle as mourners of
her body.
Ruan the first big major star who committed suicide. Leslie Cheung of Farewell My Concubine
suffered from depression and he also committed suicide in 2003. Very frail career. As a result of
the movie Farewell My Concubine, he came out as a bisexual. Where is the line between film
and reality? Another star through his self-identification, gender speaking, etc. gave us a lot to
talk about. Ruan was the eternal symbol of the Chinese movie industry.
Film a new form of public entertainment. We want to go to the theater to relax ourselves, etc.
This is the happy part of film production and consumption. Late 1920smovie theaters and
select movie stars saw the movies as a pedagogical tool. Movie New Woman represented three
types of new woman. Wei Mingwoman in search of self-identity and freedom. Wei Ming’s
classmate a rich person’s wife; “corrupted” by consumer society. Associated with
73
underground activities, become a revolutionary, hopeful that masses will become enlightened
3rd type of woman. When Ruan shooting the film in 1935 she was already enlightened by the
agenda of the director and other members. The director and some of his crew members were
conscious of the power of the film. Make Ruan a new representation of a new type of Chinese
woman. What is the New Woman? We have 3 new options. Complicated process of movie
making and it can be very polemical. Aware of her potential of her role and this particular movie.
The film as a new form of maass media, a new form of pop culture was to be appreciated by all
as powerful to further support the goal of Chinese artistic modernization.
Walter Benjamin1892-1940. Cultural critic. Film was a fascinating mode of artistic production.
Experience new sensation of reproducibility of artwork. Ex. Painting, sculpture, Mei Lanfang’s
immediate response to the audience in the theater, all one-time deals. Benjamin highlighted
power of aura (the contact of presentation with artworks). Authentic representation/aura was the
sensation of traditional forms of art. But these are mostly owned or appreciated by the rich; not
accessible to the general public or the masses. Limited in accessibility. Film watching a onedimensional presentation, that does not involve the tradiational understanding of aura, and
audience is encouraged to critique this film; if didn’t get it the first time, come back and watch
again. We do not generate the sensation of aura, and has been dissipated or dispelled as a result
of this filmmaking or cinematic representation. Why emphasis on mechanical reproduction? This
kind of a form is good in the revolutionary sense; encouraged public participation in critiquing
and deciphering messages onstage. Film celebrates the power of the masses and power of the
general public. No longer do we talk about singularity or authenticity, but talking about
representation, re-producability, etc. Film can facilitate revolution.
Idealized agenda regarding the power of film. His argument: slightly different vis-à-vis Ruan.
We talk about Ruan as if her aura is still with us. For a leftist critic, hoping aura would be
dispelled, masses would joing together, and join revolution together. When talking about
worshipping someone, you’re talking about aura. Ruan was an idol. Early on, Prof. talked about
aura as a cult-like sentiment of a one-time thing. For Chinese audiences in the 1930s, filmwatching wasn’t done as revolutionary. She’s close and intimate on the screen. Aura in the
tradition of realism. Film seemed to exert this effect as the power of the 1930s. Wants to identify
with Ruan, and get to know her. Realism with an aura-like effect still hanging around. (Not like
Mei, who was fantasty) The actors ARE what they are playing. A mysterious game of
identification.
Perhaps Ruan commits suicide because she’s also involved in the role; in lived experience. She
was so empowered by the role in the story she wanted to carry it on. Think of the spectrum of
performing as a skill. Ruan chose suicide to end or consummate her career as the best possible
actress anyone has ever seen. The dubious dimension of aura.
The issue of cinematic simulation, or cinematic representation. Could be understood as
consumption model, enlightenment model. As an actor, you don’t just act. You want to exert
your power onscreen. Actress: Chen Bo’er. Not that pretty, not like Ruan who was inaccessible,
but Chen very accessible. Not pretty, but good actress. By early 1930s, Chen learned the power
of thematic interpretation. Wanted to use her star power to influence Chinese society. Mid-1935,
already taken sides (the Left side) wanted to use the power of film. Became ambiguous as to
74
living out the role. Raised the flag above a warehouse during second Japanese war as a girlscout. Performing in Shanghai not enough; wanted to perform in northwestern China, was sworn
in as a Chinese communist member. Wanted to make the identifiable with each other (still a
movie star). Believedi n her own role (the aura of realism) so much that she wanted to actualize
the aura into her real experience. Chen was NOT a superstar; she was popular but not too
popular. She wanted to do more for the leftist cause.
Third model of popular culture. (Had been discussing the consumption model—middle classes,
enlightenment model—pedagogical communication with the masses.) Revolutionary model—
want to do something more progressive. You want to go the Ye an because you want to use film
as a powerful form of communication, and Chen’s commitment. The “Good Woman” star.
The “Bad Woman” star. There were many temptations and possibilities as to maximize star
power and sustain their career. Third star was Jiang Qing (1914-1991). Had an intriguing life in
Shanghai. When born in Shanghai province, fasicinated by Shanghai’s show business. Wanted
first to become a stage actress. When arrived in early 1935, was still a young actress, aspiring,
and yearning for a breakthrough. Ruan Lingyu was the idol. Just three months after Ruan’s
suicide, Jiang had a chance to star in title role of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (liberated role). Jiang
won small claim for her performance. For awhile, she was optimistic of her career. Mostly
played femme fatale. Career didn’t have any advancement. She disappeared. Then when
reappeared was with Mao Zedong. She was 24, and he was 45. Both have already shared a past
in the romantic department, and found had a romance together. How was able to transform
herself from glamorous movie star and appeared like a womderful woman cadre. Very careful
about
February 27 Lecture Notes
-Shanghai—“above the sea”—located at mouth of Yangtze River
->history stretches back to the Song Dynasty when Shanghai was a small fishing village
->16th centurty, 1553, city history began though still was a small locale
-great transformation in 19th century, and specifically the end of Opium War in 1842
->much foreign trade came to the city, and many foreign establishments set up
-1850s—Taiping Rebellion
->conflict in greater China that caused many to flee homes
->came to Shanghai because considered safe due to foreign settlements
->many stayed in Shanghai after the Taiping Rebellion ended in the 1860s
-1863, the first foreign concession found—British
->followed by French, American, and Japanese concessions later
-in late 1800s, much foreign construction and development
->many foreign cultures combined
->very densely populated, 1.2 million by turn of century
-1900 Boxer Rebellion in North again sent many to Shanghai along with financial, cultural, and
political resources
-in early 1900s was the cultural, financial, and entertainment center of China
->also the center of the publishing industry(90% of China’s)
-in early 1900s, Shanghai became known for style and culture with many desiring to be
identified as Shanghainese
75
-1927 marked the first Chinese Communist Revolution breaking out in Shanghai
->financial and cultural scenes plummeted as everything had to close down
-by 1930, city bounced back as center of most everything in China aside from politics which
were of course centered in Beijing
-entertainment very important in Shanghai
->originally amusement halls/arcades were popular, but these eventually were supplanted
by dance halls, cinemas, coffee shops, and cabarets
->fancy affair to go to a movie theater
->in dance halls, men often paid to get tickets from hostesses in order to spend
time
with them
*the Paramount was a famous dance hall
-cartoons were popular at the time for teaching people how to be suave and act in a culturally
informed manner
-“Five in a Club” written by the playboy of Shanghai, Mu Shiying(1912-1940—assassinated)
->no clear plot(a new idea for writing)
->Shiying represented a new type of Shanghai youth
*born into merchant family near Shanghai
*mystified by Shanghai, went to a mediocre college, would walk up and down
boulevards and go to night clubs
*known as a “dandy” because culturally aware and knowledgeable
*at age 17, did creative writing and wrote “Five in a Club” in 1932
*could write from first hand experience as he had spent so much time consuming
entertainment in Shanghai
*became a celebrity through writing
*first wanted to be a Marxist-Leftist, but then became a rightist-nationalist in
1930s, and then wanted to be a Neo-Sensationalist(change political sides often
clearly)
*collaborated with Japanese during war
-worked for newspaper and stated support of Japanese
*assassinated by Nationalist soldiers, but he might have been a double agent for
Chinese, making his assassination a big mistake
Lecture: March 1: This lecture basically recaps the stories of Five in the Club and
Shanghai Express
Shanghai described as the Paris of the orient. Wonderful place for Chinese people. Mecca of the
cultural industry and for people who want to make it big in any sense. Mu Xin, playboy of
Shanghai. At the age of 20 he wrote a story titled Five in the Club. Shanghai Express is in
contrast to Mu Shi Ying’s story.
Mu Shi Ying story has 5 characters. A broker who has lost his family fortune in the recent gold
market crash. A Shanghai socialite, who realizes she is at the end of her prime time at age 28 and
people are talking about her as passé when just a few years ago she was enjoying the limelight. A
college student who has recently been spurned by his girlfriend who realized she didn’t love him,
76
leaving him terribly distraught. A philosopher, the hamlet of Shanghai, in his own studio asking
the eternal question of to be or not to be. Finally, we have a duty-minded governmental clerk
who is fired from his job, betrayed from the dedication to his work. Time frame – when did the
story happen – Saturday afternoon. Importance of Saturday Magazine- people were encouraged
to read this at the end of the week at home. In 1932, people were not staying at home and
reading, people wanted to go out and have fun. These 5 characters all had a terrible crisis in their
life and they wanted some consolation and relief.
The next scene shows us the Shanghai Empress nightclub. At that time, early 1930s Shanghai,
there were more than 300 cabarets and cafes and 50 + movie theatres. Empress was one of the
fancy places people hung out on Saturday. In the early evening on Saturday, people get together
to start their revelry. The chance encounter of these 5 people is an opportunity for them to
momentarily get together and be friends. In the end, anti-climax, one character commits suicide.
Under the spell of the god of death.
The story is written in a very poetic style. Very fragmentary. Strange constellation of sensations.
Oriented to some kind of sensory feeling. Linguist working and re-working produces a very
different portrayal of Shanghai. This is mimicry of cinematic industry. People watched film as
one of the most fashionable pastimes on weekends. Here the language is modeled on the
cinematic technique, juxtaposition of different scenes, forming another dimension of images.
Linguistic sensation. The plot is not the most important. Time is so compressed and distorted that
you as a reader/spectator feel disoriented. So you have to try very hard to figure out what is
going on. Characters have no relationship with each other until the find themselves outside
Empress club. Time came to a temporary halt, people really want to forget about the historical
context outside the nightclub. Sharp contrast to Zhang Henshui’s Shanghai Express. Repitition –
poetic – of universal struggle. Narrative reflection of the music temple in the nightclub,
represents the rhythm of dancing in the nightclub, this kind of rhythmic resonance is nothing but
repetition. Everybody comes to realize they share a faith in the meaninglessness of life. One the
one hand, the extreme sensational experience and on the other hand, alienation and lonliness. Mu
Shi Ying shows that on Saturday night, even judges are tempted to lead lives of crime, on
Saturday night god goes to hell. On second thought, cynical articulation, his linguistic traits. His
story is contextualized in some sort of senses of historical turmoil. The story was written in 1932.
Just one month before the story was written there was a Japanese attack and over 1/3 of Chinese
buildings were destroyed, Manchuria was taken over by Chinese invaders. The newspaper boy
selling newspapers, was being brought to remind us that this was a moment of historical turmoil.
History is being dissolved, cynically looked at as some wonderful steps of dance numbers.
Contrast between time outside and time within the nightclub is something to think about.
