Screening Post-1989 China

Critical Analysis of Chinese Film and Television

W. Ho

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781137517609
• eBook ISBN: 9781137514707
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Art General
• Index: Social Sciences

This unique book investigates the tug-of-war between the free market economy and authoritative state regulation in Chinese culture after 1989. Contextualizing close textual readings of cinematic and television texts, both officially sanctioned and independently made, Wing Shan Ho illuminates the complex process in which cultural producers and consumers negotiate with both the state and the market in articulating new forms of subjectivity. Ho examines the types of Chinese subjects that the state applauds and aggrandizes in contrast to those that it condemns and attempts to eliminate. Her focus on the socialist spirit exposes inherent contradictions in the current Chinese project of nation-building. This comparative study shines a harsh light on these cultural products and on much more: the confluence between commerce and politics and popular culture, the interaction between state and individuals in popular culture, and the complexity of governmentality in an era of globalization.

PART I

Screening the Economic Subject in Films

CHAPTER 1

Selfless Party Officials and the Socialist Legacy

As China undergoes drastic social and economic restructuring, ensuing moral catastrophes have garnered increasing attention, with the population emerging as desperate economic subjects craving financial security—a departure from the previous socialist welfare system. Ci Jiwei argues that China is confronting a “moral crisis,” that is, “a state of affairs in which large numbers of people fail to comply with more or less acceptable rules of social co-existence and cooperation,” as he sees that the violation of elementary norms has resulted in the production and widespread sale of unsafe food, medicine, and water, for example.¹ These ruthless acts arguably stem from the desire for profit or advancement at the expense of others. Economic subjects at all social levels pursue wealth during socioeconomic restructuring, transgressing moral and sometimes even legal boundaries. This moral disarray resonates with the global moral crisis that sociologist Zygmunt Bauman identifies—a moral crisis in which strangers are seen as threats, attacked, and killed within a space of liquid modernity, a term he coins to describe the globalization processes in which the boundaries of society and culture become more and more permeable.² Both the anxious Chinese government and cultural elites respond to such a moral crisis on the screen but with different representational paradigms that give rise to representational politics—the former attempts to reinvigorate moral values in order to maintain political legitimacy and the latter reflects upon social problems.

Recent scholarship has focused on the roles that social campaigns and television programs play in advancing public morality but has largely overlooked that of another major form of mass media—film.³ And while some scholarship has been devoted to detailing how Feng Xiaogang’s commercially successful films have commented on social issues through humor⁴ and how films employing a documentary mode to reveal the grotesque logic of capital bypass the censorship system of the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT),⁵ scholars have yet to explore films that help constitute a wider spectrum with regard to the films’ representational paradigms and their negotiations with the state and censorship. If Feng Xiaogang’s commercial films, capable of passing censorship while still addressing social issues, are in the middle of the spectrum and some films that bypass censorship are on one side of the spectrum, films that receive state support and approval should be located on the other side of the spectrum. There are also films that attempt to be situated between implicit social satire (Feng Xiaogang) and censor bypasses—films that message economic criticism and aim for public screening in the domestic market but unfortunately confront censorship intervention, probably due to their explicit social commentary. To fill such gaps on the spectrum, this chapter will illustrate the ways in which film addresses the economic-driven “moral crisis” in China and explore the representational politics between two filmic attempts to address that moral crisis.

Chinese film productions addressing the moral crisis are plentiful; each mode of production has its ideological paradigm and narrative strategies. Two main modes of production are main melody productions (zhuxuanlü) and “socially conscious productions.”⁶ The former refers to state-sponsored and ideologically sound productions that portray exemplars in order to (re)shape moral standards and regulate the perceived (mis)conduct of the population, while the latter includes a wide variety of privately funded films whose narratives revolve around social issues. While the two modes of film production may share the same moral concern, they have a somewhat contrasting representational paradigm—main melodies emphasize the portrayals of positive models, while some socially conscious productions magnify social problems and the ethical questions that accompany them. I consider the former a concealing tactic that glosses over social problems and the latter a revealing one that focuses more on diagnosing a moral crisis.

