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A national score: Popular music and Taiwanese cinema

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A national score: Popular music and Taiwanese cinema

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A NATIONAL SCORE:
POPULAR MUSIC AND TAIWANESE CINEMA
bv
Yueh-vu Yeh
A Dissertaiion Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Cinema-Televi.sion)
December 1995
Copyright 1995 Yueh-yu Yeh
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 90007
This dissertation, written by
j . . ^ .........................
under the direction of Dissertation
Committee, and approved by all its members,
has been presented to and accepted by The
Graduate School in partial fulfillment of re
quirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Dean of Graduate Studies
D ate Dece^er. .1 . 199 5
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
, I ^ Chairperson
.....
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Inîioduction; Orchestrating Music and Image in 1
Contemporary Taiwanese Cinema ( 1970s to 1990s)
Review o f the Literature 20
Part I: The Development of Popular Music in Postwar Film
1 . The Use of Music in 1970's Policy Film and Romantic 43
Melodrama
2. The Folk Movement and Youth Film: 74
Good Morning. Taipei (1979) and Your Smiliu;^ Face {1979)
3. College Folk and National Identity: Uind of the Brave ( 1981 ) 108
Part II: The Critical Discourse o f the New Cinema
4. Sonic Realism. Popular Music, and the New Cinema 150
5. "Elvis. A llow Me to Introduce M yself': 195
American Popular Music. Edward Yang.
Neocolonial Discourse
Conclusion: There A in 't No Chinese in the Taiwan Sink: 234
the Commodification o f Identity Politics
Filmography 243
Selected Bibliography 248
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111
ABSTRACT
Popular music and film were the two media most engaged in assisting
the state construct a national identity in postwar Taiwan. What role did they
play in creating the ideology o f a modem, anti-communist, and Confucian-
oriented Chinese identity? How did the media use their specific
characteristics to represent an unequivocal Chinese identity? How did
historical environments and socio-political changes reformulate the makeup of
this national identity? To answer these questions, this study traces the
evolution o f national identity from the mid 1970s to the early 1990s in popular
music and film . It designates six topics within the media's representation o f
national identity as it responded to the national crises that occurred during
this period. The six topics are: the use o f music in 1970's policy film and
romantic melodrama; the folk movement and youth film ; college folk and
national identity; sonic realism, popular music, and the New Cinema; American
popular music and neocolonial discourse; and the commodification o f identity
politics.
Judging from the historical and socio-political contexts in which these
six topics are embedded, a circular development emerges in the relations
between popular music and cinema. In the 1970s. a partnership was
established between popular music and cinema to promote songs in the films
as well as compensate for the lack o f ambient sound. This partnership was
suspended in the 1980s when the New Cinema excluded pop songs for the
sake o f greater authenticity and to emphasize its high-art quality. The
expansion o f commercial cinema made the reintegration between popular
music and film possible in the early 1990s. Meanwhile, identity politics has
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IV
become ihe new subject in popular music and cinema due to the late 1980s
collapse o f the concept o f nationalism based on a unified China. The
combination o f this ideological shift and the introduction o f advanced cultural
commodity apparatuses forms a national identity characterized by shifting loci
o f commerce, politics, and art.
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INTRODUCTION
Orchestrating Music and Image in Contemporary Taiwanese Cinema
(1970s to 1990s)
The past ten years have witnessed a resurgence of identities that were
and sometimes still are suppressed by colonialism, racism, religious
fundamentalism, and political dictatorship. Nationalists of ex-colonies are
dedicating themselves to reclaiming their identities and rewriting their history
in light o f post-colonial contexts. This is especially the tendency in Africa,
Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. A similar development is taking
place in Taiwan, a small country in the Pacific basin which now has the
highest foreign currency reserve in the world. Political parties and groups
with different national identifications are fighting fo r constitutionalizing their
belief in Congress and in the Legislative Yuan. The debate over national
identity in parliament is so emotional and polarized that it often ends w ith a
physical fight. When Taiwanese legislators fighting one another is televised
by C N N 's international news, one wonders, why does a country that enjoys
social stability and economic prosperity have such a carnival Legislature? The
answer has to go back to the issue o f national identity and culture.
The formation o f national identity in Taiwan has been prim arily
historical and political. Historical because o f its affinity with the process of
Taiwan's coming into its own as a modem nation-state. Political in that it is
implicated by the interconnection o f colonialism, nationalism, and
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authoritarian politics. Taiwan's colonial history began in the 16th century
when the Dutch occupied the island and used it as a m ilitary and agricultural
base in the Pacific Ocean. Later, fo r a short period o f time. Taiwan was a
shelter for the M ing refugees when Manchus started their own dynasty in
Beijing after having defeated the M ing dynasty. But the C h’ing court soon
took m ilitary action against the refugees in Taiwan and successfully evicted
them from the island. In the follow ing two hundred years or so, under the
C h'ing's expanionist policy in South China, Taiwan became one province o f
imperial China. Just when cinema was bom in 1895. Taiwan was conceded to
Japan as part o f China's compensation to Japan fo r losing the first Sino-
Japanese war. And when the world was celebrating the end o f the Second
W orld War. Taiwan was handed over to the right-wing Nationalist
government by the agreement made among China, Great Britain and the US
during the Cairo Meeting in 1943. A huge massacre occurred in 1945 when
many Taiwanese rose up against the semi-colonial governance o f the National
Party. In the follow ing 40 years or so, Taiwan's development was deeply
involved with cold war politics, m ilitary dictatorship, and late capitalism.
Judging from these events, Taiwan seems to fit the colonial model o f
the Third W orld. A teleology o f colonization, submission (or collaboration),
resistance, and decolonization appears to be a useful summary. Yet it is more
complex than it appears. In both the Japanese colonial and the Chinese
Nationalist semi-colonial periods, resistance movements were mobilized, but
they could only operate underground due to severe political repression.
Writers could only write about their yearning fo r a truly independent and
equal country; political activists could only organize secret meetings to
present their blueprint for building a nation-state free from any form of
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3
colonization. A t the same time, the island underwent a gradual process of
modernization. This process was fueled in large part by the collaboration of
the elites and middle classes with the ruling regimes. After having operated
underground for almost 40 years, resistance movements finally became politic
in the late 1980s thanks to the lifting o f martial law in 1987.
This political reform initiated by the Nationalist Party opened the door
for decolonization. First, the underground Democratic Progressive Party
(DPP) organized by political dissidents in 1986 became a legitimate
oppositional party. Second, mass movements began to emerge to voice
discontents over the ruling government. In the Legislative Yuan, language
politics was frequently played by the DPP legislators to show their distinct
identity. The legislators insisted on using “ the language o f their mothers”
(i.e.. the Hokkien dialect rather than the official language. Mandarin) to voice
their questions to government officials who did not know the language. They
claimed that the use o f language politics (along with fistfights) was strategic
when they defended their excessive acts to the press and the public. The real
intention, as the legislators argued, was to foreground their political appeal:
the long suppressed identity of the Taiwanese. And the physical fight (termed
"body language” by the legislators) that has actually become a standard
practice in the Legislative Yuan was actually the means to expose the
Nationalist government's incorrect policies and the malpractice o f the
constitution.
A trampled identity is thus a crucial constituent o f the oppositional
party in form ing a politics that appears more legitimate than the one
postulated by the Nationalist government. For it is precisely the root o f the
collective grief and pride (openly or latently) o f oppressed groups. And it is
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important to note that it was through television, the press, film , and pop music
that the grief was articulated and heard. This brings me to the question o f
national identity in Taiwan. Why is the notion o f the Republic o f China being
severely challenged at this time? What constituted the Taiwanese identity in
the past and what constitutes it now? What kind o f role has the culture
industry played in supporting the official national identity? My goal is to
explore how film and popular music have worked together to develop but
also to m ystify national culture and identity. The period that I choose to work
on is from the "dark age” o f the 1970s (in which a total social and political
control formulated a unified national culture and identity), through the
transition o f the 1980s, to the liberation in the early 1990s.
Identity politics has been mobilized in many recent studies in the
humanities and social sciences because it has become an increasingly pivotal
issue in post-cold war cultural politics. The theoretical underpinnings o f these
studies are mostly derived from French poststructuralist theory and cultural
studies. Barthesian semiotics discusses mystification as the process o f
rendering ideology neutral and natural. Althusserian Marxism proposes the
"interpellation” theory in understanding how the subject is "hailed” from a
predesignated ideological position. From a different analytical viewpoint,
British cultural studies argues for the importance o f subjectivity and discursive
practices in the formation o f identity. In many ways the national identity
proffered by the official ideology reflects the concepts o f Roland Barthes and
Louis Althusser. But exactly how they are institutionalized by popular film
and music is an issue that needs to be examined in detail.
The New Cinema auteur Edward Yang presents American rock 'n ' roll
as an alternative cultural practice in his nostalgia film s. Here American cultural
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hegemony in particular and neo-colonialism in general grapple with the issue
o f subjectivity and discursive practice. How does American pop play a
double-edged role in both adulterating and enriching a Third World
subcultural identity? This is a crucial point at which we should examine the
nation's ambivalent relationship with Western culture.
II.
