The Portrayal of Women in Chinese Cinema in the Early 20th Century: Street Angles Film - Essay Example

Chinese Cinema Chinese Cinema Introduction Chinese cinema was used to portray modernization and society as from 1930. The Chinese used this era to display the reality of the society. The film “street angles,” is one about the depths of shanghai it was written and directed in the year 1937 for Mingxing by Yuan Muzhi. The film is about how the society fails to offer the poor people justice. In the early 20th Century, in China, most of the filmmakers and leftist writers and intellectuals were highly influencing their culture with their political messages; they hoped to foster social change by using the new media culture. At the time of making this film, china was quickly urbanizing at that time, and peasants who were dirty and poor women symbolized the part of the country that were falling behind and were repressed. In the ancient Chinese culture, women led a tough life. They were humiliated and humbled before men. Women were not allowed to attain literacy, and lived their lives in accordance to the principles of the Confucian. Women lived an unbearable life, and while growing up they had to listen to the men, in their lives, and this included their fathers and all other male members of their families. The women and daughters were not given a name but instead were called according to numbers, for example, “daughter no 2”. Films made, during this era of women humiliation, used this culture in the theme of the film to show the wrongs and issues, in their culture that needed to be corrected. However, the situation has changed today. The aim of this paper is to analyze the portrayal of women in the early Chinese cinemas by using the facts and situations found and well depicted in the film street angles. “Street angles,” was a movie that was created with an agenda, since it was made to bring social criticism. The main characters, in the film, had problems that were caused mainly by financial difficulties, where money was required for happiness. The society, as depicted in the film, is shown to be unyielding and harsh to those people who do not have the necessary finance to survive in it (Vivante, 2005 p50). Xiao Yun is forced to become a prostitute in order to survive the two sisters were forced to depend on the cruel musician. The cruel reality in the financial need of the characters in the film has no respite. This is to signify the truth of the matter during that century. In China, there was no escape in real life from poverty. The film clearly shows the conditions of Shanghai, in the 1930s, and tries to make a strong appeal for change (Silbergeld, 1999 p39). However, the film like many other aspects of culture tries to present a greater message. This film advocates for a transition from a social change to a more social society. The conclusion of the film, which is the tragic death of Xiao Yun while the family was not able to do anything to help her is seen as a clear indicator of significant social problems that were in china in that period. The audience fails to see the greater picture of the film’s message and concentrates on the tragedy of the characters individually (Shaughnessy, 2010 p16). Films like this accurately mirror the social change that is required, members of the audience pity Xiao Yun but the film and other representation of prostitutes elsewhere in the popular culture does not affect how the society views prostitutes in china. The film places the prostitutes in a tragic role and is used to demonstrate the circumstances that force the lower class women of china to turn to prostitution (Semsel, 2003 p48). Women in the Chinese culture were depicted and portrayed around many of the social issues, which were affecting china at that time, while the country was modernizing. The image of many women at that time in the film reflects the relation of women to the urban society, modernity and the nation as a whole. Film that were made at that time were usually made around an interpretation that the women were either being exploited or were hardly in the films themselves (Semsel, 2003 p45). The most notorious role of women in the Chinese culture was the role of prostitution. This is a role that is used as an emblem that represents the humiliation of the prostitutes to the nation and to the oppressive society, and this role is used to depict the woman as a moral individual. The character played by a prostitute is used to exemplify class and social allegations as they are represented as commercial figures (Rafman, 2003 p135). This film portrays women as reflections of the society at that time where under the economic stress and men’s supremacy over the women was taken as a commodity. The female body served as a sexual indicator and metaphor in the urban setting. All the women were put in a different gender stereotype and social category. This film revolve around realistic filmmaking methods of the time that used the everyday setting, relevant social themes and performances that tried to distance themselves from the what the directors thought to be the decadence of the elite of the country, and used this films