DOI: 10.4324/b22838-6
Variations of the Age of InnocenceAfter the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC, cultural development and artistic creation were freed, to some extent, by Reform and Opening Up. In this period, there was widespread vigilance against falling into the patterns of ideological control and cultural restrictions of the Cultural Revolution. Additionally, the new cultural atmosphere emphasized absorbing new ideas to bring order out of chaos in the context of a burgeoning global outlook. On January 16. 1980. Deng Xiaoping delivered the keynote speech at a conference of the Party’s Central Committee tided “Current Situations and Tasks.” In this speech. Deng systematically detailed the tasks and key points of implementation for the Party and China in the 1980s. He also detailed the future of literary and artistic works:
At the Congress of Chinese Writers and Artists, we have said that there should be no interference in what is created or how it is created. This means workers in literature and art should take greater responsibilities and set higher requirements for their works. Adhering to the principles of the “Double Hundred Policy” and the “Three No’s.” we have stopped advocating that literature and arts should be subject to politics. This is because such ideas easily become grounds for intervening in the creation of literature and the arts. Long-term practices have proved that such interventions will do no less harm to the development of literature and arts. However, this is not to say arts could be separated from politics. That is impossible. Any creators who are progressive revolutionaries must take into consideration the social influence caused by their works as well as the interests of the people, the Party and the country.
We wholeheartedly hope that all creators of literature and the arts; as well as those who work in education, journalism, theory, and some ideological fields; will often and consciously focus on the overall situation in the country and work hard to enhance the people’s, especially young people’s, socialist consciousness.1
A closer look at Deng’s speech reveals clear key principles and support and encouragement for freedom in artistic creation. He indicated that creators should themselves set requirements for their works and focus on the overall situation in a self-disciplined manner. Specifically, he outlined that they should judge their works according to the criterion of their social influence, as well as the interests of the people, the Party, and the country. To some extent, this shows Deng Xiaoping’s concerns about the prospect of cultural and ideological development during the Reform and Opening Up process. It was felt that social stability was becoming an issue that needed emphasis, as people’s horizons were widening, and their minds were becoming more open through the development of Reform and Opening Up. Deng Xiaoping also emphasized in the speech that, “in the current situation, it can be said that stability and unity are the prerequisites for everything including democracy, the Double Hundred Policy and so forth. Without it. no achievements can be made.”2 Reviewing his speech and looking back at the course of the 1980s makes it clear that the spiritual essence of the speech is still worth pondering.
Achieving a better understanding of the 1980s requires a dialectical logic. From a macro perspective, the approach to development established through the centering of economic development achieved a dialectical balance in adhering to both Reform and Opening Up policies and the Four Cardinal Principles. The balance between the two represented the correct path for socialism with Chinese characteristics. Deng’s speech followed the same logic in addressing literary and arts creation. Specifically, he argued that the close coordination of both freedom and self-discipline in artistic creation is the correct path. Theoretically, this is rigorous. scientific, political wisdom. However, practically, it was and is challenging for creators to comprehensively and properly implement both social and artistic practices in complex circumstances. Because so many policies were put forward using dialectical logic during the 1980s. people tended to magnify one of the poles of the contradictions for their different stances, interests, knowledge, or values. This made it impossible to reach a consensus. This explains why there were so many debates across Chinese society during the 1980s. a situation that draws a mixed picture of an era defined by both ideological freedom and social and political instability.
On July 26, 1980, People’s Daily published an editorial, titled “Literature and Arts That Serve the People and Socialism.” declaring the shift from the idea that literature and the arts should serve politics. Instead, it advocated providing space for literature and arts creation to develop more freely. However, the 1980s saw endless ups and downs in the political and ideological fields. Taking this situation into consideration, in October 1983, Deng Xiaoping pointed out that the ideological battlefront could not be spiritually stained. From then on. a nahonwide campaign was initiated to eliminate so-called spiritual contamination. But the leaders of the Party held differing opinions about both definitions of this contamination and its solutions. Addressing these issues, the fourth Member Conference of China Writers Association was held from December 29. 1984. until January 5. 1985. in Beijing. Hu Yaobang had determined that the theme should be freedom in artistic creation. This in turn sparked heated debate in cultural spheres. For one. Zhu Houze. the leading cadre of the Publicity Department of the CPC. advanced the idea that the Party should create a friendly, tolerant and loose atmosphere for artistic creation.3 Other authorities in the Party disagreed with these ideas. The differing notions of these principles and policies, as well as the conceptual inconsistencies between different leaders, created confusion about literary creation that was shaped by a variety of ideological viewpoints. Still, the other side of the coin should not be neglected. Namely, the ideological inconsistency created by leaders’ differing viewpoints created a space for the development and diversification of artistic creation.
Up to now. we have drawn a picture of the films and characters created according to the ideals of socialism with Chinese characteristics. These films and characters have both been recognized for their mainstream values and were accepted widely throughout society. However, various other perspectives on. and forms of. Chinese films emerged during the 1980s. Like Chinese culture more generally, film creation develops out of discussion, criticism, and exploration. It is a form that not only constructs ideals but also reveals contradictions. It is only by grasping both the idealized conceptions and the realistic contradictions that we can judge the realism of films of the 1980s in a relatively exact manner.
The Reform and Opening Up policies had set the tone for social development in China during the 1980s. Auteurs who wholeheartedly embraced China in this new era were enthusiastic about depicting the context of Reform and Opening Up in their films. However, differing perspectives emerged in some films produced during the era. Some films did indeed portray Reform and Opening Up. but it is debatable whether they adhered to the nature of socialist culture or conformed with the Four Cardinal Principles.
According to Du Qingyuan:
People tended to have doubts about the films publicly screened in 1980. For instance, people pointed out that films such as Where Is the Visitor From?, Mysterious Buddha, Specter (Youling. dir. Chen Fangqian. 1980). The White Lotus (Bai ban hua, dir. Sun Yongping and Zhong Shuhuang. 1980), Huang Yinggu (dir. Jing Jie and Shu Xiaoyan. 1980) and The Red Peony (Hong mu dan, dir. Xue Yandong and Zhang Yuan. 1980) all revealed hollow content, poor thinking, and outdated themes. The creators of these films did not adopt serious attitudes when making them. This is revealed by the facts that they magnify horrific and homicidal elements purely for the sake of novelty and fashion; that they employ vulgar and frightful shots that are irrelevant to the plot but show the lifestyle of the Western bourgeoisie regardless of the contextual setting of the works or the scenes and plot points specified by the script: and that it is characters in love stories who are presenting revolutionary themes of a serious nature.4
The film Where Is the Visitor From? (Ke cong he lai, dir. Guangbudao Eiji), produced by Changchun Film Studio in 1980. exemplifies the types of films Du described.
The film is partially remembered for its famous theme song, with lyrics such as. “all flowers bloom in Huacheng to welcome friends from afar; we come and laugh together while drinking wine and enjoying the flowers.” Like the song, the film possesses a delightful tone and is set against the backdrop of the Autumn Commodity Fair in Huacheng. This was traditionally called the China Import and Export Fair and was an annual commodity fair held in Guangzhou by the Chinese government. It served as an important space for trade transactions and played a vital role in China’s history of foreign trade. At the very beginning of the Reform and Opening Up period, the commodity fair provided an avenue for economic exchanges between China and the world, paving the way for a new economic atmosphere. By choosing this fair as the film’s backdrop. the director embraced the general policies of Reform and Opening Up. The beginning of the film shows a scene where foreign businessmen sincerely hope for cooperation and are warmly received by the fair organizers and business agents. Both parties initiate negotiations over cooperation and development strategies. However, owing to the film’s emphasis on entertainment as well as the common suspicions about foreigners, the film also introduces a spy plot. There is no doubt that the film's plot is marked by the era of economic development during Reform and Opening Up. After all. the foe is not a political agent but commercial spies who steal business secrets instead of military and strategic intelligence. This case, in which foreign spies try to disrupt China’s economic cooperation with the world, clearly accords with the overall economic and political atmosphere in the 1980s. The film ends with the failure of the opponents’ intrigue. The Chinese police arrest the group of foreign spies, which protects the commercial cooperation with friendly foreigners and allows the negotiations to proceed smoothly.
Although the film was produced for the commercial purpose of attracting audiences. the narrative of foreign spies failing to disrupt the course of Reform and Opening Up reflects mainstream values of the time. Accordingly, some scenes in the film sparked heated debate. For instance, the organizing committee of the commodity fair holds an evening ball for the foreign businessmen to entertain them in their spare time and make them feel at home after their arrival. As a result, the film contains numerous scenes of dancing. The spies take advantage of these events and steal commercial materials while the friendly foreign businessmen are distracted with dancing. Additionally, the film shows the foreign businessmen going to a nightclub in Hong Kong. In these scenes, the film showcases flashy and glitzy scenes of nighlife that include bands, singers, and dancing. It also shows the dazzling neon lights of Hong Kong streets in various retrospective scenes. These scenes should have been only the background to the plot instead of the core of the film, but their extravagance and glamour unexpectedly had a powerful impact on Chinese people who had just emerged from the Cultural Revolution and still lived ascetic lives at the beginning of the 1980s. Although the scenes are not key to the film’s plot, their depictions of different types of lifestyles overwhelmed Chinese audiences’ spiritual worlds.
In 1982, Zhang Baiqing reflected on the film through interviews with viewers:
Where Is the Visitor From? has become very popular after its release. What is the reason? Please listen to this dialogue on a bus:
- A: Have you watched Where Is the Visitor From??
- B: Not yet, what’s it about?
- A: Do not miss it. It’s about the commodity fair, nightclubs, and disco. It’s
- amazing!