The story also teaches a lot of Shanghai’s material life, you have to be extremely sophisticated
to identify names and brands and fashions introduced in this story, ladies have to go out, wear
kiss proof lipstick, you have to smoke a certain kind of cigarettes, seems like a nightlife handout,
seemingly proliferating encyclopedic commodities of Shanghai. Shanghai Express – also some
sort of enumeration of this sort of living, fine commodities of sophisticated living. Term of
“spectacle” to describe Shanghai. Describe the landscape or human scape of Shanghai. This
configuration of images is aimed to make the visitor to feel dazzled and shocked. The reader
wants to be amazed and puzzled. At the end of this spectacular representation, you feel
77
disoriented. Momentary detachment, based on something superficial and visual, based on images
that do not bring us any concrete understanding of what is, on momentary encounter of being
happy. At the end the spectacle generates a continued sensation. These images can be thought of
it relation to “simulacrum”. Can talk about Shanghai as huge city with skyscrapers, Mei Lanfang
as a female impersonators, Ruan Lingyu as a wonderful actress and her funeral as a spectacle
providing a new sensational distraction for the people, putting aside proper to indulge in
sentimental experience of the spectacle.
If we are truly engaged revolutionaries we want to find breakthroughs in Shanghai. For Jean
Baudrillard you think he is either a cynical person, post-modern player, beyond the spectacle.
Simulacrum constitutes our historical experience. For Dubor, he feels that there must be
something we can do together to present the spectacle, and revolution is still in order. Film as the
media that would help us hang together our collective subjectivity. Film as a wonderful
mechanism. Three weeks in a row we have introduced leftist and post-modernist theories.
Spectacle is something to be critiqued. The paradox of our critical inquiry is that even the leftist
campaign can be thought of as a spectacle. For example, Mu Shi Ying, kept switching his
fashions in terms of ideological affiliations. Even revolutionism is something we can think of as
a spectacle.
Zhang Henshui. He represents the other extreme of the spectrum of Shanghai modern. He
represents the general public’s imagination, lower middle class of what the Shanghai modern
should be like. Born in 1895 and died in 1965. On all accounts, regarded as the most important
figure in the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies genre. King of the genre. Throughout his careers he
produced more than 80 full length novels. Wonderful story teller. He is anything that Mu Shi
Ying is not. Came from Anhui province, relatively poor, from a small merchant family, country
bumpkin. He city dazzled him, shocked him, came to Shanghai to make a living, only to
experience one failure after another. Paradise for adventurers. Ought to have luck to make it big.
In his teenage years he was driven out due to financial reasons, went to Beijing and served as a
journalist. Tried his hand at fiction writing. His first novel became a big hit, and in the late
1920s, he managed to make himself one of the most popular story tellers of Mandarin Ducks and
Butterflies. He was so popular, and wanted to make a come back in Shanghai, which was the
center of Chinese popular culture. Now in America, if you want to become the greatest movie
star, you don’t just stop in Boston, you want to go to New York/Broadway. Mei Lanfang had to
make his trip to Shanghai to become a superstar. Zhang Henshui in the late 1920s finally went
back to Shanghai and became a celebrity. Very learned, but not very well dressed and a little
chubby. Enjoys tremendous readership. Zhang Henshui had a very unhappy marital life, arranged
marriage etc, and had his own romantic fantasy. He wanted to rescue a girl from a lower depth,
and educate her and make her a model of society. He married a young girl like “my fair lady”
kind of story. Somebody who wanted to re-create a spectacle for his own marriage. This turned
out to be a disaster. She turned out to be a spendthrift. Not a very pleasant lady, shrewd. Ran
away from her, first wife was waiting for revenge. Wife 3 was a highschool student, and loved
his novels, and married her idol. Zhang Henshui as a spectacle.
Shanghai Express, 1935, peak moment of his career. Best writer in China, was commissioned to
write many novels. Normally, he worked at 6-7 novels all at once. Everyday he wrote more than
8000 characters to fulfill his commitment. He joked that he was a machine. He was churning out
78
one story after another, all relatively similar. Shanghai Express is truly a surprise to the reader.
Short by his standards. Novel with a clear message – moral lesson, cautionary tale, don’t talk to
girls who are just pretty, for you will lose your fortune and your family. Difference between Five
in the Club and the Mandarin Ducks ideology. The story happens on the train from Beijing to
Shanghai. Wonderful trip. Story was serialized in a popular magazine. Middle class learned the
how to and know how of travel and consuming high class pleasures. A very peculiar kind of
pedogigcal knowledge, educating those yearning to become Shanghai moderns. Mr. Hu has three
wives, and is on his way to Shanghai for a dubious purpose and has a lot of money. He meets a
fancy, dressy modern girl giving him all the hints that she is available. Wonderful flirtatious
episodes between them. She shows that she is not the run of the mill girl from Beijing. Reading a
book in English, sign that she is educated. Dressed in a way to catch his eye. She is making
herself a small spectacle for Mr. Hu. Signaling that she is the source of sensation and modern.
Comedy of manners with one delicious turn after another. Our pleasure – we are being titillated.
We want to see what happens. Modulates the distance between the characters. Sympathize with
Mr. Hu, but also want to see his downfall? Story about seduction, crime and downfall, and we
learn a lesson in a vicarious way. This is a story about travel. The railroad was built in 1908, in
1933 the ferry was built on Yangtz river to continue the trip all the way to Shanghai. Still
extremely fashionable to take the one-way nonstop travel from Beijing to Shanghai. Audience
read and learn about a lot of tourist spots. Each spot features something intriguing. Train stops
every couple of hours, and you feel Hu can get out of the situation. But the train goes on,
Shanghai is the city of downfall. Witnessed a spectacle in the most negative sense. Cautionary
story told while conveying spectacular sensation.
Lecture 3/6/07
Yellow Music
Acoustic modernization of China
Revolutionary sounds/slogans
- revolutionary connotations in what appears as lighthearted music
- new technology spreads music (radio, gramophone, film soundtracks)
1927- 1st Chinese Communist Revolution, meanwhile a child star emerges in Shanghai
Li Minghui (1909-2003)
- hit song: Drizzle, characterized by jazz melody, nasal singing, very Chinese
sounding, but Western style clothes and haircut
- avant-garde by Chinese standards
- not liked by intellectuals
- she popularized “yellow” music, because it was somewhat pornographic
Li Jinghui (1895-1965): her father
- Enlightened, made dance/singing troupe in 1921
- Purpose: to re-educate/enlighten general public, but audience was more interested in
the entertainment
- Troupe was money-making machine, so he switched the direction of troupe towards
popular industry
Technology
79
-
50 radio stations in Shanghai
Gramophones: played in teahouses, popular by 1890s
By 1930, pop. music already a booming industry, international investment in China
came and started recording studios (French Company Pathe became the largest of
these)
Bright Moon Troupe
- Zhou Xuan: joined as a little girl, name means politically engaged and smooth
harmony, beter singer than Li Minghui, reflects more sophisticated tastes of Chinese
audience
- Nie Er: joined as a composer, but pop. songs were too easy, went on to compose
songs w/ clear revolutionary themes
March 8
Andrew Jones, Yellow Music- Stephanie Mok –smok@fas.harvard.edu
Mass Music and the Politics of Phonographic Realism:
-
-
1932: Nie Er- studied music under Li Jinhui (founder of Bright Moon Song and Dance
Troupe)
o Witness to Japanese invasion of China (2nd Sino-Japanese War)
o Incited musician’s passion for Revolutionary Music (to excite the laboring
masses)
o Turned against European classical music & Yellow Music
o Mass music= Phonographic Realism:
 Leftist works serve as “phonographs” to record struggles & aspirations of
proletariat—played back to society for political mobilization
o Yellow Music: jazz/Chinese folk music hybrid
 Pioneer : Li Jinhui
Influence on Nie Er’s development of Revolutionary Music:
o Modern warfare (Japanese invasion)
o Rise of mass-mediated culture industry
o 1932: composed leftist anthems & screen songs
 soviet-inspired musical representations of working classes
 dockworkers, female workers, sing-song girls, laborers
 music to “cry out on behalf of masses”
o Recording Technology:
 Means of allowing intellectuals to represent/convey lives of the oppressed
 Removes “’taint’ of cultural producer’s bourgeois subjectivity”
 Mandarin= unitary voice of unifed national body
 Utilized Media technology (phonograph record) for mass political
mobilization
o Nie Er’s Revolutionary music—written for musical screen/gramophonic
reproduction
 March of the Volunteers: national anthem of PRC
80
-
-
-
 Musical screenplays = New Woman, New Year’s Coin
Criticisms of Yellow Music:
o Gender bias towards mass-mediated Sing-song girls—associations to prostitutes,
courtesans
o Representation of sing-song girl as “prostitute” of imperialistic forces (Japan):
Betrayal of nationalistic ideals
o Leftist filmmakers: utilized sing-song girl as “means of figuring China’s
humiliation and prospect of national salvation”
 i.e. New Woman
o Yellow music: “decadent sounds,” “portent of social dissolution to be eliminated
for sake of national reconstruction,” “flagrant and fleshy appeals to the audience”
Gender distinctions between “soft” feminism of yellow music to “hardness” of
revolutionary art
1934: KMT bans Li Jinhui’s yellow music compositions (Peach Blossom River, Little
Sister I love You)
1936: imposition of strict new policies on broadcasting of music (by KMT Ministry of
Transport and Communications)
Rise of National Revolutionary Mass Music: 1930s
o “leftist films habitually portrayed the assimilation of the mediatized figure of the
sing-song girls into a larger group of mobilized and desexed citizens singing
nationalist anthems.”
o Mass-singing rallies: “organized as a means to stirring up patriotic fervor in
support of resistance against Japanese territorial encroachment, represented a
direct attach on the culture of consumption in which the leftists were themselves
implicated”
Nie Er’s Mass music:
o Consistently represents the problems of oppressed groups
 i.e. newspaper boys, bricklayers, coolies, road builders, female factory
workers, child laborers..
 sing song girl = “figure of oppression, national humiliation, and national
resistance”
o Acoustic Sound: open-throated, deeper vocal production (martial, strident
marches/chants)
 Vs. Yellow Music’s high-pitched, nasal melodies
 Sonic culture of mass music conveyed: masculinity, strength, resolution,
collectivity of unified voices
 “The fetishized female star is subsumed by the collective;
commercial exchange is replaced by ideological solidarity and
voluntarism; the gendered consumer becomes a desexed citizen
participating in a ritual enactment of national solidarity
March 13 Lecture Notes
War, Politics, and Popular Culture
81
1940s—2nd Sino Japanese War. One of the worst, horrendous moment in Chinese history. The 1st
one took place in 1894 China lost Taiwan to Japan as a colony. The second one was a
tremendous war, whose theoretical framework as popular culture…China was split into different
parts, occupied by the rightist, the Japanese, and the communists. Some basic data: A war with
immense casualties. At least 3 million Chinese soldiers lost their lives in combat. At least 9
million died in the crossfire, and 8 million died as result of casualties of the war. About 20
million Chinese died as a result of this war. On the Japanese side, about 1.1 million Japanese
soldiers died as a result of the war. China was split into different parts. And more than 100
million Chinese were forced to leave their homes, in a mass exodus to southern China. As a
result of this time, political and popular culture had to be re-defined. How propaganda was
mobilized by three sides of this war, to serve different kinds of political purposes (nationalist,
communist, Japanese).
Movie Stars and Singers could not be relaxed nor lead comfortable lives. The performing arts
took a different kind of form. You don’t go to movie houses or theaters; you are expected to
come across different kinds of performances on the streets or at events, where these are done to
arouse patriotic performance.
