Annotated Bibliography

 

1.      Tobias, Vicki. 2006. "WOMEN IN CHINESE TELEVISION AND FILM." Feminist Collections: A Quarterly of Women's Studies Resources 27, no. 4: 6-8. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2011).

In this article, Vicki Tobias analyzes two different books to portray women n Chinese television and film. Tobias argues that the Chinese film industry is often disregarded and most people see it merely as entertainment; in fact there are a lot more complexity that goes into Chinese cinema than that. The China film industry is complex in the sense of its development and final production; the making of China media is often influenced by national and international politics, nationalism, social issues and economics. Not to mention, there is also the significance of the role of female; how they have significantly evolved to more important roles and storylines. The evolution of the women role in films and televisions occasionally challenge and define the traditional roles of women, the history, national identity, feminism and sexuality.     The first out of the two books she examines is “Women through the lens: gender and nation in a century of Chinese cinema”.  Tobias’ interpretation of this books states that the author presents insights on issues throughout the course of history and image representations of Chinese Women in Chinese cinema in the last century.  The author of the books provides the history of early Chinese cinema, such as silent films to the evolution to the socialist cinema and new cinema. As Tobias describes, Women through the lens shows how women are portrayed and characterized throughout the course of history based on concepts of sexuality and identity. The other book that Tobias examines is Foreign Babes in Beijing. The author of this books talks about her experience and her memoir of living in Beijing and performing in a Chinese soap opera. This book explains how Chinese cinema depicts the Chinese culture and history, alongside the conflicting cultures, stereotypes, gender roles and cross-cultural relations in women in media.

2.      Yunjuan, Luo and Xiaoming, Hao 2009. ”Media Portrayal of Women and Social Change: A Case Study of "Women of China"

Luo and Hao’s cast study of media portrayal of women and social change describes and argues that media socially constructs the gender inequalities, gender norms, gender roles among women. The authors also states that these portrayals of women in media can reflect back into how women are depicted in the social reality. A lot of these ideas come from how television and films portray women with many different stereotypes, such as being playing a passive submissive role. Luo and Hao argues that how women are portrayed in media can also reflect on their social-economic status based of what people see in these types of media; an example the authors gave was how the U.S. women was often given more important roles and a higher working class than the Chinese women, therefore reflects how society view them in reality. The study of women in media and their reflection in society has also been used in the historical past for political purpose when there were massive inequities between men and women. Throughout history, there had been different images of women in media and gradually we can see the change as women also socially changes. For example, Luo and Hao provides us with figures of the percentage of women characters in films has taken place in urban settings and the women also obtain roles in which they are shown as professionals. As time change from the late 1970s to present day, it is visible to see that roles of women are changing for the better, which amplifies their social and economic statuses.

3.      Jinhua, Dai, and Mayfair Yang. 1995. "Invisible Women: Contemporary Chinese Cinema and Women's Film". Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique. 3 (1): 255-80.

In Invisible Women: Contemporary Chinese Cinema and Women’s Film, Dai and Yang argues that even thought China has one of the world’s largest film directors consisting of women, the films, in which reveals the plight of contemporary Chinese women’s culture and its fight for survival in the last forty years of Chinese cinematic history, of those that will be called “women’s films” are very scarce and even to the point where they might be nonexistent.  It is hard to even differentiate if the directors of these films are men or women because there is a sense of bias that woman directors who are successful made themselves up as men. It wasn’t until the 1980s where films about women were developed; these films were made around the subjects of children, women, things that are gentle which were favored topics for women directors. Although these films were made, it did not ascertain a clear gender perspective for the narrating. In the women directors’ attempt to break free the male norm and dominance in the industry; these films were not successful at the time because they were seen as a kind of male culture’s normalizing force expressed through women. Dai and Yang essentially describes how the women in contemporary Chinese cinema seem to be invisible because of the it is so dominated by men and even when a women succeed they are either playing the role of a man or depicted using the Hua Mulan theory that they are stepping in place for the men role; which suppresses a women’s social position and status.

4.      Hemelryk Donald, Stephanie. 2008. "No place for young women: class, gender, and moral hierarchies in contemporary Chinese film." Social Semiotics 18, no. 4: 467-479. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2011).

In her article, Donald discusses the class and gender relationship that occurs in modern China, especially in Beijing. In urban China there is s strong strive and consciousness of the middle class, meanwhile contemporary media does its part in endorsing it. In film, there is also a growing awareness that narratives of everyday experience will and must reflect on the consequences of a market economy for human relationships. Donald also argues that the class is what defines ones identity and the issue of what class ones belongs in. Donald also talks about the middle class and the de-rural of China; and how everyone strive to be recognized as the middle class because that is creates one’s social status. She uses many different films to showcase the gender indifference of social class structure she talks about as a demonstration of how film creates the ideology of the aspects of class, gender and moral hierarchies.

5.      Hung, Kineta, and Stella Yiyan Li. 2006. "Images of the Contemporary Woman in Advertising in China: A Content Analysis." Journal of International Consumer Marketing 19, no. 2: 7-28. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 23, 2011).

