Proposal
Thesis Statement: In the 1930s years, China was a divided country and got through significant changes both in politic and social spheres. One of such changes was the increased role of women. Chinese society, however, was in its critical times; established principles of the patriarchal society came into conflict with the rising of women’s status. That was especially challenging for the female representatives of the lower class. The Goddess tells the story of one of such women, struggling and poor, forced to work as a prostitute in order to provide better living for her little son. For him, her only love, and his bright future, she is ready to do anything, but because of her occupation she faces a lot of condemnation and distaste from the society. The Goddess takes up the questions of oppression, victimization, and injustice of Chinese society of the 1930s, and reflects them in terms of the woman, or, as we know her, the Goddess. How would her life have been if, instead of being blamed, she got support and understanding?
At the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, China passed through tough times.
The conflict between old customary civilization and modernity.
The role of women in Chinese society of 1930s.
The main aim of the important movie is reflection of the society and times when it was directed.
Developing of Chinese cinema of 1930s.
Main features in Chinese cinema of 1930s.
Women in Chinese cinema of 1930s.
The Goddess perfectly shows main features of Chinese cinema of 1930s.
Brief overview of the plot and uncovering of main questions opened in the movie.
The Goddess is a silent movie, and all experiences and struggles of main characters are conveyed through facial expressions and environment.
Description of one of the scenes and screenshot.
Conclusion: The Goddess is the movie concentrating around the theme of injustice, non-understanding, and oppression of women in Chinese society of 1930s. Despite increasing of women’s rights, modernity still was not long present in people’s minds. Women, who raised children without husbands and had dingy occupations, were condemned; but, as it is seen through the example of the Goddess, she did everything only for her son. The main question of the movie is the question of prepossession caused by the habitual way of life of Chinese society of 1930s. Kindness, sociability, and help from people around the Goddess could turn her life another way, like it happened with her son in the end; however, it did not happen with her, even if it was not the thing she crave for. The Goddess personifies women who tried their best, but did not succeed, even for their children, and, as a result were not accepted by preconceived society. The Goddess makes wondering if the attitude of one people towards another ones is acceptable and right, what is more important.
Annotated Bibliography:
Lim, S.H., and Ward J. The Chinese Cinema Book. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Print.
The book overviews genres, main issues, and movements that appeared in different periods of Chinese cinematography development, and helps to understand main themes of Chinese cinematography of 1930s better.
Rudolph, J. “Chinese Women and Modernity.” Exeas.org. EXeAS Teaching Unit, n.d. Web. Accessed 26 Feb 2016.
The introduction article gives a brief overview of China in 1920s-1930s and provides background information about the place of women those times.
Xiang, A.S. “Hollywood and Shanghai Cinema in the 1930s.” CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture. 15.2 (2003): 1-8. PDF Version.
The article argues about Hollywood impact on Chinese cinema of 1930s and gives better understanding of following changes.
Zhang, Y. Chinese National Cinema. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. Print.
The book covers development of cinematography of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan trough different historical periods.
Peer reviews
Film: The Family (Chen Xihe 1956) This melodrama is adapted by novelist Ba Jin’s novel is about a big family’s stories that just like the film we watched in class, “Girl Friends”; everyone has their stories which are about that time’s society and history content. The Chinese old traditional family like a “cancer” of Chinese society and also had a new thought to against and broke the feudal socialism because people had enough of it.
The second part of the thesis is not connected with the first. It gives a cue on the theme of the future discussion and the direction of the argument, but is rather vague. The thesis deals directly with the topic, but does not make a clear claim and does not addresses the reasons why it matters. The thesis should be developed.
2. Post-war attitudes about family, gender roles, and societal norms were in a state of flux within the United States. The United States, however, was not the only country undergoing intense changes after the war. When examining "Tokyo Story" by Yasujiro Ozu, we see through the different generational lenses what it means to be a family and the roles that each person plays within a family.
The thesis announces the theme of the following discussion. It deals directly with the topic and indicates direction of future argument. The thesis is specific and attempts to explore challenging intellectual question about the role of each person in the family in Japanese society of 1950s. However, it does not make a claim being more descriptive. The thesis makes generalization that can be developed, but does not address the reasons why it is important.
Paper
In the 1930s years, China was a divided country and got through significant changes both in politic and social life spheres. One of such changes was the increased role of women. Chinese society, however, was in its critical times; established principles of the patriarchal society came into conflict with the rising of women’s status. That was especially challenging for the female representatives of the lower class. The Goddess (Wu Yonggang, 1934) tells the story of one of such women (played by Ruan Ling-Yu), struggling and poor, forced to work as a prostitute in order to provide better living for her little son. For him, her only love, and his bright future, she is ready to do anything, but because of her occupation she faces a lot of condemnation and distaste from the society. The Goddess takes up the questions of oppression, victimization, and injustice of Chinese society of the 1930s, and reflects them in terms of the woman, or, as we know her, the Goddess. How would her life have been if, instead of being blamed, she got support and understanding?