Newspaper playjournalistically sensitive issues, certain performing troupes would hear the
news, put together resources, and put on the play. People would watch the plays as if were
watching for information. A sense of urgency, immediacy. Newspaper drama.
Street drama even more effective than the newspaper play. They have decided to leave their
own studios, leave their own theaters, and call people to join campaign of anti-Japanese
aggression. On different streets or in public space how cultural workers tried to articulate their
agenda to the urgency of their time. Highly improvisational and dynamic.
Example of play: “Put down your whip”. a father and daughter were driven out of
Manchuria. Itinerary folk song singers. But the daughter was so hungry that she couldn’t even
sing a coherent song and he got nervous. The father whipped the daughter. And the audience
member suddenly screamed to put down your whip (and these audience members are most likely
part of the troupe). The play is highly dynamic, and audience is taught to be agents of the show;
and anti-Japanese. Spectacular show involving everyone.
1943 A troupe sent to the United States, and Roosevelt saw the performance in the White
House. Effective performance over the world.
Immense spectrum of popular films. One example of repertoire of art forms. You’re supposed to
“run into” a performance, not specifically go to the performance yourself. You feel the
spontaneity and immediacy, and kind of pulled into the play. Nationalist and communist.
2nd important historical moment of the 1940s 1936-1946 Northwestern China in the hands of
the Communists. Yan’an. The political and military center of the Communist party during the
war-time. Small and barren farmer’s town. In 1936, 20 thousand or so communist troops made
Yan’an the military base and headquarters. How did they choose this place?
1934—in South Eastern part of China, a relatively poor area. Chinese communists had
been driven to this area as the last safe place, and Chaing Kai Shek were still cracking down on
82
them and couldn’t say in SE China. Had to leave, because Chaing was coming. About 100,000
men and women took a tremendous, massive retreat to somewhere else. HUGE retreat; huge
military undertaking. Began as a grand defeat, and ended as a myth of spiritual triumph. More
than 80000 men and women were a part of these retreat, and was called the Long March by
Chinese historiographers. Had to withstand extreme geographical problems. And lasted for more
than 370 days. The sacrifice was great. When they arrived in Yan’an only 20000 people were
left. This long march was a historical moment of Chinese communist defeat. But when they
arrived in Yan’an, it had become a new political myth representing the Chinese fervor of
political Communism. (An international event; their march was broadly reported). It was perhaps
a new kind of spectacle (from leftist standpoint). When you talk about Yan’an, it’s considered
the Chinese mecca of revolution.
Chairman Mao was considered a shrewd leader; wanted to use Yan’an as a new lab to test
his cultural and political policies. Revolutionism. No longer apply the traditional forms of pop
culture.
The Enlightenment, Consumption Models. Now we’re talking about the Revolutionary
culture. Has to mobilize Chinese masses to OVERTHROW the status quo. This is a drastic
measure that leaders were taking in Yan’an. It also has to be populist culture. Who was the
general public? Not those petty urbanites in the cities, but a public in the countryside. The
peasants are living a very traditional form of life; still interested in folk singing and dances.
Different forms of song and dance had to be formed for Chinese people to rethink of popular
culture. Underneath this revolutionary model, is a deep-seated belief in primitism or nativism.
Nativitsm-has nothing to do with popular urban culture(stage plays, movies, Yellow
music,) but a popular culture rooted in the most original form of the performing arts, which
are supposed to arouse the most primitive desires of a collective subjectivity of a people in the
name of the revolution, nation, etc.
It’s meant to be something folksy, arts, of the Chinese land.
The result: Chairman Mao’s talk in Yan’an. He has a new role to perform—like Odysseus—once
in Yan’an, he’s taking up a new role of philosopher king. Handing down policies for his
followers to follow. He gave a series of talks (5) [REVOLUTIONARY] and told of his vision of
what he believed popular culture should be like, and what revolutionaries should follow to
implement his policies. These would be the national policies that would dominate China for the
next four decades.
1. What are we doing here in Yan’an? What is the purpose of Revolution? To serve the
people, to serve the masses. This was the holy message to serve in Yan’an
2. Who are the people? If you hold a college degree, less qualified. Three kinds chosen by
Mao to serve. 1. peasants. 2. workers. 3. soldiers.
3. How do you serve the people? We should serve them with spiritual food. You’re taking
a Great Leap Forward in terms of your faith. Spiritual food in terms of folk dances, wonderful
stories that you’ll read. Writing and performing all of these popular and populist forms to join
the red army and populist campaign. Media power is being highlighted by Chairman Mao to
sustain and substantiate the spiritual food of the people
Hegemony Ideological rule in society. Hegemony refers to something simple way in which
indoctrinated into the societal conscience. You’re a free agent indoctrinated into the society. A
way to critique the capitalist society. Isn’t Mao’s regime also a regime of hegemony? Kingdom
of myth? Communist, utopian, proletariat space.
83
1944,1945 Chinese cultural workers put together a play called the White Hair Girl which
becomes an immediate classic. Based on a superstitious story, where a peasant girl was seduced
to sleep with the landlord, pregnant, and nowhere to go. Her father commits suicide. He runs to
the mountains. No food, and no salt. Her beautiful black hair had become white. She went into
the temple to steal food from the temple for her baby. When the red army finally came, she
rescued this white haired girl, and her hair became black again. The slogan that was continuously
being used: humans were consistently being transformed into ghosts, and in the new society
ghosts were being turned into human beings.
Fusion of symphonic background music with Chinese melody.
March 15th
Eileen Chang
Nativism vs. Decadence
-highlights collectivity & Solidarity between lower laborers and revolutionaries
White Haired Lady – no single author, collaboration by group
-climax with appearance of proletariat universe
-future ought to be promising, comic – proletariat of paradise
Simulacrum – guide life toward revolutionary mecca
Timetable of Shanghai during the wartime
1937-1942, Shanghai was isolated from other regions of China and became so-called “island
city,” semi-colonial city in political limbo (in many chunks of power) – unexpected
prosperity during these years of occupation, kept by Japanese as a window to the world to
show that they’re friendly helpers, not destroyers, received more refugees.
1941, December 7: Pearl Harbor
1942-1945: occupation period, under tight Japanese surveillance and censorship, trying to
maintain superficial order – forbidden to talk about political issues (vs. at Yan’an), just trying
to survive
Theatre/cinema/club/café: coexisting with the pedagogical machine and didacticism of the
wartime mass mobilization is pleasure-seeking and entertaining aspects of popular culture in
Shanghai
Eileen Chang (1920-1995)
1942 -1943: a dedicated professional writer in the literary scene at Shanghai. Ironic and cynical
overtones; nonchalance and desolation in her writing. Synthesis of Butterfly fiction and neosensationalism. For her, life as such is always trivial and meaningless, threatened to be
erased by history, so rather seize something superficial and trivial. Fashion and style are
allegories of her political awareness.
– prospered 1942-45 in Shanghai
-dressed only in Qing garb, didn’t like to talk to people
-father open addict, mom loved the west, Eileen very smart but couldn’t go to Oxford because of
the war
84
-needed income – started with Mandarin Ducks and Butterfly attempt, submitted it to magazine
and editor saw something special in her writing – encouraged her to break into mainstream
-tension in her writing and shows her own personality
-she believes you can’t make sense of life now – can only seize at superficial, trivial, so she takes
fashion – fashion as a political statement
-life ephemeral, love – “Blockade” – momentary, trivial in a difficult time
-hybrid nature of life/politics, need to relax still after propaganda culture
-has been treated as marginal, not involved in campaign or politics, and married a “traitor”
during the war for three years
1949-1951: spent some years under the regime of newly founded PRC
1952-1956: lived in Hong Kong
1956/57-1995: spent most of her life in US, quiet and anonymous life. Her works re-appraised in
Chinese communities circa 1960s until she came to be celebrated as a canonical writer.
Posthumous deification - beginning of cult following – clothes, etc., one fan tracked her
down in California and reported on her trash
“Love in a Fallen City” (1943); “Seal-Off” (1943)
White Haired Girl vs. Eileen Chang
Realism vs. irony, sublime vs. epiphany & decadence (splendor and desolation), nation vs.
alienation, humanity vs. femininity, revolution vs. involution.
3/20/07
Politics and dynamics of the first 30 years of the People’s Republic of China
Summary of historical background of rise of new time
Promoted by Chinese communist government
Picture taken of Tian’anmen in 1949
Hundreds of thousands of people cam eto the square
Moment of which people were celebrating founding of new China
Mood was celebratory and crowd was impressive
Background is the famous Tian’anmen gate in Beijing
Gate- built around 14th century at beginning of Ming dynasty
Traditionally morphed physical and symbolic entrance into tremendous area
Political and cultural center
Behind the gates was holly site where power and cultural emination being felt
On October 1st- famous quote that Chinese people have arisen
Marks transformation of Chinese collective communist
No longer under traditional Chinese feudal lineage
Helped to construct new kind of ideological and cultural framework
Period from 1949-1976:These were not pleasant decades
From the perspective of the national family and national pride
Chinese people were invited to Tian’anmen square
Before 1949- in 1919 hundreds of thousands of college students occupied square
Protested war lord government- May Force movement
85
New and nationalistic and totalitarian regime
Different kind of political matrix
Highlights solidarity of the people
Nationalism is something to think about
Implication of the people as a collective mass
Now is a time for Chinese leaders to put masses into writing
How to organize these people and how to rule these people became new regime
Start with call for nationalism- call for agency for the people
Through the agency want to build utopian space- proletarian utopia
When you look at cultural politics of the period- impressed by scale
Impressed by size of orchestra and chorus- audience overwhelmed by spectacle
People as an ornamental for nation’s desire
Militant- something that has not been talked about
Country mobilized by strong militant desire for campaign
Image is masculine- girls are being educated and trained into new gender model
Masculinity very much a part of new popular culture
Culture that highlights very strong, robust physiological imagination
Queen of Chinese yellow music
This decade- Mai Langfang sworn in as a member of Chinese communist party
New national space
Space that will become the venue and sight for practice of popular culture
Now it is a square- a plaza
In July 1949- even before Peoples’ Republic of China founded
Chairman Mao already perceived organization of workers of China
Understand that this people were crucial for reconstruction of Chinese nationality
Huge congress was called in Shanghai- all famous names were there
753 celebrities were invited
Everybody could continue their career in performing arts
Had to become part of this national regime
Had to have membership in various associations
Can tell that this is a different kind of machine
Movie stars were left only to make money and have own breakthrough
They were all unified under one umbrella for national strength
Everything was a straight line for a very specific program
All the opera theaters- incorporated and became nationalized
By 1960, this grandiose association of Chinese literary and art workers- 3,719
In 11 years went from 753-3719
Even if you wanted to be in the field, were invited to join in
To join this association was not an easy thing- had to apply
By 1961 when organization has became such an huge group
Mao could announce victory of first step
Highly motivated political machine
By 1953 or 1954 had to organize according to agenda
Different kind of poltics for performing arts and popular culture
After the Second Sino Japanese war, China was barely recuperating
86
Met with new challenge- civil war
War btwn Chinese communisty party and nationalist regime broke out in 1947
Civil war lasted from 1947 to 1949
Result was total defeat of ruling regime- nationalist regime
Regime then fled to Taiwan
Whole mainland taken over by Chinese communist party
Already lost 20 million Chinese during Sino Japanese war
More than 2 million Chinese
Truly a dramatic moment for Chinese people
Chairman Mao started war with Korea
Sent more than one million soldiers
Booming of new kind of popular culture- something very inconsistent on film
Dramatic reduction- very joyful mood
Endless campaigns going on
Picture of Chairman Mao and all of his workers- testifying to new and different agenda
1949 celebration of new china- see two huge posters
Most popular song during 1950’s- called East is Red
Song originated with a popular ballad in NW China- folk song
1943 group of artists were doing field work in countryside
Artists just heard this song being sung by peasants in the field
Turned the song into propoganda or nationalist song
Song developed to become most popular melody
Musical produced in 1961
1959 marked hayday of great famine - covered northern and central China
During three years of famine, more than 30 million Chinese died from hunger
Orchestra for red had more than 1,000 players
See hundreds of thousands of singers on stage
Chairman Mao loves his people
Chairman Mao celebrated as messiah of China
Beginning of Mao cult as early as 1950’s
Only a prelude or overture ot the music that runs 2 hours
Everything is designed for this political agenda
Pay attention to orgnamental qualities of human body
To form different kind of pattern and parade
Create sensational ornamental quality
Becoming part of something grandiose in scale
Becoming integral to totality of performance
Maoist sublime- psychological response to performance of popular cult
Through this kind of cultural edification
Viewers are so overwhelmed by what they are doing
Tremendous experience of rupture or pain
For sublime- referring to overwhelming experience when one is brought to witness something
Climax of this Maoist sublime- all too human elements of life
Elements are being turned into inhuman
Or feel that you are so elevated have become a superhuman
87
Only beginning of sublime
Cultural revolution
Playwright who understood new age: Lao She (1899-1966)
During the 30’s and 40’s- best observer of social injustice and corruption
Most powerful storyteller in Beijing
For those in modern Chinese literature- novel about boy’s struggle in Beijing
Between 1946-1949, invited by U.S. government to come to U.S.
