Author(s)

Jiaxu Wang ¹, Tongsheng Wei ², Haiping Wang ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Sinopec Zhongyuan Petroleum Engineering Company Limited, Puyang City, Henan Province, 457001, China
² Haikou University of Economics, Meilan District, Haikou, Hainan, 571132, China

Corresponding Author

Jiaxu Wang

ABSTRACT

Since the founding of New China, the image of women has been changing on the Chinese film screen along with the ideological changes, and at the same time, it also reflects the development of feminist thinking. During the seventeen years of cinema, women were mostly portrayed as ‘women's heroes’ and ‘labour pioneers’, emphasizing their positive roles in revolution and construction, reflecting the positioning and expectations of women's roles in the early stage of the New Democracy and socialist construction. During the Cultural Revolution, under the influence of leftist ideology, the obscure and subtle artistic expression of traditional films was abandoned, and the ideological role of films was played to the extreme, with the images of women in this period further emphasising the inheritance and promotion of the revolutionary spirit. After the reform and opening up, with the opening up of the society and the introduction of western thoughts, the films turned to the exploration of personal emotions and inner world, reflecting the awakening of women's consciousness and the pursuit of self-worth. Entering the 21st century, feminist films have entered a period of rapid development, and the images of women in films have become more diversified and rich, deeply exploring women's roles and status in modern society, as well as women's relationship with society, family and self, with distinctive feminist colours and profound social significance. Through the analysis of representative film and television works in different periods and the theory of the special position of literary works in the superstructure based on the basic principles of Marxism, this paper explores the process of screen change of women's image in New China and its interaction with social ideology and feminist thinking, aiming to provide theoretical references and practical inspiration for the understanding of the development course of Chinese society, the grasp of feminism's trajectory of evolution in China, as well as to promote the creation of contemporary women's cinema. The aim is to provide theoretical reference and practical inspiration for understanding the development of Chinese society, grasping the evolutionary trajectory of feminism in China, and promoting the creation of contemporary female films.

KEYWORDS

Film; Feminist film; Feminism; Female image; new Chinese history; Ideology

CITE THIS PAPER

Jiaxu Wang, Tongsheng Wei, Haiping Wang, The Screen Transformation of Women's Image in New China: From Seventeen Years of Cinema to New Era Feminist Cinema. Journal of Sociology and Ethnology (2024) Vol. 6: 171-180. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/jsoce.2024.060625.

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