Visualizing Modern China by James A. Cook

Author:James A. Cook
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books

Figure 8.8 Still from the climax of the film Twin Sisters (Zai sheng hua) in which the two sisters played by Hu Die share the screen. The film touches on many of China’s social problems in the 1930s, including the disparities between rich and poor and the high-handed treatment of the poor by the rich. The above image is a good example of representations that raises these class tensions but is certainly far from a clear promotion of class revolution or an unequivocal “leftist” message.

Upon its release, the film immediately became a hit. Indeed, The Twin Sisters has been ranked as one of the six most popular films in the entire history of Chinese filmmaking.35 Many critics also lauded the film. Some praised its realistic portrayals of the hardships suffered by the ordinary people and its exposure of the ugly side of the rich and powerful; others appreciated the film’s craftsmanship and technical sophistication—the Chinese film industry was undergoing the transition from silent to sound, and The Twin Sisters demonstrated Chinese filmmakers’ mastery of the new technology. The female lead, Hu Die, who played both of the twin sisters in the film, also received plaudits. Letters from fans poured in demanding the studio make a sequel.36

The GMD government praised the film as well. It won best sound film in 1934.37 A year later, the Nationalist government included the actress Hu Die in a delegation to represent China’s film industry at Moscow’s International Film Festival and the film was submitted as an entry. Indeed, it is not hard to understand why “right-wing” members of the official establishment often liked The Twin Sisters. First, the film is explicitly set in 1924, the warlord era, thus relegating its depiction of human suffering to the historical past. It thus avoids directly implicating 1930s Chinese reality or the GMD. Indeed, the original version of the film includes a scene where Dabao’s husband helps to distribute GMD newspapers and pamphlets espousing Sun Yat-sen’s Three People’s Principles (the central credo of the GMD) thereby portraying the GMD as liberators of the oppressed masses.38 China’s misery is placed at the doorstep of warlords and foreign imperialists; many of the misfortunes integral to the plot (the original abandonment of the twin sisters and their separation, the death of Dabao’s father-in-law) are blamed on the violence of foreign arms smuggling. For such reasons, the “right-wing” establishment could comfortably shower the film with honors.

By the same token, many leftist intellectuals disapproved of the film precisely because in their view it failed to address the domestic roots of China’s problems. Despite the focus on class issues, the solution the film proposes to resolve class conflict is, in the words of one critic, “to be reconciliatory” (tiaohe zhuyi de taidu) rather than resist exploitation.39 In particular, when Dabao fumes against the exploitation of the poor by the rich, her mother (in many ways the film’s ultimate heroine) repeatedly admonishes her: “We poor people are born poor. Please learn to be patient and accept your fate.

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