When he was overseas, communist took over
Lao She was a bit timid and wasn’t sure what was going to happen
After his visit to America- traveled to Hong Kong
Waiting to see what would happen to new regime
October 1st- Chairman Mao said that we have gotten our new nation
Lao She was honored by Mao- left everything behind and went back to Beijing
Worked very hard on agenda put forward by Chairman Mao
Honored as the “people’s artist” to show how supportive he was to new regime
Wrote a series of plays that celebrate the new time
Lao She trying very hard to become a wonderful citizen
Wonderful new nation-everyone put on weight
Can sense the feeling of joy and pleasure
People trying to ominate feeling of new nationalist agenda
During this 10 years, a lot of political things were not happening
Chinese cultural workers were under tremendous political pressure
BY 1956, Chairman Mao had to ask people not to feel so timid
Told everyone to say what they wanted to say and create what wanted to do
Chairman Mao came out with famous slogan
“let 100 flowers and let 100 voices all bloom at once”
Marketed for a momentary grace period for early days
This policy of 200 only lasted for on year
Next year Chairman Mao saw all the uncooperative workers speaking
Though these people were poisonous weeds- launched anti-writing campaign
As a result, thousands of Chinese writers and performers were under purges
Were all sent to rehabilitation centers
Focus on play Lao She wrote in 1957- wrote Tea House
Written to commemorate 10th anniversary of new republic
Play ran no more than three shows- was immediately banned
Used Tea House as a way to articulate traditional public space
Wonderful nostalgic look
Act 1) Laiching Dynsasty
Act 2) Chinese communist revolution
Act 3) 1949- when Chinese communists take over
Lao She wanted to teach audience about how new nation had come along
He had chosen name after stage in which different kind of political factors took place
Chinese opera was performed in Tea house
Tea House was space for production of various cultural activities
Lao She cast one final and nostalgic look about Tea House
Play shows vitality of Tea House
88
Can already tell of hustle and bustle of space- things that were still happening
Towards end of play- mark of retaliation
Started survey with examination of space called Tea House
Now any kind of public space replaces traditional enclosed space
People’s artist find himself to become people’s enemy
Among first group of Chinese writers to be persecuted
Eventually Lao She committed suicide
3/22/07
Lecture 15
1. Historical Background of the Cultural Revolution
a. 1950’s country was still fresh and full of promise but lots of political campaigns
etc. were already under way
b. political war was going on all the way to the 1960’s
c. Chairman Mao was the leader of the party and the nation but “The Great Leap
Forward” Movement’s failure Mao was losing his control of the party in the early
1960’s
d. To regain control of the party he was masterminding yet another counter attack on
the party members who were rising to take control of the party and the nation
e. Revolution eventually engulfed the whole nation
f. Started with a campus demonstration
g. Summer of 1966 on the campus of Beijing University head of the dept. of
philosophy rose against the university leaders
i. whole politics of the campus were to be overhauled
ii. Young generation should now seize the power etc.
iii. not run just like a party
iv. was a very carefully organized campus-wide activity
v. put up huge posters about how bad people you don’t like are
vi. Use lots of imagination to denigrate your target
1. In addition to this “civil battle” also more militant tactics
a. pull him out of his classroom
b. shave half his hair
c. force him to kneel down at the gate and kowtow to anyone
who walks by and admit one’s faults
d. bloody trials
vii. Classes were stopped
1. The time had come for more important things
viii. Next several months this campus campaign quickly spread all over China
ix. Age level of participants went down to the high school level
x. Young people stood up to criticize teachers/parents/leaders
xi. They are now in charge of the country’s future
xii. Youth organized into militia in support of Mao’s ideology
1. Called Young Red Guards
89
xiii. Hundreds and thousands of students want to stop their class work and
sever their family ties
xiv. Basically halted the whole nation for 10 years
xv. “Chinese version of the holocaust”
1. bitter irony because it was invented and implicated? on Chinese by
themselves
2. 1976 in the square and once again crowds gathered in the square to
mourn
3. Tien’anmen Square
h. Aesthetic quality for commies
i. Bright
ii. Red color scheme
iii. Mao has to look sexy
iv. Has to be very tall/huge
v. Shiny Showy
vi. He has to be most complete person
vii. He has to be the best most virtuous person
i. Little red books
i. compilation of Mao’s famous quotes
ii. Bible for Chinese during those times
iii. people had to memorize saying from the book
1. shows political correctness
iv. Worship Mao
v. There’s a folksy dance of loyalty to Mao
vi. (August 20 something) Lao She and 20 others forced to kneel down
making circle in square
vii. scripts books costumes etc. were set on fire
viii. Forced them all to kowtow to the red guards
ix. they beat them too
x. He was 67 years old at the time
xi. he was beaten so much that he fainted repeatedly later on that day
xii. he couldn’t respond well because of his age and was detained and
persecuted yet again
xiii. Violence was such that that night when he went home the congealed blood
stuck the shirt to his body
xiv. ordered to go back the second morning for yet another round of public
rally
xv. Lao She walked out of his home that night before the second morning to
“Peaceful Lake” sitting on the lake shore and he walked into the lake and
was found the second afternoon dead
xvi. Condemned as an enemy of the people because he took his own life etc.
betrayal of nation by taking own life
xvii. unforgivable
xviii. body was burnt into ashes and no trace was left
xix. Was the Dark age of Chinese cultural production
2. Artistic production came to a halt
90
a. only one type still active and sanctioned under Mao
b. Mrs. Mao was in charge
c. spurned by Shanghai movie etc. industry she became the leader of the overhaul of
Chinese performing arts
d. one of the most powerful figures at the time one of the Gang of Four
e. She got revenge on her colleagues for being better than she was
f. The situation was horrible but the art pointed only to the very best side of things
g. Went through tremendous transformation
i. Model Theatre
1. One and only kind of arts sanctioned during cultural revolution
2. population almost 1 billion at the time
3. directed to go and enjoy model theatre
4. only 8 total
a. 5 Chinese operas
b. 2 Ballets
c. 1 Symphony
5. Everything else wasn’t popular
6. Everyone had to just recycle and re-watch over and over again
h. No longer trusted classmates
i. Professors have to be really careful
j. Whole nation is run in this strange atmosphere
k. terrible paranoia etc.
FC67 Lecture
Tuesday April 3rd, 2007
History of Chivalric Romance (wu-xia)
 Started 1st/2nd century BC during the Warring States period
 Rose a group of men in arms to claim own legitimacy in social and legal terms
 Ready to act out own code of justice and honor: defend the weak, uproot evil
 Scholars (ru) vs. Knight errants, chivalric men/women (xia)
 Ambiguous position in society
 An important genre in the Tang Dynasty, 7-9th c.
 Short stories of incredible conquests, often into the immortal world
 Far from human/secular understanding of society.
 Song/Yuan Dynasties (12-14th c.)
 Huge Saga of the Water Margin (novel written in Ming Dynasty, events took place
during the Song Dynasty)
 108 outlaws who called themselves law enforcers
 Fraternity
 Defiant rebellious spirit esp. of the lower social classes
 19th c. (second half) Code of Honor and chivalry
 cooperate with government to quell enemies
91
 ambiguous shift of “xia” into more mainstream part of society
 willing to serve as government agents for the sake of the nation
 1920s Martial arts romance, kung-fu fiction
 lots of martial arts movies made, tremendous popularity
 later banned by Nationalist (KMT) government, but the narrative fiction went on
 1950s-80s people in the PRC had no access to this kind of fiction/movies
Huang Feihong (1847-1924)
 Local doctor in Guangdong later made into martial arts practitioner by legend
 Icon for local Cantonese chivalric performance.
 Important source of imagination: ~80 movies made about him
Jin Yong (1924-)
 Key figure in martial arts fiction
 Was journalist who volunteered to write serialized martial arts fiction for the journal to
sell, in the 1950s.
 Two reasons for popularity
 1. Kungfu movies and fiction point to national and ideological motivation – 20th
century Chinese history is depressing. Need to rediscover national pride.
 looking back – nostalgia of a time when China had a pristine landscape and
people had a lot of power.
 2. Technological marvel of watching film
 something both new and old: modern expectation + nostalgic desire
 miraculous even if the special effects are crude
 experience a flight in imagination
 Overseas Chinese want an art form as an escape, to indulge their whims of traditional
Chinese culture.
 Jin Yong uses chivalric form to engage in how we remember and/or engage in
Chinese history.
 Encourages readers to understand how China had come about, and make their own
secular/popular judgment about that history. The novels are a national allegory in
popular terms.
4/5/07: Lecture Notes





On screen, Bruce Lee dies heroic death, but we don’t feel too bad
o Expect him to come back in next movie
July 20, 1973
o Emergency call from actor’s studio
o Bruce Lee unconscious, dead by time brought to hospital
o He made 3 films
His death is still a mystery
o Reality vs. fiction
o Short career, but patron-saint-like figure in cult of body & Chinese imagination
Born in 1940 to Canto opera singer family
o Born in San Francisco, parents touring in US (American)
o Grew up in Hong Kong as child star in Canto movie industry
Juvenile delinquent in teens
92


o Didn’t like to study
o Devoted to martial arts training
 By 18 developed his own school and had followers
 By 24 well-known as a kung fu master
 Hong Kong movie maker discovered him
st
1 movie: Big Boss
o different from wizardry, flying, etc. in prior films—people knew that was fake
o Bruce Lee’s kicks and sound effects are natural
 Live performance in front of the camer
 Demarcation point in terms of kung fu genre
 Martial arts no longer weak
 Bruce Lee shows us the real thing
Myth of Bruce Lee from 5 aspects
o 1) “Cult of the body” (kicks, jumps)
 Bruce Lee a kung fu master before he became a star
 Bruce Lee intensely focused on training the perfect physique
 Summoning personal will—shape yourself into a demi-god
 Creating a myth
 Meditation, strict diet (steak juice), unprescribed painkillers
o May have been cause of death
 Worshipped symbol of body
 So strong as to withstand tech. attack (gun bullet)
 Turn of 20th century—Boxer Rebellion
 Bruce Lee carried on the Boxer Reb. Myth
 Return of the Chinese body—celebrating this
 Trick of cinematography
 Bruce Lee despised traditional way of martial arts movies
 He didn’t want to depend on tech. of camera, trick shots, etc.
