Stereotyping of women’s images portrayed in Chinese TV / film
Gender oppression and inequality have been experienced by women in China throughout history, even after the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949. After 1949, there were changes regarding to women’s social status because of revolutionary events, firstly, the China’s implementation of Deng Xiaoping’s Open-Door Policy in 1978, secondly, the hosting of the Fourth World’s Conference on Women in 1995. Through the development of Chinese cultural and economical, at the time, women’s social status was gradually improving. Therefore, more and more jobs were been found available to women. And a growing number of women are searching the right job that not just to earn money but also to help their long term career development as well. TV and film industry is one of them.
From the beginning of 1978, China has entered a new period of time called: “reform and opening-up” which had huge influence in culture, politics, education, and economy. At that time, Chinese people have been opened up to a western culture that developed a great interest in receiving different information from Media. More importantly, with the western consumption culture influence, Chinese people start to discover and change their self-identity as well. And it was the best time in Chinese TV and film industry for different female characters that successfully develop and presented to the audience.
In the early stage of Chinese TV and film, female characters have always limited and stereotyped in media content. And because the traditional thought of “men are superior to women” in Chinese history, the role of women character in China have been described as “family-oriented, husband- centered and lack social connection”. There were different stereotypes of women in different aspects, most importantly the physical appearance. The best time for female character was between 1985–2010 when the time screenwriter truly brought women characters into life. There were different personalities in characters and different types of women been presented. Popular dramas and films such as “Beijinger in New York”, “Yearnings” “I Love My Family” etc. There were different female characters in the storyline. Such as stay-home mum, lawyer, student, government official, thief, mistress, etc. And they can be beautiful, ugly, poor, rich, young and old. Stories have been told at that time feels “normal” and “real”.
But after 2010, I’ve noticed that screenwriters have slowly moved back towards objected, stereotypical women characters and moved away from interesting, complex characters. I personally can’t understand. From my personal perspective, there is distortion in the Chinese TV/ film industry. There is a very limited space and chance for actresses to tell the audience the true story. We are living in the real world, not in some fiction novel, there are all kinds of women around us. They can be beautiful, slim, over-weighted, ordinary, different skin colours, young, old, rich and poor. But in Chinese TV/film today you will see 95% of the female characters have perfect looks, there are no wrinkles fine lines on their faces, wearing expensive clothe even the character is struggling to pay the rent but still need dress well. And if you looking for a long term career in the TV/film industry you will need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep looking young and beautiful. I’ve watched quite a few Chinese actress interviews as they all motion that age over 35 means “old” in Chinese TV/film industry.
Compare to Hollywood and western TV/film industries from early 1930 to 1965 when the traditional male culture was dominant in the system and film industry was basically a male’s world, the female character was limited and stereotyped. After 1965 to 1990s the rise of feminist thoughts of film censorship has had an important influence on the development of female images in the TV/films. Nowadays, there are hundreds and thousands of different women characters that we’ve seen on western screen, the TV/film industry is giving more and more freedom to their women characters and actresses. But China is doing the opposite, by limit and stereotype actress into a certain role and follow certain rules to not just causing damage within the industry but also leads to distortion to its audience.
Seems that Chinese TV/film industry today is only seeking to draw viewers away from the competition rather than focusing on the quality and realistic of their production. They have been ignored the fact that they should engage with audience from true human condition rather than just taking people on an emotional roller coaster.
