Plunder of peach and plum

Term Paper For Moive Commentary

Chinese Films

Term Paper Requirements

• Grading

The term paper itself counts for 35% of your course grade. You will be graded on your mastery of the

relevant facts and arguments, your originality in developing analysis, and the effective way your paper is

organized and written. Specifically, originality = 2 points, analysis = 8 points (i.e., 4 points each film),

writing = 15 points (i.e., legitimate title = 1 point, 4 listed key words = 2 points, structure = 2 points,

transition = 2 points, grammar = 2 points, spelling = 2 points, in-text reference = 2, etc.), use of 4 sources

= 10 points (i.e., logical incorporation = 1.5 points each, complete citation = 1 point each).

• Content

First, your paper must be comparative; namely, choose to compare 2 of these films: Plunder of Peach

and Plum, It’s My Day Off, Ermo, and Suzhou River. You may focus on a similar theme, a shared critical

problem, or a combination of some of them.

Second, your paper must be researched; namely, citing what critics have said about the directors and/or

films you are discussing and indicating how you respond to their interpretations. You must use at least 4

print sources assigned in the syllabus. Each article in an edited book counts as one source, but merely

listing sources without incorporating them in analysis does not make your paper a researched one.

Third, your paper must be critical; namely, examining texts in detail and engaging different arguments in

relation to the issues you are addressing. This also means that you have to maintain your own line of

arguments while moving between primary and secondary sources. A summary of narrative plot or

biographic information is descriptive rather than critical.

• Form

This is an individual assignment. Do not work on it jointly as you might study together for exams or

team projects, because two papers similar to each other will likely lower grades for both papers. Do not

submit a paper that you have submitted or are writing for any other class.

The paper must be written in your words, not paraphrased out of a secondary source or plagiarize from

any source You must give full bibliographical citations at the end of your paper on a separate page

(exclusive of the page limit), and make sure your style is consistent throughout the paper.

Papers must be typed, double-spaced (not 1.5 spaced), with one-inch or larger margins on all four sides

of the page. The length is limited to 3 pages, excluding references. Most students do better writing a

carefully edited three-page paper than writing a longer paper that is sloppy. Papers not meeting these

specifications will be returned without grading. Faulty spelling, grammar, punctuation, and format style

will cost you points, so proof-read your writing carefully.

Here is those moive link

Suzhou River: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GISSDqFU-5w with English subtitle

Ermo: https://radiichina.com/chinas-american-beauty-zhou-xiaowens-tragicomic-ermo/ without English subtitle,with English analysis

It’s My Day Off: https://www.virtualshanghai.net/Films/Collection?ID=109 without English subtitle,with English analysis

Plunder of Peach and Plum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrdVIzKFL98

Sample Term Paper Topics

Notes: The following topics are NOT required but are, instead, intended to encourage you to think further and explore your own topics. You may, of course, choose one of them or recombine a topic of your own design.

The female body and female sexuality in Ermo and Suzhou River
Changing gender relationships in Plunder of Peach and Plum and Ermo
Changing concepts of family and community in Plunder of Peach and Plum and It’s My Day Off (or Ermo)
Changing roles of the individual in It’s My Day Off and Ermo (or Suzhou River)
The city as a site of disillusionment and destruction in Plunder of Peach and Plum and Suzhou River
The city as a communal space in It’s My Day Off versus an enigmatic space in Suzhou River
Different/similar attitudes to the forces of urban corruption in Plunder of Peach and Plum and Suzhou River
The impact of money on human relationships in Ermo and Suzhou River
Idealism and its fates in Plunder of Peach and Plum and Suzhou River
Challenges to male or patriarchal values in Ermo and Suzhou River
LTEA 120A: Chinese Films

Term Paper Template

Your name

Paper Title

Keywords: A, B, C, D

Introduction

Discussion of film 1

Discussion of film 2

(you could move between two films here but must provide smooth transitions in between)

Conclusion

Bibliography listed in a separate page (at least 4 sources from the syllabus, items listed in required books and other references)

e.g.,

Author’s name, Book Title (City: Publisher, year).

Author’s name, “article title,” Volume Title, ed. Editor’s name (City: Publisher, year), pp. #-#.

Author’s name, “article title,” Journal Title, volume #, issue # (year), pp. #-#.

Transnational Chinese Cinemas ·

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Ju Dou (Gong Li) and Tianqing (Li Baotian) in Ju Dou, directed by Zhang Yimou, 1990. British Film Institute.

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Transnational Chinese Cinemas ·

Identity, Nationhood, Gender

Edited by Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu

University of Hawai‘i Press

Honolulu

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 1997 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 02 01 00 99 98 97 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Transnational Chinese cinemas : identity, nationhood, gender / edited by Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu.