 Wanted to present himself realistically
 Rejuvenating transcendence of the body
o Body like a machine, robot
 One hand—primitive belief in the body
 Other hand—response to idea that tech can address all needs
o What kind of force presented by Bruce Lee?
o 2) Aesthetics of violence
 killing fantastic, enjoyable; we care about process, not how many people
will die (influenced Quentin Tarantino)
 irony: Bruce Lee on surface represents Chinese virtue—loyal, filial,
upright, etc.
 how can such embodiment of Chinese virtue be conveyed through
enactment of aesthetics of violence?
 At moment of violence, all virtue/social decorum pushed aside
 Chinese loyalty expressed through violence
o 3) Representation of gender in Bruce Lee’s films
93

o
o
o
o
o
all along, gender discourse suffering from emasculation (e.g. Mei Lan
Fang, etc.)
 Bruce Lee: although Chinese are small, can defend manhood against
foreigners
 fixation on masculinity represents society’s anxiety for role model
 reincarnation of re-imagined manhood
4) celebration of masculinity related to making/remaking of national allegory
 Bruce lee’s showing of body--> return of national pride
 1900: Boxer Rebellion—invasion of foreigners, Empress Dowager flees
Forbidden City
 after tha, on national disaster after another
 1960s/1970s: Chinese in all communities suffering
 Cultural revolution in PRC
 Hong Kong under British hegemony
 Taiwan calls for island independence
 Political, emotional frustration
 Bruce Lee—for all our frustration, there is still essence of national pride
that unites us
 Shared nat’l identity we can hold onto in movie theater
5) Is Bruce Lee just a nat’l hero? Born in US, lived in colonial Hong Kong (not
true Chinese).
In what sense could he represent quintessential Chinese manhood?
 Bruce Lee packaged as internat’l star
 Fans not just single ethnic body of Chinese (Americans, Africans, Latinos)
 National hero on behalf of what? To what extent?
 More than just articulation of national pride
 Packaged as vigilante of all suffering under unfair international
forces—movie studio was clever
If so much of a “superman,” how did he die so suddenly?
Bruce Lee says he doesn’t depend on cinematic tricks, but what about technology
used in Fist of Fury

Clips:
o Fist of Fury—Bruce Lee knocking down Japanese
o Matrix—influence of Bruce Lee on US filmmakers

“The Carnival”
o Bakhtin, literary critic
o Carnival—medieval pagan festival
 Plebeians relieve themselves from daily routines
 Free from moral structures, religious taboos imposed
 Celebrate temporary emancipation of the boyd
o 1) carnival highlights necessity of “body principle”
 in society repressed by ideological, religious, etc., carnival represents
temporary liberation
 body called forth as single force to warrant vitality of society
o 2) body undergoes transformation during period
94


like Halloween, Mardi Gras
people encouraged to transform themselves (gender, profession, age) to
something they wouldn’t be otherwise
 we know there’s possibility for us to join Bruce Lee’s
transformation
 Bakhtin, transformation ends with presentation of grotesque, profane,
hilarious body
 In Bruce Lee’s case, deification of body—different from Bakhtin
o 3) Body bears upon collective celebration
 jointly celebrate occasion where everything/anything is permissible
 Bruce Lee phenomenon is not singular/individual
 Laughter not just in clowning sense, but democratic
o Laughter shared by entire audience
o National collectivity via laughter
 Not just king of martial arts, but a nat’l celebration
o Images: Bruce Lee’s followers
Jet Li, Jackie Chen (subverts Bruce Lee by clown-like playing), Stephen Chow (pokes fun at
Bruce Lee culture)
Rocking China: The Polyphonic Stage of the Post-Mao Era
Lecture Date: April 10, 2007
Summarized by Connie Cheng
1. Historical Background
a. Late 1970s, after the Cultural Revolution
b. Deng Xiaoping returned to power
2. Teresa Teng (Deng Lijun) (1953-1995)
a. Born in Taiwan
i. Started career at 10
ii. Superstar in the 1980s in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan
iii. Very popular in China as well, although she never visited
b. Mainland listeners had to listen underground because her music was “decadent”
i. New “sonic politics”
c. Her songs
i. Narrow range, very gentle and soft vocals – very different from PRC
music
ii. Derived from Western harmonies, Chinese pentatonic scale
iii. “The Moon Represents My Heart”
1. Most popular song
2. Chairman Mao is supposed to be your heart!
3. He’s the sun, not the moon!
iv. “When Will You Come Back Again?”
1. Roots in yellow music, a courtesan’s song
2. Popularized by Li Xianglan (Shirley Yamaguchi)
3. She’s Japanese  political implications
95
d. Government hegemony v. popular resistance
i. Decadence  “de-cadence”  falling apart of monolithic sound of
Communist government
ii. New emotional politics – affective power of her performance
iii. New body/vocal politics – soft, sweet image
e. Geopolitics
i. China has a single sonic discourse  Taiwan is an enemy!
ii. Teresa’s father was KMT
iii. 1989 – Tiananmen – she appeared in a rally in Hong Kong
f. Technology – how the voice/melody can be disseminated
i. Cassette tape recorder
ii. Walkman – plays music for one person only  democratization of
listening
3. Anita Mui (1963 – 2003)
a. “Bad girl” image, “Madonna of Hong Kong”
b. Started young, breakthrough in 1982
c. 1983-2003 – dominated the Hong Kong pop culture scene
d. Her songs were also banned for about 10 years
Relevant Concepts, Themes, Readings
1. “Decadence,” the consumption model – compare and contrast with yellow music, mandarin
ducks and butterflies fiction, Shanghai modern (Five in a Nightclub)
2. Gender politics – Mei Lanfang, Ruan Lingyu, Li Minghui, Communist Revolution, Super
Girl (looks like a boy?) – also compare and contrast the female image as portrayed by Teresa
Teng v. Anita Mui
3. The nature of protest music – compare and contrast Teresa Teng, Anita Mui, Cui Jian
4. Relevant theoretical readings – Adorno and Horkheimer (cultural industry as deception),
Mastroianni (hegemony), Benjamin (aura v. technology), Baranovitch (overview of pop
music in this period)
4/12
Today, shift focus back to mainland
Father of rock in China
Main topic – politics of rock and roll – even pop songs can rock China in tumultuous years
Background – Cui Jian – born 1961
Born into Korean ethnic family – family of musicians
o Father trumpeter, mother ethnic dancer
Age of 14, began to take interest in music: trained by father on trumpet
At 20, 1981, recruited by Beijing Philharmonic as trumpeter
o Clearly very talented musician, at young age
Was restless – wasn’t happy with orchestra life
96
o Didn’t like playing same nationalistic, Russian-inspired music all the time
o At night he would start to play to his own liking
 Bob Dylan, Bob Denver, Simon and Garfunkel
o Interest in Western rock and roll
By 1985, developed taste for Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, the Police
We can admire him as the Bruce Springsteen of China
o He is iconoclastic and controversial by Chinese standards
o Tame by our standards
1986 – breakthrough on television talent show
Also performed at concert devoted to world peace
o Played his own composition – “Having Nothing”
 Inspired by Northwest wind – trend of musical popularity at the time –
trend itself inspired by 1940s folk songs
 He also gave the song his own radical twist: eliminated any hint of
solidarity
 Lyrics portray the disillusionment and frustration directly – unlike any
song Chinese had heard
 Surface: love song written for girl ignoring guy
 Yet he sings the song coarsely
So not only were his songs radical, but his delivery was so self-interested and
‘take it or leave it’ so as to be revolutionary
“Having Nothing” is youth anthem for disquiet and dissatisfaction
Politics of vocality
China has always celebrated monolithic choruses – everyone singing together –
the standard for popular music for government
Cui Jian proposed his individual voice/noise – emphasized his individual talent as
a songwriter and artist
o He is clearly playing to enjoy himself – not exactly for the audience
o This individualism contrasts with even Teresa Teng
o Inspires generation of Chinese youth to be rebellious themselves
(Tuesday we talked about music geopolitics – invasion of Hong Kong and China)
Geopolitics of listening
Still evident, but now in his own international traditions
Combined Korean heritage, Western rock tradition, and the folksy movement
(Northwestern wind) of China
o Internationalism served his popularity in the 1980s
Recall “East is Red” – discovered in 1943 by folk song collectors – sung by
peasants in fields – reworked and integrated into sonic culture of China
o Here we see fluidity of popular culture
o Ideas and trends are not prepackaged concoctions of hegemon
o John Fisk argues that popular culture is amorphous, mercurial, ever-changing
dependent on the audience’s response
 Government may want you to appreciate a product, and audience may
be receiving it
 But the process of consumption always turns that item into their own
pleasure
97


Cui Jian has radicalized the ‘safe’ folk songs of China
Fisk argues for ability of audience to manipulate popular culture
handed to them
1987-1988 was a time of relaxed government censorship
Movie, Rock and Roll Youth, based on Yiran’s story “Rocking Tian”
Depicts dance craze of youth
Carnivalesque element – Bakhtin
All about turning things upside down
Subverting doctrine, empowering our own bodies
Usually portrayed as bodily transformation – Cui Jien mimics Western
rock stars behavior and image
Function of laughter: represents deepest bodily emancipation – not just for
fun, laugh to defy, resist
Has to do with collectivity
So, the Carnival can be superficial, people getting together for fun
Or, it can be a politically influential gathering of individuals
Cui Jien’s iconoclasm
Wanted to do a concert tour, but these were mostly banned in China
Called his tour – “Rock and Roll on the Long March” – referencing military
expedition of Mao and his followers
o Cui Jien adopts this idea, but infuses it with sarcasm and defiance
o Mocks the suffering and strife of the Long March
o Highlights his defiance
Clearly he is the rebel of his generation
These last instances have been in 1987-1988, a relatively open time
1989
-
Corruption of government, injustices, absurdities still remain long after Cultural
Revolution
Students feel compelled to demonstrate – hundreds of thousands outside
Tiananmen Square
o Gathered peacefully to push for government reform
o Government ignored them – youh only become bolder
o Students continue to gather – but they needed some force to congeal their
sentiments
 “Having Nothing” became the anthem of the rebellion
 Cui Jien visited at night on two occasions
o This highlights political power of rock and roll
Theores of Bakhtin and John Fisk no longer seem to apply
Tiananmen is a carnivalesque moment – youth gather to celebrate collectively
against government, hopeful, defiant
Their hunger strike is using their body as ‘their last weapon’ for critique – in this
sense it is performative
98
-
Alternatively, hunger strike hits on something dark, cynical in the Tiananmen
movement – they ended up having truly nothing, gaining nothing, wasting their
bodies – this cynicism pervaded the end of the incident
o Eve of June 3 (crackdown), gunned down by People’s Liberation Army –
ironically the singers of East is Red
Politics machine of China was troubled with Cui Jian
Wanted to show how open-minded they were, but couldn’t help but censor him
Music technology, governmental technology
Political machine manipulating venues of performance, channels of listening
More than just the actual level of technology
o Political machine can turn you on and off
o Cui Jien becomes victim of government technological control
He continue to play his music, devoted to spirit of rock and roll