We can see what really draws audiences here.5
Lin Shan, a famous screenwriter of the revolutionary time, expressed his indignation about these scenes in the film, arguing in an essay that:
Where Is the Visitor From? is a vulgar film that attracts audiences by showing the bourgeois way of life in nightclubs in Hong Kong and Macao. The film purports to depict themes of international friendship and China’s political dignity, but it actually does opposite, drawing a scene where we are serving foreign capitalists as they seek pleasure on China’s land.6
The film was also widely criticized by the public for showing Western lifestyles. As Liu Mengxi said. “I don’t know what other things the director wants to express other than featuring disco dancing in a lot of shots.”7 Liu also believed the reason why the film failed to be accepted by the public was that, “it departs too far from life and is a fabricated product of the creator.”8 Some official (or at least official in some degree) voices also emerged to criticize the film. For one, Xia Yan, a leader in China’s film circles, delivered a speech at the Enlarged Standing Council Meeting of the China Auteur Association in 1982. saying that, “recently a comrade the same age as I spoke to me after watching the film, asking ‘whether the film aims to subvert our conventions or damage our morals?’ This is a pointed criticism and should alarm us.”9
Another film criticized for similar reasons as Where Is the Visitor From? was The Sea Is Calling {Dahai zai huhuan, dir. Yu Yang and Yang Jing. 1982), produced by Yu Yang at Beijing Film Studio in 1982. It also embraces themes of opening up. telling a story of patriotic sailors and their friendship with foreigners. In one scene, the hero. Chen Haiwei. and his uncle. Chen Hongye. who lives in Hong Kong and is the chief captain of a shipping company based in Hong Kong, talk to each other after the ocean liner reaches shore. They enjoy the views of Hong Kong from the sea wall as other crew members enjoy their time and tour the city streets. It was precisely plots such as this image of the Chinese crew enjoying their journey to Hong Kong that incurred blame and drew criticism at the time.
Cheng Gu. a pseudonym, argued in Film Story in 1983 that, from the very beginning. “people feel pity for, and disappointed with, the film The Sea Is Calling, which is directed by and stars Yu Yang.” To strengthen his criticism. Cheng Gu cited an essay written by the authoritative Zhong Dianfei:
I agree with Zhong Dianfei’s criticism which directly hit the mark without any ambiguity. Since his comment was concise and worth pondering over. I excerpted what he had said for readers as follows:
"The Sea Is Calling astonishes he audiences quite a lot. What is it calling for? It seems to be confused, but it is also easily comprehensible. On the one hand. I am indeed confused by so many glitzy lights, high buildings, and grand halls shot by this film as free advertising for Hong Kong. On the other hand. I know the reason for these choices—in a few words, it can be described as ‘wrongly focusing on the surface’!”10
Cheng Gu further explained the idea of “focusing on the surface” as follows:
What is “focusing on the surface”? It is the vagueness enshrined in the film industry that leaves room for the audiences to consider and make sense of films. This is not a subjective view. Contradictions that are hard to resolve in the film are the key to the answer. For instance, the seemingly philosophical introduction at the beginning of the film contradicts with the scenes of touring Hong Kong. The voice-over narration about national dignity contradicts with people’s expressions of expectation and joyfulness in the shots of Hong Kong. Contradictions also arise from determining plots according to the nature of the characters; for example, consider the role of the rich merchant and his daughters (“three” in total “as specified”). The answer includes such kind of things.11
In the era of Reform and Opening Up. films that showed commerce, different lifestyles, and consumption in a foreign context inevitably incurred harsh criticism from critics. Both Where Is the Visitor From? and The Sea Is Calling failed because of these so-called “matters of personal life” (shenghuo xiaojie). To address these issues, China Youth Daily published an appeal on January 3. 1982, titled “To All Screenwriters. Directors and Actors. We Hope You Can..," encouraging audiences around the country to submit their own views on film creation. As of April 5. 1982. the paper had received more than 10,000 letters. After summarizing the content of those letters, the newspaper editor defined the major concerns of young readers about the current situation of film creation as follows:
First, films tell love stories so often that people have become disgusted with them. Secondly, they think too many films describe the lives of artists, actors, painters, writers, musicians, athletes, professors, and children of high-ranking officials, and that there are too few films depicting the lives of common people. Third, some films with bizarre themes have departed too far from reality. Such films as Mysterious Buddha, Where Is the Visitor From?, Love Songs Around the Valley. and Kinship make up too large a proportion of the films produced while those depicting realistic contradictions take up too small a proportion.12
Regarding opinions on love stories in films, the editor provided a detailed summary that included public opinions as well as the values advocated by mainstream media such as China Youth Daily:
First as the readers pointed out love and marriage are an important issue in the lives of young people. A satisfactory' solution to this issue would be beneficial to young people’s lives. Therefore, they believe that films should deeply reflect the relations between love as well as society, career, morals, and life to help young people properly address this issue.
Second, the representation of love should be nationalized to conform to national conventions and social ethics. Young people have reflected on the representations of love in films such as Call of the Home Village, The Drive to Win (Sha ’ou, dir. Zhang Nuanxin, 1981). and Legend of Tianyun Mountain. They believe that depictions of love that emphasize Western styles such as hugging and kissing are inconsistent with Chinese folk customs.
Third, they suggest that the film industry should properly position love stories within films. Films should reflect social life as encompassing various aspects, in which love should be located in its proper place. For now. love is overemphasized in films because “it is used to make up for weak plots” in some situations. The overemphasis on love in films might easily seduce young people, especially those aged 15 to 18, into puppy love, early marriages. and a whirlpool of sexuality.
Fourth, films should convey correct values in love. What most films express now is that love flowers and frolics between young boys and girls. Films are expected to show love stories about common people with a balance of idealism and affection.13
Hu Yaobang. then general secretary of the CPC, insisted that, “love, as an important genre of literature and arts, could and should be written into the scripts. I have talked about this during the screenwriting symposium last year. No one can deny this genre.” However, facing the status quo in film creation, he also disapprovingly said that,
some creators’ works show a low, even vulgar mindset. This could mainly be proved by the imbalance between representations of love, on the one hand, and revolution and socialist causes, on the other. There is an excessive emphasis on the position of love.14
At the same time that the mainstream media and leaders of the state were calling for a noble love for the sake of pure social values, new value orientations were exerting an imperceptible influence on people’s minds. The economy had been revitalized, but the concept of equal distribution had been removed. The philosophy of allowing some people to get rich first had been put into practice through policies that indeed work well to allow a small group of people to get rich first. People’s pure minds had developed in an era brimming with idealism and poetic culture. Though the 30-year course of revolution that emphasized the need to rectify and criticize egotism and capitalism might have enabled people to acquire some knowledge about the impact of materialism, it could not help them understand the course of spiritual development in the new era of Reform and Opening Up. Therefore, they would be hugely challenged by the temptation of materialism.
As is known to all. the most challenging issue for the CPC today is the question of how to eradicate corruption. Greedy officials and prevalent corruption challenge public supports and serve as the root causes of social instability. During Mao’s time, greedy people were frightened by the death sentences handed to people such as Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan for corruption, and they did not dare to embezzle public funds in the midst of the many psychologically and physically impactful political campaigns. However, after Reform and Opening Up. the Party removed egalitarian policies that led to universal, but equal, poverty and encouraged a group of people to get rich first. In this new context, income disparities, as well as the lax supervision of officials in the bureaucracy, encouraged those who held power and resources to engage in corruption and. ultimately, embezzlement. They did every thing they could do to ingratiate themselves as soon as possible with the small group of people becoming rich first. The best way for these officials with limited salaries to become rich was to take advantage of their power and become corrupt.
The Man Who Hits Accused (Bei konggao de ren, dir. Fu Jie. 1983) was possibly one of the first films that depicted the issue of official corruption. It suggested that the winds of capitalism could easily seduce people’s minds, but they could not corrupt determined revolutionaries. The story is set at the Hehuadu customs station at the border of Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Long Hansheng. the head of customs, is a loyal official with clean hands who feels distressed about the illegal importation of televisions, as well as the exportation of historical relics, that was being carried out by a smuggling gang led by Zeng Kun. the Party secretary of the county. However, the gang consists of a group of people with important comiections. including those of Zeng Kun. as well as those of his wife and son. Chen Lanxiang, who is the director of both the commerce department of the county and the local economic council. Facing this complex situation. Long Hansheng feels painfully powerless to crack down on the crimes committed by Zeng’s family. Under such circumstances, he determinedly reports the issue to the central government as well as the provincial discipline inspection committee. However. Zeng Kun accuses him of making a false accusation. Faced with a subpoena from a prosecutor. Long Hansheng claims that. "I am not the one who committed smuggling and corruption. I am the one with a loyal heart and two clean hands. I am not afraid of entering into endless litigation!” At last, after an investigation by the Central Commission of the Party for Discipline and Inspection. Long Hansheng is proved innocent. and Zeng Kun’s gang is accused and punished for committing economic crimes by taking advantage of their power.
The Man Who Was Accused is of great historical significance for its representations of people’s consciousness. It depicts onscreen the ways in which official lawbreakers made money by virtue of their power. It shows how far they would go in abusing power and seeking personal gains, even to the extent of forming a group of interested parties. At the time, public voices all opposed seeking personal gains, abusing one’s power, corruption, officials establishing companies for their children, selling approval documents, and seeking assets in illegal ways. Against this backdrop, some films made in the 1980s appeared particularly incisive in their reflections on social issues.
In the second half of 1984, the complete implementation of reforms to the urban economic system emerged as one of the most important reforms since the rural household contract responsibility system. These reforms aimed to thoroughly promote both rural and urban reforms. At this point, after the fourth Member Conference of China Writers Association, the increasing popularity of the concepts of freedom of creation and commenting was producing quite active minds. Additionally, the economic base underwent changes as the reforms deepened. The reforms weakened the dominance of the planned economy and state and collectively owned enterprises, while they strengthened people with individual and private enterprises, who were included on the list of those who could become rich first and were playing an increasingly active role in society. Although those who became rich through taking advantage of their power and smuggling, tax dodging, selling approval documents, and so on evoked public indignation, the confused ideological picture made it hard to reach a consensus over such phenomena at the time.