Popular music in postwar Taiwan was very responsive to historical
change. And film , until the mid 1980s the second largest state-owned cultural
enterprise next to television, was regarded as the best medium on account o f
its twofold function in capitalist nationalism: reinforcing the state's ideology
while gaining profits for the ruling party. Although popular music and film
have not yet been put together in scholarly investigations o f Taiwan's
postwar history, in their individual development since the 1950s each has
shown a sim ilar engagement with the economy , politics, culture, and society.
A relationship between music and film arose in the 1970s when pop songs
became the major film music. Songs were used in film s to cover over the
effects o f insufficient sound. In romantic melodrama, they were also used to
produee romantic atmosphere. On the other hand, because film was a very
powerful medium in this period, it was regarded as an effective site to promote
products by the record companies. But the most important aspect in this
symbiotic relaticnship is the production o f cultural and political meaning. The
music in policy film s especially was used to address national catastrophes and
to mediate identity crises.
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This part o f cinema has rarely been addressed in either Western or
Chinese-language film studies. In Taiwan's academic field, cinema studies is
not yet accepted as an academic discipline. Although the rise of a group of
innovative film s called the New Cinema {lisin !ien-yin;^) in the early 1980s
initiated some scholarly interest in film , the kind o f criticism surrounding the
New Cinema has been preoccupied with frivolous debates concerning the
supposedly irreducible distinction between art and commodity .
How does cinema operate in relation to the form o f its industrialization,
cultural politics, and other media? If the New Cinema indeed embodies a
reform mentality, what is its relationship with old paradigms? Since reform
derives from a need to change, what change is the New Cinema looking for?
Why is such a committed cinema rejected by the national audience? These
questions do not exist independently but must be seen as interconnected
issues to facilitate a definition o f national cinema in Taiwan. This requires an
approach sensitive to the m ultiple determinations that characterize the
complexity and pluralism o f cinema.
Several recent studies have begun lo study cinema more systematically
and int'^nsively. For example, two articles compared the New Cinema with an
important film style o f the 1960s called health realism to examine the cinematic
and historical link between the two movements (Liu H. C. 1994; Liao 1994).
Inspired by postcolonial theory, a dissertation was written on the historical
representation o f the New Cinema (Ch en 1993).
There is no doubt that these studies have made significant
contributions to Taiwan’s film scholarship. But issues like the construction of
national identity through cinema, the relationship between cinema and the
culture industry, and how cinema connects with other media have not yet
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/
been addressed. What role do cinema and popular music play in collaborating
with official national identity? How does film music reflect this collaboration?
What changes does the New Cinema make to film music in its attempt to
create a new national cinema? Why is American popular music present in
many New Cinema films? What does American pop music signify in the
representation o f history? How do cinema and music respond to recent
political and social change? What role does postmodernism play in the
construction o f the nativist identity in the newly liberated Taiwan? I propose
an analy sis o f film music as a fruitful way to draw attention to these important
issues and attempt to answer some o f these questions. W ith this approach I
mean to re-interpret the film s through the use o f music in the narrative. I w ish
to offer this study to begin a new direction in Taiwan's film studies and Asian
cinema studies as a whole.
By popular music {liu-lviin^ yin-yueh) I mean industrial, consumer,
mass-produced popular music, a definition that I borrow from Theodor
Adorno. Adorno defines popular music as a cultural commodity characterized
by standardization and pseudo-individualization (302-14). These
characteristics, as Adorno argues, render pop an instant and easy-to-digest
amusement. Once it is circulated through cultural apparatuses, it becomes one
o f the best antidotes fo r alleviating the psychological ennui o f the working
class. However, Adorno's viewpoint toward pop has been proven to be too
general since his argument was developed before the transformations o f
popular music by rock in the 1960s. Subsequent developments have a
musical and social depth not present in the music he described. For instance,
the work done in recent cultural studies has demonstrated pop's subversive
quality when it is appropriated to play against dominant conventions. Even
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8
though Adorno's theory on pop appears limited from the perspective o f
cultural studies, it is still essential in understanding pop's basic function in
capitalist society. It is particularly useful to studies that are concerned with
pop's relationship with state politics and cultural apparatuses in form ing a
collective identity.
Popular music in this study has a very specific area; it only includes pop
songs {liu-hsini’ ke-ch'iu) that are presented in vocal form. Thus lyrics and
singing are the core of the analysis. There are several advantages to this focus
on lyrics and singing. Ly rics are important texts because with their literal
meaning, they directly determine the way music is used in film narratives. In
many examples, songs are the major elements in the narratives precisely
because o f their literal meanings. Singing has a pivotal signifying function
because of its embodiment w ith subjective expression and interpretation. The
meaning o f a song can be changed in many ways by means o f singing. By
placing these two elements together in a context, the horizon o ' a song is
expanded and its meaning is pluralized.
So why is examination o f pop songs a viable and illuminating method
o f interpretation? What actually can be achieved by privileging the musical
text? If we place the development o f film and music together in a historical
frame stretching from the 1970s to the 1990s. five topics emerge to
characterize Taiwanese cinema and music as a whole. The five issues are
divided into two parts. Part one concerns the use o f popular music in postwar
film prior to the early 1980s. It comprises the first three chapters o f the
dissertation. Chapter one discusses the relationship between pop and cinema.
It focuses on two film genres and their uses o f pop to enhance the narrative.
Chapter two introduces the modem fo lk movement and its appropriation by
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9
mainstream cinema. Chapter three analyzes how folk music is manipulated by
a propaganda film to reassure the official national identity. Part two examines
the changing relationship between pop and the New Cinema. It contains the
dissertation's last two chapters. Chapter four introduces "sonic realism." a
term I use to refer to the new sound practice in the New Cinema. Chapter five
discusses the presence o f American popular music and its problematic
relationship with the representation o f national identity . Each chapter is
briefly introduced as follows:
1 . The Use of Music in 1970's Policy Film and Romantic Melodrama
Prior to the 1980s. the production o f mass culture in Taiwan was under
the control o f the government. In the 1960s when television, broadcasting,
pop music, and film were expanding, institutional regulations directed them
into developing a "culture industry" dependent on government subsidies and
eensorship. Such a formation inevitably limited diversification o f the media.
In the first half o f the 1970s. media production thus presented a picture of
relative stability, uniform ity, and conformity. Cinema basically developed into
productions o f standardized genre film s, ineluding policy film (usually with
high production values), romantic melodrama, martial arts, and exploitative
"social realism." Popular music was no less homogeneous than film .
Commercialism dominated the production o f pop music. Most record
companies concentrated on producing love songs by copying American pop
and enga, the "blues" o f Japanese pop music originated in the late 19th
century.
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10
On the other hand, politics was the important factor in determining the
ideology o f these mass cultural products. Record companies occasionally
released beautiful patriotic ballads to satisfy the demands o f official cultural
policy as well as o f pop listeners. The government-owned studio and film
company, the Central M otion Picture Company (CMPC), was required to
produce several policy film s each year in order to make sure that national
identity remained in its best shape. The operations o f such complacent media
functionaries was evident in the film music of policy film and romantic
melodrama.
Victory {Mei-hiui, 1975; dir. Liu Chia-ch'ang) manipulates pop songs
in order to make an effective patriotic film . For instance, the film constructs an
"imagined community” (Anderson 6) with the theme song called "Plum
Blossoms” that shares the same Chinese title with the film . "Plum Blossoms”
is used to depict Chinese nationalism as holy and persevering. By using the
song in several crucial dramatic moments intradiegetically. the film constructs
two levels o f textual meanings. First, it represents a voluntary patriotism and
nationalism that appears innate in Chinese people across gender, class, age,
and regional difference. Second, it produces an affective space that lures the
spectator into identification with the characters and the film 's ideological
stance.
Parallel to the highly politicized policy film , romantic melodrama uses
pop in a sim ilarly manipulative way. Pop functions prim arily in this genre to
enhance the romantic aura which is a crucial element in constructing the love
scene. It is usually figured as a paradise fo r the loving couple, otherwise
trapped in class distinctions and familial control. In order to render this
paradise as carefree and ideal, slow motion and silent periods on the
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11
soundtrack are employed. Love songs are used in the cxtradiegetic sound
space to alleviate the sense o f spatio-temporal oddity rendered by the silent,
slow-motion action. By doing so. it helps secure the closed structure o f that
ideal world and at the same time, assist in the romantic atmosphere.
These two examples demonstrates the collaboration o f pop and film in
inscribing the closed structure o f cultural productions. After almost tw o
decades o f domination, this mode o f production was forced to change
according to political and economic factors in the 1980s.
2. The Folk Movement and Youth Film: C.^od Mornin;^ Taipei, and Your
Smiliui’ Face
Music and film productions from the late 1970s to the early 1980s
were similarly influenced by a nationwide cultural campaign called nativism
{pen-t'u-chu-yi). This campaign called for a revised cultural identity with
mainland Chinese as the subject and Taiwanese indigenous culture as new
materials. The goal was deeply political. On the one hand, it was used to
pacify the nativist discontent over the continuing suppression o f indigenous
Taiwanese culture and language. On the other hand, it intended to evoke
nationalism to overcome the humiliations that the country had received in a
series o f diplomatic setbacks since the early 1970s.
