Journal of Shanghai University (Social Science Edition) ›› 2009, Vol. 16 ›› Issue (3): 88-99.

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Society and Subjectivity|The Political Economy of the Chinese Melodrama

  

  1. (School of Film, Television and Digital Media, University of California, Los Angeles 90024, USA)
  • Online:2009-05-15 Published:2009-05-15

Abstract:

 A study of filmmaking in China will, almost inevitably, take as its starting point the relation of the character ("the self") to the social space in which it moves. The assumption that this dramatic relation is also, at bottom, ideological is evident in contemporary Chinese films through the continuity with and conflict between the preLiberation traditions of Confucianism and postLiberation ideologies of socialism, a continuity and conflict that turn on the relation among the self, the family, the workplace, and the state, the fundamental terms of any image of the social totality. Starting from these premises, this essay argues that that the most complex and compelling popular film form that embodies the negotiation between the traditional ethical system and the new state ideology, one that articulates the range and force of the emotional contradictions between them, is what is known in the West as "melodrama." Because this category is not part of the Chinese genre system, its use entails a shift of cultural perspective.

Key words: Xie Jins film, melodrama, subjectivity, political economy, Confucian tradition

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