Wing Shan Ho's Screening Post-1989 China tackles what she rightly identifies as an important gap in existing work on recent Chinese cinema and television – the role of the state. She argues that existing scholarship either overstates this role, seeing “main melody” (zhuxuanlü) films and television series as no more than ciphers for state propaganda, or ignores it, idealizing independent or critical films as sites of resistance. As a corrective, Ho points out that mainstream films can both be seen as responding to social stresses and strains and also as having to pursue the market. On the other hand, many independent filmmakers and critical television producers are constrained by the presence of the state in various ways and even make alternative versions of their films to pass the censors. She therefore approaches the relationship between the state and filmmakers as a zone of negotiation, with the mainstream and the critical representing poles of possibility rather than opposition.
Screening Post-1989 China then proceeds to examine representations of three different types of subjectivity that have appeared with the market economy and the eclipse of what Wang Ban called the “sublime subject” of the revolutionary era, who transformed all desire into political passion. These three types are the economic, sexual and political subject. Each gets a section, and each section is divided into a chapter on mainstream films and television series, and then a chapter on independent and critical works.
Part one focuses on the new selfish economic subjects spawned by the market economy and the fears they engender. In chapter one, Ho analyses three main melody films: Ren Changxia (2005), about a female police chief; Days Without Lei Feng (Likai Lei Feng de Rizi, 1996), about the man who caused the accident that killed Lei Feng; and Kong Fansen (1995), about a self-sacrificing Communist cadre in Tibet. All these figures counter materialism by putting both economic self-interest and their family below their duty to the Party and the state. Chapter two contrasts this with three films that present critiques of the impact of the market economy through narratives about selling human lives: Lost in Beijing (Pingguo, 2006), Blind Shaft (Mang Jing, 2003), and Blind Mountain (Mang Shan, 2007). Here, Ho emphasizes the differences between the international and domestic versions of the film, to show how the state and Party accept critique of greed, but within limits. For example, the release version of Blind Mountain has a happy ending in which the police rescue the trafficked women and arrest the bad guys. Ho also points out that some films which could not get theatrical releases were available on DVD, because there are multiple censorship institutions in the People's Republic.
The second and third sections continue this pattern of analysis. Chapter three begins part two's focus on the sexual subject by examining the main melody television series, Golden Marriage (Jinhun, 2007). Ho notes how the series responds to fears of divorce and family breakdown by emphasizing fidelity, but also that sexuality is used to attract viewers in the quest for ratings. On the critical side of the equation, another television series, Narrow Dwelling (Woju, 2009), is examined in chapter four. It focuses on the financial benefits enjoyed by a woman who chooses to be a mistress. Although she is punished in the end, this salacious premise attracted not only audiences but also so much criticism from the authorities that not all 35 episodes were broadcast.
The final section looks at the political subject. In chapter five, Ho argues that Hero (Yingxiong, 2001) is a main melody film about self-sacrifice for the good of the state, and that other scholars have so far failed to realize that the protagonists are intellectuals, suggesting the film's message was particularly aimed at this section of society. In chapter six, she examines films that represent homosexuality: East Palace, West Palace (Donggong, Xigong, 1996); Lan Yu (2001); and Butterfly (Hudie, 2004). Although these films appear at first sight to be about sexual subjects, Ho argues they fall victim to censorship because they are considered as metaphors for the expression of political taboos.
Screening Post-1989 China is valuable for its focus on the role of the state in Chinese cultural production and the complex field of negotiation instituted by a system that combines one-party rule with a market economy. However, the major limitation is that although it claims to carry out “close analysis,” what is analysed are plot synopses of the works in question. This is like attempting to analyse Journey to the West using a map of the route. Editing, lighting, narrative structure, focalization and so forth are all omitted by this approach. To put it more directly, the actual films and television series are not analysed at all. Of course, there is an argument to be made that censorship systems attempt to operate on plot synopses, and that the manipulation of other elements is part of the game of strategy and tactics between the authorities and the filmmakers and television producers. But this book's approach forecloses on the possibility of exploring that issue.