The modem folk movement that emerged at this time represented
young people's response to this revisionist nationalism. This music was
characterized by nationalism with a critique o f Western cultural hegemony.
Also, in order to differentiate itself from low-brow pop music, it used high
cultural forms such as poetry and classical music. But it was soon assimilated
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12
by the record industry after being disseminated by radio programs. In order to
com m odify modem folk, the record industry changed its original meanings.
First, it renamed the modem fo lk "college fo lk " {“hsiao-yuan-min-
ke") in order to privilege its youth quality. However, the emphasis on youth
identity simultaneously connoted a sense o f playful sensibility and
unthreatening innocence. Second, it reduced its critical quality by making the
music less sophisticated in form and lyrics. As a result, as compared to modern
folk, college fo lk was largely transformed to an escapist youth music,
celebrating childhood, order, nature, and innocence. W ith the promotion by
the media, college folk became the dominant pop music from 1978 to 1981.
In cinema, college folk songs were incorporated into a national
remapping. And this was done by recycling a film form that originated in the
1960s called health realism. Health realism referred to a realist film style
promoted by the CMPC. to create a national cinema with artistic quality.
Although it only existed fo r several years, its stylistie emphasis on loeations
shots, high-key lighting, and humanist sympathy with peasants and the lower-
middle class remained influential. Despite formal innovations and a seemingly
liberal politics, health realism was closely related to the official ideology in
representing Taiwanese society under Nationalist rule as peaceful, harmonious,
and productive. This ideological function enabled health realism to be
recycled in the late 1970s as an appropriate form for eollege folk to function
according to the new cultural policy.
Good Morning, Taipei (Tsao-an t ’ ai-pei, 1979; dir. Lee Hsing)
manifests this revisionist nationalism by incorporating college folk and health
realism into their narratives. It utilizes college folk to differentiate bad youth
from good youth; it manipulates college folk to rectify youthful deviance. A t
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13
the end. it dismisses folk's validity in youth culture in order to recuperate
social and family order. In this way, this film reproduces the mainstream
culture's treatment o f modem folk and reinstates the transitory nature o f folk
music.
3. College Folk and National Identity: Ixind o f the Brave
The political manipulation o f college folk appears most evidently in a
1981 film called Land of the Brave {Lun^ te ch'uan-jen, 1981 ; dir. Lee Hsing).
The film presents a picture o f an unifying nation by using college folk as an
integrating force. It is set against the diplomatic crisis in 1978 when the US
government announced the termination o f its relations with Taiwan in the
follow ing year. College folk is used substantially in articulating nationalism
and nativism in order to overcome this diplomatic setback.
College folk represents a new music with distinct nationalist and
nativist characteristics. It is seen and used as a powerful new cultural force in
reintegrating people with different attitudes and ideas into one solid, unifying
community. Narratively, college students use this music to express their
patriotism and to answer the official call fo r participation in nativist
movements by organizing folk music concert tours to the countryside where it
is always well received. Not only do the countryside people enjoy the music
and the students happily present their music, but the space that they interact
with each other is constructed like a communal paradise. Here the ideological
attributes o f college folk: class ambiguity, naivete, sincerity, and spontaneity,
are inscribed in narrating the harmony in the community life. Each community
that is formed during their tour in different village or small town is portrayed
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14
according to these attributes. Through the communication o f music, the
difference between rural and urban, educated youth and working peasants
seems to collapse or at least becomes untenable. This instance shows how
folk is appropriated for political and social pacifism.
4. Sonic Realism. Popular Music, and the New Cinema
The New Cinema movement was characterized by two components.
One w as a new realism and another was to formulate an art cinema with
cultural specificities. Under the premise o f creating a new realism, the New
Cinema developed a unique form o f audio-representation o f what I call "sonic
realism." This consisted o f the replacement o f "a rtificia l" sound recording
(eg., dubbed speech voice) by sync sound and the absence o f non-diegetic
music. It thus emphasized an apparently truthful audio representation that
supplemented to photographic realism. On the other hand, under the premise
o f an artistic orientation, the New Cinema endeavored to alienate itself from
commodity apparatus. One specific way to do this was to reduce the use of
pop music unless it was used diegetically as ambient sound as part o f the
realist representation.
There was no doubt that the New Cinema relied on Bazinian realism to
distinguish itself from the "o ld " film and defined itself as a new national
cinema. But its dissociation from pop contradicted its humanist-realist
principles since the latter inevitably had to involve popular cultural forms,
especially pop music. The last part o f the chapter discusses this contradiction
in the film s that tried to represent the working class. The New Cinema, despite
its sympathy with the working class, embodied an urban, bourgeois, and elitist
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15
identity. Such identity inevitably twisted the representation of the
underdeveloped past and underprivileged people which remained, for the
most part, within the stereotypes.
5. "Elvis. Allow Me to Introduce M yself': American Popular Music.
Edw ard Yang. Neocolonial Discourse
An important feature of the New Cinema is its critique of modernization
and Westernization at the e.xpense o f national innocence. This criticism is
considered a progressiv e element by supporters o f the New Cinema because it
examines postw ar dev elopments from a critical point o f v iew (Chiao 1988).
One o f its examinations involves consideration o f neo-colonialism. But when
we examine the presence o f American music in Edward Yang's films, this neo
colonial critique seems problematic and inconsistent. And this inconsistency
poignantly reveals the very difficulty o f discrediting the neo-eoloniality
contingent upon Taiwan's reliance on the United States to modernize the
country.
The inscription o f neo-colonialism clearly shows in Edward Yang's
1991 film , A Bri<’hter Summer Day {Ku-Hng-chie shuo-nien sha-jen shili-
chien). Yang's nostalgia o f American pop o f the 1950s and the 1960s
appears in this semi-autobiographical film by means o f music. He uses this
music to represent a source o f pleasure and identity fo r the diasporic mainland
youth. The film focuses on a gang called Little Park, which has a rock band,
to elaborate on this discourse. One o f the vocalists o f the band. Wang Mao.
with a nickname o f "L ittle Elvis." vividly illustrates the embrace o f rock.
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Little Park is not interested in creating music but only in covering
popular American songs. But doing covers is not enough for them, especially
for Little Elvis who endeavors to sing like Elvis. Being a high school
teenager. Little Elvis has a body of a grade-school child and a prcpubescent
voice. A peculiar spectacle appears when he sings on stage. Because o f his
height, he has to stand to a stool in order to reach the microphone. Also,
because o f his childlike voice, he sings like a castrato when he covers "A re
You Lonesome Tonight." On top o f these mismatched qualities w ith Elvis the
King, Little Elvis can barely speak English. Despite all these, his ambition and
passion toward American music is not discouraged a bit. Relying on a tape
and a phonograph to repeatedly listen to Elvis' singing, he is able to conceal
his lack o f language proficiency and to capture the accurate pronunciation as
well as imitating an American singing style.
Little Elv is' mim icking seem to fit quite well to the term "grotesque
m im icry " introduced by Homi Bhabha in his discussion o f colonial discourse.
The awkward combination o f musical proximity and visual peculiarity in the
performance o f Little Elvis reveals the neo-colonial textuality in the
representation o f historical memory.
But the neo-coloniality in this historical representation should not be
sim plified as a result o f the unequal distribution o f resources between the First
and the Third worlds. Rather, I suggest that a more accurate discussion o f this
cultural dependency has to be located in Taiwan's socio cultural context o f
the first decade o f the cold war era.
Taiwan's cultural field o f the 1950s presented a spare and arid
landscape in the confines o f martial law and anti-communist dogmatism.
Under severe social, political, and cultural control, there was no room for
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countercultures to surv ive. The seeking after new inspiration and excitement
was especially evident in the young generation o f the mainland diaspora.
Imported Western culture that came as a package o f pleasure and know ledge
was immediately accepted by the young people caught between the old
generation's nostalgia and the unfamiliar local customs and language. The
learning o f Western culture is thus an overdetermined rebellion rather than a
singular neo-colonial submission.
Recent postcolonial critiques might be accurate in pointing out the
colonial "residue" in Yang's uncritical representation o f youth
counterculture that derives from a problematic imitation of imperialist Western
popular culture. But for mainland Chinese youth who were cut o ff from the
motherland (read: mainland China) and indoctrinated to discriminate against
the host culture (the Taiwanese), American culture meant more than just an
available and desirable source for dealing with boredom; it also provided a site
for an identity . Between zero and the devil, Yang and his generation chose
the second worst evil in order to keep open a way to enlightenment even if it
meant a grotesque pastiche.
Conclusion: There A in 't No Chinese in the Taiwan Sink: the
Commodification o f Identity Politics
This study ends with the current stage o f Taiwanese cinema and
popular music, a stage which I call "nativist postmodernism. " This stage has
witnessed the resurgence o f soundtrack music in the film s made in the late
1980s and the early 1990s. "Post-New Cinema" {hou hsin lien-ying) is the
term that Taiwanese critics have been using to call the films that are made in
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this nativisl postmodern stage. These film s reveal a reintegration of politics
and capitalism. Only this time it is different. Instead of being governed by
anti-communist Chinese nationalism and a centralized production and
distribution system, film and other mass cultural production are reshaped by a
new Taiwanese subjectivity and a postmodern commodity system.