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–8248–1845–8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures—China. 2. Motion pictures—Taiwan. 3. Motion

pictures—Hong Kong. I. Lu, Hsiao-peng. PN1993.5.C4T65 1997 791.43’0951—dc21 97–11153 791.43’0951—dc21 97–1CIP3

University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources

Designed by Barbara Pope

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For my brother, Lu Xiaolong, and my sister, Lu Xiaoyan

·

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vii

Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Preface xi

Historical Introduction Chinese Cinemas (1896–1996) and Transnational Film Studies 1 Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu

Part I Nation-Building, National Cinema, Transnational Cinema

Part 1 Anti-Imperialism and Film Censorship During the Nanjing Decade, 1927–1937 35 Zhiwei Xiao

Part 2 Two Stage Sisters: The Blossoming of a Revolutionary Aesthetic 59 Gina Marchetti

Part 3 From “Minority Film” to “Minority Discourse”: Questions of Nationhood and Ethnicity in Chinese Cinema 81 Yingjin Zhang

Part 4 National Cinema, Cultural Critique, Transnational Capital: The Films of Zhang Yimou 105 Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu

Part II The Politics of Cultural and National Identity in the Cinemas of Taiwan and Hong Kong

Part 5 Constructing a Nation: Taiwanese History and the Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien 139 June Yip

Part 6 The Diaspora in Postmodern Taiwan and Hong Kong Film: Framing Stan Lai’s The Peach Blossom Land with Allen Fong’s Ah Ying 169 Jon Kowallis

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viii Contents

Part 7 Breaking the Soy Sauce Jar: Diaspora and Displacement in the Films of Ang Lee 187 Wei Ming Dariotis and Eileen Fung

Part 8 Transnational Action: John Woo, Hong Kong, Hollywood 221 Anne T. Ciecko

Part 9 Jackie Chan and the Cultural Dynamics of Global Entertainment 239 Steve Fore

Part III Engendering History and Nationhood: Cross-Cultural and Gendered Perspectives

Part 10 Reading Formations and Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine 265 E. Ann Kaplan

Part 11 The New Woman Incident: Cinema, Scandal, and Spectacle in 1935 Shanghai 277 Kristine Harris

Part 12 Gendered Perspective: The Construction and Representation of Subjectivity and Sexuality in Ju Dou 303 Shuqin Cui

Part 13 The Concubine and the Figure of History: Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine 331 Wendy Larson

Part 14 Narrative Images of the Historical Passion: Those Other Women— On the Alterity in the New Wave of Chinese Cinema 347 Yi Zheng

Chinese Glossary 361 Sheldon H. Lu and May M. Wang

Filmography 371 Anne T. Ciecko and Sheldon H. Lu

Bibliography 381 Sheldon H. Lu and May M. Wang

Notes on Contributors 405

Index 409

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ix

List of Illustrations

21. Welcome Danger. USA. Harold Lloyd Corporation, 1929 38 22. Welcome Danger. USA. Harold Lloyd Corporation, 1929 40 23. Chunhua and Yuehong in Two Stage Sisters, directed by Xie Jin, 1965 67 24. Li Chun in Sacrificed Youth, directed by Zhang Nuanxin, 1985 91 25. The late director Zhang Nuanxin in 1994 93 26. Director Zhang Yimou 106 27. Gong Li as Songlian in Raise the Red Lantern, directed by 27. Zhang Yimou, 1991 117 28. Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu with actor Li Baotian in 1994 124 29. Gong Li as Songlian in Raise the Red Lantern, directed by 29. Zhang Yimou, 1991 127 10. City of Sadness, directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1989 145 11. City of Sadness, directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1989 150 12. Taiwan actors just don’t seem to “get it right” in portraying a scene 12. from Stan Lai’s The Peach Blossom Land, 1992 172 13. A parody of Chinese antiquity and the “alternative reality” 13. of Taiwan from Stan Lai’s The Peach Blossom Land, 1992 173 14. Would-be actress Ah Ying’s life in “real world” Hong Kong in 14. Allen Fong’s Ah Ying, 1984 177 15. Zhang Songbai (Peter Wang) warns his drama class that to be actors, 15. they may have to wait tables first in Allen Fong’s Ah Ying, 1984 180 16. Director Ang Lee 191 17. The Wedding Banquet, directed by Ang Lee, 1993 200 18. Eat Drink Man Woman, directed by Ang Lee, 1994 208 19. The Killer, directed by John Woo, 1989 224 20. Park Ranger Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis) in 20. Broken Arrow, directed by John Woo, 1995 232 21. John Travolta as Vic Deakins and Christian Slater as Riley Hale in 21. Broken Arrow, directed by John Woo, 1995 233 22. Jackie Chan, star and director of Police Story, 1986 244 23. Jackie Chan in Armor of God, 1987 251 24. Leslie Cheung as Cheng Dieyi in Farewell My Concubine, 24. directed by Chen Kaige, 1993 269 25. Gong Li as Juxian in Farewell My Concubine, directed by 25. Chen Kaige, 1993 272