The process of shifting social values started with the awakening of people’s material desires. People went from rectifying egoism to aw akening and embracing their material desires to such an extent that they sometimes crossed moral lines for the sake of desire and hedonism. In contrast to the past of careful planning and administrative supervision of economic activities, which allowed for no market economy and no commercial competition, the situation had changed drastically. Now the economic system required commercial operators to seek profits to survive and develop while in competition with others. However, at this point, people’s Systems of ethics and values had not yet recovered since collapsing during the Cultural Revolution. Stable commercial ethics had not yet been established, and the traditional ethics of Chinese society had not yet been reconstructed to adapt to the new era. Therefore, on an unstable ethical basis, people were met with both fierce economic competition and great material temptations. Under such circumstances, idealized commercial ethics, such as the notion of making money to gain dignity put forward in the film Yamaha Fish Stall, were soon marginalized by the era. Films that promoted commercial competition to achieve goals regardless of the methods used increasingly reflected social realities.
The film The Savage Lover {Canku de qingren, dir. Xiang Lin, 1986), produced by Emei Film Studio in 1986. discussed the harsh reality that, in commercial competition, targets were reached through unscrupulous tactics, while virtuous operation incurred losses. The film is set in a city in southern China. In the city, a modern theater is being constructed. The theater will purchase lamps through competitive bidding on the market economy as opposed to having the government distributing them administratively. This means that the theater will only choose the company that is the most competitive in terms of price, quality, and service. The final competition is between Caihong Lighting Company and Huanqiu Lighting Company. Interestingly, this situation means that two former lovers. Xiao Yuan, the assistant manager of Caihong Company, and Shen Yafei. the assistant manager of Huanqiu Company, will now be competing against each other. While Xiao Yuan works hard to produce first-class lamps. Shen Yafei busies herself making social connections with the upper strata. She ultimately steals Xiao Yuan’s design blueprint, driving a wedge between Caihong Company and its partners. As a result. Caihong Company loses the bidding war. Xiao Yuan is especially confused when the head of the preparatory office of the theater tells him that most experts think Caihong is superior to Huanqiu in terms of design, technique, material, and offer during the appraisal meeting. Nevertheless, they still decide to buy Caihong’s lamps for the theater and Huanqiu’s lamps for the hotel. In what is basically an equal division, Caihong takes 47 percent of the business, and Huanqiu takes 53 percent. This is because Huanqiu Company helps the son of a leader of the Party Construction Committee to solve a procedural problem when this leader’s son wants to participate in a field-study trip to Hong Kong.
After discovering this, Xiao Yuan gets into a quarrel with Shen Yafei. These two former lovers have now embraced distinctly different values when it comes to commercial profits and individual interests. Shen Yafei says to Xiao Yuan, “forgive me. I have no other choices. He wants to go to Hong Kong, and I want to win the bidding. It’s a fair deal, not intrigue.” Xiao Yuan responds to her. “what a nasty deal!” Then Shen says, “you guys lost this time. We can make up for this. Money, goods, or business opportunities, what do you want?” Xiao Yuan says, “we want an appeal!” Xiao Yuan wants to win by fair competition, by advanced design, and by good products, but he fails. When Shen Yafei talks to him about trying to make up for his losses, Xiao Yuan still insists on seeking justice through regulations and an appeal to the authorities. However, the story ends with the ambiguous scene of Xiao Yuan getting on a train to make his appeal.
Unleashed material desires vehemently disturbed both society and hearts. These desires changed lovers, families, and friends into enemies. Films of the late 1980s frequently depicted such tragedies. For example, in the film The Mahjong Incident (Feicni majiang, dir. Yu Xiaoyang. 1987). Lan Yun and He Chen, sisters who grew up with each other, turn against each other over a jade mahjong set that was lost during the Cultural Revolution. He Chen murders Lan Yun in a traffic accident and then commits suicide after throwing away the jade mahjong set she had stolen. The sisters end their journey together in death. The theme of this film is the distorted mindsets and collapsed sense of humanity brought by the desire for treasure and fortune. Even more significantly, the film purposely depicts a heterogeneous environment. It is worth pondering over what kind of image of the city is built by the way the film begins with a scene showing a panorama of the city at night to the sound of rock music. Deeper pondering on China’s image is further evoked by the sight of flickering neon lights, the glowing modem city, endless traffic, high buildings, and so on. The film also shows numerous scenes of underground dance parties with rock music, fashionable bands, and young people riding Yamaha motorbikes, bowling, and drinking at bars. The film purposely depicts fashionable symbols such as rock music, break dancing, “northwesternstyle” songs, and bars with bands playing as a way to provide a kaleidoscopic view of Chinese popular culture. Additionally, that these symbols of youth culture are seen in Beijing, the capital of China, distinguishes The Mahjong Incident from films such as Where Is the Visitor From? that take place in glitzy, capitalist Hong Kong. It is precisely the presence of hedonistic cultures that evokes people’s craving for money and materials. Since hedonism requires money, people must make money to engage in hedonism. This context explains why films of the 1980s created this type of atmosphere for audiences.
The film Hi, Sisters! (Hei! Jiemeier, dir. Jiang Shuseng and Ji Shiming, 1988) tells what is today known as a “second wife” (er nai) story. Xu Li is the mistress of a businessman from Hong Kong who is both married and in relationships with other women. Living in Beijing alone. Xu Li hangs the man’s picture on the wall just because the man spends tens of thousands of yuan on her In the film, money not only traps Xu Li’s youthful life, but also turns others’ lives upside down.
Wei Dongdong, the heroine of the film, is quite a proud woman because she is among the list of taxi drivers in Beijing who first became rich in the 1980s. Thus, she holds a social position superior to that held by today’s taxi drivers. As someone who became rich first. Dongdong is free to fire the whole production team of a film and even tell the director off to his face. Some people might say she is too arrogant, but even they must admit that she deserves to be so, saying, “she’s self-employed? There must at least be others.” Rich men are able to buy women with money, as with Xu Li, but this also holds true if the genders are reversed. Dongdong is crazy about Zhao Hanzhi, a movie star, but keeps her love for him secret owing to her lack of status and education. Still, she tells herself that she must give it a shot because she is rich, and money can change everything.
When driving for the production team, Dongdong finally grabs the chance to get acquainted with her secretly beloved Zhao Hanzhi and is captivated by his appearance and demeanor. However, Zhao Hanzhi is initially indifferent to her until he hears Dongdong is a rich woman. Zhao Hanzhi then becomes eagerly attentive to her and tries to ingratiate himself with Dongdong. To do so. he protects a girl called Hu Dandan from being raped by an outlaw who had found her lost student card. Zhao has a didactic talk with Hu: “no matter how hard your life is, you cannot discard your dignity. Otherwise you should die by drowning. hanging or whatever. It does better for you to be a garbage collector than to be a bad girl.” Zhao Hanzhi’s demeanor, ideas of justice, and kindness overwhelm Dongdong. and she sincerely praises him. saying. ”you are such a kind man.” Now Dongdong falls into Zhao Hanzhi’s love trap without realizing he is a hypocrite. The only reason he wants a relationship with Dongdong is because he needs her money to study abroad. To return the superstar’s love. Dongdong tells him that she has a bank account with more than 100.000 yuan, a large amount at the time. This further emphasizes the special phenomenon that a taxi driver could be a rich woman. Dongdong decides to buy Zhao Hanzhi a motorbike at a price of more than 10,000 yuan and to give herself to him as a gift. Ultimately however. Dongdong gets pregnant before marriage, revealing how Dongdong has indulged in their relationship. Because Dongdong is rich. Zhao asks for money for any reason. Upon hearing Dongdong's joking words that she has spent all her money on the motorbike. Zhao instantly becomes indifferent to the pregnant Dongdong. This delivers a heavy blow to Dongdong. After she has an abortion, she asks Xu Li to bring Zhao to her and takes out a bank slip showing her account has more than 100,000 yuan in it in front of him. Seeing this, Zhao Hanzhi is stunned. Then. Dongdong tricks Zhao in a peculiar way because of her sorrow. She requires Zhao to leave half of his hair in exchange for his tuition and motorbike. Finally, the superstar Zhao staggers out with the 10.000-vuan deposit receipt, a motorbike key in his hands, and only half of the hair on his head. This is an onscreen story about money in the 1980s.
In the late 1980s, newly unleashed material desires transformed people, leading them to seek money and their individual interests. A small group of people, for the sake of money and hedonism, engaged in corruption, crossed moral and ethical lines, and even sold their bodies and spirits. Such manic cravings for material desires put values severely out of balance. These imbalanced values became a key way that Chinese films of the late 1980s depicted conflicts. These values determined tire logic of people’s actions and advanced the narration. In some of the films produced in the 1980s, mixed images of the era’s social values were drawn, and relatively complex social contradictions were simplified into concise dramatic conflicts. However, in real society, problems and contradictions were much more complex. Indeed, in the late 1980s, social conflicts erupted like a volcano. singing a lingering elegy to the era.
The images of veteran cadres constructed during the 1980s deserve further research. At the very beginning of Reform and Opening Up. films such as Xiangsi Women Inn, Remained Snow, In and Out of Court, and The Contemporary People shaped the image of such cadres who had won the hearts of the people. Veteran cadres served as guides for the masses who supported new cadres in getting with the Party’s program. Their model of providing order served as a paragon for upholding the Party’s style and winning the hearts of the people. These cadres acted as stable patriarchs who could bring warmth to the masses in difficult times. Forexample. in the reform-themed film, Acting Mayor. when Xiao Ziyunand other reformers are besieged by opposing voices, the veteran cadre Zhao, the secretary of the provincial Party committee, stands up to the opposition and supports Xiao. Such films showed veteran cadres behaving like kind fathers who had the power to remove obstacles at critical moments. Those images reveal strong support for patriarchy as a means to a guarantee the right path of reforms and to protect the cause of reform. However, after the mid- 1980s. the image of veteran cadres shown in films transformed from one that emphasized them as guardians of reform to one that suggested they were the biggest obstacles to reform. This transformation is exemplified in the film TProvince in 1984 and 1985 (T sheng de basi bawu nian, dir. Yang Yanjin. 1986). In this film. Ma Yun. a veteran cadre who has struggled for revolution his whole life, ultimately becomes portrayed as outdated in his conceptions and an obstacle in the era of reform. Later, more direct attacks on the patriarchal power of veteran cadres began to appear in films. Some commercial films, especially those made in the Wang Shuo style that gained wide popularity and cultural significance starting in 1988. ridiculed the old generation as a means of entertaining the masses as well as a way to create comedic scenarios. This shows that a deep cultural gap between the old and the young had developed as a sharp contradiction after the mid-1980s. Around 1988. a number of Chinese films depicted the contradictions between the two generations onscreen. Indeed, such artistic creations were destined to become a part of the political changes in society at the time.
