Introducing: Women in Cinema

" …These women refused to be victims of their circumstances. Chinese women are presented as being in full control of their actions, their desires, and their thoughts.” - La Frances Hui, Film Curator, Asia Society

Female representation in Chinese cinema has drastically changed throughout different eras of cinema. From the early communist era, the films produced during the Cultural Revolution, the artistic Fifth Generation films and dGeneration films, female representation, depiction, and their roles in society have been strikingly different.

This series explores how women are represented in three films from three different generations. We feature, Zhang Yimou’s “To Live” (1994; Fifth Generation), Jia Zhangke’s “The World” (2004; Sixth Generation), and Ying Ling’s “The Other Half” (2006; Generation Independent Movement). These films have been chosen specifically due to their female protagonists. While we introduce and assess how female protagonists are represented in cinema, we understand these films are not representative of the vast corpus of Chinese Cinema. They are only offered as a point of reference.

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