The lifting of martial law in 1987 opened a whole new area for
filmmakers to explore. The position o f Taiwanese people in the past four
decades o f political change has become the new subject matter for the post-
New Cinema. Unlike its predecessor's ambiguous political stance, the post-
New Cinema addresses the issue o f Taiwanese subjectivity and nativist
politics directly rather than through understatements. It tries to replace the
homogeneous national identity with contested diversity as part o f the political
and cultural development in postwar Taiwan.
The post-New Cinema also demonstrates a compromising attitude with
commercialism. New and old filmmakers including Edward Yang and Hou
Hsiao-hsien have begun to m odify their place in the whole cultural and
political apparatus since the late 1980s. Their modifications contain new
marketing strategies such as releasing soundtrack albums, direct involvements
in the musical production, and emphasizing intertextual links between music
and film.
The reunion o f film and music appears problematic. Taiwanese
consciousness has become the ideological underpinning o f most songs in the
film s' soundtrack album, thanks to the nativist movement. Postmodern forms
underlie the musical m ultiplicity o f the albums. In this regard, film songs begin
to connect w ith the integration o f politics and art. On the other hand, this
new development inevitably falls into the postmodern cobweb and has
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rapidly been absorbed by the commodity system. Commodification has
dominated the way o f all cultural production, especially the construction o f a
new Taiwanese identity in light o f political liberation. "There ain't no
Chinese in the Taiwan sink." to paraphrase Paul Gilroy 's book There Ain't No
Black in the Union Jack, is a v. ay to imagine that Chinese nationalism and the
national concept based on a unified China are facing a tremendous crisis in
the current formation o f a Taiwan nation. But does this mean the arrival o f a
pure. Taiwanese identity? As numerous commodity items have been
competing fo r the most "authentic" representation o f Taiwaneseness. and
many different groups are fighting for political power. Taiwanese identity
remains uncertain, fleeting, and full o f variables.
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REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
This section contains material on the areas of film , music, and their
interaction in relation to national identity and culture. It is d ifficu lt to rely on
only one approach for disentangling various issues on film , music, culture, and
politics. The methodologies applied are thus multiple, ranging from the
semiotic approach to film music to realist theories of sound, from the sociology
and politics o f popular music to Sinification, and from the theory o f affective
empowerment to neo-colonial discourse.
These methodologies are applied in different chapters fo r specific goals.
Eirst. a semiotic approach to film music provides useful analytical terms for
te.xtual analysis, and realist theories o f film sound are used to illuminate the
parado.x o f realism in constructing a new sound space, which is meant to give
the illusion o f a ture reproduction o f reality. Second, the sociology and
politics o f popular music helps clarify the relationship between the discourse
o f the nation and representations o f pop music in film . Sinification and
Chinese nationalism are essential to understand the prominence o f family
melodrama in Taiwanese cinema (as well as other Chinese-language cinema).
They help explain how and why melodrama provides a pertinent narrative
world for mediating cultural and national crises. Lastly, neo-colonial discourse
and affective empowerment explicate the relationship between a Third W orld
subculture and American cultural hegemony a la rock ‘n' roll. In order to
explain the application o f these methodologies, including their strength and
weakness in analyzing Third W orld texts, the above goals are discussed in the
follow ing topics:
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I. Representations o f Popular Music in Film: Discourse o f the Nation
Film music and sound
As a “ non-representative” component o f film experience, music, and to
a large extent, sound, has taken a back seat in film studies. But the
dev elopment o f film studies in the late 1970s opened a new direction for the
study o f this "neglected" part o f cinema (Prendergast). W ith psychoanalysis
and cine-semiology becoming major theoretical discourses in the field, scholars
were able to expand accounts o f sound from a practical and aesthetic
dimension to ideological production. In the genre o f the musical. Jane Feuer's
The Hollywood Musical (1982. first edition) and Rick Altm an's The American
Film Musical {\9^1) has opened up a new dimension for the studies o f the
American musical by using cine-semiology. structuralism, and cultural studies.
In sound aesthetics. Rick Altm an's (ed.) Cinema/Sound (1980). and Elizabeth
Weis/John Belton's Film Sound: Theory and Practice (1985) established
theoretical foundations and an academic space fo r sound. In film music.
Claudia Gorbman's Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music (1987) relied
on semiotics and psychoanalysis to explore the textual relationship between
music and image. W ith the emergence o f these works, sound has become an
essential area for film studies. Analyses o f visual signification cannot be
completed without taking aural signification into consideration.
On the other hand, feminist film scholars have also begun to engage
new theories with sound. For example. Mary Ann Doane's "The Voice in
Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space " and Kaja Silverman's The
Acoustic Mirror: Psychoanalysis and Female Voice (1987) disclose
patriarchal underpinning in representing female voice in classical Hollywood
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cinema. Am y Lawrence's Echo and Narcissus: Women’ s Voices in Classical
Hollywood Cinema (1991) clarifies several important issues o f .sound and
gender in classical Hollywood cinema. She focuses on women's voices and
their relationship with language, cinema/sound technology , and their
possession o f authorial point o f view. By blending the earlier semiotic
approach w ith Marxist cultural theory. Caryl Filnn's Strains o f Utopia:
Gender. Nostalt’ia. and Hollywood Film Music (1992) proposes that music
embodies certain ideologies, including utopia, nostalgia, realist impulse, gender
identity, and sense o f community. These works form a powerful second wave
o f feminist intervention in expanding the horizons o f film studies on sound.
These studies are most valuable to my project for their terminology.
Terms like diegetic and nondiegetic music replace conventional terms like
"source music " (Weis and Belton 408) or "background music. " clarifying the
terms o f "soundtrack music " as well as the usage o f music in the narrative.
Diegetic music means music that comes from within the diegesis— the world of
the story, while nondiegetic music indicates music from outside of the story,
adding an extra narration to the diegesis.
This categorization, however, has some limitations. Diegetic music
does not discriminate between music that functions as ambient sound and
music that actually has a signifying effect, for example, the music that is played
by the character or music that occupies the center o f the scene. Here Gerald
Genette's theory provides a more detailed taxonomy. Genette uses
intradiegetic to indicate the narration that specifically elicited from the
character. In this way, the "live " singing or instrument playing can be termed
as "intradiegetic'' music. The opposite term o f intradiegetic is extradiegetic.
Genette uses it to define narration that is "external to the diegesis yet
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functions an “ overall control o f the visual and sonic registers" (Stam 96-97).
In this way. we can call soundtrack music c.xtradiegetic because it is not
produced within the frame o f the fictional world, but it plays a part in
proffering meaning to the diegetic world.
The distinction between the two usages helps more accurately to
analyze the funetion o f music in the narrative, especially when it involves the
account o f identification o f the audience, o f w hat Bertolt Brecht calls the
"affect" o f film ic narration. For example, when music comes directly from the
eharacters (intradiegetic). it clearly tells the audience o f the source of the
music and is thus able to construct a sense o f authenticity . But when it comes
from the extradiegetic soundtrack, its association with originality tends to
disappear from the perception o f the audience. But extradiegetic music is no
less important than intradiegetic music. Music coming from outside o f the
story often functions as a commentary from an authorial perspective. Both
Gorbman's and Kalinak's books emphasize this characteristic of extradiegetic
music. They suggest that it works either to enhance or ironize the action.
The term "sonic realism" that I introduce in chapter four is derived
from Bazin's photographic realism. I propose "sonic realism" to be a
pertinent critical term for the use o f music in the Taiwanese New Cinema. The
goal o f the New Cinema is to restore cinema from an overproduced artificiality
to an image/sound world closer to popular memory. Sound in this realist and
nostalgic representation o f the past plays not just a supplemental role to image
but is an essential element. Here I rely on Kracauer's discussion on music's
"incidental" feature in accompanying the sense o f reality (144-5) and Balazs'
assimilation between sound and its reproduction (216). Moreover, I expand
Bazin's concept o f "total cinema" into the arena o f music to establish its
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equal vitality to image. I use the terminology provided by cine-semiology to
analyze how music has been manipulated to fu lfill the true representation of
society and history .
However, there seems to be a slight difficulty in my application o f these
studies because their subject is score music, i.e.. music composed specifically
for the film , while I focus on pop songs, which have a life independent from
the film s. W ith the e.xception o f Jane Feuer's "Postscript" o f the second
edition o f The Hollywood Musical {\992). none o f them raises issues
regarding rock n' roll or popular music. In order to find more pertinent
sources for my topic. I consult pop music theory and cultural studies.
Pop music theory and cultural studies
The writings on rock ‘ n‘ roll and popular music by pop critics, cultural
critics and theorists make a valuable contribution in clarifying the relationship
between popular music and society. Popular music critic and scholar Simon
Frith in his "Towards an Aesthetic o f Popular M usic" (1987). proposes a
sociological, rather than a musicological, approach to pop. In the beginning o f
his essay, he states that "in analyzing serious music, we have to uncover the
social forces concealed in the talk o f transcendent' values; in analyzing pop.
we have to take seriously the values scoffed at in the talk o f social functions. "
And in the conclusion o f his opening statement, he says: "a sociological
approach to popular music does not rule out an aesthetic theory but. on the
contrary, makes one possible." Frith argues that the sociological approach o f
pop is the basis o f the aesthetic o f pop. W ithout a sociological account o f
pop. pop loses its most important meaning— its association with society ,
economy, and culture. It is based on this line o f thinking that the cultural
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periphery o f rock/pop can be expanded and used as cross-fertilizers in cultural
and film studies.
