This thesis engages with Taiwanese history by offering a reading of Hou Hsiaohsien???s A City of Sadness (1989), making reference to the film???s historical dimensions, cultural representations and gender issues in the period 1945 to 1949. In addition, Hou???s cinematography is detailed with comparison to Yasujiro Ozu and the influences of Japanese colonisation. Hou???s immense contribution to Taiwanese film consists principally in a Taiwanese trilogy that traces Taiwan???s history in the 20th century. In The Puppet Master (1993) Hou details the era of Japanese colonisation from 1895 to the restoration of Taiwan by the Kuomintang in 1945. Later, A City of Sadness focuses on the fate of the Lin family from 1945 to 1949, which epitomises people???s life in Taiwan during the initial stages of Kuomintang domination. Finally, Good Men, Good Women (1995) highlights two different eras in Taiwan: the political movement in the 1950s and the pop culture in the 1990s. The thesis uses illustrations from all three films to explore Hou???s historical, cultural and gender representations. In order to understand Hou???s ideology and beliefs in greater depth, I also review his autobiographical film, A Time to Live, and A Time to Die (1985). This thesis examines Taiwan???s indigenous culture and the impact of Japanese and Chinese cultural practices in A City of Sadness through the post-colonial theories of Perry Anderson, Homi Bhabha, and Chris Berry. I draw on their theories of cultural hegemony and my empiricism to investigate Hou???s representation of the political situation in Taiwan. Finally, the thesis evaluates gender issues in A City of Sadness, with reference to Julia Kristeva???s notion of ???feminine time??? and the debate between Emilie Yeh and Mizou concerning ???whether women can really enter history???. In evaluating A City of Sadness I argue that Hou Hsiao-hsien???s use of a family???s microhistory to parallel the national macro-history of the February 28th Incident opens an important historical window through which the audience may re-encounter and reflect on Taiwan???s past, and think positively about its future.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/234646 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Hung, Christine Yu-Ting, School of Modern Language Studies, UNSW |
| Publisher | Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Modern Language Studies |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Christine Yu-Ting Hung, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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