Farewell My Concubine
Midterm Paper
Gender in Modern China
Farewell My Concubine
Farewell My Concubine by Chen Kaige (1993) is amongst the few great Chinese films that have rarely made its way to Western audiences. Farewell my concubine has been acclaimed by Western critics and received many awards from various critics’ organizations. This film marks and is a direct representation in a shift in artistic opportunities in with in many artistic mediums with in China. Farewell My Concubine gives an opportunity for Westerners to gain a cultural and social structure that exists inside China today. From the film viewers can gain an appreciation of the current state of Chinese filmmaking and grasp the measure of success in which they have achieved over the past decade. Additionally, the film also serves as a vehicle in which through the film, you are a spectator gaining a view from a new window to which the scenery of the humanity and sociological issues we all are subject to can be seen from a different view point.
The story of the film covers a long period in Chinese history. The film begins with a prologue in which two of the main characters are preparing for a farewell performance of their best theatrical vehicle, a piece called "Farewell My Concubine." They are stage performers in the Beijing Opera, and much of the spectacle in the film derives from the way the opera in China is conducted, with characters wearing theatrical masks and huge headdresses, and with the swirling yellow curtains that serve as a backdrop to the performers. The farewell performance just noted is taking place in 1977, and the film then shifts to the 1920s when these two characters are children in the streets of Beijing, a period of great turmoil, with rioting in the streets, warlords attempting to assert their power, Western forces attempting to exploit the Chinese for their goods, and tension among social classes everywhere. The theatrical troupe who the main characters are apart in their youth is harassed
Gender in Modern China
Farewell My Concubine
Farewell My Concubine by Chen Kaige (1993) is amongst the few great Chinese films that have rarely made its way to Western audiences. Farewell my concubine has been acclaimed by Western critics and received many awards from various critics’ organizations. This film marks and is a direct representation in a shift in artistic opportunities in with in many artistic mediums with in China. Farewell My Concubine gives an opportunity for Westerners to gain a cultural and social structure that exists inside China today. From the film viewers can gain an appreciation of the current state of Chinese filmmaking and grasp the measure of success in which they have achieved over the past decade. Additionally, the film also serves as a vehicle in which through the film, you are a spectator gaining a view from a new window to which the scenery of the humanity and sociological issues we all are subject to can be seen from a different view point.
The story of the film covers a long period in Chinese history. The film begins with a prologue in which two of the main characters are preparing for a farewell performance of their best theatrical vehicle, a piece called "Farewell My Concubine." They are stage performers in the Beijing Opera, and much of the spectacle in the film derives from the way the opera in China is conducted, with characters wearing theatrical masks and huge headdresses, and with the swirling yellow curtains that serve as a backdrop to the performers. The farewell performance just noted is taking place in 1977, and the film then shifts to the 1920s when these two characters are children in the streets of Beijing, a period of great turmoil, with rioting in the streets, warlords attempting to assert their power, Western forces attempting to exploit the Chinese for their goods, and tension among social classes everywhere. The theatrical troupe who the main characters are apart in their youth is harassed
Cited: Chen, Kaige, dir. Farewell My Concubine. Miramax, 1993. Film. Kwok Wah Lau, Jenny. ""Farewell My Concubine": History, Melodrama, and Ideology in Contemporary Pan-Chinese Cinema." Film Quarterly. Autumn 1995: 16-27. Print. Lee, Lillian. "Lillian Lee." BOMB. Fall 1992: 16-18. Print. Chen, Pauline. "History Lessons." Film Comment. MAR 1994: 85-87. Print. Alleve, Richard. "Behind the Red Curtain." Commonweal (December 3, 1993), 15-17. Rafferty, Terrence. "Blind Faith." the New Yorker (October 11, 1993), 121-124.