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x List of Illustrations

26. Actress Ruan Lingyu (1910–1935) 278 27. Ruan Lingyu in The New Woman, directed by Cai Chusheng, 1934 292 28. Ruan Lingyu in The Goddess, directed by Wu Yonggang, 1934 295 29. Ju Dou (Gong Li) and Tianqing (Li Baotian) in Ju Dou, 29. directed by Zhang Yimou, 1990 309 30. The five elements in early Chinese cosmology 325

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xi

Preface

The idea of a volume of critical essays on Chinese film originated from the conference “Rethinking Cross-Cultural Analysis and Chinese Cinema Studies” that I organized at the University of Pittsburgh in 1994. The partici- pation of film scholars from all over the country as well as the presence of colleagues and students at the University of Pittsburgh made the conference an especially meaningful and productive event. For their attendance, support, and presentations, I thank Nick Browne, Diane Carson, Leo Chan-Jen Chen, Mao Chen, Xihe Chen, Anne T. Ciecko, Shuqin Cui, Wimal Dissanayake, Kristine Harris, E. Ann Kaplan, Jon Kowallis, Wendy Larson, Kang Liu, George S. Semsel, Paola Voci, Ban Wang, Min Wu, Zhiwei Xiao, Mingyu Yang, Xudong Zhang, Yingjin Zhang, and Yi Zheng. I am also indebted to my colleagues and the staff at the University of Pittsburgh for making inquiries, providing advice and wisdom, and helping me put things in order before, during, and after the conference. I extend my gratitude to Dianne F. Dakis, Lucy Fischer, Elizabeth K. Greene, Marcia Landy, Katheryn Linduff, Patrizia Lombardo (now at the University of Geneva), Colin MacCabe, Keiko McDonald, Cindy Neff, J. Thomas Rimer, Jonathan Wolff, and Joseph Zasloff.

As this book evolved, I received good advice, encouragement, and constructive criticism from a number of people. The anonymous readers of the University of Hawai‘i Press, Gina Marchetti, Lucy Fischer, and Nick Browne went over the entire manuscript or portions of it and offered helpful comments for reconsideration and revision. All the contributors of the volume collaborated with me with patience and trust. I personally have learned a great deal from each one of their essays. Gina Marchetti, Steve Fore, June Yip, Wei Ming Dariotis, and Eileen Fung, who were not present at the conference, readily sent their essays to me at my request, and their con- tributions have enriched the content of the book. May M. Wang, who col- laborated with me on the bibliography and Chinese glossary, also deserves a note of thanks.

For their support of both the conference and the book project by providing funds or making arrangements, I am thankful to the Asian Studies Program, the University Center for International Studies, the China Council, the De- partment of East Asian Languages and Literatures, Film Studies Program, Cul- tural Studies Program, and the Media Center at the University of Pittsburgh.

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xii Preface

Since 1993, I have been supported by the University of Pittsburgh, mostly through the China Council, to travel and conduct research in China every summer. In the summer of 1994, I was awarded a grant by the Central Research Development Fund of the Office of Research, and another grant by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to conduct research on New Chinese Cinema in China. While in China, I was able to meet and interview film artists and critics such as Li Yongxin, Xie Fei, the late Zhang Nuanxin, Huang Zongjiang, Li Baotian, Li Tuo, and Dai Jinhua. Li Yongxin and Chen Keli at the Beijing Film Academy have continuously assisted me in finding my way in the Chinese film world. My Junior Faculty Research Leave in fall 1996 released me from teaching duties and gave me time to finalize the manuscript. A combined research grant from the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the China Council made it possible for me to travel to the British Film Institute in London to obtain relevant research materials in October 1996. To the above individuals and institutions I owe a debt of gratitude.

It has been a pleasure to work with the editors of the University of Hawai‘i Press. Sharon F. Yamamoto first expressed an interest in the project. Her intelligent, smooth, graceful, and pleasant manner of handling the project is unforgettable. Cheri Dunn’s efficient work style kept the project moving in a timely manner in the later stage of preparation. Michael E. Macmillan’s meticulous and masterful copyediting of the manuscript not only cleaned up errors and inconsistencies but also decisively enhanced its overall quality. I should also mention that when I was looking for a suitable publisher, Eugene Eoyang readily lent a helping hand.