Wanted chance to meet with idol, Rolling Stones
2003 – they wanted to collaborate with Cui Jien
April, 2006, Rolling Stone’s first trip to China in Shanghai
o At climax of performance, Cui Jien brought onstage
o 20 years after singing “Having Nothing” finally receives justice
o Still a dedicated star, but China has changed – no longer needs his rebellion
4/17/07: Hong Kong
 Hong Kong was a part early in Chinese history, and had always had the reputation of
being a haven for smugglers
o By the early 19th century, it was already attracting many foreign traders who used
it as a connection to the mainland
o In 1894 Treaty of Nanjing, Hong Kong was ceded to the UK ( begins the modern
history of Hong Kong
 When we talk about Hong Kong, we are talking about three distinct regions
o Hong Kong Island (an island offshore) was given to the UK and was the cite of
the establishment of Hong Kongdowntown
o The New Territories is what we usually think about when we think about Hong
Kong
 In 1984, the Sino-British Joint Declaration recognized that the UK would be returning
Hong Kong to China in 1997: the handover of HK
o Since then, Hong Kong has bee n made into a Special Administrative Region that
allows it to have a great deal of freedom
 Creation of a “one country, two systems” policy that allows Hong Kong to
have own government
o Many tourists to HK are from the Chinese mainland
 Even prior to 1959, HK occupied a special place in relation to its sister city, Shanghai
o Served as a comfortable haven and escape from Shanghai: Eileen Zhang, Lao She,
Mei Lanfang, and many other writers went there to escape
o Was a buffer zone for negotiating a new kind of territory in terns of creativity or
political choice
99





HK became the replacement for Shanghai in the creation of culture once the CCP took
over
o By the end of the 1950s, HK had become a cultural center
o Became a site of fantasy for orientalism: symbol for non-Chinese of what China is
 Straddled nativism and exoticism, orientalism and Westernism: able to
cater to a variety of different fantasies and needs
After 1984, people in HK started feeling a sense of belonging and its cultural production
began to change
o Print culture: Lillian Lee as successor to the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies
authors, Jin Yong as martial arts writers
o Movie culture: Bruce Lee as int’l star who had been brought to the forefront by
marketing by HK businessmen, also Jackie Chan
 Hollywood of the East
 Between 1913 and 2004: more than 8000 movies were made in HK and
more than half of these were made between 1949-1966
o Music culture: became a center for the creation of popular music
 Faye Wong
Hong Kong as a product for consumption
o Colonial identity
 Most Hong Kong residents speak fluent English and are forced to adapt to
a number of cultures
o Cultural hybridity: enables Hong Kong to change from one identity to another and
please consumers and audiences from all walks of life
o Economic powerhouse: allows HK to circulate cultural capital
o Ambivalence: fascination with HK’s affective pull
 A cultural theme park
 Promoting itself as a simulacrum: so real and so unreal
 Deliberate inclusion of oriental and exotic motifs
Rouge (1987)
o In 1930s HK, a courtesan named Fleur has fallen in love with Young Master 12,
whose family despises Fleur
 They decide to commit suicide by eating opium
 Promise each other that in their next incarnation they would find each
other in HK
o Nostalgia for the past of HK, the creation of a history
Chungking Express (1984)
o Postmodernist drawing together of 3 stories
o Highlights speed and the destruction of memory
4/26/07: In the Heat of the Sun
 Popular in China but obscure in US, but has some resonant appeal to everyone: Tarantino
cites it as one of his favorite Asian films
o The music that is used for Mi Lan’s theme (Cavilleria Rusticana) is also used
throughout Godfather III
 Broad appeal
100






o Postmodernism: links w/ wider cultural movement of the time
o Socialism: recognizable riffs on Chinese heritage (at one point, we see someone
watching The Red Detachment of Women)
o Broad commercial appeal
 Political pop in the post-new era
 Subversive nostalgia: making fun of revolutionary dancing
 Mao Fever as a reflection of crisis, insecurity, construction of an
idealized past that provided a comfort in contrast to reality
 Hooligan culture: alternative culture that developed among the
Chinese youth who were born during the 1960s (younger siblings
to Red Guards)
Not so much disillusioned so much as dismissive
o People of the CR era grew up w/o a proper education and were chronically
unemployable, but had a great deal of freedom as children
Ironic hybridity: revolutionary past and commercial present
o Anti-heroism: rise of hooligan culture (use of Internationale as background music
for a street scuffle)
 NB: students sang Internationale during Tiananmen protests ( use of song
is a subtle challenge to the Deng era
 But at the same time, a return to masculinity
o Self-referentiality and deconstructionalism: appearance of the director in the film
( suggestion of levity and also autobiography
Wang Shuo
o One of China’s most famous and controversial authors, he wrote the novel In the
Heat of the Sun
o Used cynicism as a way to actively be not politically involved, although he was
enthralled by the glamour of violence
Jiang Wen
o Director of In the Heat of the Sun in his directorial debut
o Was v. aware of public knowledge that he had originally been an actor and
therefore was not classically trained
 Thought that films about the CR were poorly acted ( shifted to a more
individually-oriented storytelling approach: more about how people lived
their lives and not so much about politics
Narrator says that he was telling his story b/c he had to, although he could not claim any
truth
o Storytelling vs. truth-telling: all we can talk about is psychologically real
Eroticization of politics
o Youth culture and creative dissent: using elements from the crumbling party
edifice to create political pop
Foreign Cultures 67 Lecture – April 19th
 Hong Kong was handed back over to the Chinese government in 1997
 Around this time HK started to become incredibly nostalgic of their history
101
o Since HK’s history is so ambiguous (is the country British? Chinese? something
else?) everyone began to create their own idea of what determined Hong Kong culture
 “Chung King Express”
o Movie of three fleeting love affairs (24 hours)
o Incredibly fast moving film
o Characters suffer from amnesia (want to forget troubling memories)
 This rapid way of life characterized Hong Kong at the time
 Hong Kong can be seen as a “theme park” – a place that has evolved to satisfy all desires, be
they oriental or occidental
 Marketed as a “paradise” to mainland Chinese
o Huge number of tourists flock to the island every year
 Is China absorbing HK or the other way around?
Akbar Abbas
 Born in Macau, grew up in Hong Kong
 Disappointed to hear in 1984 that Hong Kong would be returned to China
 He too became nostalgic about history – How come nobody had ever appreciated Hong Kong
culture?
o Realized that this “artificial nostalgia” was a result of the politics of disappearance –
that the possibility of HK disappearing finally opened people’s eyes to its cultural
significance
 Hong Kong is always physically present but politically and aesthetically it is ever-changing –
the region is always “in between” states, never well defined
 Claimed that HK’s “hybridity” (transient nature) made it valuable
o HK was transitional in language – people switched between English and Cantonese
o In order to remain empowered Hong Kong must not identify with Britain or China
 Observed that everyone looked forward to HK losing its colonial status but doubted that
Hong Kong would immediately emerge from colonialism and adopt nationalist sentiments
 Like many, Abbas did not want HK to return to China
Deja Disparu
 A return of the future as if it were something of the past
 In this way Hong Kong invented a past history so that there was something to look back on
Stephen Chow
 As a child was moody & solemn
o Ironic considering the playful, humorous nature of his films
 Fell in love with & idolized Bruce Lee
o Ironic considering the special effects and superhuman abilities present within his
films – Bruce Lee strongly opposed anything other than the “power of the body”
 Chow’s films are very “Campy”
o Viewers realize the “trashiness” and gross exaggerations present in Kung Fu Hustle
but are intrigued nonetheless
o Harshly reviewed by critics, intellectuals but still amazingly popular
 Movies are parodies of existing films (The Matrix, etc.)
LECTURE APRIL 24: Chang Ta-chun and the “adolescent turn” in Taiwan’s
consumption of literature
102
PRC youth culture of 1990s
1) Historical and social background of PRC youth
2) Taiwan youth culture
 May 30, 1989 – early spring: social turmoil in Beijing; discontent with political
corruption, stagnation
 April 15 – occupied square, marked funeral of prime minister Hu Waobao
 May 30 – statue 30 ft high, statue of democracy and freedom in celebration of power
of protesting students; erected to symbolize solidarity of demonstrators
 June 3 – Ppl’s Liberation Army sent to square; smashed statue; killed many students
 June 4 – at least 3000 civilians and students were killed; turning point in history of
China; celebration of power of youth
 May 4, 1919 – students gathered in square protesting warlord regime; May 4
Movement led to changes on all fronts; led to revolution and eventually PRC
 1949 (Sept 1) – founding of PRC, Tiananmen as stage of theatrics
 1966 – youth gather again to worship Mao; high moment of youthful fanaticism of
political ideology
 1976 – stage for Mao’s death (died in fall)
 1989 – statue erected directly opposite Mao’s portrait; new dialogue with this past
leader to reassert national confidence, new generation; youth could not stand
insensitivity of govt to needs of ppl
 Carnival: collective activity; mobilize by Chinese students to demonstrate own
power; to subvert what is held as orthodox
 Want to show how far they can go – festive, jubilant atmosphere; eventually gained
support of adults, workers, farmers
 May (mid): students decide to end fun and start hunger strike – carnival turned sour?
 When PLA sent in, ppl used body to guard the students of square; televised by CNN
Live, but for PRC there was no bloodshed
 Youth culture includes different ages and social strata
o 1) Cultural imaginary – only hope to revitalize this empire; the kind of effective
trope to be used by young and old
o 2) Political agency – symbol and power to revitalize self for protest vs status quo
 New picture of youth – put on old uniform to publicize for commercial: recall 1966
image
 Marketization of Chinese society
 Revolution not a magic word – now we want to be more free marke
In the Heat of the Sun (Jiang Wen, 1994): young restless Chinese of 1990s
 Taiwan stage
 1987: 40 yr martial law lifted by govt = freer; this regime still held by KMT
 1990: Taipeiphoto; Chiang Kaishek memorial
 March 16, 1990: students went to this plaza and also protesting
 Constructed the wild Lily statue: purity, integrity, courage
 Show solidarity against their own govt
 Parallel btw stu. Movement in TN and Mainland
103




o 1990 – one yr later
What did these movements do to popular culture afterward?
In Taiwan, 1990, after Wild Lily movement, students went back to school as normal
Yr 2000: Nationalist govern toppled
In those 10 years, lots happens, what were the role of youth? As mobilizers? Of
energy?

Chang Ta-chun (1958-)
o Wild Kid Phenomena, not young in 1990s
o Series of 3 novels, embodies pure cool culture in China, rises against all social
restraints
o Plot
 Middle school student hangs out with bad ppl
 Becomes a juve diliquent promosing grad stud.
