Her Self-identity in Woman-Demon-Human (1987)

Abstract

As being reviewed as the first real feminist film in China mainland, Woman-Demon-Human, was screen-written and directed by Huang Shuqin in 1987. It told a grow-up story of the main character, Qiu Yun, based on the true story of the famous Chinese local opera actress, Pei Yanling, whose struggling on the path of being a successful opera actress as well as a normal woman being influenced by the deep-rooted traditional Chinese Confucianism philosophy and Chinese patriarchal discourse. <br>Chinese studies scholars believe that attitudes towards Western theories from hostility to welcome changed since the late 1970s. In this film, the process of the achievement of the self-identity of the protagonist was displayed through the combination of Western film art with Eastern opera art by the female director. This essay decoded the cinematic language in the film used to interpret the tortuous journeys of the protagonist both on the path of her opera career and personal self-identity. At the same time, for feminist researchers, it showed more comprehensively the development of Chinese feminism in the 1980s.