Abstract
Peng Xiaolian is a rare and prolific Chinese author who writes both fiction and non-fiction works and directs both dramatic and documentary films. To really understand Peng as a film auteur, however, it is necessary to look at her films and writings together. Given the quantity and complexity of her works and the space limitations of this article, this chapter examines Peng’s subversion of the conventional treatment of character, location, and time in three thematic sections reflecting the key narrative motifs in her work. This chapter first summarizes existing studies of Peng’s films, highlighting the rarely examined interaction between visuality and spatiality in her films. Then, after defining her sense of time in the narrative, this chapter demonstrates how family history and self-reflexivity are the major difference between her films and her nonfiction works. Last but not least, this chapter discusses how, through her use of multilayered narratives constructed by the female voice and subjectivity, her complete repertoire constitutes a unique history of modern Chinese women.
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Notes
- 1.
Research done for this article is partially supported by GRF (Project Number 101116) awarded to the author by Hong Kong government. I thank Peng Xiaolian for four long interviews conducted in 2005, 2014, 2016, and 2018 respectively, as well as numerous conversations on her filmmaking, life experience, and writing process. The titles of Peng’s films used in this article are the official English titles upon their release. An earlier version of this article appears in Frontiers of Literary Studies in China 11:1 (2017), 157–179.
- 2.
The “Anti-Hu Feng Counterrevolutionary Clique” campaign began on May 13, 1955, when Shu Wu’s long article denouncing Hu Feng was published in People’s Daily with an editorial penned by Mao himself. Hu Feng’s main crime was that his literary theory, which emphasizes on a writer’s individual life experience as the main creative source, was seen as against Mao’s Talks at the Yenan Forum that calls upon writers and artists to serve politics. During the campaign that run from May 1955 to mid-1956, all writers were called to denounce Hu Feng and many did. The Hu Feng case directly involved more than 2100 intellectuals, most of whom were affected for more than twenty years. 93 associates of Hu Feng were arrested and imprisoned from one to 12 years, depending on each individual’s situation. This case is now widely known as PRC’s largest literary persecution.
References
Filmography of Peng Xiaolian
1985. Director, feature film Wo he wo de tongxuemen 我和我的同学们 [My Classmates and Me]. Shanghai Film Studio.
1988. Director and co-writer, feature film Nüren de gushi 女人的故事 [Women’s Story]. Shanghai Film Studio.
1997. Director, feature film Quan sha 犬杀 [A Dog to Kill]. Shanghai Film Studio.
1999. Director, feature film Shanghai jishi 上海纪事 [Once upon a Time in Shanghai]. Shanghai Film Studio.
2000. Codirector and co-writer with Hu Yihong, feature film Keke de mosan 可可的魔伞 [Magic Umbrella]. Shanghai Animated Film Studio.
2001. Codirector with Ogawa Shinsuke, documentary Manzan benigaki [Red Persimmon]. Ogawa Productions.
2002. Director and co-writer with Xu Minxia, feature film Jiazhuang mei ganjue 假装没感觉 [Shanghai Women]. Shanghai Film Group.
2004. Director and co-writer, feature film Meili Shanghai 美丽上海 [Shanghai Story]. Tompson Films and Shanghai Film Group.
2006. Director and writer, feature film Shanghai lunba 上海伦巴 [Shanghai Rumba]. Shanghai Film Group.
2007. Director and writer, feature film Wo jianqiang de xiaochuan 我坚强的小船 [Shanghai Kids]. Shanghai Film Group.
2009. Codirector and co-writer with S. Louisa Wei, documentary Hongri fengbao 红日风暴 [Storm Under the Sun]. IDFA & Blue Queen Cultural Communication.
2017. Director and writer, feature film Qing Ni Jide Wo 請你記得我 [Please Remember Me].
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Wei, S.L. (2019). Female Subjectivity on and off the Screen: The Rare Case of Writer–Director Peng Xiaolian. In: Cai, S. (eds) Female Celebrities in Contemporary Chinese Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5980-4_5
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