At the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, China passed through tough times. The country underwent various internal rebellions, imperialism, once again was defeated by the Western nations and Japan, experienced political revolution and attempts of reform implements. That was an opportunity for changing of existed way of life and chance for a new start, but for some of Chinese intellectuals such state of affairs seemed questionable. Chinese nation was on the line between old customary civilization and modernity able to bring the country fresh perspectives. According to Rudolph, in order to achieve modernity, “the Chinese people had to be politicized and rallied to the cause of Chinese survival in the modern world” (“Chinese Women and Modernity”). All and sundry should have devoted themselves to the work for the good of the people. For this purpose, women were essential; they were symbols of keepers, they kept houses and homes, and traditions of rich Chinese culture. As the result, women felt duality of Chinese society much more than men. They should have met the requirements of traditional way of life, but at the same time wanted to become more independent. Thus, 1920s in China were marked with confluence of striving for modernity and saving old traditions at the same time. A big step forward was made in 1930, when Chinese government passed the Republican Civil Code that changed basic rules of inheritance. The whole property belonged to the father, but after the death of parents, it was equally divided between all children regardless of their gender. Women’s rights officially increased, but thoughts of society frequently remained traditional.
The main aim of the important movie is reflection of the society and times when it was directed. Wu Yonggang directed The Goddess, or Shen nu, in 1934, and it joined the ranks of China’s cinematic golden age masterpieces. Generally, it is worth noting that the 1930s is considered to be one of the most exciting periods in the history of Chinese cinematography. According to Pang, that was the first time when movies started to be seeing “not only as a means of entertainment but as a cultural form capable of many different kinds of cultural and social signification” (Lim 56). Chinese filmmakers adopted Hollywood ideas about how a good movie should look like and “participated in the transformation of the Hollywood legacy to meet new political needs” (Xiang 7). The new movement was called “vernacular modernism”; it drew ideas from Hollywood cinema of those times that, according to Hansen, was concentrated on revelation of characters, motives of one or another action under cause-and-effect, the relationship between time and space in one or another moment and their progression, “formal patterns of repetition and variation, rhyming, balance, and symmetry; and overall compositional unity and closure” (Hansen, 11). Cinema was developed and became a significant part of a culture, and in 1930s – a part of progressive film culture marked with an importance of intellectual elements presence. According to Zhang, prewar cinema was “marked by incessant ideological struggles between . . . social realism and aesthetic modernism” (Zhang, 59). Various political and social concerns led to appearing of new female characters with absolutely different archetypes and questions of their rights and place in China of the day. The New Women, how they were called, became one of the central themes in Chinese movies of 1930s ranging “from prostitutes to intellectuals, from social butterflies to asexualized blue-collar workers, from juvenile sing-song girls to soul-searching mothers” (Lim 61). That was a reflection of modernity that just appeared and had not caught on yet; generally, 1930s Chinese cinematography was more feminine that masculine (Lim 61). Dramas and melodramas became prevailing genres, female actresses started to gain popularity, and plot was moving towards lives and problems of female main characters.
