Film as a Research Source
Christopher Reinert
2013-05-11 00:00:00

This limitations allow us to focus our attention on a specific sensory input and prevent us from processing irrelevant stimuli. In turn, we are able to maintain a stable, but dynamic, mental representation of our body that is not rewritten every time we sit down.

Film can fill a similar role as our innate sensory limitations. As an artistic medium, it only captures brief slices of information that the filmmaker was pointing the camera at, allowing the viewer to focus on intentionally and unintentionally preserved details. Some details, like living conditions or social relations, are intentionally captured by the filmmaker. In capturing the intentional details, filmmakers inadvertently capture representations of body image. Body image is inadvertently captured in films because unless attention is focused on the concept, it is treated as a topic that no one needs to establish.

While reviewing my notes, I realized that body image is a very open ending topic. I have decided to write on three subsets of body image and use different sections to addresses a different exploration of body image and how it relates to film as research source. The Ascetic Body focuses on how films like Starkers and Dream in Pink present the body in different social spaces and determine the social rules of the body. The Gendered Body focuses on the female body as a metaphor for China. The Body Then and Now examines changes cinematic representations of the body by presenting a cross generational examination of the how the body is presented.

The Ascetic Body

An important lesson from social psychology is that different social situations are governed by different social rules. An acceptable behavior in one situation is abhorrent in another. If any conclusions can be drawn from films like Starkers and Dream in Pink it is that the Chinese are not afraid, and have never been afraid, of displaying their bodies on the silver screen. We can use film as a research source to explore the spaces where the body is presented in an unexpected and how quantify reactions to it.

Nudity is not immediately conflated with sexuality nor is being fully clothed a sign of modesty in either of these films. The documentary Starkers is proof of this. As implied by the title, nudity and social reaction to nudes are reoccurring themes throughout the film. The main subject of the documentary, a performance artist and male model, confronts unsuspecting individuals in public spaces with nude performance art. Onlookers are shocked, confused and astounded when confronted with male nudity in a situation, on a train or by a bridge, they do not expect it in.

Individual’s reactions in these situations are not diagnostic of a culture’s reaction to nudity. People are reacting to the situation the nudity is presented in and not the nudity itself. In an artistic venue, presenting a nude body is acceptable, encouraged and expected. In the scenes in art studios, where male and female bodies are painted and photographed, onlookers show no surprise when a nude model enters. This is contrasted to the opening sequence, when the man is performing by the bridge and parents are pulling their children away from the situation. This scene could repeat itself in other cultures and all that would change would be the language being spoken.

While Starkers is shocking, it succeeds in forcing the viewing audience to participate in an unplanned discussion about the body. When presented with the body in unexpected situations, what is the proper response? The audience knows how to respond when the body presented in an expected situation, like an art gallery, but unexpected social situations result in a loss of social script. The reactions of commuters on the train on the train are evidenced of this. People are shocked and confused about is happening in front of them.

Dream in Pink presents the body in a different manner. The lead male character, Lou Wen, is always seen on screen clothed. The two female characters, Sun Yu and Li Huilan, represent the rural and urban bodies respectively. While Starkers is best defined as unsubtle and confrontational when its comes to the body, Dream relies on subtly uses different spaces to conflate urban and rural bodies.

Zhang Zhen, in an Amorous History of the Silver Screen, discusses the differences between Li Huilan and SunYu in greater detail. She argues that Li Huilan represents the “‘worldly and seductive’ modern girl” (Zhen 259). I disagree with this interpretation of the Li Huilan’s character and the broader implications of the argument. I agree that Li Huilan is centered in urban space and Sun Yu is centered more in rural spaces. My argument is that both Li Huilan and Sun Yu represent a different facet of modernity. Singling out Li Huilan as the modern girl implies that this was the only interpretation of modernity.

The spaces both women are associated with provide the audience with an unconventional means to explore the rules of modernity. The urban space is associated with decadence, vice and corrupting influences. Li Huilan is dresses, moves and acts in ways that reflect these themes. Sun Yu starts in the urban space, but is exiled to the country side becoming the representation of rural bodies. She is shown in a simple, austere qipao.

Contemporary critics were not pleased with either female character or the film itself. Li Huilan was “underdeveloped but already morally bankrupt” to quote the critic Li Su (Zhen 260). Li Su also considered Sun Yu a “feudal” character. Other critics lamented that the director spent too much time focusing on beautiful things, like women’s or clothes, over character building shots. Critical responses show that debates on the definition of the ‘modern woman’ was something that audiences wanted to see.

