The author of the book Performing China: Female Stars, Performance Culture, Visual Politics, 1910-1945, Huiling Zhou, through the method of careful cross-text reading of cultural and video data and the theory of performance cultural studies, studies the tortuous course of constructing new female images of Chinses women represented by female film stars in the early 1920s and 1930s. They are not only “theater actresses” on the screen, but also “social actresses” in social practice. In face of various social opinions, gossip and party comments at that time, early Chinese female stars found ways to release themselves in their screen roles and real lives in the real society. Their performances in the process of China’s modernization revealed the society’s conception of the country, urban scene and female image at that time. Hollywood’s influence on Chinese films in the 1930s was profound and extensive, from the portrayal of urban women in China to the demonstration of film marketing strategies. From the perspective of film performance, the author analyzes the process of cross-cultural communication and interaction between China and the United States in the 1930s, involving various aspects of film, literature, politics, painting and industry. The difficulty of reading this book lies in its strong theoretical nature. Then, the film documents and image data selected by the author in the early 1920s and 1930s are relatively unknown to many people today. The author’s cultural research method with visual as core of cross-cultural interaction research can make us have some new thinking about many popular cultural forms at present, and broaden our vision and thinking.
Published in | Humanities and Social Sciences (Volume 12, Issue 5) |
DOI | 10.11648/j.hss.20241205.15 |
Page(s) | 142-145 |
Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Female Stars, Film Marketing, Visual Arts, Cross-Cultural Interaction
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[3] |
Coca-Cola's History and Memory of Old Shanghai 1930-1940s Photo collection: Coca-Cola's History and Memory of Old Shanghai 1930-1940s photo collection, Available from:
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1677045550600015338&wfr=spider&for=pc (accessed October 15, 2023) |
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[5] | Laura Mulvey, Anna Beckman Rogers, Anne Van den Auver, et al. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Film” published 40 years ago: Three Comments on Feminist film Studies. Journal of Beijing Film Academy; 2022(3), 83-90. |
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[7] | Tian Weiwei. Analysis of Visual Metaphor and Creative Strategy in movie posters. Design; 2022(9), 100-102. |
[8] | Cai Wenting. American Animated Film Culture from Kung Fu Panda. Film Literature; 2017(21), 130-132. |
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[10] | Zengyue. The image construction and identity of female caricatures in the Republic of China: A case study of Guo Jianying and Liang Baibo. Journal of Nanjing University of the Arts (Arts and Design); 2017(01), 103-106. |
[11] | Wang Jinyang. The evolution of female image in the Republic of China: A case study of cosmetics advertisement in Shenbao 1910-1936. Master’s thesis, Jinan, Shandong University, 2013. |
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[13] | Wang Linlin. The New female Images on the screen of New China and their literary Value. Film Literature; 2019(23), 84-86. |
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APA Style
Dai, Z. H. (2024). Construction of New Female Image in Early Modern China - Review of Performing China: Female Stars, Performance Culture, Visual Politics, 1910-1945 by Huiling Zhou. Humanities and Social Sciences, 12(5), 142-145. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20241205.15
ACS Style
Dai, Z. H. Construction of New Female Image in Early Modern China - Review of Performing China: Female Stars, Performance Culture, Visual Politics, 1910-1945 by Huiling Zhou. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2024, 12(5), 142-145. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20241205.15
@article{10.11648/j.hss.20241205.15, author = {Zi hui Dai}, title = {Construction of New Female Image in Early Modern China - Review of Performing China: Female Stars, Performance Culture, Visual Politics, 1910-1945 by Huiling Zhou }, journal = {Humanities and Social Sciences}, volume = {12}, number = {5}, pages = {142-145}, doi = {10.11648/j.hss.20241205.15}, url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20241205.15}, eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hss.20241205.15}, abstract = {The author of the book Performing China: Female Stars, Performance Culture, Visual Politics, 1910-1945, Huiling Zhou, through the method of careful cross-text reading of cultural and video data and the theory of performance cultural studies, studies the tortuous course of constructing new female images of Chinses women represented by female film stars in the early 1920s and 1930s. They are not only “theater actresses” on the screen, but also “social actresses” in social practice. In face of various social opinions, gossip and party comments at that time, early Chinese female stars found ways to release themselves in their screen roles and real lives in the real society. Their performances in the process of China’s modernization revealed the society’s conception of the country, urban scene and female image at that time. Hollywood’s influence on Chinese films in the 1930s was profound and extensive, from the portrayal of urban women in China to the demonstration of film marketing strategies. From the perspective of film performance, the author analyzes the process of cross-cultural communication and interaction between China and the United States in the 1930s, involving various aspects of film, literature, politics, painting and industry. The difficulty of reading this book lies in its strong theoretical nature. Then, the film documents and image data selected by the author in the early 1920s and 1930s are relatively unknown to many people today. The author’s cultural research method with visual as core of cross-cultural interaction research can make us have some new thinking about many popular cultural forms at present, and broaden our vision and thinking. }, year = {2024} }
TY - JOUR T1 - Construction of New Female Image in Early Modern China - Review of Performing China: Female Stars, Performance Culture, Visual Politics, 1910-1945 by Huiling Zhou AU - Zi hui Dai Y1 - 2024/09/29 PY - 2024 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20241205.15 DO - 10.11648/j.hss.20241205.15 T2 - Humanities and Social Sciences JF - Humanities and Social Sciences JO - Humanities and Social Sciences SP - 142 EP - 145 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2330-8184 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20241205.15 AB - The author of the book Performing China: Female Stars, Performance Culture, Visual Politics, 1910-1945, Huiling Zhou, through the method of careful cross-text reading of cultural and video data and the theory of performance cultural studies, studies the tortuous course of constructing new female images of Chinses women represented by female film stars in the early 1920s and 1930s. They are not only “theater actresses” on the screen, but also “social actresses” in social practice. In face of various social opinions, gossip and party comments at that time, early Chinese female stars found ways to release themselves in their screen roles and real lives in the real society. Their performances in the process of China’s modernization revealed the society’s conception of the country, urban scene and female image at that time. Hollywood’s influence on Chinese films in the 1930s was profound and extensive, from the portrayal of urban women in China to the demonstration of film marketing strategies. From the perspective of film performance, the author analyzes the process of cross-cultural communication and interaction between China and the United States in the 1930s, involving various aspects of film, literature, politics, painting and industry. The difficulty of reading this book lies in its strong theoretical nature. Then, the film documents and image data selected by the author in the early 1920s and 1930s are relatively unknown to many people today. The author’s cultural research method with visual as core of cross-cultural interaction research can make us have some new thinking about many popular cultural forms at present, and broaden our vision and thinking. VL - 12 IS - 5 ER -