to get closer to the truth in their real lives (Rafman, 2003 p130). In the early Chinese culture, the role of women was restricted largely to their homes, the women were taken as liabilities, and this was until they reached their marriage age where they were given away to the groom’s family. Women in china spent their whole lives serving and being ruled over by the men in their families (Vivante, 2005 p35). Even the women who were of a noble descent were not spared from the oppression. However, their life was a bit simpler when compared to the life of any other common woman in china at that time, they too were inferior to men, and this was from the moment of their birth. The ancient Chinese did not think it necessary for their women to get educated. Women could not enter into government service for they could not sit for exams (Kleeman et al, 2005 p36). In the 1930s, this was the year of production of the movie street angel. The main characteristic of the films that were being produced, at that time, was the mass production of female film stars. Compared to male film stars, Chinese actresses had a position that was unique in the growing and the new production of some national films, in China. Most of the roles that these women played, in their public claims and aspirations, significantly differed from the “fashionable femininity,” which was evident in the contemporary Hollywood stars (Kleeman et al, 2005 p46). In the highly politically charged industry, the actresses were produced as social actors and were used as sites for articulation of the divergent positions of the old and the new urbanity, nationalism and modernity, and the new gender roles. This public discourses neglected separation of the art, in the cinema, of these actors from their personal lives (Forges, 2010 p34). The treatment of women, in the Chinese film industry, is similar to the west film industry, in 1970, since the British and American feminist films focused on the problem of women characterization, and their representation, in the Hollywood film industry (Forges, 2010 p35). The film “street angle,” is a film that was used, by the directors and the filmmakers, to bring to light the role of women in the society, by using the role of prostitution, they show how the Chinese woman is mistreated, in the society (Doraiswamy et al, 2010 p40). Conclusion The film “street angel,” is one that used, by the film directors and editors, to bring to light the plight of the women characters in the film. The film is a motion picture of the real happenings in china at the time. The role of prostitution is used to show the level of dependency that the women of china had on men. The film tells of a tragic situation where social relationships are not valued at all, the characters in the film suffer, and one of the main characters in the film dies after suffering form an illness that required medical attention, which her family could not afford to pay for. This film like many others that were showing in cinemas, during this time, tells of the humiliation of women at that time. The character of a prostitute shows that women are taken as objects with no moral feelings or believes. The Chinese culture at that time had no room for women to take charge. The women lives were under the control of the men. The ancient Chinese belief that the woman should not be taken as a human being but exists to serve men has been overshadowed today. Though the women in China have now taken significant leaps of faith so that they can lead a normal life like the one they deserve, they are still not taken seriously. The film industry today in china has now taken another direction where the films revolve around martial arts. The women of today, in China, now play significant roles in films. These roles not need to be diminishing roles where the women act as prostitutes and other diminishing roles, but they can now play significant roles in the film. In the film industry, act does not always revolve around the reality, or the happenings in the society, but the films have taken to science fiction according to the demands of the audience. This is unlike the old film making techniques where the act revolved around the real happenings in the society and where the film reflected the social misgivings of the society. References Doraiswamy R, Latika P. Asian film journeys : selections from Cinemaya. New Delhi: Baralesgamuwa, 2010. Forges A. D. "Shanghai Alleys, Theatrical Practice, and Cinematic Spectatorship: From Street Angel (1937) to Fifth Generation Film." Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 2010: 29-51. Kleeman T. F, Tracy B. The ancient Chinese world. Oxford : Oxford university press, 2005. Rafman C. "Imagining a Womans World: Roles for Women in Chinese Films." Journal of Film Studies, 2003: 126-140. Semsel G. S. Film in contemporary China : critical debates, 1979-1989. Westport: Praeger, 2003. Shaughnessy E. L. Exploring the life, myth, and art of ancient China. New York : Rosen, 2010. Silbergeld J. China into film : frames of reference in contemporary Chinese cinema. London : Reaktion Books, 1999. Terry K, Tracy B. 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