I chose to talk about Starkers and Dream in Pink because both films represent different explorations of the social rules regulating the body by examining the body in different spaces. The characters in Dream in Pink confront the audience with representations of urban and rural bodies. Each space has it own social rules that govern behavior. Starkers confronts the audience and public with questions about social norms. Why is a behavior acceptable in one space but not in another?

The Gendered Body

While watching these films, I found myself commenting on what the characters on screen were supposed to represent. In the films I have seen, male characters are relegated to secondary or supporting roles in the film’s plot. Female characters are given critical roles in the plot and more often then not are responsible for carrying the weight of nationalism. The use of the female body as a national vehicle allowed screenwriters to explore competing definitions of the ‘modern woman.’

At a fundamental level, male and female characters in these films represent a synthesis of Chinese stage traditions and Hollywood screenwriting. The body language and acting techniques used were carried over from Chinese stage traditions, which emphasized physical expressions. American and Europeans films also show the influence of their respective culture’s stage traditions. Chinese films were also influenced by foreign cinema, giving new Chinese screenwriters new character models.

The extent of foreign influence on Chinese screenwriters is hard to quantify. Certain characters archetypes, like the screen vamp, were adapted to Chinese cinema from American films of the silent period. The first known instance of the screen vamp in Chinese cinema, Li Huilan from Dream in Pink, is strongly associated with the dance hall culture that pervaded Shanghai in the 1930’s. This character is unique because she is the first Chinese screen vamp, a character model that was not present until Dream was released. Li Huilan does provide screenwriters with an avenue to explore how people relate to an industrialized, modern city.

While the screen vamp archetype was copied from Hollywood films, Chinese screenwriters during the silent period placed the brunt of national pride on female shoulders. These screenwriters were reinventing an old character archetype and not creating a new one. The archetype of the patriotic female in Chinese literary tradition can be traced back to the legend of Mulan. The screenwriters were drawing on established archetype on when writing patriotic female characters.

This leads to the question of why Chinese screenwriters placed the emphases of nationalism on the shoulders of a woman? I find this a misleading question as it could easily be rephrased to why did screenwriters from other cultures place nationalism on the shoulders of men. One possible explanation is that screenwriters from a given culture, China for instance, are drawing inspiration from culturally specific archetypes.

I find this explanation to be sufficient but hardly satisfactory. The explanation I prefer is that the Silent Era screenwriters were using female characters as a means to explore different definitions of the ‘modern woman.’ This explains why we see a wide and diverse range of female characters compared to a limited selection of male characters. Even within the patriotic female archetype, there was space to explore competing expressions of nationalism.

Sun Yu, the first explicit representation of the patriotic female archetype, expresses national pride in broad terms. We know she loves China and is patriotic, but we never see her motivation for doing so. In Small Toys, Li Lili and Ruan Lingyu also bear the weight of nationalism, but express it differently. Ruan Lingyu expresses what I would term peasant or rural nationalism. She cares for her country men and is an unofficial community leader Li Lili represents a younger, more urban form of nationalism. She is perky, athletic and willing to volunteer for military service. None of the films condemn any one form of nationalism in favor of another. All forms are valid.

The number of archetypes available for male characters is limited in comparison. I attribute this to the centering of female characters in film narrative. A simplistic explanation is that the narratives do not focus on men. I prefer the explanation that screenwriters were using female characters to explore modernity, because the social rules for the so called ‘modern man’ were better understood. The logic of this explanation is that screenwriters decentralized male characters to give female characters more space to explore their modernity.

Films like Dream in Pink or Small Toys help historians understand how a culture explored modern identities. The centralization of female characters allowed screenwriters to place women in situations where modernity could be expressed and defined. Different forms of modernity, especially ideas of national identity, could be explored on screen using female characters. Female characters were centralized to because the definition of the ‘modern female’ was unclear. Male characters were regulated to minor or supporting roles because the definition of the ‘modern male’ was socially understood.

The Body Then and Now

One advantage of using film as a historical source to study body image is that it is a visual medium. Excluding special effects and complex makeup, the audience sees an unaltered human body on screen. What sets film apart from photography is that film captures motions and subtle movements that a static photography misses. By comparing films from different periods, a historian can follow changes in what the body represents from one period to another. This comparison allows historians to understand the filmmaker’s relation to an idea.