One example of such films is A Father and His Son. The first in the comedic film series Everyone Is Made Useful starring Chen Qiang and Chen Peisi (who are. in real life, father and son), the film focuses on the relationship between a father and son. The father character. Old Kui. lives in a Beijing hutong and hopes his son will become a college student. Pushed by his father, the son prepares for the entrance examination. However. Iris friend Shunzi, a vendor living next door, invites the son to help his business, hoping he will work for him. Shunzi even buys a color TV for Old Kui in order to win Kui’s approval for his son to join the business. Kui refuses Shunzi’s request because he does not support Shunzi’s business path and certainly does not support his son following in the same direction.
Kui works hard to shape his son’s future according to his will but his authority as a father is not enough to implement his plans. In his family, his orders do not work effectively. Kui’s image strongly contrasts with that of the father keeping his word in Unmelted Snow. In this film. Zhou Feng is a father who has resumed his official position and is tough and decisive, making people do exactly as he says. He forces his son both to return to Xinjiang and to remarry his ex-wife. Zhou Feng’s wife firmly supports her husband’s decision, believing that he is saving his son in the right way. However, as the era changed and several years passed, the image of father had shifted from that of Zhou Feng to that of Old Kui in A Father and His Son, who is a pitiable man and is always deceived. Kui forces his son to study at home under his orders, but his wife secretly lets her son leave home because she believes studying is too much for her son. At the same time. Kui’s daughter also helps her brother by replacing him in the room and studying in order to deceive Kui. The son then sneaks out to the cinema, seeking relaxation. Upon realizing the deception. Kui goes to the cinema to find his son, but his intrusion causes chaos in the cinema. Finally. Kui not only makes a fool of himself for disturbing the public order, but also is driven out of the cinema and fined 10 yuan. His authority as a father seems nonexistent.
What most impacts Kui is the disruption of the blueprint he had drawn for his son’s future. The son enters the exam room under Kui’s supervision, but ultimately falls asleep during the examination, and his thunder-like snores disturb the exam. As a result Kui must take his sleeping son home on a cart, emphasizing the image of the father as a loser.
Following A Father and His son, Erzi Has a Little Hotel was produced in 1987 by the Youth Film Studio as the second him in the series. This flim tells a story about the son who enters society for business after he fails the college entrance examination. Unemployment was one of the social problems of the 1980s that perplexed young people who had failed their entrance examinations, like Kui’s son. Facing this dilemma, characters in the film stand up to unemployment and begin to find a way out for themselves as they sing “The Song for Brothers." with lyrics that include, “the past is the past; we work hard on our own, never giving up, to prove our strength.” Compared with films in 1985. the film creates confident and independent images of unemployed youths. They elevate themselves by doing business—such as opening a hotel, as in the film—as a way to become rich. For his part, the father. Kui. works for a young boss, his son. and is treated like a gullible owner who invests his money to run the business, but is assigned the hardest work. For example, his son forces him to fuel the boiler out of indifference to Kui as a father, and he and others play tricks on Kui. When Kui expresses dissatisfaction with this, his son satirizes him: “you just serve people with words. Odierwise, why don’t you fuel the boiler.” Upon hearing this. Kui can only compromise and fuel the boiler while covered in ash and dust. Since the hotel emphasizes its friendly customer service. Kui is again teased by the youths: “you must smile even if your biological father dies.” A plot point involving a customer losing 20 yuan again makes a fool of Kui and leaves him unbearably embarrassed. To manage the hotel well, the son requires uniforms. However, the young are unwilling to wear the old clothes of a higher-class hotel bought by the son owing to their terrible style. Being made a fool of once again. Kui is required by them to be the first one to wear the uniform, because otherwise the others will not wear it. Then, the son tricks his father again, throwing Kui’s clothes on the roof when Kui is taking a bath. This forces Kui to wear the uniform put beside him in the morning. After Kui’s embarrassment, the son finally achieves his changes to the uniforms. What Kui has suffered is totally neglected. The tricks played onto this older father are turned into comic scenarios to be enjoyed by all, from the characters in the him. to the screenwriters, and to the audiences. The end of the film saddens people by showing a scene where Kui hides behind a tree with an embarrassed look, because he feels he must apologize to the young people for stripping in the hotel.
Following Father and His Son and Erzi Has a Little Hotel, The Silly Manager, also starring Chen Qiang and Chen Peisi. was produced in 1988 as a sequel. It tells a story about the son working as a hotel manager. In this film. the relationship between father and son is still defined by conflicts similar to those in Erzi Has a Little Hotel. Young people still make a fool of Kui for being a cowardly old man. This is revealed in the opening scene of the film where Kui. on a cheerful payday, becomes angry after he finds out his low salary is less than half that of Yingzi. a youth. However, when he argues against this, the young people blame Kui for his 3 days off. as well as three quarrels with customers. Kui feels he cannot do anything after this response other than unwillingly submit to the situation.
These films make Kui out to be an unlikable person who clings to the old values and lectures the youths on what they should do. Although he works hard without any complaints and wholeheartedly thinks that he is fulfilling his responsibility for the youths’ future, he is treated as a fool by the young and finally becomes a comic character. Tins to some degree reflects widespread cultural phenomena and the gravity of the mounting generational problems in the 1980s.
If it can be said that the commercial film series starring Chen Qiang and Chen Peisi challenged the image of the father as a strong patriarch in a kind and mild way, then the Wang Shuo films adapted from Wang Shuo's novels attacked this image in an indifferent and ironic tone. This indicates that the young generation had begun to fully leave behind the old generation in terms of culture.
Some media had reported on the year of 1988 as the year of Wang Shuo. Around this time, films adapted from the novels of Wang Shuo included The Troubleshooters, Samsara, Half Flame, HalfBrine. and Gasping Out (,Dachuanqi, dir. Ye Daying. 1988). which were, respectively, directed by Mi Jiashan, Huang Jianxin. Xia Gang, and Ye Daying. Some critics referred to these directors as “the beat generation.” Where their works share common ground is in how. according to Chen Ken. “the directors depict their protagonists with attitudes of appreciation, favoritism, and indulgence.” However, as Chen argues, those protagonists:
Are neither beloved by society, nor the scumbags. Although they are not endowed with high positions and a huge fortune, they truly do not crave these. They will not be attracted by noble ambitions, nor be bound by conventional moral rules. In a displaced and transformed world, represented with strange colors, absurd atmospheres, slanting horizons, and disordered central forces, they think they have grasped the essence of life through their instincts and impulses. They embrace living an absurd and fulfilling life like a game . . . These protagonists represent a stunning new image, they are loafers of the new era and patients struck by the acute end-of-century syndrome.15
This analysis is relatively theoretical, trying to analyze these characters from an objective perspective. On the other hand, after watching these Wang Shuo films, some viewers reasonably referred to them as the films about hooligans. Ling Zuren criticized the situation as follows.
Although there exist rogues in society, to show their ideology and images onscreen will ultimately make the films into hooligan films! The opponents of these films think films should show the good aspects of society onscreen so as to have a good effect on the audiences and society. Otherwise, the screen will become stained as films degrade into hooligan films!
However, the proponents think the Wang Shuo films depict elements of social reality from a specific perspective and that showing these realities onscreen can make people ponder them.
I have discovered that most of the opponents are older critics while most of the proponents are young or middle-aged. I wonder whether this represents a type of difference in consciousness as a result of the generation gaps?16
The author’s analysis of the Wang Shuo films from the angle of generation gaps gets at the core of them as a cultural phenomenon. The Wang Shuo films intensified the impulse of challenging the patriarchy that had arisen since the mid1980s. Indeed, those films sometimes went too far in mocking fathers and the patriarchy in China, a country that, after all. is an ancient civilization that has long emphasized hierarchy and ethical orders. These films magnified and artistically distorted the real issue of the generation gap by showing fathers who do not act like fathers and sons who do not act like sons. The Troubleshooters exemplifies this phenomenon well.
The protagonist in the film, Yu Guan, is never annoyed, but is instead always ready to agree with his friend Ma Qing’s mocking jokes that his father is as quicktempered as a leopard and like a “70-year-old who hasn’t finished going through menopause yet.” When he returns home. Yu Guan finds his father doing a handstand. He asks, “why did you ask me to come back?” His father says. “I just want to learn from you and see what you do every day.” Yu Guan responds that he spends his days, “eating, drinking, speaking, sleeping, and sometimes doing handstands just like you.” Upon hearing this, his father warns, “don't talk to me in this hooligan way. I care about you. You are not a kid anymore and can’t idle your days away. You should think about your future and do something good for people.” Upon his father’s serious remarks. Yu Guan smiles in response, saying, “what on earth have I done to annoy you. I am not guilty of killing anyone, setting fires, or protesting in the street. You’d better give me a reason. Just because I am a vulgar man?” Recognizing that he is being taught a lesson by his son, the father decides to provide his reasoning for why he believes he has the right and responsibility to lecture his son. Specifically, he explains and complains about the hardships involved in raising his son from a baby into an adult. Yu Guan is annoyed and says, “if you call me dad. I will do the nasty things for you.” Then Yu Guan further mocks his father, who had once been a revolutionary, saying, “you have lived a hard life, but how can you be so lazy now?”
