Week 4: Women, War, and Animated Film

Daisy Yan Du
Assistant Professor Division of Humanities Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Ambiguity

Ambiguity

History of Chinese Animation

* Fathers of Chinese Animation
* Wan Laiming (1899-1997) * Wan Guchan (1899-1995) * Wan Chaochen (1906-1992) * Wan Dihuan (1907-present).

History of Chinese Animation

* Development
*Su Zhendongs Chinese Typewriter, 1922 an advertisement for Shanghai Commercial Press * Uproar in an Art Studio, 1926 the first animated short in China * 1932-1937: Lianhua and Mingxing Studios patriotic/resistance animated shorts eg. Resistance, The Painful Story of a Nation

History of Chinese Animation

* Shanghai Film Industry in 1937

* Anti-Japanese War: July 7, 1937

* Mingxing burned

* Lianhua bombed * Tianyi/Shaw Brothers relocated to Hong Kong * Wan Brothers went to the Hinterland Chongqing (wartime capital): resistance films

History of Chinese Animation

* Wartime Shanghai Film Industry (1937-1945)

* Zhang Shankun * Xinhua/Huaxin/Huacheng Film Studio 1938 * Lianhe Film Studio 1940 * Kawakita Nagamasa * China Movie Company

History of Chinese Animation

* Wartime Shanghai Film Industry (1937-1945)

* Zhang Shankun * Kawakita (Shanghai) & GMD (Chongqing) Pro-Japanese? Anti-Japanese? * Entertainment Strategy Past Romance Non-political? Escapist?

History of Chinese Animation

* Wartime Shanghai Film Industry (1937-1945)

* Zhang Shankun * double arrest (Japanese & GMD) * Ambiguity of Entertainment collaboration & resistance either or? neither nor? both and? * no clear-cut boundary: gray area, spectrum

History of Chinese Animation

* Wartime Shanghai Film Industry (1937-1945)

* Zhang Shankun * Wan Brothers returned to Shanghai in 1939 * Princess Iron Fan, 1941 * the first animated feature film in China/Asia * Snow White, Disney, Shanghai, 1938

Princess Iron Fan, 1941

* Women and Wartime Nationalism

* wartime nationalism: masculine, violence, soldiers, patriotism, clear-cut national boundary friend or enemy, life or death * co-opting women into wartime nationalism * Hua Mulan, virgin warrior * patriotic prostitutes eg. The Flowers of War, Zhang Yimou, 2011

Princess Iron Fan, 1941

* Women and Wartime Nationalism

* womens discontents eg. As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. Virginia Woolf, Britain, 1938 eg. Eileen Changs wartime writings

Princess Iron Fan, 1941

* Women and Wartime Nationalism

* womens discontents eg. Li Xianglan (aka Shirley/Yoshiko Yamaguchi) China Nights (1940)

Princess Iron Fan, 1941

* Women in Princess Iron Fan

* Princess Iron Fan as a resistance film? anti-Japanese? pro-Japanese? * the two womens roles? Princess Iron Fan Fox Spirit/mistress of Bull Demon King

Princess Iron Fan, 1941 * Princess Iron Fan: Ambiguity

* the involvement of Kawakita film stock, capital exportation to Tokyo in 1942
* entertainment strategy: soft depicting the past (escapist?) triangle love flirtation, naked woman gags, slapstick, humorous

Princess Iron Fan, 1941 * Princess Iron Fan: Ambiguity

* indirect resistance/nationalist message Tripitakas speeches to the masses Bull Demon King=Japan final battle=anti-Japanese war
deleted slogan: to strive for the final victory in the anti-Japanese war anti-Japanese animated shorts in the 1930s

Princess Iron Fan, 1941 * Women, Ambiguity, and Wartime Nationalism

* journey to the west: Buddhist sutras, national salvation, collective cause * war between Tripitaka and Bull King masculine, violent, mass mobilization
* Princess Iron Fan * refuses to offer her fan for the collective cause * highlight her personal sufferings * part of the war, apart from the war * a failed Hua Mulan?

Princess Iron Fan, 1941 * Women, Ambiguity, and Wartime Nationalism

* Fox Spirit * a failed patriotic prostitute? * female sexuality carefully controlled and sublimated in nationalist narratives eg. The Flowers of War (2011) eg. The Goddess (1934)

Princess Iron Fan, 1941

* Is Princess Iron Fan the protagonist of this film?

Princess Iron Fan in Tokyo, 1942

Princess Iron Fan, 1941

* Analyze the sequence: Monkey worms his way into Princess Iron Fans stomach in order to obtain her fan.

* Analyze the ending. Compare and contrast it with New Women and The Goddess.

Assignment
* Watch the two films after class.
Havoc in Heaven (Wan Laiming, 1961-1964) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_sYUUz49Fs Mulan (Disney, 1998) http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/5520662