Abstract
There are various forms of subjectivity that are not permitted to surface in post-1989, neo-liberal China. The most forbidden form is alternative political subjectivity, which is connected to a less forbidden but still taboo subjectivity—non-heteronormative subjectivity. Conversely, patriotic subjectivity is the form of partisanship that is most often promoted, as seen in the portrayal of the patriotic Tong Zhi discussed in Chapter 3. Such Party patriotism is embraced by the socialist spirit that manifests as sacrifice of the individual for the greater good as well as patriotic submission to the ruling Party. This chapter investigates the phenomenon of promoting Party patriotism, particularly to intellectuals, while banning dissenting political expressions as is apparent in films made after the 1989 Tian’anmen Incident. In this chapter I will focus on one Chinese blockbuster that promotes the notion of self-sacrifice and will examine three contrasting underground/independent films that depict challenges to state power in Chapter 6.1
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Notes
There is no an agreed umbrella term capturing alternative film production and film culture in contemporary China. For the nuances of different terms for these productions, see Paul Pickowicz, “Social and Political Dynamics of Underground Filmmaking in China,” in From Underground to Independent: Alternative Film Culture in Contemporary China, ed. Paul Pickowicz and Zhang Yingjin (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006), 1–22.
See Gary Xu, Sinascape: Contemporary Chinese Cinema (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), 25–46;
and Haizhou Wang and Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley, “Hero: Rewriting the Chinese Martial Arts Film Genre,” in Global Chinese Cinema: The Culture and Politics of Hero, ed. Gary D. Rawnsley and Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley (London; New York: Routledge, 2010), 90–105.
Wendy Larson, “Zhang Yimou’s Hero: Dismantling the Myth of Cultural Power,” Journal of Chinese Cinemas 2, no. 3 (2008): 181–96; and “On Zhang Yimou’s Hero: counter-response,” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, 3 no. 1 (2009): 89–91. One of the many critics and scholars who see Hero in support of state ideology and totalitarianism in general is Nick Kaldis, “A Brief Response to Wendy Larsons Zhang Yimou’s Hero: Dismantling the Myth of Cultural Power,’” Journal of Chinese Cinemas 3, no. 1 (2009): 83–88. I will analyze other critics in the later section that focuses on reactions to the film.
Jiang Feng, Lin Jinbo, and Ma Pengkong, Zhang Yimou dianying zuopin: yingxiongzhizuo quan jilu 張藝謀電影作品英雄製作全紀錄 [The making of Hero] (Taibei Shi: Lia jing chuban shiye gufen youxian gongsi, 2002), n. p.
Eddy U, “Third Sister Liu and the Making of the Intellectual in Socialist China,” The Journal of Asian Studies 69, no. 1 (2010): 57–83.
Sheldon Lu, China, Transnational Visuality, Global Postmodernity (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001), 33.
Jason McGrath, Postsocialist Modernity: Chinese Cinema, Literature, and Criticism in the Market Age (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008), 59–94.
Kam Louie, Theorising Chinese Masculinity: Society and Gender in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 1.
Xiaoming Chen and Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley, “On tian xia (‘all under heaven’) in Zhang Yimou’s Hero,” in Gary D. Rawnsley and Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley, eds., Global Chinese Cinema: The Culture and Politics of Hero (London; New York: Routledge, 2010), 86.
See Chris Berry and Mary Ann Farquhar, China on Screen: Cinema and Nation (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 164;
and Gary D. Rawnsley, “The Political Narrative(s) of Hero,” in Global Chinese Cinema: The Culture and Politics of Hero, ed. Gary D. Rawnsley and Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley (London; New York: Routledge, 2010), 20–21.
Hu Shaohua, “Confucianism and Contemporary Chinese Politics,” Politics and Policy 35, no. 1 (2007): 149.
Daniel Bell, China’s New Confucianism: Politics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008), 12.
I am inspired by John Fiske’s phrase on popular culture, “socially located criteria of relevance,” to explain the CCP’s selection process of relevance; see John Fiske, “Popular Culture,” in Critical Terms for Literary Study, ed. Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 327.
John Makeham, Lost Soul: “Confucianism” in Contemporary Chinese Academic Discourse (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute, 2008), 6.
Peter Moody, “The New Anti-Confucian Campaign in China: The First Round,” Asian Survey 14, no. 4 (1974): 313.
Merle Goldman, “China’s Anti-Confucian Campaign, 1973–74,” The China Quarterly 63 (1975): 435–62.
