Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Chair: Chandra Mukerji. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, 2007. / Adviser: Drew McDaniel. Includes bibliographical references.

295 pages / My dissertation addresses two major issues in Chinese contemporary film and TV studies: the first is the proliferations of new forms of subjectivities and the state’s attempt to regulate them via the construction of an ideal citizenship on the film and TV screen; the second is to develop an approach to understand the political economy of screen culture (yingshi wenhua), as well as freedom and control in post-1989 China. My project investigates key contemporary state-sponsored (zhuxuanlü) and state-criticized/banned screen products as a way to explore socialist values advanced by the Chinese Communist Party, as well as the ways in which and the extent to which individuals are able to challenge them. The ways in which my project contributes to the fields of film and TV studies in China are fourfold. First, close readings of selected films and TV dramas inform us of three emergent forms of subjectivity that were previously theorized as a synthesized sublime subject. Second, I conceptualize qualities of the on-screen socialist spirit that the state uses to counteract the three new forms of subjectivity and maintain its superiority. Third, by discussing the state’s intervention and control on production and consumption of screen products, I reveal the state’s vested interests and individuals’ execution of agency in popular culture. This emphasis on state-individual interactions challenges the current focus on TV and film as merely a profit-oriented industry; it also unravels conflicted ideologies in screen products and questions the understanding of popular culture as mainstream culture. Fourth, by achieving the above tasks, my research exposes that the state’s tolerance of its citizens’ partial freedom is for the purpose of political stability.

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Television drama is a crucial site where notions of gender, as well as other cultural issues, are formed. Since 2010, the Chinese television industry has shown a growing interest in representing feminism-inflected content, most evident in cashing in on serials centering on a strong female character. These women-centric dramas mark a departure from previous constructions of gender, women, and feminism due to their narrative centrality of women, portrayal of strong female leads, expansion of women’s spheres of action, and endorsement of female power and independence. This dissertation explores the phenomenon, examining what feminist discourses are being represented by juxtaposing them with the social context of gender in China and interrogating how they are shaped by industrial practices. The factors at play in the serial production that have surfaced in this study mainly include female television professionals, textual and narrative conventions, considerations of audience profile, and party-state cultural leadership. Based on textual analysis and interviews with professionals associated with several representative women-centric television dramas, this dissertation found that these social and industrial forces collaboratively shaped the feminist discourses into various forms including the post-feminist and neoliberal feminist tendency, a common-ground form of feminism shared by various sections of society, and a vision of gender that combines traditional feminine roles and a powerful presence in the public sphere. The research raises issues about the role of the television industry in cultivating public understandings of feminism and the relationship between televisual forms of feminism and feminist politics.

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Cette thèse se propose d'explorer les enjeux politiques, esthétiques et éthiques du documentaire en Chine. À partir d'une recherche historique depuis la naissance du cinéma chinois en 1905 jusqu'à la fin de l'ère maoïste en 1976, nous montrons que le documentaire est progressivement assujetti aux politiques, soutenant la construction d'une Nation moderne. Ainsi, l'esthétique ne parvient pas à s'affranchir de la politique avant les réformes économiques des années 1980. À partir de cette période, nous analysons les stratégies adoptées par les cinéastes pour se libérer de leur carcan idéologique, en nous appuyant sur des enquêtes de terrain et des analyses filmiques. Si la télévision offre d'abord un cadre propice à une réévaluation du documentaire pour favoriser sa diffusion, nous montrons que le renforcement de la censure, après les manifestations de 1989, incite certains documentaristes à créer des circuits de production et de diffusion alternatifs au secteur audiovisuel. L'analyse consacrée au mode d'organisation de ce réseau met au jour les mécanismes de reconnaissance professionnelle qui amènent les cinéastes à développer leurs activités dans le secteur privé chinois, tout en cherchant à exister sur la scène internationale. Cette autonomie structurelle leur permet de concevoir une éthique visant à garantir leur proximité avec les personnes filmées, souvent issues des couches populaires. Mais en raison de l'ingérence des autorités chinoises, leurs films sont seulement diffusés dans des festivals bénéficiant d'une faible visibilité dans l'espace public. Du fait de leur inscription dans un espace marginalisé, fréquenté essentiellement par des artistes et des intellectuels, leur visée égalitariste se heurte à l'impossibilité de renouer avec le public chinois. Ce paradoxe suggère la difficulté d'établir un dialogue constructif entre les documentaristes et le public, tant que l’État chinois n'autorisera pas la formation d'une sphère réflexive, fonctionnant indépendamment des institutions politiques, permettant de réunir cinéastes, critiques et spectateurs en une communauté concrète. / This thesis proposes to explore the political, aesthetic and ethical issues of documentary in China. Based on a historical research from the birth of Chinese cinema in 1905 to the end of the Maoist era in 1976, I show that documentary was progressively subjected to politics, supporting the construction of a modern nation. Thus, aesthetics could not free itself from politics before the reform of the economic system in the 1980s. From that period onwards, I analyze the strategies adopted by filmmakers to free themselves from their ideological straitjacket, based on field surveys and film analyzes. While television has first enabled the re-evaluation of documentary to promote its diffusion, I show that the strengthening of censorship, following the student protests of 1989, has encouraged some documentary filmmakers to create production and diffusion channels independent from the audiovisual sector. The analysis of this network's organization mode reveals the mechanisms of professional recognition, that lead the filmmakers to develop their activities in the Chinese private sector, while seeking to exist on the international scene. This structural autonomy allows them to develop an ethics aimed at guaranteeing their proximity with the people filmed, who usually belong to the lower classes. However, the interference of the Chinese authorities only allows their films to be shown in festivals which have low visibility in the public space. As they are part of a marginalized space, frequented mainly by artists and intellectuals, their egalitarian aim is hampered by the impossibility of reconnecting with the Chinese audience. This paradox suggests the difficulty of establishing a constructive dialogue between documentary filmmakers and the audience, as long as the Chinese State does not allow the formation of a public sphere, functioning independently of political institutions, bringing together filmmakers, critics and audience members into a concrete community.