Film ic representation of pop music, according to Frith's argument, can
be analy zed based on the idea that it should be seen as a social, cultural, and
political document o f a certain historical time. But one may ask how the
representation o f pop can be associated as a form o f political representation?
And how is it related to the myth o f the nation? David E. James' two essays
“ Rock and Roll in Representations o f the Inv asion o f Vietnam" (1990) and
"The Vietnam War and American M usic" (1989) provide a valuable model in
responding to the first question: several works o f culture theory on the nation
as well as the recent studies on Chinese national identity in China studies lay
the ground to answer the second question.
"The Vietnam War and American M usic" demonstrates the complex
relationship between music, late-capital ism, American imperialism, and political
dissent. James discusses the ways in which rock as “ a summary o f late-
capitalist art form ," fluctuates among liberal anti-war protest, lack o f a real
engagement to socio-historical specificity, and finally the displacement of
imperialist guilt. He suggests that the search for the "total meaning" o f music
has to proceed from both inside o f the music industry and its margins. His
analysis shows that the political significance o f music is never stable but
intertwined with formal, social, political, and economic determinants.
"Rock and Roll in Representations o f the Invasion o f Vietnam" first
defines the "intermedia" quality o f late-capitalist culture industries: "W ith the
loss of both formal and social autonomy fo r art, events in industrial culture
typically appear as general projects realized more or less simultaneously in
several mediums, none o f which can be categorically distinguished from the
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others" (78). Understanding the interdependence o f different media, James
further suggests that in representing the most traumatic postwar experience in
America, the use o f rock n" roll in war film s functions not just according to
the apparatuses o f mass media but as displaeement for the reality of the
invasion. "They rewrote genocide as rock and ro ll” (80).
The two related essay s by James have opened a new direction fo r the
study o f the conneetion between music and politics, culture, and mass media.
His re-historicizing o f rock expands the cultural horizon o f American popular
music. Pop music is not just a voice o f youth rebellion and social protest, nor
another example o f media's co-optation o f innovation and dissident, but
moreover, a formidable "guitar army" in America's postwar expansion. The
model that James tries to set up in his essay s is useful to analyze political
representation o f music. To explore music's attributes in building a national
myth and identity, music's positions in media apparatuses, marginal cultures,
and national agendas must be examined. Equally important is how music
functions in the text, which is in turn influenced by these elements.
The development o f culture theory, anthropology, and history in the
early 1980s has provided a new way to examine the concept o f the nation in
the modem period. In various studies, scholars have begun to deconstruct the
ideological building o f a unified nation-state and demystify the notion of
national concept as pre-given, preordained, and natural. For example. Ernest
Gellner in his Nations and Nationalism (1983) explains how nationalism
provides an imagined coherence, efficiency, and rationality as the ideological
base fo r economic growth in industrial nation-states. Benedict Anderson's
seminal Imagined Communities (1983) has argued that nation is organized by
the idea o f imagined, political communities as inherently bounded and
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sovereign. The power of creating this conception has to rely prim arily on
"printed capitalism” in disseminating the imagined common experiences. The
imagination o f shared experiences by people living in different geographical
spaces helps define and internalize the idea of "nation" as a bounded, limited,
and unified territory. Anderson introduces a new way to reconsider the role
o f literature (especially the novel) in helping nation and national identity to
come into a historical being in modem capitalist systems. Thus, "imagined
communities" are not just built on social polity but more significantly , a
system o f cultural significations and representations o f social life.
Scholars o f China studies have also done significant works on national
identity. The editors o f China’ s Quest for National Identity. Lowell Dittmer
and Samuel S. Kim clarify the definition o f national identity in their
introduction to the book: "National identity should be understood as. . . a
relationship rather than a free-standing entity or attribute. National identity is
the relationship between nation and state that obtains when the people of
that nation identify with state" (13). Later in the conclusion to the book, they
specify that "national identity is the characteristic collective behavior o f the
national system as a whole, in interaction with other subnational, national, and
international systems, flow ing from the totality o f sacred attributes and
symbols o f a solidarity political group known as a ‘nation-state.’" Here the
mentioning o f the "interaction with other subnational, national, and
international systems" are valuable because it so well explains the case of
Taiwan. The building o f national identity and nationalism in postwar Taiwan
has been guided not Just by internal politics (subnational and national) but
also by external (international) factors.
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Aside from these three interfaces, the authors argue that national
identity also involves "national essence" (roughly termed as kuo-ts'ui). a
concept that the Japanese creates in the late 19th century for constructing a
new. modern, indigenous national identity distinctive from others in the world.
It is then used by the Chinese to form the characteristics of their national
identity. The meaning o f "national essence." according to the authors, is "a
core o f sentiments and sy mbols of the state" with which the m ajority o f the
people commonly identify (246). W ith the concept o f "national essence."
state identity is defined more speeifieally in terms o f its place in cultural
practice, namely , the common language, rituals, flag, anthem, and costume.
This notion is crucial to my e.xamination o f both the official and
subcultural definition of the nation. My first three chapters deal w ith the
building o f the nation as a unique cultural and political entity through
different kinds o f music. Chapter one discusses the use o f Mandarin pop in a
policy film to construct a national identity based on rituals and symbols o f a
national spirit. Chapter two and three discuss the reification o f subcultural
innovations and its manipulation by mainstream film . The reification mainly
derives from the musical's own identification with mythical cultural elements
which make room for its co-optation.
In sum. though from different disciplines and for different critical
purposes, the above studies together form a valuable methodological
kaleidoscope. Though not related to Taiwan, each o f them has provided
analytical tools and theoretical foundations to my study. They help me
formulate a methodology blended with socio-cultural and political
perspective, as well as formal and content analysis to disentangle the complex
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relationship between film , popular music, cultural apparatuses, and the
construction o f the nation.
1 1 . Modernizing the Nation: Family Melodrama and Historical Representation
in Postwar Taiwan
Melodrama and Chinese-lan^’ua^e Cinema
The film s that I discuss in the first part o f my dissertation are mostly
melodrama, which is an unavoidable encounter in Chinese-language cinema.
Family melodrama, as PRC film scholar Ma Ning points out, is "one of the
dominant forms of e.xpression in Chinese cinema since its beginning in early
years o f this century" (1989, 79). Because o f the split between socialist
mainland and capitalist Hong Kong and Taiwan, melodrama is designated by
different Chinese terms. It is called ch 'in^’-chieh chin (plot drama) in mainland
C hina’ and wen-ip'ien in Taiwan and Hong Kong.- Despite the discrepancy
o f translation, melodrama almost has an omnipotent status in the cinema o f
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the PRC. Scholars o f these three areas have been
interested in melodrama and its prevalence in Chinese-language cinema. Their
perspectives, however, vary according to different concerns with how
melodrama can be related to cultural productions as a whole.
’The term appears in a Chinese translation of an English book on melodrama
entitled Melodrama written by James L. Smith in 1973. See Ch’ing-chieh chiu,
trans. Wu Wen (Beijing: Chung-kuo, 1992).
^This source is drawn from a Taiwanese book entitled Chung-kuo chin-tai den
ying yen-chiu [Studies on modem Chinese melodrama] by Ts’ai Kuo-jung.
This is not a strictly critical study but a historical survey of melodrama.
Although the book uses a traditionalist perspective in analyzing melodrama, it
is a useful source book for its wide selection of directors, subgenres, periods,
and writers.
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The scholar who has been most enthusiastically engaging in PRC's
melodrama. Ma Ning, places melodrama in the changing cultural, social, and
political context.-’ In his article "Symbolic Representation and Sy mbolic
Violence: Chinese Family Melodrama in the Early 1980s." he provides a
cultural explanation for the prominence of fam ily melodrama and its
importance in studying Chinese cinema. Ma Ning states that: "The centrality
of the genre in Chinese cinema derives to some extent from the position o f the
fam ily in Chinese society. The family , rather than the individual or the state,
was the most significant social unit in traditional China" (79). Given this, the
family becomes the site for battles over specific national and socio-cultural
agendas; and family melodrama constitutes the space for the rendition o f such
battles.
Another Taiwanese critic Ts ai Kuo-jung begins his book on
melodrama by acknowledging the close relationship between melodrama and
an old-fashioned popular fiction labeled as “ Mandarin Duck and Butterfly
literature" {\'uan-yang-hu-tiei wen-hsueh). Emerged in the early 20th
century, "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly literature" is a body o f ficiton written
by old school' novelists who utilized traditional literary style to produce
sentimental love stories (Chow 1991,37). Its centrality lies in the excessive
description o f the romantic love between ts'ai-tzu (scholars) and cliia-jen
(beauties). Ts ai suggests that melodrama can be categorized to two kinds of
orientations in terms o f its expression: the romantic and the realist (9).