Hung and Stella depict the importance of consumerism and what the images of these women mean to them and in society. The portrayal of women in media, especially magazine advertising, a renewed mass medium since the economic reform, reflects the social expectations placed upon them. Also with the great influence from Western cultures, the women in China have a greater desire for self- actualization and a good life of luxury, and pleasure through consumerism. Hung and Stella explains how advertising, mainly with the use of magazines can construct the social definition of what is femininity and can also reinforce the society and one’s own values. It is stated that women’s role and the way they are portrayed has also changes, since the beginning of Confucian traditions to after the Cultural Revolution; where women were not only seen as their relations to men with specific roles to play, but they were also seen as just capable as the men. Given the fact that women’s identity in society is heavily reflected by their portrayal in media and adverting, Hung and Stella categorizes the different types of the way women are portrayed. The authors identify four specific kinds of images: nurturer, strong women, flower vase and urban sophisticate. While each image incorporates features of the homogenized global consumer culture and features reminiscent of traditional Chinese cultural values, the nurturer and flower vase are more traditional, whereas the strong woman and urban sophisticate are more modern.

6.      Hao Xiaoming, and Chen Yanru. 2000. "Film and social change: the Chinese cinema in the reform era". Journal of Popular Film and Television. 28 (1): 36-45.

In this article Hao and Chen discusses in detail about the film industry and the political and social changes that were made to Chinese cinema during and after the reform era. During the Cultural Revolution, most of the films and especially domestic films were banned from China. It was a long process, but Chinese cinema gradually transformed and evolved. Hao and Chen also touches upon the roles of the Chinese actors/actresses and how their roles have also evolved; such as the impact in policy changes and commercialization can be seen through the roles of the main characters in the films. For example, in the early 1990s, there was a visible increase of the divorced housewives portrayed in films which also reflects the reality of that era in society. Hao and Chen argues that changes in the Chinese film industry in the post-Cultural Revolution years can be explained by corresponding fundamental shifts in societal structures brought about by China’s current reforms. In the beginning of the reform, the Communist Party of China wanted to control the production of Chinese cinema, but with the many socio-cultural developments throughout the years of China, China’s film production is shedding its political power and the market reforms are turning it into a commodity. They also argue that Chinese cinema is a form of artistic expressions as well as a political tool. The Communist Party of China is going to slowly lose their tight control over the Chinese cinema and their film production because of social development and the rise of market support.

7.      Yang, Fang-chih Irene. 2007. "Beautiful-and-Bad Woman: Media Feminism and the Politics of Its Construction". Feminist Studies. 33 (2): 361-83.

In Yang’s article “Beautiful-and-Bad Woman: Media Feminism and the Politics of Its Construction, she discusses the images of women in the twenty-first century, via magazines, television and other form of media. She explains the images of the beautiful and bad women that is portrayed through consumerism and the mass consumption of media culture that is influenced by the West; such as popular Western women’s magazine that is now being so profoundly popular in China as well. Some of the international magazine that Yang talks about that influences China are Non-no, Elle, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and Bazaar. Yang argues that image of women are socially constructed by media such as magazines, and depicts women’s identity. Yang also discuss how women image in media is connected to "money, sex, and power" and how women in storylines and novels are always uses a beautiful and sexy woman as the protagonist and describes how she consumes men and name-brand commodities, thus achieving career success. She connects women's power with her consuming practices; this genre subverts the devaluation traditionally attached to women and consumption. Women's skills in consumption become essential resources for her economic success.

8.      Cui, Shuqin. 2003. Women through the lens: gender and nation in a century of Chinese cinema. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press.

In Shuqin Cui’s Women through the lens: gender and nation in a century of Chinese cinema, she brings us through the history of where Chinese cinema started and how women were depicted in each era in the course of China’ development and history. In exploring her book, we can see how women were represented in visual form as China goes through the process of transition, all the concepts within the social, political, and national identity of the women in media. Through Cui’s book we can understand the always changing process of China and the never ending sociocultural transformation of China and the media build within it.

9.      Frith, Katherine Toland, and Kavita Karan. 2008. Commercializing women: images of Asian women in the media. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press.

Commercializing women: images of Asian women in the media discuss the representation of Asian women in media. Frith and Kavita discuss the social and cultural implications that reflect the women in China’s media. As for the women in China, the authors give historical examples from various authors to help explain the global impact to China’s media. Commercializing women: images of Asian women in the media shows the significance of consumerism and how the consumption of various luxurious goods had increasingly grown since the age of commercialism. Through this book, we are able to understand the impact of commercialism, not only at a national level but as global level, and how this affects the images of Chinese and other Asian women in the media.

10.  “Women of China”, accessed March 5, 2011, http://www.womenofchina.cn/html/folder/80-1.htm

Women of China is a website that covers recent news in China about women and their accomplishments.  They strive to unify women in China and for them to take part in China, socially and politically. Through Women of China, women are able to create an atmosphere of their own identity, to represent women through the eyes of women. One of their goals and mission from their site states that they want: To further advocate among women the spirits of self-esteem, self-confidence, self-reliance and self-improvement, and help enhance women's overall competence and development. To promote the implementation of the basic State policy of equality between women and men. Besides the abundant of information available through their website, Women of China also own a magazine publication in which the image of contemporary women in China are presented.