In contrast to young people like Yu Guan who live crazy, exciting, and amusing lives, Yu Guan’s father lives a boring life in his later years. The film constructs an image of the old revolutionary as an annoying figure who idles his time away looking for faults in young people and giving them lectures when they do not appreciate his kindness. It was a risk to create such an image of a senior revolutionary. Therefore, after the film was produced, the censorship authority suggested the director make some modifications. In response, Mi Jiashan said in a published speech:
They are so kind to give me so many suggestions, including some modifications that need to be done. For example, profane language like “how fucking quick-tempered your father is," and “if you call me dad, I will do the nasty things for you.” (In actuality, though the last line seems to be spoken by a hooligan, it reflects the young people’s contempt for the elder generation and the new relationship between father and son. Although I do not appreciate this, it does exist in society.)17
Although what the youths say and do in the film shows their contempt for the elder generation and goes against ethics and conventions, the director thinks it is an objective phenomenon in society at that time. Wang Shuo calls these people the new socialists with Chinese characteristics, and Mi Jiashan argues, “to some extent it reflects the author’s preference (including mine) for these people, we need to support them, and not just acknowledge them.”18 The films do not just neglect the teachings of the elder generation, but also regard the social education provided by teachers as a hypocritical cliché. For example, in the film. Zhao Yaoshun. who is crowned as a spiritual guide for young people, encounters a great deal of ridicule.
In order to disclose such people’s hypocrisy, the opening scene of the film depicts a mask followed by a streetscape in Beijing with flowing traffic and a motley group of people. This scene is set to a popular rock song, with lyrics that go:
Once upon a time, I dreamed of modem city life,But I can’t understand my feelings now,With high buildings increasing more and more.The life I live here is as hard as on a thorny path.Have a drink with somebody somewhere,Listen to the popular songs on the stereos,What you say is not what you think,Everyone wears a mask,What can I say.
When the Three T company operated by Yu Guan and others faces a dilemma, and three young people begin to create a disturbance in the street, a song plays in the background that goes as follows:
Once I wanted to get married at 27 or so,But now I realize love can annoy people a lot.Read some novelty novels at a bookstall,Only to find that marriageHas dark sides.The advertisements become longer and longer on TV,So that you can’t grasp the golden moment.You can’t do what you want to do,Things you don’t want to doBecome more and endless.
Although they might be often worried and anxious, and sometimes seemingly behave like idle hooligans, these new socialists with Chinese characteristics possess one other personality trait that is necessary to mention here, that is persistence. They know clearly what they want to be and unwaveringly do every thing they can to achieve that. That the films show this new group of people, who are often questioned and marginalized, practicing a philosophy of being human in a natural way exemplifies representations of cultural fractures in the 1980s. By refusing to worship diplomas or the miracle of knowledge in the 1980s, the son in A Father and His Son acts in a mildly and implicitly subversive manner. On the other hand, “troubleshooters” such as Yu Guan act in a more explicit way. This is revealed by how they overtly tease Zhao Yaoshun. the professor of moral education. Their clearer choices in life can be seen in their specific practices. Yu Guan and his lover. Ding Xiaolu. face an embarrassing dilemma in their relationship because Ding is not satisfied with Yu’s position in life and wants to draw a blueprint for his future. She calls Yu and says that “the night university is going to enroll students and there is a major that suits you.” Upon hearing this, Yu deviates from the topic at hand and says, "let's break up.” Even though flatly rejected by Yu, Ding still does not give up on turning Yu into one of the group participating in the miracle of knowledge. In a key scenario elaborately constructed by the director, the two meet in an amusement park and have an intense conversation about Yu’s future. Ding hopes Yu will take the examination held by the night university and encourages him by saying that he will certainly become successful after receiving a systematic education for several years. Their conversation goes as follows:
Yu Guan: I know you want me to become someone ambitious who dresses neatly, behaves extraordinarily, speaks eloquently. and wears a Pair of glasses. But I don’t like it.
Ding Xiaolu: You just don’t have a strong shoulder for a tired woman to lean her head on.
Yu Guan: Actually, I hope to rest in a woman’s arms for all of life because I am exhausted, except my head that is.
Ding Xiaolu: But a woman is much more tired than you. Your life is headed down hill.
Yu Guan: It looks like I am headed dow nhill, but you know what, my soul has sort of been redirected.
Ding Xiaolu: Let’s break up. After all, it will happen sooner or later.
Yu Guan: Xiaolu, I’ll make you proud of me someday.
Ding Xiaolu: I am already proud of you now.
Adhering to his values and choices, nobody can shake Yu Guan’s faith, not even his father or his lover.
What I appreciate most in Wang Shuo’s works is the rebellious mentality directed against the old traditional order and moral values. His novels show a mixed picture throughout the Reform and Opening Up period following China’s liberation from the traditional cultural restrictions that had accumulated over thousands of years as well as people’s poor adaptability and unhealthy and abnormally competitive mentalities.19
Mi Jiashan, the director, creates a shocking scene depicting the Three T's Literary Award Ceremony to highlight such varied ideologies after Reform and Opening Up. At the beginning of this ceremony there is a fashion show. On the catwalk are images of landlords, capitalists. KMT officers, concubines, red guards, traffic policemen, models, the Eighth Route Army, armed units, the People’s Liberation Army, emperors, and antediluvian survivors. Red guards dance with emperors to disco music. All political powers and symbols appear together here. The historical context and space that once separated these sharp contradictions evaporate on stage. Time is condensed, and deeply rooted contradictions are eradicated. This is the year of 1988, when postmodernism abruptly appears in Chinese films. In 1985, Fredric Jameson came to Beijing to teach the course Postmodernism and Theories of Culture. Jameson worked to transmit the newest Western theories to the academic field of China, a country just opening its academic gates to the West. He gave an overall introduction of the Western theoretical system and emphasized the cultural theory of postmodernism. Professor Le Daiyun thinks that Jameson’s lecture is as valuable as Bertrand Russell’s Eastern journey in the 1920s. However, for the Chinese people at that time, who were keen on modernization and anxious about when it could be achieved in China, postmodernism was not yet under the spotlight. It was secondary to modernization. Therefore. Jameson’s lecture drew little attention from people, and postmodernism did not become prominent for another decade. Whether or not the theorists were open to postmodernism, it appeared with The Troubleshooters in 1988.
After the catwalk scene comes an awards ceremony. There is a scene where the winners are awarded large, prized jars while the indignant revolutionary song “Kucaihua” plays. The contrast between the sounds and the images intensifies the absurdity. According to Wang Yuzhen,
showing the scene in an absurd, exaggerated, and even farcical way matches The Troubleshooters, frolicking tone and symbolizes the kaleidoscope of fashions. This approach also satirizes the mishmash of mindsets and values that emerged after Reform and Opening Up. These oscillate between old, Chinese traditions and Western modernism as well as absorbing outside of the immediate temporal and spatial context including the philosophies of Nietzsche and Freud.20
There are a large number of absurd scenes like this in the flim. For instance, when Yu Guan goes over the railings and is caught by the traffic police for violating traffic rules, he pretends to be a lunatic who claims that he has just escaped from Anding Hospital, a psychiatric hospital. To continue bluffing. Ding Xiaolu lies to the police that Yu Guan is her uncle. Such textual characteristics as irony, montage. pastiche, self-references, and a mocking tone lead The Troubleshooters to be brimming with postmodern elements and make it a special highlight among the Films of the 1980s.
In Gasping Out, adapted from Wang Shuo’s novel The Plasticine Man (Xiangpi ren). Ding Jian is an unemployed young man who comes to Guangzhou and obtains money by committing fraud with Zhang Yansheng and Li Bailing. They live an extravagant life and seek out hedonism while drawing an ambitious blueprint for how to make themselves rich. However. Ding Jian’s conscience pricks him as he commits vile deals, and he is then arrested for beating someone while committing a fraudulent transaction. In jail. Ding Jian gets to know the policeman Ma Hanyu. who tells him. "I don’t think you are different. You are just an ordinary man.” After being set free. Ding Jian is completely changed in terms of his temperament. Upon hearing that his old partner in the underworld, Li Bailing, has made a great fortune. Ding Jian realizes that flies might always fly towards a light, but they are not actually seeking the light. In his view, Li Bailing is no more than a plasticine man. In fear of living an alienated life. Ding Jian ponders over many things, but in the end understands nothing. He says, “I don’t know who I am. This depends on you.” In the end. he drives his motorbike flying out of a tall building.
Ding Jian represents a typical character reflecting the era. In the 1980s. society was seeing a transition from values of idealism towards a materialism dominated by pragmatism and reason. Sandwiched between the two, people were naturally confused and hesitant. They could not withstand the temptations of hedonism, but they also could not get themselves rid of values-based ideologies. During this transition, people who were entangled in pain submerged themselves into the torrents of the times to finally obtain spiritual peace.
Shi Ba, the hero in Samsara, is a character who exemplifies these transitions. He is an unemployed man in Beijing, but he earns even more money than wageearners by selling governmental approval. Ever since his parents’ death had set him free from the old generation’s rules and instructions, Shi Ba enjoys his freedom. His house is a bizarre place that is crowded with people partying every day. They dance and have sex underground without even knowing each other. One scene shows Shi Ba, who owns the house, being questioned about his identity by someone who opens the door when he is returning home.
Shi Ba was not born so unrestricted. He once served the country as a soldier and was quite sensitive to heroic stories in his teenage years. In an emotional scene, Shi Ba meets Liu Hualing, his fellow alumna who has married a foreigner, and talks about the dreams they had while being students. Liu Hualing once dreamed of being a heroine like Liu Hulan, who held no fear of death while possessing deep affection for her people and country. Returning to reality, Liu says with a broken heart, “well, I indulged in this dream at an early age and let the cause of proletarian liberation take over my mind. However, now I am a capitalist.” Shi Ba says in agreement, “yeah, I left the army many years ago. so long so that it seemingly did not happen in this life.” Shi Ba also possesses pure patriotism, though he expresses it in a hooligan’s fashion, specifically by insulting foreigners in Chinese when addressing them. Yu Jing. Shi Ba’s would-be lover, thus regards him as a hooligan, but his friends justify his behavior, saying, “you are wrong. He is far from being a hooligan. Instead, he represents today’s young revolutionaries.”
At one point, Shi Ba talks about his true feelings about the way he lives, revealing that what he expects out of his life is actually not shocking at all. He says,
I am thought to be persistent only in shooting the breeze by others. But I am unselfish in today’s selfish society. You have seen what I have done, fulfilling my responsibilities to serve in the army, donating my blood, planting trees, and buying government bonds. I just do not like others meddling in my business, which are my personal affairs and do no harm to the social order.