While watching films like The Goddess or Dream in Pink, I found myself wondering why the filmmaker chose to film the lead females in a certain way and if there was any symbolic meaning to this. As mentioned in the Gendered Body, representations of the female body were influenced to some unknown degree by international trends. The vamp, Li Huilan, in Dream in Pink looks like a vamp from a Hollywood film at the time. The question is not why were female characters written according to trends, but are they symbolic of something more?

I submit that female characters in Silent Era films represent different permutations of the concept of the ‘modern woman.’ Depending on the film, the lead female will highlight a different facet of modernity. This framework assumes that filmmakers were acknowledging that there was no concrete definition or example of the ‘modern woman.’ It implies that they collectively, intentionally or not, agreed on certain common traits that define the ‘modern woman.’

This idea for the permutation of the ‘modern woman’ came after I viewed Dream in Pink. The two female characters, the vamp Li Huilan and the virtuous wife Sun Yu are representative of different combinations of basic traits of related to modernity. As such, these characters are not mutually exclusive. If we accept that both characters share common traits, the corollary is that we must accept that multiple forms of modernity can exist. Neither character can exclusively claim the mantel of the ‘modern woman.’

While thinking about permutations, I wondered what these women were supposed to represent. Sun Yu’s character is obviously cast as the patriotic, virtuous and self-sacrificing spouse. She is portrayed in the dual roles of teacher and mother. The audience is meant to sympathize with her because she is the patriotic one. Li Huilan is portrayed as the stereotypic socialite, bouncing from party to party. I would argue she is meant to represent a different, less virtuous aspect of modernity.

As mentioned earlier, the characters who carry the burden of national pride and identity in these early films are characters like Sun Yu. They are educated, patriotic and have the ability to influence others around them to work for a common goal. Sun Yu, unlike later female characters, represents a more elemental form of nationalism. Later films form the silent period portray more nuanced and varied interpretations of female nationalism. If Sun Yu is the patriot, Li Huilan is the image of glamour and urban modernity. Her character focuses on her body and social standing rather than issues of national pride. This reflects another aspect of the ‘modern woman’ that silent films explored; what avenues of expression have been opened form women following modernization?

According to the permutation theory, one cannot say that only Sun Yu can exist but not Li Huilan. Both women share certain traits, such as intelligence, but manifest these traits in a different ways. One permutation may be more frequent depending on the social environment, but that does not mean that only one permutation can exist.

I would say this theory is echoed in recent films as well, implying that the definition of the ‘modern woman’ is still uncertain. Ai’ying, the main female character from A Winter’s Tale, is a migrant, who works as a prostitute, from Northern China who pretends to be from Shanghai to impress customers. She represents a less glamourous incarnation of the ‘’modern woman’.’ We can see her as representative of a class of people who have been marginalized by modernization. If Li Huilan is representative of the glamourous result of modernization, Ai’ying is the opposite.

One noticeable change in the representation of the body is the shift from sensational representations to visceral, grim representations. This change is attributable in part to larger filmmaking trends. A Chinese film from the 1930’s has similar ascetics to an American film from the same period. Technology also plays a role in the change of representation. The cost of cameras had dropped, making them affordable to a wider audience. Technological and cultural changes only answer part of the question.

I attribute the shift in representations of the body as a reflection of the filmmaker’s relationship to modernity. Silent films are artifacts of a period when cultures worldwide were wrestling with the question of how they should embrace modernity. In an effort to explore the definition of modernity, screenwriters created new archetypes or reinvented old ones. Modern films have a different relationship with modernity. Contemporary filmmakers are engaged in explorations of the consequences of modernity.

Conclusion

I draw several conclusions from these films. Despite changes in technology, Silent Era and Contemporary filmmakers are addressing the same questions about the body. Silent Era filmmakers were concerned with the differences between urban and rural spaces, exploring the spaces that modern women occupy and permutations of modernity are acceptable. These themes are echoed in contemporary films but emphasis is placed on the body’s relationship with modernity and the mapping social rules.

References

Cai, Chusheng, dir. Fehongse de Meng (Dream in Pink)粉红色的梦 . Linhau, 1932.

Sun, Yu, dir. Xiao Wanyi (Small Toys) 小玩意, Linhua, 1933.

Wu, Yonggang, Shennü (The Goddess) 神女, Linhua 1934.

Zhang, Zhen, An Amorous History of the Silver Screen, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Zhu, Chuanming, dir. Dongtian de Gushi (Winter Story) 冬天的故事 , 2007.