I will discuss in this chapter the state-sponsored film Ren Changxia, a main melody production emphasizing state ideology that depicts the life of its eponymous heroine, a selfless police chief. I will leave investigations into non-state productions to Chapter 2. I argue that Ren Changxia is the state’s attempt to counter the moral erosion of its Party members by painting an ideal picture of an altruistic Party official with the implicit intention of preventing ordinary citizens from questioning the morality of Party members by explicitly aligning a morally sound representative of the Party with the state. The protagonist Ren Changxia dedicates her time and energy to fighting crime and serving people, sacrificing her family and even her life while serving her country. The image of Ren Changxia glorifies the virtue of altruism, attempts to interpellate selfless Party officials, and more importantly, establishes the image of a clean and responsible government. Moreover, it also offers a solution to the conflict between one’s familial duties (a lesser good) and service to the country (a greater good) by affirming filial piety yet displacing it from the parents to the state. However, such self-sacrificing work ethics also have downsides, which stimulate reflection on the worthiness of sacrifice.

Why do we still need a socialist legacy like Ren Changxia when China’s legendary economic growth seems to have become the center of local and global attention, and do we see any gender differences among selfless heroes? To answer these questions, I will supplement the analysis of Ren Changxia with an examination of two more zhuxuanlü films, Days Without Lei Feng and Kong Fansen. The former explicates how the state disassociates itself from rising greed and why we continue to see the glorification of altruistic figures on the screen, while the latter helps us determine whether there are gender differences between good economic subjects. Kong Fansen presents an altruistic male cadre, Kong Fansen, who is committed to work akin to that carried out by Ren Changxia. He ignores his own family’s needs and filial duties while working for the Party and the people. Given that the state approved both Ren Changxia and Kong Fansen as exemplary idols of the country, gender equality seems to be suggested. I contend that the state expects Party officials of both genders to possess a homogeneous capacity for work that grows out of the genderless socialist spirit, while simultaneously enforcing female inferiority at work. Although the protagonists Kong Fansen and Ren Changxia did not die on the battlefield in war, their life’s devotion to serving their country can also be regarded as another kind of martyrdom.

The term economic as used in this part stands for the Chinese word li (利), which contains two meanings and serves as both noun and verb. As a noun, li is monetary profits (yingli 盈利); as a verb, it means to benefit someone in tangible or intangible terms (the li as in li ren 利人 and li ji 利己, to benefit others or oneself). I will discuss in this chapter how an ideal economic subject works not for monetary gain, but instead, for the benefit of others (li ren 利人) at the expense of his/her own finances, time, family, and even life. I will then discuss in the next chapter how selfish economic subjectivity benefits one’s own situation or family (li ji 利己) by making as much money as possible regardless of injury to others (sun ren 損人).

Ren Changxia—Reinvigorating Selflessness in Officialdom

The tragic death of Ren Changxia triggered profound mourning in Dengfeng City, where she served as police chief. The mourning attracted the central government’s attention, and she was later turned into a national heroine and exemplary model. As part of a memorial campaign, promotional materials were spread across the country; these included a TV drama, a film, several local operas, and various books based on her life and achievements during her service as police chief. Who exactly is Ren Changxia? What did she do to earn herself such recognition?

Ren Changxia (1964–2004) was born in Zhengzhou City, the capital of Henan Province, and was assigned to work at the Zhengzhou Police Station (gong’an ju) after graduating from the People’s Police School of Henan (Henan renmin jingcha xuexiao) in 1993. From that time on, her outstanding work performance earned her numerous awards.⁷ In April 2001, she was promoted to police chief in Dengfeng City, Hunan Province, a city with a population of 650,000 and best known as home to the Shaolin Temple. There, she served for three years as the first female police chief in Henan Province until her tragic death in a car accident.

Though she was only recognized for her work on a local scale during her lifetime, Ren Changxia’s heroic death turned her into a national legend and an icon of altruism. As a deceased Communist Party member, she was highly praised in memorial biographies for her self-sacrificing spirit of serving the public. Her memorial materials were officially published not only in Henan but also in the capital city and Shanghai through the official network.⁸ These publications represent the Party’s efforts to nationally circulate the story of a selfless local figure. This circulated media of course included two of the most popular media forms since the Maoist era, prized for their ability to amplify and visualize political messages—film and television.