Yu Jing asks. “What kind of affairs are totally personal?” Shi Ba says, “For example, those affairs about whether I wash my feet before I go to sleep, whether I eat mutton, or. to speak more seriously, whether I have sex with a beloved girl who also loves me before we are married.” Unrestrained and outspoken rascal that he is. Shi Ba still longs for inner purity so that he will not mess up his chances at love when he develops marvelous feelings for someone. One night. Shi Ba and Yu Jing accidentally stay together in a house, but they unexpectedly have a long conversation about dancing in different rooms. A sexual relationship between them starts with Yu Jing’s seduction rather than Shi Ba’s lack of restraint. The sex elevates their feelings for one another to a new stage. Shi Ba comes to hold hue love for Yu Jing and then paints his house red.
Shi Ba cherishes the love between them, but others do not understand this owing to his unrestrained behavior. This causes Shi Ba great suffering, as shown in the last scene of the film:
Shi Ba: Don’t cry. You know I love you. What else do you want?
Yu Jing: Nothing.
Shi Ba: I also don’t want anything else.
Yu Jing(suddenly sits up): Liar. You want to love yourself and you never ever try to love others. You’ve slept with me with your mind zoned out. No need to lie to me and to yourself anymore.
Shi Ba slaps Yu Jing on her face.
Yu Jing: Your lies won’t work on me.
Shi Ba gets up and swears: You haven’t made any fucking changes since getting married.
Shi Ba sits silently under the light and ponders their relationship late at night. Then, he slowly stands up as he stares at his masculine shadow projected on the wall. Raising his walking stick abruptly, he outlines the shadow of his body, strong and powerful. Lowering his head with a sigh, he slowly walks to tire balcony railing, leans his body forward, and falls to the ground below under the mixed glow of stars and lights.
Soon, a baby boy called Shi Xiaoba is born.
Samsara, adapted from Wang Shuo’s work, is brimming with the author’s narrative elements, especially in terms of its details. For instance, the characters in Wang Shuo’s works like to do handstands. Shi Ba does handstands to treat gastroptosis. and Yu Guan’s father in The Troubleshooters does one to deal with his changes to his temperament during old age. Based on such details. Wang Shuo uses his works to tease respected veteran cadres and revolutionaries in the 1980s. He demystifies their image as a group enjoying high social status and thus enables people to know them as common people. The demystification can also be found in other aspects of his works. As Chinese society became increasingly routinized during the 1980s. the majestic Tiananmen Square appeared as a space for people’s daily affairs in addition to hallowed ground for political affairs. In Wang Shuo films. Tiananmen Square becomes a space of cultural significance. In The Troubleshooters, Yu Guan meets Liu Meiping in Tiananmen Square to tell her that her boyfriend has decided to break up with her, against the backdrop of a group of tourists solemnly queuing to pay their respects to Chairman Mao. This reveals a huge distinction between the broken-hearted Liu and the solemn tourists. In Samsara, while living by following his heart. Shi Ba also goes on dates with girls in Tiananmen Square. In one scene, two female dancers flirt with national flag guards to see if they can withstand their allure. Because they cannot elicit any responses, the dancers doubt that they are real men. Immediately following this scene, there is a shot of soldiers marching in ordered steps to change the guard, showing a complete caricature of a solemn political scene.
As mentioned above, films such as The Troubleshooters, Gasping Out, Half Flame, Half Brine, and Samsara all sparked different reactions in society. Some thought Wang Shuo films were created by. acted by. and watched by hooligans in order to produce more hooligans. Nevertheless. Shao Mujun. a senior critic, was tolerant of the films, argued that such comments showed disrespect for creators and audiences, and was opposed to such personal attacks. He argued:
It is reasonable to show the morbid part of some young people’s lives in society, because we have to take them seriously. What makes me feel pity is that all the films, except Samsara, seem to be diverted from their points by the socalled freedom and impulses of pure emotions of life emphasized in the original works. Excessively focusing on the thrilling and entertaining elements in hooligans’ lives made people believe that the films are set at a low level in terms of ideological values. Among the four films, Samsara is the one most unfaithful to the original work, even misinterpreting the original one. This is revealed by the fact that Shi Ba is the only one who consciously achieves the transition from being inhumane to being humane. To show this transition. Shi Ba is made to be a person with a low level of literacy and a strongly antisocial personality in the stage of the film when he is inhumane. However, when he is becoming more humane. Shi Ba cannot live by following his heart and feels so much suffering that he kills himself by jumping from a building. It is only as a result that this young man who is transitioning from inhumanity to being humane is now worthy of sympathy and love.21
Shao’s views are echoed by those of Zhao Yuan, another critic, who also emphasized the gap between Samsara and the original works, saying:
We do not need to seek the reflection of the original work Surfacing on the Sea (Fuchu haimian) from Samsara, because the film has created an unknown city for you. You find that not only existing cultural experiences are not helpful for understanding the life in the film, but existing standards of value also do not work. This touches you. which can lead you to doubt the meaning of one’s existence. You can be put into a state of serious contemplation from the shadow of Shi Ba projected on the wall, which will lead you to ponder the way to become human, the fetters on humans as well as the difficulties humans face in becoming themselves.22
Why is the image of Shi Ba interpreted in these ways? To answer this question, Huang Jianxin says that. “I focus on contemporary people’s mentalities when creating films, because I think films should show ideas. Therefore. I agree with the concept of writing in order to convey truths.”23 Huang chose Wang Shuo’s novel to make a him version precisely because it reflected the era. Addressing someone’s questions about this, he responded that.
I read the newspapers published during the Cultural Revolution page by page at libraries and I find that each page is full of lies. This should be disclosed in today's works of art. We should tell the truths now. Those who are used to lying will regard the truths as lies.24
Adhering to the concept of writing in order to convey truths. Huang Jianxin is not completely satished with the novel by Wang Shuo. Therefore, he adjusts Shi Ba’s course of life and throws Shi Ba into a process of awakening that cannot be found in the lives of characters in other Wang Shuo films. Zhao Yuan provided a more tolerant discussion of the film:
I personally believe people like Huang Jianxin and Zhang Zeming go much further in clinging to their childhood dreams and the spiritual homelands in which their hearts lie than people like Wang Shuo. They express their impulse to return to their spiritual homelands through the existing frames of the plot. As a result they excessively show a kind of vague and ethereal nostalgia onscreen. The film does not do a better job than the novel in genuinely showing the suffering produced by being half inhumane and half humane, or. to say it another way, in showing the unforgettable pains suffered by people during spiritual transformations. However. I think the disjointed situation depicted in these films exactly reflects the universal cultural conflicts of our times, our actual cultural context, and the quandaries involved in making our choices. In a fragmented cultural context, you caimot seek neat formations, a principle running through it all, or a sense of unification provided by the director. If you are disgusted by hypocrisy and pretentiousness as much as the film director, then it is possible to derive various cultural meanings from these literary works that are brimming with disunified values and attitudes. From this perspective, we are able to closely examine the films. In this way, we can understand the broad cultural context that is full of drawbacks and know the specific cultural relations giving rise to such drawbacks.25
This lack of unity is the fate of people in a transitional period. If people can tightly hold onto their spiritual homelands and withstand the various temptations of the earthly world, then they can enjoy freedom with unwavering hearts no matter what happens. Otherwise, even if one is able to leave everything behind with pleasure and detachment, the shock and fear as a result of being awakened suddenly from a dreamy, half-awake state to viewing the self with a newly enlightened mind will ultimately lead to a person’s spiritual fall. This exemplifies the status of specific figures of the era. Wang Shuo films represent a record of lives of an era. thus serving as an introduction to the 1980s for later generations.
In the era of Reform and Opening Up, cities, especially coastal cities and central cities, were changing rapidly, but the countryside, held back by several thousand years of tradition, was developing slowly. China is a large country that has been predominantly agricultural for most of its 5,000-year history. The complicated problems of China’s rural areas could not be solved by the household responsibility system or a few people like Niu Baisui or retired soldiers leading the masses to wealth. Filmmakers of the 1980s recognized these issues, and some realistic films focused on the deep cultural undercurrents hidden by the seemingly calm experience of rural areas in the new times.
In Hometown Accent, Tao Chun is an educated woman whose dream was to become a teacher. But. when she married Yu Musheng. she became a model wife and mother. Her daily life centers around her husband and children. During the day. she brings food to her husband, who makes a living punting a ferry, and at night, when she returns from work in the field, she brings her husband water to wash his face. Before going to bed. she brings him water to wash his feet, but never asks her husband for anything in return. Village elders regard the couple as a model for others, a title that Tao Chun and her husband enjoy very much. However, the younger generation of women do not think Tao Chun is worthy of emulation because they believe that Tao Chun is too humble and that Musheng does not treat his wife well enough. When Xingzhi, from the same village, criticizes Tao Chun for not having her own ideas. Tao Chun says. “Musheng works hard and is a decent man. I respect him.” “You respect him. how come he doesn’t respect you?” Xingzhi questions. Tao Chun answers, “when you get married, you will understand.” Privately, Xingzhi wonders, “how can people become like this after they get married? Tao Chun’s dream had been to become a teacher!”
At a time when the outside world is transforming in the atmosphere of the Four Modernizations, the countryside still seems closed. When a railroad opens in the neighboring Longquanzhai village, the villagers are shocked. Xingzhi says that the train is strong enough to pull a lot of houses and is a symbol of modem civilization. Tao Chun, who seldom travels far. is inspired to go to the urban market with her cousin Xingzhi to see the train and broaden her horizons. However, even if she just shows an intention to go outside. Yu Musheng immediately expresses disapproval. Tao Chun obeys him. meekly saying. “I will listen to you.” An important narrative point of the film is to depict how Tao Chun’s desire to see the train is suppressed. This suppression continues until Tao Chun is seriously ill. and her days are numbered, when Musheng finally, and guiltily, agrees to take Tao Chun to fulfill her wish to see the train. It is not that Tao Chun does not want to see the outside world or that she does not yearn for a new life. It is that, under the repression of the patriarchy, she chooses to restrain her own desires.
