As a direct result of the intense political climate in China in the 1930’s, the film industry developed as a medium to challenge social issues by educating the proletariat. In this essay I am going to analyse the ways in which left wing directors used cinema and challenged censorship to influence the public opinion regarding nationalism, war and the treatment of women.
The beginning and development of Chinese Cinema
The birth of Chinese cinema dates back to the late 1890’s with the importation of the Lumier brothers western style films. Western colonisation and imperialism meant that China was closely connected to the global world and so as a result treaty ports became hot beds for Western products and ideas. Films were imported from the West by global showmen that wanted to circulate this new entertainment. The reaction of the public was positive as not only were the films engaging, but they gave the opportunity for the audience to imagine what the West looked like and gradually cinema became part of cosmopolitan culture. Originally the films were showcased to wealthy families in private gardens, however as they became popular in the lower levels of society, they began to be shown in tea houses.
In contrast to the Western industry, the development of Chinese film was significantly later. By the 1920’s the audience had begun to mature and successful film companies were being set up. Initially, as discovered by the Mingxing Motion Picture Company, box office success was found in comical films such as Labourers Love (1922) that screened for more than 100 days in Shanghai. Costume drama and martial arts films also became increasingly popular in the mid 1920’s, especially amongst the working class. In the 1930s, the cinema industry had drastically matured and intellectuals began to find that film could be a useful tool for popular education.
The Golden Age
The films produced in China in the 1930’s were unlike any made in the previous years. Under the circumstances of a national crisis, nationalist themes and ideas relating to the political background of the time were portrayed. Although the Communist Party (CCP) had already seen the potential in film to convert ideologies, intellectuals during this period also identified with marxist ideology and anti-government attitudes. “Chinese intellectuals had long recognised the potential of film as a medium not simply of commerce or entertainment but a vehicle for intellectual, moral and political uplift.” Left wing intellectuals used the film industry to produce works that highlighted the issues society was facing and to help educate the public to enforce the change that they felt China desperately needed.
The predicament of war
Progressive filmmakers began to use cinema as a political tool due to the increasing threat of Japanese occupation. A series of invasions by the Japanese had sparked deep patriotism amongst the Chinese public. In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria and thus gained territory in Northeastern China. The situation worsened in 1932 when they bombed part of Shanghai, the most modern and prosperous city in the country. The bombing destroyed various buildings, including movie theatres. Many directors lived and worked in Shanghai so they, along with the rest of its inhabitants, directly felt the impact and humiliation that derived from the invasion.
The predicament of war and further invasion by the Japanese galvanised social and political concern and so, in many of films produced afterwards, war served as the background setting to the storylines. During the period of conflict with Japan not many films were produced, yet those that were remained up to date and addressed the issues the public faced. “The camera was immediately focused on the occupied land, the suffering people, and dark painful reality”.
Strict censorship by the Nationalist Party at the time prohibited film makers from directly referring or depicting Japanese invasions, however they were able to find ways around the laws without suffering consequences. To evade censorship they would set the film during the warlord period, although the audience could easily understand the references to the political situation in China at the time. We can see an example of this in Sun Yu’s film Daybreak (1933); in the film, the main character Ling Ling moves away from her rural fishing village that has been devastated by war. She moves to Shanghai in search of a better life and eventually finds a job working in a factory. This series of events would have been relatable to the audience as it echoed the reality faced by many. “Ticket prices were usually lower for Chinese films, which seem to have attracted a less financially comfortable and less westernised clientele than did American features”. Intellectuals were provided with a direct opportunity to inform those less educated, as they tended to fall within the category of a poorer audience. The masses became more interested in such relatable left wing films, in comparison to the previously popular genre of mandarin duck and butterfly.
Challenging censorship and the GMD
These socially committed films were challenging the authorities. China was governed by a Nationalist government that wanted to reinvigorate the country using methods that were considered old fashioned. In 1927 the Nanjing government decided they wanted to introduce a system of censorship committees and boards to control what was being produced in the cinema industry. The central goal of film censorship was to nation build and so the government banned all types of costume dramas, opposing all forms of superstition. They also wanted to centralise the country’s language system, banning any form of dialect and using the film industry to promote Putonghua only. On the 1st of January they further introduced three new regulations:
No film may be shown which is in violation of the political principles of Kuomintang or which might affect the prestige of the nation.
The Committee must refuse license to any film, or any part of film which may be disadvantageous to morality or to the public peace.
License will be refused to all pictures which might conduce to superstitious practices, or might encourage feudalism.
The regulations in the quote above give reference to the advocation of Communism within the film industry. As it was trying to promote its own agenda, the Nationalist government clearly opposed left wing ideology. The different political forces had distinct ideas and principles, resulting in conflicts between the two. The GMD was in favour of Confucianism, even facist military in order to discipline Chinese citizens, whereas the CCP wanted to modernise society by educating the public on the social concerns, instead of suppressing their feelings. The Goumingdang blue shirt faction was used as the instrument of the right wing to control developments within cinema. Left wing film writers often had to flee to Communist controlled regions of China as they often faced punishment for their messages. For example, only a year after it’s founding in 1932, the Communist controlled company Yihua’s facilities were destroyed by Blue Shirt thugs. Although they had been driven underground, the CCP continued to fight. In 1931-1937 left wing film makers and intellectuals created the Leftwing Cinema Movement. Throughout the films they produced we can see key themes and elements that derived from left-wing culture to help educate the masses such as war, patriotism and revolution.