The Goddess perfectly shows main features of Chinese cinema of 1930s. The main character of the movie, whose real name we do not know, is the woman, representative of lower class, a prostitute working on neon-lit Shanghai streets in order to earn money for her and her little son. So, in the center of the plot there is a New Woman, the prostitute, and, what is mostly important, unmarried mother that loves her son and is ready for everything to make him happy. During one of police raids, she runs away and accidentally hides in the apartment that belongs to one of the local criminals, the Boss. The Boss understands that the Goddess is a prostitute and has a great potential and ability to bring him a lot of money, so he follows her till her house and claims he takes charge in her business. In order to escape, the Goddess and her son move to another city, where, unable to continue working as a prostitute, she starts to encumber her belongings. Once, returning home, the woman finds the Boss, while her child is missing. The Boss promises to return her son if she works for him, then quoting a famous proverb, “No matter how quickly the monkey flips, it can never break free from the huge monk's grip.” This is a display of male power; as we remember, the movie was directed in 1934, on the line between two ways of life, according to which women, on the one side, were independent, but on the other, remained as keepers of Chinese traditions, where a woman should have obeyed a man. Time flies, the woman’s child grows up, but he has no friends; his peers avoid any contacts with him because of his mother’s profession. Then, trying to give her son fine future, the Goddess starts to hide from the Boss money she earns and to set them apart in order to send her child to school. Finally she succeeds in this; the Goddess sees her child happy, craving for studying, socializing with classmates. But soon society around the woman and her son starts to become rumored again. This scene together with the previous one, depicting the son has no friends, is a display of injustice Chinese society of 1930s was full of. Children should not be in charge of their parents, but the son gets under oppression and becomes a victim. The woman is not married, and her occupation generates a lot of questions, especially from the side of other mothers, but in China in 30s women had already got an opportunity to work on equal ground with men, and a prostitute was widespread profession, even if not respected. Living on the cushion and having husbands, other women just cannot understand the Goddess is doing everything only for her son, and cannot accept her. Suspicions about the Goddess occupation have a great negative impact on her and her son. Everybody criticizes her, and the school commission, which consists only of male representatives, decides to exclude her son. The Goddess wants to escape again, but finds that the Boss stole all her savings. In a bout of anger and despair, the woman kills him, and goes to jail. In the end, she gets to know that her son will be adopted by the former school principal, the only person who could understand her struggle and condole her. The mother’s heart quiets; she knows that her son will be safe and happy.
The woman and her son at the beginning.
The Goddess. Dir. Wu Yonggang. Lianhua Film Company, 1934. Film.
The woman imagining her son’s bright future.
The Goddess. Dir. Wu Yonggang. Lianhua Film Company, 1934. Film.
The Goddess is a silent movie, and all experiences and struggles of main characters are conveyed through facial expressions and environment. At first, we guess that the woman works as a prostitute by close look at her room. In general, it looks rather poor, but there are make up, perfume, and elegant dresses, which, as we can suggest, are necessary for her job, and also toys and a crib in the center of the room. The woman styles herself as a fallen woman and loving and caring mother at the same time, what looks rather strange. But, after all, we learn that the Goddess at first is a mother, and her occupation is the only way for her and her son to survive. One of the main features of the movie that allow us to understand it, is a brilliant play of Ruan Ling-Yu, widely recognized star of Chinese silent cinematography of 1920s-1930s. Her talent is clearly seen throughout the whole movie. For example, in one of the strongest scenes of The Goddess the woman returns home and meets the Boss, who hide her child in order to force her work on him. He tells the woman that he sold him for twenty hundred bucks. Ruan Ling-Yu perfectly plays a mother who just lost her child, who is shocked, angry, threatened, who does not know what to do. The scene with the Goddess is shown for a long time, and her emotions changed from unbelief to fear; at the end, she drops the doll she bought for her son before, and it crashes.
The Boss tells the Goddess he sold her son.
The Goddess. Dir. Wu Yonggang. Lianhua Film Company, 1934. Film.
The Goddess is the movie concentrating around the theme of injustice, non-understanding, and oppression of women in Chinese society of 1930s. In Chinese cinematography of 1930s, women symbolize “urban modernity, figuring the city in its allure, instability, anonymity, and illegibility, which is often suggested through juxtapositions of women's faces and bodies with the lights of Shanghai, abstracted into hieroglyphics” (Hansen, 15). Despite increasing of women’s rights, modernity still was not long present in people’s minds. Women, who raised children without husbands and had dingy occupations, were condemned; but, as it is seen through the example of the Goddess, she did everything only for her son. The main question of the movie is the question of prepossession caused by the habitual way of life of Chinese society of 1930s. Kindness, sociability, and help from people around the Goddess could turn her life another way, like it happened with her son in the end; however, it did not happen with her, even if it was not the thing she crave for. The Goddess personifies women who tried their best, but did not succeed, even for their children, and, as a result were not accepted by preconceived society. The Goddess makes wondering if the attitude of one people towards another ones is acceptable and right, what is more important.
Works Cited
Hansen, M.B. “Fallen Women, Rising Stars, New Horizons: Shanghai Silent Film As Vernacular Modernism.” Film Quarterly, 54.1 (2000): 10-22. PDF.
Lim, S.H., and Ward J. The Chinese Cinema Book. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Print.
Rudolph, J. “Chinese Women and Modernity.” Exeas.org. EXeAS Teaching Unit, n.d. Web. Accessed 26 Feb 2016.
The Goddess. Dir. Wu Yonggang. Lianhua Film Company, 1934. Film.
Xiang, A.S. “Hollywood and Shanghai Cinema in the 1930s.” CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture. 15.2 (2003): 1-8. PDF Version.
Zhang, Y. Chinese National Cinema. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. Print.