In another scene. Musheng and Tao Chun go to the market to sell pigs that have been raised by Tao Chun. When she gets money. Tao Chun first buys Musheng a pack of Da Qianmen brand cigarettes with filters in order to make Musheng look more decent. She also buys their children long-awaited gifts. But there is not enough money left to buy her own long-desired clothes. Holding the opinion that farmers will have no opportunities or reason to wear such clothes. Musheng not only does not provide any money to help her buy them, but actually takes Tao Chun’s own money to buy piglets, forcing Tao Chun to raise pigs to make more money. Xingzhi criticizes that Musheng does not care about Tao Chun and does not even buy her gifts. “This is unfair.” Xingzhi says, “my sister has been married for so long, but you have bought her just a few new clothes and some pieces of soap. You have even not bought her a box of facial oil. right?” “But she never asks for it,” Musheng responds.
Musheng’s carelessness towards his wife. Tao Chun, is not only shown by his lack of concern for her wishes, but also by his neglect of her physical condition. Tao Chun's concern for Musheng is contrasted with his indifference towards her. When she has unbearable pain in her abdomen and tells her husband, he only lets her take some Jintan. This happens again when she is chopping wood and suffers a recurrence of the pain. Her daughter finds Musheng and Says, “mom’s stomach hurts.” Musheng only replies. ‘it’s okay. It always does.” “She looks in pain.” the child adds. “Come up.” Musheng says perfunctorily, "go to the town, buy her two packets of Jintan and she will be fine.” Musheng is not a bad man by nature; he views their relationship as normal and he believes that a wife should serve her husband. He is influenced by traditional Chinese customs and embodies the long-standing male-dominated society of rural China. Historically, people in rural China had been used to the idea that women should obey men. This mindset had become part of their subconscious, making them indifferent to the living status of women. Revolution can bring down the landlords to the countiyside, and reform can allow the peasants to get land to feed themselves and keep themselves warn. But these types of policy changes cannot transform the farmers’ spiritual world and the hidden rules of the countryside. For the peasants who have long been in the rural areas, learning to love and be loved is a major challenge.
The youth of the new times notices Tao Chun’s condition and sees that there is something wrong. Xingzhi throws the Jintan away and takes Tao Chun to the county hospital. It turns out that Tao Chun has liver cancer, which is the big twist of the narrative. Musheng finally realizes his indifference to Tao Chun and stops Longmei, their daughter, from pouring water to wash his feet.
Tao Chun, despite suffering from a terminal illness, strangely feels the cancer is a blessing in disguise, saying, “I am a blessed person now, getting ill, but will I ever see the world, will I come to the county and ride in a car?” Musheng starts to think of ways to make up for his guilt, such as trying to buy Tao Chun the new clothes she longs for. But he fails to get the clothes, and so he buys some meat. When Musheng returns home, Xingzhi has already bought the only dress in town. Musheng articulates the realization he has: ‘‘Chun, husband and wife are equal, so why should the wife serve the husband?” Xingzhi compares bamboo to Tao Chun, “at home, she has green leaves, when married, she’s withered. And when she repeatedly hits the bottom of the water, she comes out full of tears.” Tao Chun herself is very calm. “Even if I die of this, it does not matter. I am a blessed one, with my husband and children by my side. I feel very grateful.” she says. Musheng eventually fulfills Tao Chun’s wish to go to Longquanzhai Village to see the train. Tao Chun’s face is glowing with happiness as she rides in the wheelchair pushed by Musheng. Between the mountains, the roar of the train comes, and Tao Chun looks excited. “My heart even shakes with this sound.” she says.
In 1984, a bumper year for cinema. Our Niu Baisui won the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Picture, which was voted on by the public. In that year, two films depicting rural life. Our Niu Baisui and Hometown Accent, entered the final competition for the Golden Rooster Award for Best Picture. Film experts had reservations about films focusing on policies of the times such as Our Niu Baisui, but held high praise for the artistic image of “Tao Chun”, which they saw as steeped in rural tradition. Some of the judges thought Our Niu Baisui
reflects the rural environment of the 1980s. but the ideas expressed are old and seem to come from the 1950s. At present, rural areas have gone from having everyone eat from a communal meal pot to implementing the household responsibility system. This is a major reform and change in the economic system, not just an issue of uniting households facing difficulties.
Experts thought that the character of Niu Baisui was not a person of the new times. According to one such expert:
Niu Baisui’s behavior is certainly worthy of promotion, but his state of mind is still just reflects generally good people and deeds. He does not have any idea or desire to reform the countryside. He does not possess the characteristics of advanced farmers (meaning new people who are educated, wellinformed. and able to respond to the trends of reform implemented after the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the CPC) in the 1980s. Therefore, it is impossible for him to lead the peasants forward down the road to reform.26
Another reported:
The film does not properly place the characters within the historical context of this new era with its new characteristics, thus giving a sense of “old wine in a new bottle”. It cannot be said that the creators are not familiar with the situation in the countryside, but they do not have enough understanding of the changes in the countryside. They thus fail to explore and express the new times with its new characters. They also fail to convey the new atmosphere and messages that have defined the countryside in the midst of changes.27
In contrast, the experts rated Hometown Accent highly:
Hometown Accent explores themes of universal significance to everyday life. This reveals the influence of feudal ethical concepts that procure a sense of residual bondage. The film is relatively complete in its overall conception harmonious in its artistic style, and unique in its sound composition. It possesses a clear and timeless artistic style and. thus, we award it Best Picture for this year.28
Although the jury said that Niu Baisui did not reflect the rhythm of the times, whether Hometown Accent is a true reproduction of the times is also a matter of subjective feelings. The artistic mood and the pastoral style of Hometown Accent moved the judges, and the integrity of Tao Chun’s image, with its profound cultural values, possesses a strong cognitive significance. However, by 1983. the winds of reform had begun blowing throughout the countryside, and “stories that should not happen” were occurring everywhere. In this context a new man in the new socialist countryside, like Niu Baisui. had long already been portrayed. But Tao Chun’s portrayal had artistic value even if it was relatively inadequate for demonstrating the characteristics of the times. In order to depict an image of the countryside with universal meaning, to show normal daily life, and to pursue an elegant style, the creators had. intentionally or unintentionally, avoided the conflicts of real life. In so doing, they distanced the him from the real-life experience of Reform and Opening Up in the 1980s. According to Yu Qian. “The lives of Yu Musheng and Tao Chun the young couple we see onscreen, seem isolated from the real world. Their living situation, along with their thinking and behavior, seems to transcend the boundaries of any era."29 The film constantly suggests that symbols of modernity, such as the train at Longquanzhai Village, are hugely seductive to Tao Chun. These symbols also include the radio in the workshop for making oils that is playing the song “The Night at the Naval Port,” the oil pressing workers being replaced by machines, the motorized tugboat that stands in contrast to Musheng’s bamboo ferry, the excavators parking on the streets of the town, and so on. These are all icons of the times. According to Yu Qian:
In any case, they are still the general signs of the external environment. We have not yet seen a depiction of the characteristics of the times or the distinct atmosphere that has penetrated reality. There is more conceptual meaning than figurative for the rural youths who seek a new life. These representations of the countryside lack a realistic social atmosphere, and should be taken more as beautiful renderings of the natural environment. Actually, little real social influence on the lives, personalities, and inner states of the main characters could be seen.30
In terms of content, Hometown Accent is about the difficulty of rural change. Many habits have been incorporated into people’s blood and bones for thousands of years, and people have unconsciously followed and practiced these rules. Transformations in the countryside cannot be achieved just through a limited number of policies, or a few exemplary people like Niu Baisui. There was still a long way to go to make farmers completely change all aspects of their lives, from the material to the spiritual. The public’s reaction after the film’s release revealed the differences in perspective between social groups. There were different views on the same films, with the general public supporting Niu Baisui and experts supporting Tao Chun. Among experienced critics, opinions also varied. This fully illustrated the cultural pluralism of the 1980s and highlighted the conflicts of ideas caused by the collision of pluralistic views in the absence of consensus.
Hometown Accent is concerned with the perseverance and persistence of people’s hearts in an era of transformation. Films such as The Broken Promise (Shixin de cunzhuang, dir. Wang Haowei. 1986) followed in presenting the underlying difficulties of rural reforms on a larger scale. At a time when change seemed imminent and destined to bring new possibilities for life, it encountered the deep-rooted forces of tradition. These were entrenched in people’s minds and seemed to work to hinder or even destroy the results of reform at the critical moment. When director Wang Haowei made A Charming Band, she was enthusiastic in praising the new socialist countryside and full of hope for the future of rural China. But when she came to the banks of the Yellow River and saw the actions of Chinese peasants who had been living like the stones that had laid in their fields for thousands of years, she pondered the traditional inferiority that had dominated the Chinese countryside. Because of their ignorance and greedy desires for small gains, the farmers passed by wisdom and beauty. By the time they realized their faults, luck was no longer on their side.
The village in The Broken Promise is called Xinzhuang and it is located by the Yellow River. Although the land contract reforms have solved the problem of food and clothing, the economy has not yet developed. Villagers such as Heidun still cannot find wives because they have no money. At this time. Ding Yunhe. who is familiar with techniques of melon growing, proposes that he should be appointed technical director to ensure that the melon fields in Xinzhuang can produce 800 yuan of income per mu (1 mu = 0.0667 hectares). In return, he himself will take 10 percent as a reward. At the same time, he also makes a commitment to pay back 100 yuan to the villagers if the income per mu is less than 500 yuan. Ding Yunhe’s proposal sets off a debate in the village. Some people support it, while others object to it. After people’s initial hesitation and much heated discussion, this technical cooperation plan is finally implemented in Xinzhuang. By suimner, Xinzhuang’s watennelon harvest is not only abundant, but also sells out quickly because of its high quality. The villagers all make money from growing melons. When it is time for them to pay Ding Yunhe in return, some of the moneygrabbing villagers are reluctant to fulfill their promises. The chief of the village intends to renege on the contract because he has calculated that they will need to pay Ding Yunhe 8,000 yuan. At first, he makes use of some villagers’ greed for money to win the support of the masses. And them the chief secretly allows Heidun and others to defame Ding Yunhe by saying Ding committed adultery, ultimately forcing him to leave the village in disgrace. Only the leader of the villager group. Xin Laoling, pays Ding the amount set by the contract. Although some of the other villagers feel guilty about Ding Yunhe, they still let him go in silence. When spring comes, the villagers again remember the goodness of Ding Yunhe and send Heidun to the ferry to look for him. But luck does not come to Xinzhuang again, and it is clear the villagers have paid the price for their actions.
