Anna Moore and Dr. Steven Riep, Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages
Introduction
After thirty-two years of Communist leadership, Chinese poverty levels reached an unprecedented high when in 1981, 85% of the People’s Republic of China lived in poverty1. In 2009, however, a report from the World Bank indicated that a mere 11.9% of China’s population fell below the poverty line.2 As poverty rates in China have fluctuated dramatically over the last sixty years, cultural, political, and societal perceptions of poverty have also changed. The current study analyzes perceptions of poverty, attributions for poverty, and solutions to poverty as depicted in Chinese cinema.
While the poor have traditionally been viewed as social outcasts or pitiable victims, Mao Zedong’s revolutionary ideals glorified poor peasants precisely because they were poor, and thus, untainted by capitalism and best suited for carrying out a communist revolution. Essentially, Chairman Mao gave the poor a valuable place in society. As the Communist Party of China rose in prominence, those living in poverty gained social standing, a trend which is observed in films released during Chairman Mao’s reign.
Methods
This study was based on the content of twelve films that feature main characters living in poverty. These films include: Twin Sisters (1934), The Goddess (1934), Street Angel (1937), An Orphan on the Streets (1949), The White-Haired Girl (1950), Gate Number Six ( 1952), The Red Detachment of Women (1961), Sparkling Red Star (1972), Rickshaw Boy (1983), Yellow Earth (1984), Not One Less (1999), and Together (2002).
For the purposes of this paper, each film was classified into one of four time periods, with the start and end of each time period determined by significant political events. The four periods are: 1) Early films, released before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, 2) Liberation-era films, released in 1949 and 1950 right around the time of the Communist Liberation, 3) Mao-era films, released after Liberation and before Mao’s death and the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, and 4) Modern films, released after 1976 through the present day. In each of these four categories, depictions of poverty were analyzed in terms of narrative elements such as plot, script, and characterization, as well as structural elements such as lighting, camera angles, editing, and acting. The study identified patterns of specific attitudes towards poverty in each time period, paying special attention to the interplay between politics and attributions for poverty.
Results
Viewing Chinese films with this purpose in mind revealed several significant trends in perceptions of poverty. Primarily, more traditional depictions of poverty, including victimizing and martyrizing the poor, attributing poverty to bad fate, and portraying poverty as an inescapable cycle, appeared to varying degrees in each the predetermined time periods. To illustrate, Twin Sisters (1934) explains socioeconomic status as a result of fate, Gate Number Six (1952) describes poverty as a vicious cycle, and Yellow Earth (1984) attributes poverty to a lack of opportunity.
Although Chinese cinema generally portrays multiple explanations for and attitudes towards poverty, the films produced between the founding of the PRC in 1949 and Chairman Mao’s death in 1976 mainly attributed poverty to exploitation of the poor. In Liberation-era and Mao-era films like The White-Haired Girl (1950) and Gate Number Six (1952), respectively, protagonists were poor members of the working class and villains were wealthy, corrupt landlords. The final resolutions to conflicts in these films came through peasants uniting under communism, which was depicted as the only way to truly escape poverty and its associated suffering.
It is interesting to note that regardless of release date, none of the films viewed in this study portrayed poverty as a result of individual problems, an attribution for poverty identified in Daniel Shek’s Chinese Perceived Causes of Poverty Scale along with exploitation, fate, and lack of opportunity.3 Film characters living in poverty were widely victimized by external factors; even characters in high-tide communist films were pitied and martyred before they were liberated.
Discussion
The results of this study indicate that there is, in fact, a correlation between cinematic depictions of poverty and Mao Zedong Thought. During the height of Chairman Mao’s power, Chinese films focused on glorifying and liberating those living in poverty, while attributing their suffering to cruel exploitation. After Mao died and the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, films returned to depicting the various causes and solutions to poverty found in the earliest of Chinese films. Although further study is required to verify that this trend is the result of a change in public opinion rather than the sole product of government censorship, it is clear that filmic depictions of poverty varied with the rise and fall of Mao Zedong.
Additionally, the observation that these films all attributed poverty to external sources, rather than internal or individual deficiencies, affirms China’s collectivist culture. Individualist cultures, including many Western cultures, tend to trace poverty to personal flaws like laziness and frivolity. However, Chinese cinema reveals that despite the dramatic political and economic upheavals of the past century, the culture, as a whole, has remained devoted to group-oriented explanations and solutions for poverty.
References
- Shah, A. (2011, November 12). Global Issues. Retrieved June 27, 2013, from Poverty Around The World: http://www.globalissues.org/article/4/poverty-around-the-world#WorldBanksPovertyEstimatesRevised
- The World Bank Group. (2013). Poverty and Equity. Retrieved June 2013, 25, from The World Bank : http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/country/CHN
- Shek, D. T. (2002). Chinese Adolescents’ Explanations of Poverty: The Perceived Causes of Poverty Scale.
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