According to him, although the realist orientation had more social and political
3Ma Ning has repeatedly written on PRC’s family melodrama. He deals with
this subject in several articles, including: “Symbolic Representation and
Symbolic Violence: Chinese Family Melodrama in the Early 1980s,” “ SpatiaUty
and Subjectivity in Xie Jin’s Film Melodrama of the New Period,” and “ College
Course File: East Asian Cinema,” which he co-wrote with Linda Ehrlich.
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awareness, romantic orientation dominated the production o f melodramatic
film s, especially during its beginning period.
This description is confirmed by PRC historian Ch eng Chi-hua. As
Ch eng documents, among the approximate 650 feature film s made from the
period from 1921 to 1931. most o f the film s were co-written by writers o f the
“ Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School" (1: 56). Although Butterfly literature
and subsequently, film s made from this genre were condemned as degenerate
cultural products from the perspective o f this socialist critic, its importance
cannot be easily written off. As one o f the most dominant genres in Hong
Kong and Taiwan during the first two decades after the end o f the second
world war. romantic melodrama {wen-yip'ien) evolves directly from early
melodrama and its ancestor. Butterfly literature.
But why does Butterfly melodrama occupy a substantial space,
quantitatively if not qualitatively, in early Chinese cinema? What is specific
about its style, story, and narrative pattern that causes its domination? What is
its relation with fam ily, identity, and nation? A closer look at Butterfly
literature w ill help us answer this question better.
In her re-reading o f the "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly Literature"
against the previous perspectives (including socialist realism. Anglo-American
New Criticism , pro-socialist sociological survey), Rey Chow suggests that
Butterfly fiction is deeply embeded with a forced negotiation between
traditions and modernity (1991,34-83). By employing methodologies o f
feminist literary criticism and cultural theory, Chow re-reads Butterfly
literature as a specific cultural production coming from the nexus o f two
historical contexts: the rise o f a mass consumer culture under the sway o f
Western capitalism and the residue o f feudalist ideology. She argues that by
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utilizing this seemingly “ frivolous” popular literature, the ambivalence to the
cultural stimulation brought on by imperialists is able to be expressed. Rey
Chow's new reading of Butterfly literature leads to issues on national identity
and melodrama. By elarifying these issues, the signifieation o f music in
melodrama can be more cogently analyzed.
Sinicizing cinema
It is accurate to say that early Chinese-language cinema presents a
pieture o f paranational borrowing from various arts, mediums, and forms. It is
heavily indebted to American (continuity editing). Soviet (dialectical
montage).-^ Japanese (rensa ^eki).^ and European (German expressionism^^ and
French documentary realism) cinematic forms; with respect to theatrical
intertexts, it incorporates popular theatre called wen-min^ hsi (eivilized drama)
fused with European modem drama and Japanese shimpa theatre.?
■ ’•Hong Kong film scholar Lin Nien-tung has delineated this point most
succinctly in his Ching-yiu [Wandering Lens] 23-37.
^ Rensa geki, literally meaning “chain drama,” is a series of exchanges between
stage play and moving pictures. Short films are inserted in sequences which
are difficult to be realized in theatre. The Chinese called it lien-t'ai-hsi when
it was adopted to early Chinese cinema in 1927. According to Tu Yun-chih’s
description, the theatrical part of lien-t'ai-hsi comes directly from Peking
Opera. The film that goes with the opera usually has the same casting to
preserve dramatic continuity. This hybrid form remained a very popular
drama un till the mid 1930s. See his Chung-kuo te tien-ying [Chinese cinema]
87-88.
&The most famous Chinese horror film of the 1930s, Midnight Chanting (Yeh
pan ke-sheng, 1937) is said to be inspired by Phantom of the Opera (Rupert
Julian, 1926) and Frankenstein (James W hies, 1931). See Le Cinema Chinois
173. The film is directed by Ma-Xu Wei-peng and made by Hsing-hua Film
Studio.
~Shimpa theatre (the new-school theatre) originated in Japan around the
1870s. In contrast to kyuha (old school), shimpa sets out to “publicize liberal
and anti-feudalistic political aims” but ended as a “theatrical compromise
w hich.. . never succeeded in finding a realist approach” (Anderson and
Richie 31). According to Ch’eng Chi-hua, shlnpa theatre had a great influence
in Chinese wen-ming hsi which arose after the first Sino-Japan war in 1894
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In spite o f relying on foreign sources, the distinctive feature o f early
Chinese-language cinema is its references to traditional operas and folk
literature in making a melodrama acceptable to the Chinese audience. Again.
Ch eng Chi-hua's first volume o f Chun^-kuo lien-yini’ fa-chan shih |A
history o f the development o f Chinese cinema) provides useful information
about this topic. In the appendix. Cheng lists filmographies covering film s
made from 1905 to 1937. including feature, opera and animation film s (1:519-
646). By looking at the titles o f the film s made at this period, a good number
o f them were closely associated w ith cither opera plays or well-known
popular legends. This phenomenon, as Ma Ning incisively points out. can be
conceptualized as the process o f "sinocization|siej" ( 1990. 63).
Ma Ning prim arily uses the notion o f "Sinicization" for discussing
leftist film s o f the 1930s and postwar PRC cinema when the party demanded a
new cinema characterized with narratives o f "transparency and clarity." As a
matter of fact. Sinicization as a process of transformation, assimilation,
integration, and regeneration does not originate in the 1930s. It has existed
since the beginning o f film m aking in the mainland, Hong Kong as well as
Taiwan.
As many scholars have argued, cinema came to China, Taiwan, and
Hong Kong as part and parcel o f Western imperialism (Ch eng 7-8; Lu l-3;Yu
88). China's confrontation with Western imperialism began in the late 19th
century. The failure o f China's three thousand year old civilization to defeat
the Western imperialist invasions drastically changed Chinese people's world
view. Between radicals and traditionalists, a synthesis o f "Western form and
for similar reasons to those of their Japanese predecessor (22). The later
revolutionary drama and leftist films are both indebted to wen-ming hsi.
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34
Chinese substance" was proposed as a better approach to protect China from
being annexed. But even this compromise was itself a paradox because form
and substance were not always opposite but frequently complementary to
one another. Therefore, the question became how to maintain the purity of
Chinese substance in implementing Western forms. In light o f this ideological
struggle, cinema, like every other Western cultural technology brought to
China at the turn o f the century, einema had to justify its cultural authenticity.
The way to ease the tension between Chinese culture and cinema,
essentially a Western invention, was Sinicization. Early filmmakers made
Chinese film look less foreign and more akin to Chinese dramatic tradition.
The strategy was utilized by leftist cinema o f the 1930s; for example. Ma Ning
has suggested that in order to Sinicize cinema, leftist filmmakers incorporated
traditional fo lk arts, including shadow play and word play into their works
(1990, 66), In addition to this, the cyelical narrative structure typical in
classical Chinese novels was used to increase audience's apprehension o f the
narrative (65).
Ma Ning's discussion shows that early filmmakers were concerned to
overcome the unfam iliarity and foreigness o f einema. But the kind o f
Sinicization that emphasizes recognizability and fam iliarity differs from the
original meaning of the term, Sinicization {han-hua or chimi’-kuo-hua), is a
term for a special policy originated in the Han Dynasty around the first
century. The purpose o f Sinicization then was to aid the government's series
o f expansionist wars against ethnic minorities inhabited in areas o f the
northwestern and northern part o f China. In order to suppress a second
resistance from the minorities, an institutionalized assimilation o f non-Han into
Han culture was implemented in local governance. It was not a legal
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35
enforcement by a repressive power, but a racial assimilation by means of
cultural unification o f language, ritual, custom, and religion.
This quasi-imperialist cultural policy maintained China's imperial
power and the supremacy o f Han culture for over two thousand years. The
dominance of Han culture and identity was so tremendous that it was able to
survive under the anti-Han policy implemented during the periods when
China was ruled by Mongols and Manchus. But when China failed to
develop massive industrialization as Japan did in the wake o f Western
imperialism, she became the object o f Westernization rather than the subject of
Sinicization.
In this comple.x of ambivalent inferiority and superiority Sinicization
became a crucial issue in film practice. In addition to competing with Western
film s in box office. Sinicization has a more urgent task. The modification to a
fam iliar Chinese narrative and theatrical form involved an ideological struggle
against Western hegemony. The doctrines o f assuring identity, creating
authenticity, and preserving the cultural heritage were constantly
incorporated into this cultural battle. Gradually they have become the
intrinsic ideological characteristics in Chinese-language film practice.
The concept o f Sinicization is similar to the major point o f Andrew
Higson's article on concepts o f national cinema. Higson points out that in the
course o f developing a national cinema, characterization is often a common
process in resisting and competing with Hollywood. Emphasizing the
economic promise in differentiating a national "product" from that o f
Hollywood, Higson shows how national cinemas emerge from a privileging o f
a distinctive cultural heritage (42-43). A specific characteristic— a historical
event, a political experience, or an artistic medium— is singled out and recruited
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36
to serve as carrier o f an inimitable nationality. In early Chinese cinema, the
Sinicization agent was Peking opera. Under financially and technologically
underprivileged conditions, opera was singled out and recruited to represent
the Chinese essence {kuo-ts'ui). And more recently, the nationalizing
candidate becomes popular music.