 Seemingly innocent vitality, lots of insinuation of death
 He’s vulnerable, aspiring for love and support
o Taiwan answer to Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye
o 1996 novel Wild Kid published, national movement; he’s cool, reading it must be
cool, so be him
o Pay attention to the character
o Does he have agua?
o New generation lacked the courage to be rebellious
o Intimating sense of useful enjoy
o 1980s-1990s: pop culture insinuating mild helpless both

Ji Mi
o Cartoon illustrator
o Only popular artist but mid-1990s ppl fell in love with his illustrations
o Ex. Cute angel taking nap—banded hat -> prison?; eerie feeling
o Sense of instability, defining the time
o Teddy bear couple
o Dark and not sure vs. cute and familiar
o Kid taking nap against a baby’s butt
o Now something is wrong with that pic
o Ji Mi’s may influenced the youth and later generation
o 1990s: new twist of cute culture in Taiwan; be cuter, vulnerable, loved
o You want to be taken care of
o Infantization of Taiwan culture in 1980s, 90s
o Instead of growing up, new generation of youth want to remain a China
o Insecure, want to run into fantasy world
o Cool culture versus cute culture
o Soap operas
 Very infantile, cute, and cool
 Great Japanese impact – based on Japanese comics
o Cartoonization of pop culture
o Fit image ambassador of Taiwan
104
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Cartoons were heavily Japanese-influenced
High school, college kids in Carnival
Taiwanese hooligan in good sense want to look bad
Self-vulgarization to impress
Lack of culture and etiquette
 Camp
Chinese lit – cartoon, computer games
Lecture 4/26, Guest Lecture: Xinyu Dong
• In the Heat of the Sun
-Class comments:
-Alienation of main character
-Post modernity trend of more nativist subject matter w/ Western influence
-Wang Shuo: hooligan lit writer, featured in film
-New Era: 70’s, 80’s; Post Modern: 90’s
-Marketization
-Indigenous References
•Political Pop in the Post-New Era
1. Subversive nostalgia: Parody of Mo, Challenge to Deng & Expression of popular
nationalism
CLIP: Red Lantern v.
Heat of the Sun
-stoic, comradery
-street scuffle
-heroic music
-subtle challenge to Deng’s anti-Youth
stance
-masculinity.. refers to Mao regime
2. Ironic Hybrid: Revolutionary past & present commercialization
-Particularly of Mao icon
3. Post Modern Sensibility: Wang Shuo-esque self-referentiality and deconstructionism
• Mao Fever:
-Continuing sense of instability in 1990’s China; dissatisfaction with modern life
-Background:
-Cultural Revolution: became an icon (image everywhere… 2.2 billion portraits
produced)
-Post 1995… Mao twisted to represent agent of certainty and confidence
-Relation to Hooligan culture
-Generation after Red Guards, b. 1960’s
-grow up w/o education, chronically unemployed
-“liumang” (loafer, punk, hoodlum)
-John Minford believes it is also word for embryonic alternative culture.
• Hooligan Culture
105
-Wang Shuo
-Army Soldier… glamorizes violence
-cynical… way to be political is to be apolitical
-Success in late 1980s and 90s
-Jiang Wen
-Actor, directorial debut in 1994
-b. in military family
-Goal: show how people live lives, wants to make personal film about life around
political events.
• More Heat of the Sun
-CLIP: characters’ unreliable memory of revolution and of a fight
 Representation of History: Storytelling v. truth telling
-intertextuality
-cinematic and cultural representation
-“Nothing bad happened at my birthday”… audience is shocked he was not telling
truth.
-CLIP: protagonist looking through telescope at street and girl
Fantasy and Ideology: Aestheticization and Eroticization of Politics
-Voyeuristic pleasure of looking at people through telescope
 Youth Culture & Creative dissent: appropriating the crumbling edifice of party culture
fragments for the creation of more vital work: political
Lecture Notes for May 1
Popular culture in contemporary China
Last week, highlighted two types of popular culture (light hearted, cute vs. new cool approach) in
Taiwan.
“First Intimate Encounter” – very light and soft romantic affairs between college students on
campus in Taiwan. This represents the age of website literature – this is the first breakthrough of
online literature in Taiwan’s literature market. In late 1990s, and early 2000s, sold more than ½
a million copies. Novel highlights light approach to affair as opposed to literature of 1980s
concentrated on desire, passion, love, etc.
The story doesn’t really matter – what matters is way you access narration online. Decipher
almost telepathic style – all of the sentences are shortened, insider-intimate style. One feels that
when reading these, one feels like an insider in order to understand the inside culture in order to
understand it. Also, became popular in China.
TV hosts – comparable to Jay Leno in popularity. Notion of Taiwanese kitsch or vulgarity.
Embodied the confidence in catering, capitalizing this approach. True that Taiwan is not China.
Type of Taiwanese kitsch that you want to show off in order to impress your peers, show off
confidence – very campy approach to high, elite culture. This is the “cool” side of Taiwanese
culture, fashion.
106
[image of afro hooligan] – idea of cool.
Culture of election – democratic election has become not just a political engagement for
politicians but for everyone! Ongoing carnival is joined by everyone. As a result, there has been
a true culture of how to run this type of election (like a carnival) or how to enjoy this like a
wonderful party.
[image of Taipei street filled w/ candidate names, parade, rally]
Everyone is trying to be part of this demographic election. This is more spectacular than any
other forms of pop culture – highly politicized culture in Taiwan.
[image of lady candidate as the goddess of mercy]
To impress her voters, she dresses as goddess of mercy.
[image of male candidate dressed as Pavarotti]
To show his voice in politics.
[image of candidate with black pig]
Politicians  theatrical.
“Betelnut Beauty” directed by Cheng Sheng Lin, in 2001. This is a movie about two youngsters
in Taiwan from middle class family, feel bored about their families, run away from home to do
something new and interesting. Show 2 clips – first, how the girl met the boy by doing
something spectacular, and the second clip is going to show something specific of Taiwanese
kitsch culture. In Taiwan, Betelnut is a snack with a narcotic effect, sold in streets, vendors.
Extremely sexy and out-there to sell these snacks. Very local part of the culture but the director
was sensitive to show this.
Clip 1 – shows girl arguing with mother over handing her the bag, and then she runs away in the
rain. Guy sees her and smiles. She looks liberated as she stands in the rain. Guy joins her. Feifei starts screaming and guy joins her. She thinks him meddlesome for joining her and leves. He
continues screaming in the city square/plaza. She writes in her diary that screaming in the rain
w/ a hunk was fun!
Clip 2 – girl has already run away from home, selling Betelnuts on the streetside. The vendors
are all young women in green slinky dress. They sell Betelnuts to young men in cars, flirty.
After 1992, China’s environmental policy took a different direction. Before 1992, strong
socialism policy. After 1992, Deng Xiaoping moved market towards socialistic market,
euphemism for globalized economy, changed from closed to open economy. Fundamental
structural change in daily lives.
107
May 1st 1994 – institution of double leisure day system. Before then, PRC workers were
mandated to work 8 hours/6 days, same for school kids. Government wanted to promote new
culture, “double leisure day culture”. Saturday, Sunday used for leisure. Change from
prioritizing labor to prioritizing leisure…
Couple of issues to think about:
(1) reminds us of early republican period when the magazines such as Saturday were first
published. Strong reminder that according to Western calendar, Chinese citizens also
deserved days of rest. Socialist regime wanted to do the same.
(2) Not a character change to benign, thinking of huge population pressure, so during these
double-leisure periods, multiple shifts in work forces, so always some workers on
vacation (not always Saturday/Sunday) so can involve more workers on rotation.
(3) Taking leisure time, supposed to have fun. This is still a very Confusicist state,
government encourages citizens to learn how to become better citizens. The
consumption and enlightenment model brought together to promote citizenship.
(4) Through this double-leisure day system, national economy benefited from consumers’
power. Rise of new service industry with the great motivation and energy…
This is going to be reinforced by three long vacations in the year. May 1st (labor day) is the
beginning of weeklong vacation, used to commorate the socialist ideal of labor. October 1st also
is the start of another long vacation, plus the traditional spring festival vacation totaling to nearly
1 month of leisure time. Now citizens encouraged to play hard to contribute to nation
(previously, encouraged to work hard…).
[Top writers in Shanghai + Beijing] – these two pictures are of Shanghai Babe (Hui Hui) who
wrote about her sexual adventures, nickname refers to her sexual appeal, image created primarily
for Western lovers? She was not happy with degree from Chinese department, industry based on
packaging and commercialization of your own body. 24 different editions, as well as many
translations of Shanghai Babe. Her novel has once ranked first in bestselling list.
1) Shanghai, once so glamorous and entrapmtive, regaining her power. Objectivifies sexual
fantasy, focusing on female body, interrelation is now being mobilized by a woman! No
longer male writers about female, but now, female writers can do this.
2) Many other young writers after Hui Hui, Mianmian [image] Chunshu [image, 18 years
old, Beijing], etc. all followed in her path. Chunshu wrote Beijing Doll, also sold
millions of copies.
3) Muzi Mei – sex blogger, explicit, confessional style of her intimate life. Biggest
attraction in terms of website visitors. Another slick post-socialism beauty, developing
her own image.
4) Guo Jingming – making millions writing about youngsters
5) Li Yuchun – “Super Girl”, two years ago, talent show run by local tv station, and she
together w/ thousands of other young girls, participated in talent show and won. Super
Girl based on American Idol, even more powerful than in America, because of larger
population.
108
a. Became top singer, attracted her audience in terms of androgynous image,
bisexual appeal. Very relaxed, intimate presentation.
b. Election of the Super Girl has to be run through popular votes, fans are
encouraged to send messages through SMS. Overnight received 30 million cell
phone messages. Still very popular.
c. Phenomenon
i. Androgynous gender issue
ii. Involve people participation, underground strategy
iii. Local venue w/ local station, how did it generate power in response
(owned by local gov.’t,  central gov.’t). Politics involved in Super Girl
Phen.
1. To what extent did local gov.’t allow for this type of appeal?
2. Roundabout implementation of local gov.’t power into these type
of performances?
3. Socialist machine – urges one to be part of the collective yet Super
Star encourages someone to stand out.
[picture: Zhao Wei’s Japanese navy flag incident]
2 years ago – got her into a lot of trouble, traitor brand. Nationalism as a consumption product,
especially w/ regard to the Japanese. That is, people consume Japanese products w/o any
problems,, but once one of their own pop icons used Japanese symbol, become infuriated.
[image of tourism business] – implementation of leisure is politically motivated. Chinese
tourists encouraged by gov.’t to go to revolutionary sites, to have fun while educating themselves
w/ lessons of revolution crusade. Tourists here followed the Long March, in year of 2007, has
become the most popular item in Chinese tourism. All wanted to have fun.
[Image of bridge, famous in battle in SW China, Sheraton inns, Chairman’s Mao’s hometown].
People lined up in uniform to consume revolutionary memories, consume economic capital.
[Image of Karl Marx] – Marx home is the mecca of Chinese tourist class. Celebrating memory
of Chinese communist revolution…
Lecture Notes for May 3rd
-
1937-1945 was the second Sinp-Japanese War
In the 1950’s and 1960’s Jin Yong single-handedly created chivalric fiction
Teresa Teng used her yellow music to refresh the space of popular consumption
Cui Jan- Sang to support the students that were part of the hunger strike on Tianamen
Square
Diff. genres we have studied: Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies, Beijing Opera, and the
making of Chinese movie stars.
A long array of theoretical or discursive models; 1) Enlightenment Model (Liyung
Qichou)  used popular culture to enlighten 2) Revolutionary Model  use popular
culture to spur revolution within people to mobilize and overthrow the status quo. 3)
109
-
-
-
Consumption Model  Introduction of Western economic or technological cultures.
This was introduced, promoted, and circulated for pleasure and relaxation.
Chinese use popular culture, and respond to it.
Big Themes in the class
Imaginary- Collective making of something in a specific historical moment (shared
imagination) ex: Bruce Lee (his kicking and fighting clues you into ideas like
masculinization, gender issues and so forth). Also, the song East is Red is a song about
Utopian Society
Long March 1930’s, new myth erected; it’s been turned into Chinese leisure now (Long
March to go relax and sightsee)
Theories: simulacrum, spectacle, carnival, camp  all of these play with the imaginary
dimension of popular consumption.
