Goddess
Name three objects that highlight gender stereotypes in the film.
Dresses, hats, cosmetics, and/or cigarettes.
The film begins through Wei Ming's perspective. At what point does it change?
The perspective changes when she attempts suicide.
What are red guards and how did they represent a deviation from “typical” female behavior?
- The Red Guard group was formed and supported by the Communist Party. They were teenage girls who led targeted attacks against traditionalists (i.e. school teachers and other leaders).
- Behavior more aggressive and violent than “typical” female behavior
The film tells a story of the conflict between the City and the Countryside. How do Miss Lim and Teh-en embody this conflict?
Teh-en: symbolizes the threat that Western influences poses to traditional Chinese culture.
Miss Lim: symbolizes Chinese tradition, and its pure and sacred past.
How did the director portray atypical gender roles in the film?
Men were subordinate to women.
Who was depicted as the male savior at the end of the film?
The school Principal.
After Ruan Lingyu’s suicide, the media portrayed her differently. Explain this shift.
Before her death, the media negatively portrayed Ruan for being too modern. Afterward, they depicted her as having been weak and helpless, and proper for committing suicide in keeping with tradition.
Describe the new fashion style that was introduced during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76)
Neutral style → more masculine
Wear hats (cut hair short, tucked into hat), leather belt
no dresses, skirts, etc.
What genre was created in response to the failures of the May Fourth Movement?
The mandarin duck and butterfly genre
What was the movement that Paul Pickowicz described as one where people did not know what they wanted, they only knew what they did not want?
Post-socialism
There are two relevant definitions to the film title “Goddess.” What are they?
Prostitute & supernatural female
What is a necessary requirement for avoiding Lu Xun's notion of Chinese Nora?
financial independence
What behavior was seen as the precursor to female violence?
swearing
Women’s liberation was a central theme during the May Fourth Movement. What were two advancements that came out of this movement?
Modern education
Freedom of love and marriage
The phallic woman
Name the two classes of prostitutes. Which one was the Goddess?
streetwalkers and courtesans. The Goddess was a streetwalker.
A symbolically saturated moment of the film is when Li Aying leads a force of workwomen to march and chant, trampling a newspaper about Wei Ming. What trend does this represent in the evolution of China’s liberation movements?
This moment represents the supersession of individual women’s roles for the class struggle.
During the cultural revolution, why were feminist issues rejected?
Feminist issues were seen as “bourgeois,” → interests of the social middle class
Pickowicz claimed that the film, Peach Girl, is, “undistinguished from an artist’s point of view.” Name two of Pickowicz critiques of Peach Girl?
Poorly developed, naive, and simple
Distorted narration
Did not offer a new vision of the future for the audience.
What does the difference in Hu Yuyin and Li Guoxiang’s marital status imply about the role of women in socialism?
Unmarried women are seen as untamed and therefore to blame for socialism’s problems
How is the archetype "fallen woman" portrayed in Goddess?
The Goddess is portrayed as a sexually transgressive and suffering woman. As an unmarried prostitute, she crosses societal boundaries surrounding female sexuality and those consequences are emphasized throughout the film.
At the time of New Woman’s release, Wei Ming was a controversial character. Describe the nature of the debate surrounding her validity as a New Woman.
Wei Ming sprouted controversy because she was seen as simultaneously too ‘new’ and not ‘new’ enough to be a New Woman. On the former, she was enterprising in trying to sell her book; on the latter, her suicide attempt was disappointing to those who viewed female violence as a barbarity of the established tradition.
In the film The Red Detachment of Women (1960), what is an example of how the female protagonist rejected femininity?
Romantic relationship is not as important as dedication to the party
“Married” to the communist party instead of a man
The underlying theme in the film Peach Girl, “spiritual pollution,” is that the intrusion of Western culture poses the most fundamental threat to China. Define “spiritual pollution.”
Spiritual pollution refers to the “uncleanness” or “defilement” of man’s spiritual nature. It is a pollution of the spiritual, not physical aspect of a man, referring to the contamination of a man’s heart. It is the corruption of morality and the spirituality of man.
How do ideas surrounding “self,” a focus in the melodrama genre, differ in Chinese vs. Western melodrama?
The self in Chinese film is viewed as a social function, as opposed to an individual with rights, moral autonomy, and privacy