As an indigenous art form characterized by sets o f symbols capable of
differentiating one national identity from the other (Dittmer and Kim 18-20).
opera is seen as an potent element to be incorporated into cinematic
Sinicization. It is no coincidence that Tin;^-cliun-s/ian. the first Chinese film ,
was an opera in motion pictures. This film was a short documentary o f three
sequences from a famous opera. Tinf'-jun-shan. It inaugurated Chinese
film m aking as well as the long journey o f Sinicization. Hence, before the
teens, many film s made hy the Chinese were opera documentaries casting
famous opera artists. The opera film reigned till the early 1920s when
Butterfly and social melodrama came to replace its domination.
This conte.xt o f Sinicization gives us a historical background o f why
opera is used first and foremost when the Chinese film begins its
experimentation with sound. The first Chinese sound film The Sonf’stress Red
Peony (Ke-nu hung mu-tan, 1931 ; dir. Chang Shih-ch’ uang) epitomizes early
melodrama's connection w ith opera and classical plays. The film 's sound
consists o f the recording o f four famous opera songs. The content o f the
songs is about chung (loyalty), hsiao (filia l piety), chieh (chastity), and yi
(righteousness)— the primary ethical norms upheld by the traditional operas.
The film 's ideology is clearly characterized by the "national essence.”
Nevertheless, it also tries to respond to its own time by protesting against a
corrupt legal system and the abusive practices o f Confucianism. W ith music.
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37
melodrama is capable of addressing eontradictions generated from external
forces (eg., modem technology and life style) and internal structure (eg.,
indigenous cultural elements).
The nexus o f music and Sinicization can be seen as important (or even
defining) features o f melodrama. This. I suggest, is a new and exciting
approach to Chinese-language melodrama. It covers many recurring issues in
contemporary Taiwanese melodrama. By focusing on music's functions in the
narrative and film ic representation o f music,
the relationship between cultural production and the making o f national
culture in modernization context can be clarified.
III. Rock n' roll and the Third W orld Youth Identity: Neo-colonialism or
“ Affective Empowerment"?
Radical w riting on rock n' roll has defined rock as social and
political rebellion. Michael Lydon's Guitar Army shows an optimism in
rock's subversion o f the dominant society. But on the other hand, rock
cannot exist outside o f the operation o f capitalism. John Sinclair has
pointed out that rock is always "fo r sale." David James shows the
ideological link between rock and postwar American imperialism in films
about the Vietnam War. If we accept that rock exemplifies a structural
contradiction in the capitalist systems; if we acknowledge that rock
positions itself in contrast to mainstream culture, how are we going to
interpret the domination of American music in a Third W orld subcultural
context? In dealing with this thesis in my last chapter, I seek conceptual
guidance from cultural studies and the historical study o f Taiwan's culture.
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3 8
David Ricsman in his "Listening to Popular M usic" defines youth as a
"m inority group" as opposed to adults as the "m ajority group." Riesman's
definition distinguishes youth as a social group which has a distinctive
identity with a significant difference from that o f their parents. The meaning
o f "minority" involves cultural practices that are not familiar to most adults in
their ever}day life. This includes listening to music.
Riesman's argument may sound dated because youth culture, as we
understand it now. is characterized by intrinsic contradictions. Although it
has an authentic identity that emphasizes differences from all other social
groups, its "distinct" cultural taste is susceptible to corporate assimilation
(Hebdige; Hall and Whannel). However, considering the time that Riesman
writes (he wrote the article in 1950), his point is still valuable. For he not only
proposes a theoretical approach to analyze youth, but he also examines youth
characteristics in light o f socio-cultural structure. More importantly , he
suggests that the cultural practice o f youth is, by definition, contrary to that
o f adults.
This idea can be applied to Taiwanese youth subculture o f the 1960s,
for it illuminates the structural differences between youth and adults. This
distinction is especially pertinent to Edward Yang's A Brighter Summer Day
(1991). The film is structured by generational differences based on two
cultural identities. In the film , the "semiotics" o f the youth culture is
American rock n' roll while the parents' identity still remains within
Confucian ethics. But Confucianism is not the only barrier to the
communication between the two generations. Cultural displacement, a
national split, and authoritarian politics are the additional and not the least
influential forces that separate the youth from their parents.
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39
The practice of reek thus has double meanings. The teenagers use it to
express desire while at the same time, pronounee their differenee from the rest
o f the soeiety. Their heterogeneous socio-eultural performance precisely
forms a resistanee against the homogeneous eulture, society, and polities of
the 1960s.
This appropriation o f rock is similar to the idea o f "affeetive
empowerment” proposed by Lawrenee Grossberg (1986. 1 14). The
empowerment theory emphasizes that the use o f roek posits an oppositional
polities in American culture because it "produees a rupture between the roek
and roll audienee (in their ev eryday life) and the larger hegemonie
eontext. . ." (116). But oppositionality is not suffieient to explain rock's
existence in the Third W orld history which has been under the influence o f
Western imperialism.
Grossberg reiterates this issue in a different eontext. In We i’otta ge/
out o f this place, he argues that youth has no intrinsie definition but is
defined by the larger social and economic contexts. By extending this idea,
he then suggests that youth struggle can be looked at as a reflection o f a
larger struggle of the nation (181). Although Grossberg prim arily speaks from
his observation of American baby boomers, his proposition can definitely be
applied to Taiwanese youth in the postwar development. The youth's
embrace o f rock n' roll reflected a identity crisis that also signifies the
uncertainty o f the nation. From the 1950s to the 1970s, national identity was
a critical but muted issue in the island. In the Nationalist regime’s
confrontation with socialist China, Taiwan was proclaimed the only legitimate
China and hence, represented the legitimate Chinese identity. This ideology
eliminated the possibility o f other kinds o f political and regional
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40
identifications. Taiwanese consciousness, as a result, was suppressed for a
long period o f time. On the other hand, identification with Western culture
and thought was welcomed because it helped promote the modernization
projeet and the relationship with the US government. This complex network
combining domestic, geopolitical, and international politics thus generated a
peculiar identity structure w ith Confucianism, right-wing politics, and
Westernization as the three axes. What was left out is the Taiwanese and left-
wing identity.
In the absence of the Taiwanese and socialist identity. Western culture
and thought became the alternative to the Confucian and right-wing identity.
Several Taiwanese writers and scholars have suggested that the use o f
Western cultural forms is not just mimicry but a significant discursive practice
(Y. Chang; Yang T.). In the case of music, rock is used to oppose uniform ity
and eseape from anti-communism frenzy and conservative cultural institutions.
Rock empowers the youth, allowing them a liberating and self-creative
expression. It is a postmodern "bricolage" devoid o f historical consciousness
and political indoctrination.
David Morley and Kevin Robin in their "N o Place Like Heimat: Images
of Home(land) in European Culture" talk about the dialectics o f the
"invasion" o f American culture in postwar Germany. They are imerested in
the question o f Ameriean colonization, whose im port cannot be assessed
without asking why and how it functions as a seductive, not just a dominant
power. They suggest that in the case o f postwar German youth culture,
getting involved in other cultures was a way to deal w ith a profound identity
crisis. In this context, the appeal o f American culture lies in its irrelevance to
German ideology and history. By accepting Ameriean consumer culture like
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41
rock 'n ' roll, postwar German youth was released from the difficulty of
dealing with the past. "Rock n" roll might have been foreign' but at least it
has nothing to do w ith fascism" (11).
The study o f Morley and Robins informs us that the domination of
American music in a Third W orld subculture cannot be treated as just another
instance o f neo-colonialism. It in fact embodies a double and contradictory
meaning: the fascination with Western civilization and culture is definitely a
subjugation, yet in the domestic cultural context, rock 'n ' roll is self-
emancipation.
The teenagers singing Elvis' "D o n 't be Cruel" in the 1960s might not
have the awareness o f colonialism because what they felt from rock n' roll
was a direct and exploding pleasure. But for the youth o f the 1990s, grow ing
up with diplomatic crises, nativist assertion, political reform, and economic
miracles, they have learned how to utilize and appropriate international pop
culture in their own terms. They welcome new things (hip hop, new age,
sampling, and pastiche) and preserve old memories (art rock, billboard pop,
political suppression, and Taiwanese folk). They synthesize politics and music
to make a postmodern Taiwanese music that directly challenges external and
internal colonialism.
The debate on the applicability o f Western theory has for a long time
been an issue inside o f Chinese-language studies (Berry; Yau; Kaplan:
Brown). It is then used by Chinese-born scholars in American institutions to
respond to poststructuralist polemics like logocentrism, ethnocentrism,
phallocentrism, and cannon formation (Chow; Zhang L.; Zhang Y.). "Cross-
cultural analysis" as Western scholars call it, is not necessarily predetermined
by the residue o f Western imperialism. The use o f non-Chinese theoretical or
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42
critical concepts (including Western and Eastern) can be productive should it
build bridges among different cultures and languages.
Most o f the literature reviewed here is from Western scholarship. I
believe in the usefulness and validity o f Western theory and critical terms in
applying to Taiwanese popular eulture. It does not mean that I deliberately
bypass the issue o f Ameriean imperialism in Taiwan's postwar history. But to
argue against the historieal imperialism embodied in the theory is a nationalist
overreaetion. To me and to my readers in Taiwan, the foeus on how these
theories funetion to illuminate the aceeptance. negotiation, and resistanee of
neo-eolonialism is more important and interesting. On the other hand. I
consult many Taiwanese studies to eompensate for the lack o f primary
research in politics, pop music, and literature. This might not be the best way
to eonduet film and culture studies o f Taiwan for both readers across the
Pacifie Geean. but it is a beginning for further explorations.