The themes mentioned above play a key role in Daybreak (1933) as throughout the development of the film, the protagonist Ling Ling transforms into a revolutionary. After being raped by her employers son she is sold into prostitution, yet ironically through this role she is able to move into higher social circles and increase her income. Using the money she earns, she helps those less fortunate and previous factory workers. At the end of the film we see her being executed by a firing squad for her ideologies and her attempt at helping her revolutionary lover escape. Through the ending, director Sun Yu highlights the unjust patriarchal and hierarchical society of China at the time. Ling Ling is punished despite her efforts to combat the unjust oppression she faces through no fault of her own. Most interestingly in the final scene, one of the main soldiers opposes her execution and attempts to save her life, pleading the generals to spare her. He attempts to encourage the soldiers not to shoot, declaring they should all work together and although the facial expressions show that some agree, he is shot dead. Sun Yu is implying that not all of the members of law enforcement agreed with the Nationalist government and it’s methods. They too like the public were oppressed by those higher in society. The director was trying say that had the troops come together and fought against the ideology, Ling Ling would have lived. This is a simulacrum of the larger left wing goal of uniting together against the cruel GMD regime.
Women in cinema
In the 1930’s there was a desire for change and modernity and along with this came the transformation of the role of women. Women had always had a specific role in traditional Chinese society. The Confucian doctrine stated that a woman’s duty in life was to serve the husband and teach the son. They were expected to be subservient to men; first they were to listen to their father, then their husband and ultimately their male children. With the rise of the May Fourth Movement, there were increased discussions regarding women’s suffrage, their reproductive role and legal rights. Intellectuals opposed the traditional ideas of femininity and argued that women should be seen as equal. In cinema, women had often been objectified on screen in a similar manner to that in person. “The male directorial gaze objectifies the female body and appropriates female subjectivity for its own pleasure”.
Film directors as intellectuals began to see the connection between femininity and the nationalistic agenda, this also came along with the growing number of female spectators. With the Nationalist government promoting Confucian values, left wing film writers challenged the role of women. They transformed the concept of the ideal female body using actresses such as Li Lili to give an image of a physically fit and beautiful woman. In the escalation of the national crisis, they needed female figures to embody the type of woman she portrayed. Actresses such as Ruan Lingyu were also used to highlight social problems such as prostitution, class difference and the dissatisfaction of the working class due to employment. She starred in various films, conveying messages that critiqued the faults in society and forced the audience to consider the problems themselves.
One of Ruan Lingyu’s most famous and impacting roles was that in Wu Yonggan’s The Goddess in 1934. The film depicts the story of the life of a woman who becomes a sex worker in urban Shanghai in order to provide for her son as a single mother. The protagonist suffers as one night she is forced to hide from a police sweep in a gambling man’s room. She becomes Zhang Zhizhi’s property and not only is she subject to abuse but he also steals her money to fuel his gambling addiction. She attempts to escape with her son however he temporarily kidnaps him, resulting in her failure to flee the situation. Throughout the film the director highlights the power that men had over women. “Her slender figure, untouched and unscarred by hard labour, pregnancy and even poverty”. She suffers even more in the possessive relationship she has with Zhang Zhizhi, than she has in the other situations that she has faced in her life as a woman. This criticism of the patriarchy by Yonggan is felt by the audience who are unable to avoid sympathising with her.
Ruan Lingyu’s character is able to save enough money to send her child to school, yet it is in this situation that she faces further oppression by society. None of the children will play with her son as their mothers don’t want them to play with a boy who’s mother is a prostitute. Eventually he is expelled from school as the parents and committee deem his attendance inappropriate, simply because of his mothers profession. Stereotypically women in society didn’t work and there weren’t that many options available for them. As a widow and single mother, she must make money in some way in order to support her child. The negative commentary by the director here is that she had no other choice. The decision to expel the child prevents him from gaining an education that would help him escape the world of prostitution that his mother has been condemned to, and consequently also himself. The director is telling the audience that women needed to not only have the opportunity to enter the world of work, but also to not be judged and excluded by society.
The film ends with the protagonist being sent to prison for murdering Zhang Zhizhi by assaulting him with a vase after he steals money from her again. Here she further faces ramification but luckily her son is able to escape his fate as he is adopted by the kind headmaster. In the final scene she smiles, evoking longing and hope, “she will imagine in serenity the future of her son”. This shows that there is hope for China to progress and change. Throughout the whole story, Yonggang highlights the negative treatment of women by men and society, provoking the audience to think about this aspect of Chinese culture.
The striking feature of The Goddess is not so much the concept of addressing the theme of prostitution but the treatment of the subject. The main character herself is a prostitute, contrasting the usual indirect and strongly moralistic tones that film makers tended to use. This technique means that as an audience, we further feel the suffering of the protagonist and the consequences she faces. It is also interesting that she is never named in the film, highlighting the concept that she embodies the situation of multiple women in Chinese society at the time.
By addressing the issues on screen that Chinese society was facing during the 1930’s, left wing directors were able to successfully raise awareness that helped to combat these problems. These intellectuals created films that educated against not only the oppressive nationalist government, but also the backwards ideology of traditional China. I believe that it was the types of films that I have analysed in this essay that helped transform the mindset of the Chinese population and facilitated the widespread support for the Communist regime that gained control in the years that followed.