Agency- Who are the people that are making popular culture popular? It is a fluid
phenomenon, continuously instigating different responses. It can be used to represent
power or imaginary power. It refers to the distribution of power.
Mediation- Radio, print industry, movie, cassettes; Diff. technologies reproducing
popular culture. Mediation of theatre, movie, etc. It acted as a mobile agency that brings
things together and disseminates other things.
Possible Images of importance (slides on website)
-Saturday Magazine
-Website Culture
-RiLing Yu
-Jian Qing
-Super Girl
-Mei Lanfang
-Leslie Cheung  re-determined gender politics
-Jo Shen  Princess of Yellow Music
-Teresa Teng
-Model Theatre
-Bruce Lee
-Cui Jan
-Stephen Chow
-Shanghai going through metamorphoses
-Yan’an
-HK, city of simulacrum
-Tianamen Square (1949)  Socialist Paradise
-Lao She’s Teahouse
-Taiwan cartoonist to flush out insecurity of Chinese urbanites.
Foreign Cultures: MOVIE SUMMARIES:
1) Farewell my Concubine
110
a.
b. Summary : The story begins in 1924 with the introduction of Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung),
the unwanted child of a Beijing prostitute. Dieyi, who possesses the noticeable birth defect of
a superfluous finger, is seen as a burden to his mother, and so she pleads with a local opera
troupe to take him under his wing. The troupe refuses because of the boy's unfortunate
condition, so his mother in desperation amputates the boy's extra finger with a butcher knife.
Now allowed to be a member of the troupe, Dieyi quickly attaches himself to Duan Xiaolou
(Zhang Fengyi), a young actor with talent, bravado, and a short temper. The children of the
troupe endure brutal, austere, and traumatizing training. After Dieyi and the charismatic
leader of the bunch escape and finally get a taste of the outside world and some crab apples,
they watch Beijing opera performers. Dieyi, struck by their performance and the applause of
the audience, cries and decides they should head back to the troupe. The punishment for
escaping in the first place is so traumatic the other boy hangs himself. Dieyi is trained to play
female roles, particularly the title role of the traditional Chinese opera play Farewell My
Concubine. When he kept forgetting his line "By nature I'm a girl, not a boy," he faces severe
punishment both from the master of the troupe and Xiaolou. Eventually, he is able to
overcome his natural tendency and reveals a great talent for acting. However, his stage
charisma brings new problems: after an impressive performance as the Concubine, he is
raped by an old and influential patron. At the same time, Xiaolou learns to hone his skills as a
jing, a painted-face male lead. Both Dieyi and Xiaolou graduate from the troupe and become
renowned stars of the Peking opera scene. The adult Dieyi takes on feminine behaviour
offstage as well as on. It becomes apparent that Dieyi is in love with Xiaolou, but the sexual
aspects of his affection are not returned. When they become a hit in Beijing, a patron slowly
courts Dieyi also after falling in love with Dieyi's character. Xiaolou, in the meantime, takes
a liking to Juxian (Gong Li), a headstrong female prostitute at the local brothel. Xiaolou
intervenes when a mob of drunk men harass Juxian and conjures up a ruse to get the men to
leave her alone, saying that they're announcing their engagement. Juxian later buys her
freedom and, deceiving him into thinking she was thrown out, pressures Xiaolou to keep his
word. When Xiaolou announces his engagement to Juxian, Dieyi and Xiaolou have a falling
out. The complex relationship between these three characters is then tested under the stress of
the drastic political upheaval that encompasses China from the onset of the Japanese
occupation. Xiaolou gets in trouble with the Japanese and Juxian goes to Dieyi for help.
Dieyi initially refuses but then goes to the high government official who likes him for help.
Xiaolou is released but has a lot of animosity towards Dieyi because he questions his
patriotism etc. Once the Japanese are kicked out the communist government questions
Dieyi’s patriotism and he is imprisoned. A scheme is created to save him by Xialou but Dieyi
does not take it. He is freed but has trouble acclaimting to the communist lifestyle which
outlaws the opera. Eventually all three of the main characters Dieyi, Xialou and his wife are
brought by the communist party to a communal punishment where all opera affiliates are
made to renounce their trade, burn their costumes and wear signs. Dieyi exposes Juxian’s
111
previous prostitution and Xialou is forced to deny is love for her. Upon their escape Juxian
hangs herself. The two men don’t speak for some twenty or so years when they reunite on
stage. It is just them two performing the most famous scene where the concubine is suppose
to kill herself. It is unclear if Dieyi actually kills himself or not.
c. Important connections
i. Farewell My Concubine is a 1993 Chinese film directed by Chen Kaige
which depicts the effects of various Chinese political turmoils during the
20th century on a Peking opera troupe.
ii. The film is an adaptation of the novel by Lilian Lee.
iii. Chinese perception of Peking opera as they both endure the Kuomintang
regime, the Chinese Revolution, and the Cultural Revolution. The
portrayal of these events led the film to be initially banned in China upon
its release.
iv. The book was altered after the movie came out
v. The ending? What actually happens?
2) Fist of fury
http://www.kungfucinema.com/reviews/fistoffury.htm
Fist of Fury (1972)
AKA: The Chinese Connection (US); Fists of Fury; The Iron Hand
Premise: Bruce Lee is Chen Jun, a passionate martial arts student who
returns to his school in 1930's Shanghai to find that his master was
killed by Japanese from a competing school. He begins a destructive
campaign of revenge that forces him to pay the ultimate price.
Review: More than any other effort before or after this classic, Bruce
Lee magnificently earned his status as the greatest Chinese martial
arts celebrity and certainly one of the most captivating film stars in
history.
Genre fans know the story well. Bruce Lee plays Chen Jun, a fictional
student of real life martial arts hero Fok Yuen Gaap who was
apparently poisoned by Japanese in Shanghai during the 1930's. From
here on the film breaks from history by following the exploits of Chen
as he seeks to prove the worth of Chinese in an area controlled by
foreign powers. Members of a Japanese martial arts school insult Chen
and his brethren at the Jin Wu school, which only gives him an excuse
to take out his frustrations on the Japanese. But he eventually learns
that his teacher's death was actually the result of poisoning that was
ordered by the head of the Japanese school. The stakes get higher as
Chen kills the conspirators in a cold rage and becomes a fugitive from
law. After learning that the Japanese have nefarious plans for the Jin
Wu school, Chen attacks the Japanese, killing their leaders. Yet, his
112
actions come too late when he returns to discover that most of his
colleagues have been killed. With no one left to focus his anger on,
he turns himself in to Chinese authorities before staging a triumphant
final show of defiance.
3) Kung fu hustle
a.
b. Summary: Amid the chaos of pre-revolutionary China, small time thief, Sing, aspires to be
one of the sophisticated and ruthless Axe Gang whose underworld activities overshadow the
city. Stumbling across a crowded apartment complex aptly known as “Pig Sty Alley,” Sing
attempts to extort money from one of the ordinary locals, but the neighbors are not what they
appear. Sing’s comical attempts at intimidation inadvertently attract the Axe Gang into the
fray, setting off a chain of events that brings the two disparate worlds face-to-face. As the
inhabitants of the Pig Sty fight for their lives, the ensuing the clash of kung fu titans unearths
some legendary martial arts Masters. Sing, despite his futile attempts, lacks the soul of a
killer, and must face his own mortality in order to discover the true nature of the kung fu
master.
c. Important connections
i. Use of comedy
ii. Fight scenes
1. lots of very different ones
a. screaming as tool
b. special affects
c. the harpest attackers
d. stopping bullets with your hand
e. sound as killing machine
iii. Combination of cultures
1. compare dress: axe gang in suits vs. poor slum
2. axe gang dance (you can watch on youtube)
4) Centerstage
113
a.
b. Summary: The biggest star of China's silent film era of the 1930's, Ruan Ling-yu, meets a
tragic demise at 25-years-old when she cannot cope with a scandal linking her to a married
man. She was ina relationship with a man and adopted a child. As she rose to stardom they
grew apart and were basically separated. She expanded her movie roles from that of just
prostitutes of wall flowers to become a ture star. She then connects with a different man, a
head studio exec, and they live together. He pays the last guy off through a contract. But
scandal erupts when her x acuses her of cheating etc.. This explodes in the press because she
is the star of a new movie (new woman) in which the press is made to blame for the demise
and death of a woman who tries to make it on her own. Ruan kills herself just like the main
character kills herself in new woman.
c. Important connections
i. Combination of real footage of ruan, pictures of ruan, Maggie acting as
ruan and Maggie as Maggie talking about ruan.
5) In the heat of the sun (SOMEONE ELSE IS DOING)
a. Summary: rival gangs battle for supremacy on the deserted streets of Beijing in 1969
following its evacuation at the height of the Cultural Revolution.
b. Important connections
6) Internal Affairs
a.
b. Summary: A cop goes undercover as a gangster while, simultaneously, a gangster infiltrates
the police force, pretending to be a cop. These two sleeper agents live underground for a
decade before a series of mistakes clues in all the wrong people as to what's going on and
each mole is ordered to root out the double agent--which in both cases happens to be
themselves. Torn between conflicting father figures--an avuncular, paranoid gang boss and a
morally comprised police superintendent--the two moles slowly feel the net tighten like an
114
icy hand around their necks. Juggling identities, always one mistake from a bullet in their
head, and seduced by the attractions of their cover identities, both men slowly unravel,
battering themselves bloody against the bars of their own personal hells, while their souls ice
over. In then end the mole planted in the policy by the mob boss kills the mob boss. The
police mole in the gang then comes forward but his file is erased by the bad mole and so he
runs and captures the mole within the police. He is about to take him to the police when
another cop who is actually another mole planted by the mob boss kills him. But then he is
killed by the original mole in the police. (sorry this is confusing, but its exactly the same
elevator scene as departed). In the end the true identity of the cop who was a mole in the mob
is exposed and the girlfriend of the mole planted in the police finds out and leaves him. The
movie ends with flashbacks of when the mole planted in the mob gets kicked out of the
police academy and the police officer says “anyone want to switch places with him”... the old
pictures are replaced with the recent men and the mole within the police says yes, I want to
switch with him. So even though he is the only mole who lived, he wishes he were dead.
c. Important connections
i. The movie departed was based off of—compare differences
1. the role of the female
2. the end
a. the living mole is not killed like he was in the American
version
3. the death of the head police guy: diff
a. the Chinese version: black and white, flashbacks, no
dialogue
7) love in fallen city—(not required I checked)
a. summary: A Shanghai girl falls in love with a wealthy playboy in the 1940's. The war brings
them both to Hong Kong where they reunite at the Repulse Bay Hotel.
8) Song at Midnight
a.
b. Summary: The plot has a traveling operetta company arrive at the run down provincial
theatre. Their juvenile is having problems but he is coached to triumph by a mysterious
hooded figure, who a flash back reveals is a star disfigured by the local power cartel, when
he romanced the daughter of an influential family. The young performer sings under the
window of the phantom's old love now deranged, who takes him for her former lover. When
his old nemesis menaces the ingénue of the company, the Phantom attacks killing him but
then the phantom himself burned in a tower building by an angry mob.
c. Important things
115
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
Horror film-rich in the anti
Japan and revolutionary atmosphere of the times in which it was made.
anti landlords, feudalism
diff: man is the subject of the phantoms tutoring, phantom dies in the end,
phantom scared because of patriotism and against evil but in end killed by
the people