For the Party’s participation in Confucian revival, see Yang Bingzhang, Zhongguo dalu dangdai wenhua bianqian 中國大陸當代文化變遷 [Cultural changes in contemporary mainland China] (Taipei shi: Guiguan tushu gufen youxian gongsi, 1991). For the overall picture of Confucian development in the 1980s–1990s, see Makeham, Lost Soul, 42–98.
Jing Wang, High Culture Fever: Politics, Aesthetics, and Ideology in Deng’s China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 69.
Joseph Nye coined the term “soft power” to describe the ability to co-opt, persuade, and attract rather than to coerce as a means to shape the preferences of others in world politics. See Joseph Nye, The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004).
James F. Paradise, “China and International Harmony: The Role of Confucius Institutes in Bolstering Beijing’s Soft Power,” in Asian Survey 49, no. 4 (July/August 2009): 649.
Lin Shaofeng, ed., Shijue yingxiong,視覺英雄 [The films by Zhang Yimou] (Beijing Shi: Zhongguo guangbao dianshi chubanshe, 2005), 26.
Evans Chan, “Zhang Yimou’s Hero: The Temptations of Fascism,” in Chinese Connections: Critical Perspectives on Film, Identity, and Diaspora, eds., See-Kam Tan, Peter X. Feng, Gina Marchetti (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2009, 263–77.
Hao Jian, “Shei chengjiu le Zhang Yimou” 誰成就 了張碧謀 [Who made Zhang Yimou successful], Nanfeng chuang 南ノ風窗 [Window of the southerly breeze] 15 (August 2004), 85.
Wang Yuli, “Gudian beiju de xiandai yanyi” 古典悲劇的現代演輝 [Contemporary interpretation of a classic tragedy], Xiezuo 寫作 [Writing] 9 (2004): 13.
Luo Yijun, penned by Jin Yan, “Zhang Yimou yu Zhongguo dianying yantaohui jishi”張碧謀與中國電影研討會紀實 [Record of seminar on Zhang Yimou and Chinese cinema], Yishu pinglun 碧術評論 [Arts criticism] 12 (2004): 48.
Fang Lili, penned by Jin Yan, “Zhang Yimou yu Zhongguo dianying yantaohui jishi”張碧謀與中國電影研討會紀實 [Record of seminar on Zhang Yimou and Chinese cinema]. Yishu pinglun 碧術評論 [Arts criticism] 12 (2004): 50.
Fang Lili, “You Zhang Yimou yingpian yinqi de wenhua fansi” 由張碧謀影片 引起的文化反思 [Cultural reflections caused by Zhang Yimou’s films], Yishu pinglun 碧術評論 [Arts criticism] 10 (2004): 39.
E Beijia, “Zongkan ‘Yingxiong’ yangtian san wen” 重看“英雄”仰天ニ問 [Rewatch Hero 3 enquires into the air], Dianying 電影 [Film] 10 (2004): 45.
Shen Rui, “Wei Zhang Yimou er bian” 為張藝謀二辯 [Two defenses for Zhang Yimou], Yishu pinglun 碧術評論 [Arts criticism] 10 (2004): 42.
See Shuang Die, “Yingxiong Zhang Yimou” 英雄張碧謀 [Hero Zhang Yimou], Xin Xibu 新西部 [New west region] 3 (2003): 23;
and Wu Yajun, “Guochan ‘dapian’ shangye xing yu yishu xing de duowei fansi—cong ‘Yingxiong’ dao ‘Chibi’” 國產大片商業性與藝術性的多維反思—從“英雄”到“赤壁”, [Multidimensional reflections of commercial and artistic values in Chinese block-busters—from Hero to Red Cliff], Sichuan Wenhua Chanye Zhiye Xueyuan xue-bao 四川文化產業職業學院學報 [Magazine of Sichuan Cultural Industry and Vocational College] 2 (2009): 10.
Even though the explicit politically submissive subjectivity is explicit, scholarship is still able to find subversive space and discuss a dissent critique to tyranny; see, for example, Ming Lee Jenny Suen, “Against Orientalism and Utopian Nostalgia: Competing Discursive Constructions of Chinese Empire in Zhang Yimou’s Hero” (M. A. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 2006).
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© 2015 Wing Shan Ho
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Ho, W.S. (2015). Selling Party Patriotism to Intellectuals in the Chinese Blockbuster Hero. In: Screening Post-1989 China. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137514707_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137514707_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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