Wang Haowei. being a fourth-generation director, gives the film a certain idealistic character. The character Ding Yunhe seems to have fallen from the sky. bringing with him not only technology, but also a new model for cooperating in using rural technology. Although the farmers’ greed leads to his good intentions not bearing fruit, the value of Ding Yunhe's advancements is still obvious. According to Bao Guang.
the character of Ding Yunhe is complete. He is not just here to earn money, nor to bring science and technology to the farmers, but to follow his own values. In the past he was not able to make full use of his talents due to the vicissitudes of history. After the Third Plenary Session, he felt that he could finally do so. What makes him sad at the end of the film is not the loss of money, but the spiritual loss of trust.31
Ding Yunhe, like the fairies and immortals of folklore, is a figure with mysterious powers that Heidun happens to meet at the Yellow River ferry. He brings hope to Xinzhuang, but, because of the offense committed by the villagers, this “immortal” can only depart with sadness. When the villagers think of him again the following year, the opportunity has already passed. This is a typical traditional mythological narrative, but with many contemporary connotations. Bao Guang argued,
Some comrades believe that the film has a tendency to sanitize its characters and history. The character of Ding Yunhe is not credible because he is artificially exaggerated. The realization of humanist values is typically the concern of intellectuals. But Ding Yunhe is a railroad worker, he is not that educated. Faced with the distrust of the whole village. Ding Yunhe cannot be viewed as acting like a real person since he does not get angry. That he buys a TV for the village with his own money is also impossible. In short, Ding Yunhe is a heroic figure rather than a real individual.32
Although it assumes some idealized values with its fictitious characters. The Broken Promise still reflects aspects of mainstream culture in the mid-to-late 1980s. Specifically, it follows the trend of seeking out roots. The film metaphorically presents the constraints that tradition brings to modernity. Wang Haowei emphasizes that the theme of The Broken Promise is “to express the collision between traditional culture and modem ideas."33 Therefore, the director chose to shoot the film in the ancient capital of the Central Plains. Luoyang. She reflected:
Luoyang stands north of the Mang Mountains and the Yellow River. The area possess ravines in the yellow earth, kilns, the graves of ancient emperor, imperial tomb stone carvings buried in crop fields, ancient temples, the mud and sand of the Yellow River’s beaches, and the sunset of the Luo River. The cultural background of the ancient Central Plains enriches our imagination of the film. It is a ripple scooped from real life that should be a whirlpool in the long river of history. We let our protagonists live here, and what is good and what is evil in them are the legacies of history. We portray the integration of a new thinking with the life of an ancient nation.34
Similarly, Bao Guang argued:
The film is conceptually exploratory and groundbreaking, with deeper connotations than A Charming Band, which reflects the gradual deepening of reform. It does not have a happy ending like the films that came before it. The film takes a new perspective. It reveals the inferiority of our national mentality, as well as that of humanity more generally, through changes in the peasants’ psychology, lashing out at the jealous mentalities of those who cannot stand the sight of money or the wealthy. The film confronts tire limitations and narrow-mindedness of the peasants and shows the courage of realism. It reveals that connections between ultra-leftist thinking and feudal consciousness are active and developing in environments dominated by ultraleftists. The development of material civilization is not necessarily synchronized with that of spiritual civilization, and the film establishes new values of, and respect for, culture, knowledge, and science. This issue is important to the course of the Four Modernizations. The film is not simply a judgment of good and bad but also has deeper connotations and a forward-looking consciousness.35
The film’s setting in the environment around Luoyang also helps express its themes. According to Bao Guang. “the ancient stone statues around the melon field serve as a symbol that harmonizes with the content of the film. They visually depict a closed-off environment that has failed to rid itself of the burden of national history,” He continued, “showing the ancient stone statue when peasants discuss breaking the contract has another meaning. It is as if history is testifying, shedding tears, and in contemplation. It is as if it is unconcerned about the breach of trust.”36 Wang Haowei reflected:
During Zhang Migui's renegade speech, we shot many close-ups of the stone status of ancient civil officials, military generals, horses, horse-trainers, elephants. and elephant-tamers. Those exquisite stone carvings not only have great aesthetic value, but also illustrate the long history of Zhang Migui’s feudal thinking. The scene, with the villagers sitting in the shadows of the stone horses, stone elephants, and stone statues of birds symbolizing propitious omens and mythical beasts, creates a mise-en-scene and graphic composition rich in ideological connotations. It makes one feel, both directly and visually, that parts of traditional culture are spiritual burdens that need to be discarded.37
While The Broken Promise is concerned about the weight of traditions hampering the march towards modernization. The Beach expresses deep uneasiness about the collapse of the values of deep-rooted traditional agricultural civilization in the face of the attack from the sudden advent of modernization.
Unlike the optimism of Our Veteran or Our Niu Baisui, The Beach and other Films question modernization. Our Veteran uses coking coal as a means to alleviate poverty and get rich. However, coking is a highly polluting industry. In rural areas, it was difficult to meet the technical standards for coking itself. Moreover, with limited funds, and without supporting efforts at controlling pollution, essentially no environmental protection measures were undertaken. This method of “killing the chicken to get rich” may have been able to produce economic benefits in the short term, but it also turned hometowns into places where poisonous mountains and rivers polluted the lives of future generations. Subsequent social practices have proved that the solutions proposed by Our Veteran are unviable ways to chase profits during the period of primitive accumulation. None of the figures involved in the work, including the characters and the creators, possessed environmental awareness or considerations of sustainable development. This was shortsighted behavior that lacked a scientific concept of development.
However, it is not that Chinese film writers and creators did not have their own thoughts on the issue of modernity or that they did not question the limits of modernization. They did not turn away from these questions during the 1980s. The Beach is one of the few Chinese films from that era that critically reflects on modernization. The film not only is environmentally conscious, but also has a unique perspective in terms of its cultural thinking and is full of advanced ideas, especially in how it questions the validity of enlightenment. The film also raises the question of the development of the legal system. In the face of the reality of traditional folk customs. Xu Yan, played by Liu Wei, is not able either to protect or to change the living conditions of the young girl Xiao Mei. This shows that the seemingly strong, powerful law also has its own dark side of helplessness. The film also depicts the dilemmas that Chinese society was facing. On the one hand, some of the negative aspects of modernization polluted people’s lives. On the other hand, the burden of backward traditional customs had not yet been eliminated. There was a barrier in front, and there were attackers behind. The film asks: where is China going? Is there really no way out?
The visual space of The Beach is fragmented. In one shot, a new satellite city rises behind fishermen using almost primitive methods, forming a stark contrast between two states of existence. New workers visit the city of modem chemical factories, revealing the strength of industrial civilization. The fishermen, on the other hand, place their nets on the beach to catch fish. They look at the rising satellite city and sigh, “there is only 1 li [= 0.5 kilometer] left of the beach, and there are no more fish, so what can we do in the future?” The film then shows the workers dancing in a club, which is deliberately paralleled with images of primitive fishing and hunting on the beach. At this point, the bright space of the club and the dim, windy beach meld together. As for interpersonal spaces, modem heavy industry attracts young people, and they are infected with desires for new lifestyles. However, while outer forms of life are easy to change, inner changes are more difficult. According to Zhang Xuan,
In the film, Xu Yan has ambitions to clean the polluted water, but after suffering several setbacks, he can do little except vent his anger. Like many young men and women in this new civilized era, he hopes to achieve happiness through free love, but pays a bitter price for it. His ultimate happiness is not the gift of life itself, but the artificial arrangements created by the writerdirector. Additionally, we can see in the film that the young workers of the petrochemical city, young men and women who embrace the modem trends of life, are singing on the beach and dancing in the ballroom. In this respect, they are undoubtedly imbued with modem civilization, but the god of love does not favor them.38
The new industrial workers coming from agricultural areas are tom and tormented by both old and new forms of life. The old traditions of the countryside still attempt to shackle the young people who are attracted by new lifestyles and desire to fly far away. Lu Xiaoinei enters the factory as a child of a fishing family. She wants not only to be an industrial worker, but also to be a modem person. She also desires to find the love she has dreamed of. But her father, Lao Manli, wants to marry Lu Xiaomei off to her cousin, Dong Ah-jian. There is no love between Xiaomei and Ah-jian, and. more importantly, she knows that the law does not allow marriage between family members. But her father forces her to give in to his will because, on the beach, tradition and rules are beyond law. As a result, Lu Xiaomei is kicked out of her family for resisting the arranged marriage.
The satellite city is growing, and modem factories are being built but the people in the surrounding area are still living according to their old lifestyles. Lao Manli is still dragging the old nets to catch fish on the beach, but the fish are getting fewer and fewer. He sighs. “Five years after the satellite city was built, we could not even find more than a quarter of a kilo of fish because they don’t come to the shore anymore.” The surrounding environment is changing, along with the social patterns. However, Lao Manli’s heart has not changed. At the time. George S. Semsel reflected:
China is on the verge of completely removing its barriers and implementing an open-door policy. It is at the critical point of finding its proper place in the world. It is breaking the thousand-year-old shackles of antiquated feudal thinking at a rapid pace. Yet, the future is unpredictable and indeed unknowable. China, like tire characters in Teng Wenji’s film, is looking into an imaginary space that Teng does not yet fully understand. Humanity has been developing and getting more mature generation after generation. As we see with the young people in The Beach, people’s understandings of the future are gradually deepening. China’s current position in the world is similar to that of a man on the beach where life begins. He is looking into an indefinable future, into a world that is unseen but imaginable.39