For
this blossay I wanted to focus on the gender politics of the four films that we
watched for this unit. These films to me showed women in a completely new
light. We got to see women as more prominent characters in these films, we saw
them as people versus women who need to be saved, or as a nagging girlfriend.
We see the oppression of women in China and how they grew as women.
In Yellow Earth we see a young woman; some
may even consider her to still be a girl. Cuiqiao is just fourteen years old. Though she is so young she cares so
much for her father, she acts like she is his wife. In a modern American
setting Cuiqiao would be cared for as a child and not taking care of her father
because of the gender boundaries. Cuiqiao
is sold in the film; she is sold to marry a wealthy older family. Cuiqiao’s
family has suffered financially after the engagement of her older brother and
the funeral of her mother. Cuiqiao needs to be sold at such a young age so that
her family can begin saving for her younger brothers future engagement. Given
that Cuiqiao is only being sold so that her brother can eventually buy his
bride shows the cycle that women were thrown in. Cuiqiao is an example of how
younger women felt oppression in some way.
Raise the Red
Lantern shows the complexities of women and relationships between women. In
this film we see a man and his four wives. The husband or the master is in
scenes with his four wives yet his face is never shown. What I thought of is
how did a man get to this degree of power? How can a man have four wives and
not have people bat an eye? Meishan has an affair with the doctor and is hung
because of this. Her betrayal causes her death, even though she feels betrayed when
her master chooses to spend the night with another wife. The master does not
get in trouble because of his power and of him being a man. This to me seems to
be a double-standard.
The concept of concubines is so baffling to me in how
everything was arranged. Having concubines reminds me of polygamous families.
Marriage is an act of partnership, having one man split his time between four
wives is not fair to the wives, or to the children he has with them. Having a
woman be just one of the wives isn’t fair to that woman or to women at all.
All four wives have distinct personalities and all have
their own different and unique stories. We see four wives varying in age and in
life experience. We see women that have
children, women who were forced into marriage. We see a young woman who is wife
number five enter the home which starts a fresh new cycle.
Raise the Red
Lantern features a power struggle between the wives and the housekeeper,
Chen. Songlian fights with her and takes her own power on Chen. Watching a
female power struggle was a new feature
and shows the different roles that women have in film and during this time in
China. Songlian takes her power in such an interesting way, she wants to take
advantage of the power that she given now that she is a concubine.
Farewell my
Concubine features gender in a new way than in other films that we see. I
thought that watching a man play a woman for a huge portion of the film made
the experience so different. Dieyi plays a woman in the opera and plays the
wife of Xiaolou on stage and ends up gaining those feelings for Xiaolou. Dieyi
is feminine as a character and when in makeup as the queen it is hard to tell
if Dieyi is male or female.
Crouching Tiger
Hidden Dragon is a film that shows women with skill and as an enemy. Jade
Fox is the enemy of this film. She is the best of the best in the world of
fighting. Having a woman that is so great shows a female power. Fox also uses
her power to train Jen to create another woman to be as talented as she is.
Seeing women as fighters that can beat and win against men is great and shows
how women can be seen as equals and even as superiors to men. Jade Fox though she
is a powerful woman, she cannot read which holds her back. Jade Fox fears that
Jen will be able to read and study on how to improve and become a better
fighter. Showing Jade Fox as one that cannot read is a subtle way to show how a
woman that is so strong and so powerful is weak and even lesser than men. I
thought that this was an interesting concept to bring into the film but that it
showed how women are weaker in this time.
These films reflect the times that the films were set
in. Yellow
Earth was set in the early years of when the communists took over. Raise the Red Lantern was set in the
early 1920’s a time when it was common for a man to have many wives and
concubines. Farewell my Concubine spans over fifty-three years from 1924-1977,
this shows the Japanese invasion and the lives of Dieyi and Xiaolou. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is set in 1779 during the Qing Dynasty, which
shows this way of living and the relationships of the character.
Power is a struggle that we see in all four of these
films. Yellow Earth shows how quickly
one can be torn out of the family home just by your gender. Cuiqiao is sent
away from the home and is sold to be the wife of an older man. Raise the Red Lantern is a story of
power from the get go. We see a man a husband who is also called a master, he
is the husband of four women, but they refer to him as the master. We also see
a power struggle between Songlian and her servant. The power struggle is so
intense that her servant eventually dies. Farewell
my Concubine shows a power struggle through the beginning of the film. We
see the schooling that the boys go through and how much they were abused by
their own mentors. Seeing a power struggle between men of different ages versus
a power struggle between men and women was an interesting twist. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon has a variety
of power differences the one I noticed most when Jen got her comb stolen from Lo.
Lo keeps her captive and holds the comb over her head. He uses the power of her
wanting it back to keep her with him. That power struggle and dominance of Jen
wanting that comb back added passion and dedication to the film.
Marriage is another theme that all of these films share,
probably given how gender plays a role in each film. Each film features a woman
who is either married, or in the process of an arranged marriage. We see women
entering hesitantly and some are forced to marry. Marriages in these films show
the difference in gender. Marriage touches each film in a different way. We see
women affected by marriage in good and bad ways. In Farewell my Concubine Juxian and Xiaolou marry and cause Dieyi to
be very upset. When Juxian is revealed to be a whore and Xiaolou reacts poorly
Juxian is upset and eventually commits suicide. This shows how marriage can be
a negative influence in the lives of women.
All of these films also show how unequal women truly are.
We see women treated poorly and at times just as a number. When I looked at the
Wikipedia article for Raise the Red
Lantern it named the wives of the master by number, which made me feel like
these women lost their identity. Women
are also rarely seen as superiors or even as equals. This contributed to the
gender politics that are featured in these films and even in society as well.
