Universität zu Köln

Aboduaini, Ayiguzaili ORCID: 0000-0002-7403-8285 (2025). Decoding Gender Aesthetics in Chinese Films. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

Abstract This research investigates the concept of gender aesthetics in contemporary Chinese cinema, analyzing how gender representations are shaped, contested, and negotiated under varying degrees of political, economic, and cultural influences. The primary aim is to decode how state ideologies, commercial imperatives, and independent creative expressions interact to influence cinematic portrayals of masculinity, femininity, and gender nonconformity. The films under examination are grouped into three distinct yet interrelated categories: New Main Melody films, Commercial Mainstream films, and Independent films, each reflecting differing degrees of state control, market interests, and creative autonomy. Adopting a qualitative approach, the research utilizes feminist film theory, gender performativity analysis, ideological critique, and cinematographic analysis as primary methodologies. It closely examines narrative structures, visual styles, characterization, and thematic presentations within selected films, contextualizing these within broader socio-political frameworks, including state censorship, market dynamics, and cultural attitudes toward gender and sexuality. The study consists of four analytical chapters, each dedicated to a distinct category of films: The second chapter analyzes New Main Melody films, specifically focusing on The Climbers (2019) and My People, My Homeland (2020). It argues that these state-sponsored films prominently emphasize nationalist masculinity, patriotic heroism, and collective sacrifice, effectively promoting state-endorsed gender roles through a mechanism identified as prescriptive romanticism. In The Climbers, prescriptive romanticism manifests through idealized portrayals of masculinity explicitly linked to narratives of national pride, heroic self-sacrifice, and physical prowess, creating a rigid gender hierarchy that marginalizes female characters or confines them to supportive, narratively subordinate roles. Similarly, My People, My Homeland utilizes comedic elements to reinforce patriarchal values, positioning women primarily as subordinates within predetermined romantic frameworks that harmonize personal relationships with state ideologies. Furthermore, the chapter argues that these contemporary New Main Melody films represent an evolved version of revolutionary Main Melody cinema, incorporating commercial strategies to enhance popular appeal, while simultaneously serving as a utopian cinematic response to the socialist past—symbolically fulfilling the collective promises previously made by revolutionary narratives of the 20th century. The third chapter examines Commercial Mainstream films, specifically analyzing Lost, Found (2018) and Goodbye Mr. Loser (2015). These films occupy a position of strategic "in-betweenness," carefully balancing the demands of commercial success, audience appeal, and state censorship regulations. Operating within this liminal space requires filmmakers to creatively embed subtle critiques and nuanced subversions of dominant gender norms beneath superficially compliant narratives. Lost, Found demonstrates this subtlety through a sophisticated exploration of female agency, single motherhood, and class disparities, employing suspenseful narrative structures and empathetic characterizations that indirectly challenge patriarchal assumptions without overt confrontation. Similarly, Goodbye Mr. Loser creatively utilizes comedic devices and body-swap tropes to question traditional masculine privileges and anxieties, embedding its critique within commercially palatable humor. The chapter argues that navigating this delicate interplay between censorship constraints and creative expression necessitates strategic narrative ambiguity, symbolic visual techniques, and indirect forms of social commentary. Thus, the creativity and ingenuity employed by filmmakers within this controlled environment represent an understated yet potent form of ideological negotiation and resistance, subtly questioning established gender roles while maintaining commercial viability and state approval. The fourth chapter examines Independent films, specifically analyzing A Dog Barking at the Moon (2019) and Sunken Plum (2017). It highlights how independent cinema exercises greater creative autonomy to directly confront and challenge dominant gender discourses, presenting bold portrayals of LGBTQ+ identities, gender fluidity, and nonconformity. Due to relative ‘freedom’ from state-sponsored ideological constraints, independent filmmakers possess greater narrative and aesthetic flexibility, enabling them to critically interrogate issues such as heteronormativity, familial expectations, and societal discrimination against marginalized identities. In A Dog Barking at the Moon, filmmaker Xiang Zi utilizes non-linear storytelling, symbolic imagery, and surrealist aesthetics to explore generational conflicts, repressed sexualities, and the psychological damage caused by compulsory conformity. Likewise, Sunken Plum capitalizes on its autonomous creative space to foreground transgender experiences, emphasizing individual authenticity and the tension between personal identity and societal prejudice. Although these independent films often encounter challenges in domestic visibility due to censorship, their autonomy enables them to construct complex narratives that articulate resistance and alternative visions of gender representation. Consequently, independent cinema emerges as an essential site of artistic resistance, amplifying marginalized voices and countering state and commercial cinemas' prescribed gender aesthetics. Overall, this research provides comprehensive insight into how gender aesthetics in Chinese cinema function as a site of ideological control, economic negotiation, and artistic resistance. It reveals that while state-sponsored films serve to reinforce official gender ideologies, commercial mainstream films exhibit cautious explorations within allowable boundaries, and independent films boldly challenge existing gender and sexual norms, offering significant avenues for subversion. The study contributes to academic discourse by demonstrating cinema’s complex role in reflecting, shaping, and contesting gender perceptions in contemporary Chinese society.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Translated abstract:	Abstract Language UNSPECIFIED English
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Aboduaini, Ayiguzaili guzallyric@icloud.com orcid.org/0000-0002-7403-8285 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-753948
Date:	2025
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Fächergruppe 4: Außereuropäische Sprachen, Kulturen und Gesellschaften > Ostasiatisches Seminar
Subjects:	Philosophy
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Chinese Films UNSPECIFIED Aesthetics UNSPECIFIED Gender UNSPECIFIED
Date of oral exam:	16 January 2025
Referee:	Name Academic Title Huang, Weiping Prof. Dr. Packard, Stephan Prof. Dr. Henningsen, Lena Prof. Dr.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/75394