The film Ren Changxia was clearly a grand, collaborative political effort. It was coproduced by the CCP’s (Chinese Communist Party) Propaganda Department; the Propaganda Department of Public Security of the PRC (People’s Republic of China); the Propaganda Department of the All-China Women’s Federation; the Propaganda Department of Henan Province; the Propaganda Department of Zhengzhou; and, notably, the Changchun Film Studio, known as the original PRC film studio, which had produced numerous early propaganda films, including Bai mao nü (the White-Haired Girl, 1951) and Yingxiong ernü (Heroic Sons and Daughters, 1964). Production of the TV version of Ren Changxia was also initiated by the official propaganda department. The Propaganda Department of Public Security of the PRC invited the CCP’s Propaganda Department and the Center of China TV Drama Production, a unit directly under SARFT, to produce the TV drama.⁹

The series of national circulations and interpellations carried out by Party members and Chinese citizens, in general, extracts and empties out the meaning of Ren Changxia; the name now becomes a descriptive signifier standing for a mode of conduct and work attitude that sacrifices self-interest for the good of the people. In fact, Ren Changxia shi gong’an juzhang (Ren Changxia model of police chief) became a set expression to celebrate any police chief who excelled at developing investigative tactics and willingly exhibited self-sacrifice. For example, Liu Litao, a police chief in Jiangsu Province, Li Junbiao, a police chief in Yunnan Province, and Xi Shangxin, a police chief in Gansu Province, were all labeled as Ren Changxia shi gong’an juzhang in different official Chinese journals introducing their achievements.¹⁰ The name Ren Changxia has been appropriated by the state to denote and advance the selfless spirit and has been turned into an icon of the CCP’s superior morality.

Premier Wen Jiabao’s instruction states the superficial motivation for learning Ren’s model: to learn from Ren and serve the people;¹¹ however, this is by no means the ultimate reason for promoting Ren Changxia. Investment in Ren’s image reveals the utilitarianism of a political agenda. The hidden agenda is to propagandize the superior morality of the CCP and its members, thus creating (false) hope for the current corrupt political system and cultivating patriotism. Serving people is not the goal but the means by which to achieve political support of the people, and it is this reality that drives zhuxuanlü productions. The comments of Ren Changxia’s senior officer, Li Minqing, reveal this layer of politics: “Ren’s capacity was not the best, and the reason for putting forth so much effort in promoting her was her ability to gain people’s support.”¹² It implies that in promoting morality, the primary goal is not simply to set up an exemplary model for fellow citizens but to gain people’s support for the current political system. It also means that serving the public is not the sole means of achieving moral superiority; on the contrary, any means that can earn support for the Party is useful, including creating economic prosperity on top of serving the people. This idea also resonates in the final sentence of Wen Jiaobao’s instruction for learning from Ren: to contribute your part for the greater good in stabilizing reforms and developments.¹³ We can also trace this logic to Deng Xiaoping’s flexible attitude toward economic modes of production: “No matter whether black or white in color, a good cat is one that catches mice.” Applying this logic to twenty-first-century China, we can understand this sentence to mean that anything can have value as long as it draws support for the Party, and thus, consolidates Party hegemony.

Screening a Self-Sacrificing Economic Subject in Ren Changxia

What are Ren Changxia’s good qualities? Or what exactly do these memorial materials promote about Ren Changxia? The memorial materials are devoted to the portrayal of Ren as a selfless civil servant who is willing to incur personal loss to serve the people. They highlight two sides of the same coin of her heroic achievements. On the one hand, the materials display her accomplishments in fighting crime and her ability to investigate as the police chief. On the other hand, they emphasize the personal and familial sacrifices she made to fulfill her duties, underlining the admirable and exemplary motivation of serving the people. The materials emphasize her gendered social role as a mother and a wife, but also emphasize her inability to fulfill these social duties because she represents a highly admirable, exemplary form of sacrifice. Moreover, her female gender is simultaneously highlighted and blurred. Campaign materials celebrate her superior but apparently genderless work performance while stressing her potential inferiority as a female laborer among her male colleagues.

Even though the TV drama and the film, both entitled Ren Changxia, visualize the conflict between the self and the greater good when serving the public, the differing visual forms shape dissimilar foci on the contents. As a visual form, a television drama series allows for more details and a broader temporal span. The twenty-one-episode series presents Ren Changxia’s three-year appointment (prematurely terminated) in Dengfeng City, her challenges in leading male police officers when initially reporting as the first female police chief in Henan Province, her achievements in fighting both old and new forms of crime and arresting criminals, her frequent visits to villages, and her concern for crime victims, a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• A Note on Translation and Romanization
• Introduction: How Far Can We Go in Controlling and Negotiating Cultural Production and Consumption
• Part I Screening the Economic Subject in Films
• Part II Screening the Sexual Subject on the Television
• Part III Screening the Political Subject in Films
• Conclusion: How Far Have We Gone
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index