Gina Marchetti’s chapter first appeared in Jump Cut 34 (1989): 95–106, under the same title. Yingjin Zhang’s chapter first appeared in Cinema Journal 36, no. 3 (1997): 73–90. An earlier version of Kristine Harris’ chapter, under the title of “The New Woman: Image, Subject, and Dissent in 1930s Shang- hai Film Culture,” appeared in Republican China 20, no. 2 (1995): 55–79. I thank the editors of Jump Cut and Republican China and the University of Texas Press for permission to reprint these essays.

Keiko McDonald, whose office is next to mine, shares with me an intense professional interest in East Asian film studies. We have collaborated on several joint ventures such as a course on East Asian cinema, an East Asian film festival, and a workshop on teaching Asia through film. Katheryn Lin- duff and Tom Rimer are behind my professional development and all the projects I do at the University of Pittsburgh. Together with Kathy, I intend to explore a larger historical poetics of visuality throughout twentieth-cen- tury China. To Keiko, Kathy, and Tom, I must express my profound grati- tude for their unfailing support of my career.

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Preface xiii

Anne T. Ciecko not only joins me as a fan of John Woo, Chow Yun-fat, and Jackie Chan but also has been a source of love and inspiration in many ways in the last two years. She patiently reads everything I write and offers wise suggestions. I have benefited a great deal from her knowledge of film and visual arts.

My brother Lu Xiaolong and my sister Lu Xiaoyan (Lo Siu-yin), one in Beijing and one in Hong Kong, are present in this book. Although situated far away on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, their love sustains me. When I was young, they took me to theaters to watch moving “electric images” (kan dian-ying’er). To them and my mother I dedicate this book.

· A Note on Transliteration from the Chinese

The transliteration system used in this book is pinyin. However, there are exceptions. It is more natural, respectful, and “politically correct” to keep cer- tain names in their original Taiwanese, Hong Kongese, and Cantonese forms of romanization or as they appear in English subtitles in films. (John Woo, Ang Lee, Jia-chien, Wai-tung, Li T’en-luk, etc.) In many cases, two or multiple transliterations are provided for a name or term in its first appear- ance in order to familiarize readers and viewers of different backgrounds. (For instance, Fang Yuping/Allen Fong/Fong Yuk-ping, Guan Jinpeng/Stanley Kwan, Li Tianlu/Li T’ien-lu/Li T’en-luk, Wenqing/Wen-ch’ing/Bun-ch’ing, and so on). While pinyin helps create some sense of uniformity and order, for the purpose of, say, compiling a Chinese glossary, it is important for the reader to keep in mind the multilingual, multidialectal, polyglot, crosscul- tural, transnational, and diasporic condition of Chinese “proper names.”

Sheldon Lu/Xiaopeng Lu/Hsiao-peng Lu

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1

Historical Introduction ·

Chinese Cinemas (1896–1996) and Transnational Film Studies

· Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu

This volume of essays is a collective rethinking of the national/transnational interface in Chinese film history and in film studies and cultural studies at large. The contributors come from the various disciplines of Chinese history, Chinese literature, comparative literature, cultural studies, English, and film studies. We embark on an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural venture into a topic of shared interest. The occasion for such a project is the globalization of Chi- nese cinemas in the international film market and the rapid rise of Chinese cinema studies in Western academia. The entrance of Chinese cinemas in the international film community prompts us to closely examine the nature of Chinese “national cinema,” the advent of “transnational cinema,” the rela- tion of film to the modern nation-state, the nexus between visual technology and gender formation, and film culture in the age of global capitalism after the end of the Cold War.

Chinese cinemas cover a broad geographic and historical terrain, including Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and to some extent overseas Chinese communities. Asserting themselves boldly on the world stage since the mid- 1980s, Chinese filmmakers have captured numerous major international film awards in recent years, and the international following for Chinese films grows annually. With this increasing popularity, the Chinese film industry has attracted a sizable amount of foreign capital and has been in- volved in frequent joint productions. With internationalization on this scale at both production and consumption levels, the issue of what actually con- stitutes Chinese cinema comes to the forefront—is it film produced by Chi- nese for Chinese? Assuming that some consensus on the nature of Chinese cinema can be reached, are there characteristics of this cinema that draw upon Chinese deep culture and set it apart from the Hollywood phenome- non? How reliably can these characteristics be perceived and interpreted by the international film community, and to what extent can these characteris- tics inform and influence the international dialogue on the meaning of film?

When I reflect on the development of a century of Chinese cinemas, a