Imagined nation and imagined womanhood in the Shaw Brothers' musicals
type: CreativeWork
description: My dissertation looks at Shaw Brothers’ historical epics and huangmei musicals that dominated the Chinese film market in the 1960s. Shaw Brothers’ historical epics and huangmei musicals often center on female characters. Sometimes the male protagonist is cross-dressed by actresses. Hence they are categorized as the female genre or the feminine genre. The female genre was pervasive not only in Hong Kong, but also in diasporic Chinese film markets including Taiwan (Republic of China), Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and North America. In this genre, the female characters are prominent. Although stories of the female genre take place in historical Chinese that is understood as a patriarchal society, in movies of the female genre, women are depicted to be powerful. My dissertation looks at the female genre from different aspects. I contend that the female genre is a product of its social-historical juncture of the 1960s. On the one hand, the genre reflects the Cold War atmosphere between Mainland China (People’s Republic of China) and Taiwan (ROC). The female characters are embodiment of an imagined nation to the Chinese diasporic audiences. On the other hand, the genre reflects social changes of Hong Kong after World War II. The female characters symbolize modern women who were gradually getting autonomous under social transition. However, though the female genre portrays prominent and autonomous women, I argue that these are after all imaginations because women in the feminine genre eventually have to be incorporated and disciplined under patriarchy. My dissertation consists of four core chapters. Chapter one looks at the matriarch as an embodiment of the imagined nation China for the diasporic audiences. I argue that in the female genre, the image of homeland is gendered female. The matriarch symbolizes the motherland that is in danger and mobilizes the audiences to be loyal subjects of the imagined nation China. In chapter two I investigate gender in terms of two lev…
abstract: My dissertation looks at Shaw Brothers’ historical epics and huangmei musicals that dominated the Chinese film market in the 1960s. Shaw Brothers’ historical epics and huangmei musicals often center on female characters. Sometimes the male protagonist is cross-dressed by actresses. Hence they are categorized as the female genre or the feminine genre. The female genre was pervasive not only in Hong Kong, but also in diasporic Chinese film markets including Taiwan (Republic of China), Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and North America. In this genre, the female characters are prominent. Although stories of the female genre take place in historical Chinese that is understood as a patriarchal society, in movies of the female genre, women are depicted to be powerful. My dissertation looks at the female genre from different aspects. I contend that the female genre is a product of its social-historical juncture of the 1960s. On the one hand, the genre reflects the Cold War atmosphere between Mainland China (People’s Republic of China) and Taiwan (ROC). The female characters are embodiment of an imagined nation to the Chinese diasporic audiences. On the other hand, the genre reflects social changes of Hong Kong after World War II. The female characters symbolize modern women who were gradually getting autonomous under social transition. However, though the female genre portrays prominent and autonomous women, I argue that these are after all imaginations because women in the feminine genre eventually have to be incorporated and disciplined under patriarchy. My dissertation consists of four core chapters. Chapter one looks at the matriarch as an embodiment of the imagined nation China for the diasporic audiences. I argue that in the female genre, the image of homeland is gendered female. The matriarch symbolizes the motherland that is in danger and mobilizes the audiences to be loyal subjects of the imagined nation China. In chapter two I investigate gender in terms of two lev…
author: Chiang, I-In
language: en
keywords: The Shaw Brothers, Historical epics, Huangmei films, Nation and Gender, Imagined China, The matriarch, Chinese femme fatale
date published: 2017-03-01T17:01:58Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:26:37Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/95606