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43
The Use of Music in 1970's Policy Film and Romantic Melodrama
"L ife is like peach tree stems, sometimes active and
sometimes dormant;
A flow er has Spring to begin its next blossoming, but
human life ceases to exist when death comes to it . . .
Civilized society, new age. free love should be the
right thing to do;
Class bonds are harmful, marriage institutions
ought to be greatly changed. . ."
From "A Story o f Bloody Weeping Peach Blossoms"'
I. A Brief Introduction to Taiwanese Popular Music
The history o f Taiwanese popular music can be traced back to the
1930s. The birth o f the first Taiwanese (in Hokkien) pop song "A Story o f
Bloody Weeping Peach Blossoms" ("T'ao-hua ch'i-hsieh chi") is directly
related to cinema. It was written and produced for the promotion o f a
mainland Chinese film by the same title imported from Shanghai in 1932
(Chuang 64-75). In comparison to Western film s and Japanese film s. Chinese
film at that time had a lower profile in the Taiwanese film market. Although
several Chinese film s had been shown in Taiwan before 1932. none o f them
was a major studio production with impressive casting. Around 1932. local
distributors began to import big hits from China and A Story o f Bloody
'The lyrics are cited from Chuang Yung-ming’s article “Ji-chiu shih-tai te Tai
wan liu-hsing ke-ch’iu ch’u-t’ang: yung ke-sheng hsie hsia le che-tuan li-shih”
[A preliminary exploration of Taiwanese popular music of the Japanese
occupation period; writing history in singing voice], Japan Digest 9.4 ( 1994);
65. The translation is mine.
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44
Weeping’ Peach Blossoms was one o f them. In order to attract the Taiwanese
audience to see this major production from one o f China's major studios, Lien-
hua. the distribution company asked two leading henshi. Chan T'ien-ma and
Wang Y un-feng. to w rite a theme song fo r the film .-
Along with the film , the song achieved quite a commercial success.
Nevertheless, the song's achievement is far more significant than the film 's.
Besides promoting the film , "Peach Blossoms " initiated the production of
popular music in Taiwan. A Japanese-owned record company recorded it and
made a good profit from selling the record. Adding songs to the movie
became a new promotion strategy. Later two Chinese film s Confession
{Ch'an-huei) and A Good Mother from a Brothel {Ch'ang-men;^ hsien-mn)
followed the lead o f Peach Blossoms. Like "Peach Blossoms, " these two
songs were very successful in the box office (Chuang 66-68).
This is the first phase o f the production o f popular music in Taiwan.
From 1935 to 1939, popular music enjoyed a promising beginning. Record
companies most o f them owned by Japanese, were established to cash in on
production o f the new commodity (Chuang 69). The number o f musicians
increased; different musical styles and forms, ineluding Japanese enka.
indigenous fo lk styles, and Western forms o f composition were experimented
with by musicians. Despite the inevitable "learning " from other cultural and
musical sources, music of this nascent period showed an incredible vitality and
enthusiasm. Besides formal experiments, the objection to colonialism and
feudalism was another important characteristic in Taiwanese pop at this
2 Like their Japanese counterparts, the Taiwanese benshi enjoyed a high social
status in the silent film era, A benshi was not just a film interpreter but also
considered a cultural ehte. Their expertise extended to politics, theatre,
literature, and music. See Lu Su-shang’s Tai-wan tien-ying hsi-chiu shlh [A
history of cinema and drama in Taiwan] 19-20.
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45
period. It was especially expressed in the political and social themes in many
songs. However, when the Pacific War broke out in 1937, the Japanese
government sponsored a campaign o f "im perial subject form ation" in 1939 to
mobilize Taiwanese's loyalty to the emperor. The development o f pop music
was impeded by this campaign, and strict censorship prevented songs from
being smoothly released. Taiwanese pop thus entered a dark age after a short
flourishing period (Chang C. L. 19-25). The situation was slightly improved
when the war ended in 1945.
The end o f colonial rule changed the pop scene in Taiwan. The
takeover o f the Nationalist Party brought Shanghai-Hong Kong pop to the
island. From this period on. Taiwanese pop was divided into two categories
by linguistic difference: Mandarin and Hokkien pop. Such a division at its
outset was mainly caused by sty listic and thematic differences.
Influenced by Shanghai's metropolitan culture. Mandarin pop was
characterized by light melody and dance music formats like cha-cha. blues,
tango, rumba, and swing. Its lyric content was mostly love, happiness, and
sex.3 Some songs o f the 1940s were known fo r their explicit expressions of
female desire.^ Hokkien pop. on the contrary , was characterized by
^These typical pop qualities later constituted the nature of Taiwan’s Mandarin
pop of the 1970s. The massive production of this kind of pop inevitably
invited criticism from conservative critics. In the late 1970s, Mandarin pop
was often called decadent, escapist music (see note 5) for its excessive interest
in love themes and the singer’s seductive performance.
^The explicit expression of sexuality in pop was criticized for being insensitive
to political and social situations of China at its most critical period. However,
recent historical scholarship on Shanghai culture industry of the 1930s and
the 1940s has suggested that perhaps the indulgence in personal, private
desires such as sex, love, and jealousy, is a rejection of the dictates of war,
exploitation, destruction, and conservative ideology. Please see Poshek Fu’s
Passivity, Resistance, and Collaboration: Intellectual Choices in Occupied
Shanghai, 1937-1945, and the special program entitled Cinema of Two Cities—
Hong Kong -Shanghai put forth by the 1994 Hong Kong international fihn
festival.
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46
sentimentality and melancholy. Its tunes were composed in minor keys and its
content mainly about frustrated love, social injustice, and self-pity. These
elements were known as "child bride psychology" {t'nni’-yani’-h.sih hsin-li)
according to a Taiwanese folk historian Chien Shang-jen. Chien suggested
that this so-called “ child bride psychology" was mainly caused by colonial
suppressions that had driven songwriters to express their hopelessness, misery,
and depression through pop songs (131-132).
The mode o f production was another distinction between Hokkien
and Mandarin pop at this period. The agricultural life style in Taiwan did not
make room fo r the institutionalization o f Hokkien pop. As compared to its
Mandarin counterpart at the same time. Hokkien pop lacked a large. Hokkien-
speaking market to expand its infrastructures like recording studios and
orchestras. Mandarin pop in Hong Kong, on the contrary , was able to reach
to all the Chinese communities in Taiwan and Southeast Asia because o f its
affiliation with film .^ Sing-song film {ke-ch'ani’p'ien) and musicals were the
two major genres in Hong Kong cinema from the late 1940s to the late 1960s.
The major attraction o f these two genres was that they featured and indeed
depended on many pop songs. Many people went to these movies to listen to
the songs. Musicals, sing-song film s and the songs written for these film s
constituted the major part of mass culture produced in Hong Kong. The cross
media collaboration had created an unprecedented golden period for Hong
Kong's entertaining industry.^ Such a relationship did not, however, exist in
^The 1993 special program entitled Mandarin Films and Popular Songs: 40s-
60s published by Hong Kong International Film Festival has a detailed coverage
on this topic.
6According to the Hong Kong film historian, Yu Mo-wan, about 1,700
Mandarin songs and more than 400 films, including sing-song and musicals
were made from the 1940s to the late 1960s (69). This figure shows the
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47
Taiwan, which had just begun to build its ow n entertainment industry.
Despite these industrial insufficiencies, Hokkien pop up to the mid 1960s was
still an important genre.
But the situation was reversed in the late 1960s due to a reversal in the
official language policy that privileged Mandarin as the sole national
language (Chien 133). This policy was promoted by a "national language
campaign" (kuo-yii yun-tiini>) that specified Mandarin as the only language
to be spoken in public. The use o f "dialects" in mass media such as radio,
television, and film , was regulated to seeure the dominance o f Mandain. This
policy inevitably cultivated a privileged cultural and linguistic identity based
on Mandarin and its affiliated ethnic group, i.e., the mainland Chinese who
occupied Taiwan in the late 1940s. Consequently, Hokkien, Hakka and
aboriginal languages were reduced to a subaltern position. Thus a long
suppression o f existing cultures and languages began.
The impact o f the Mandarin-only campaign also extended to film and
other media, with a massive effect. First, it immediately wiped out the
development o f a cultural and national identity based upon identification with
the indigenous cultures and languages. Second, it indirectly caused the
booming o f Mandarin film production and in turn, the decline of Hokkien film
production. By the mid 1960s, Hokkien film almost disappeared from
Taiwan's screens.
In pop musie, the influence o f political and cultural discrimination
caused the divergence o f these two pops into two extremes. The regulation
on media's use of language prevented Hokkien pop from being massively
tremendous importance of popular song and its connection with film genres in
postwar Hong Kong’s mass media.
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48
circulated in radio and television. The development o f Hokkien pop thus
became much slower than Mandarin pop. W ithout sufficient capital, the
production o f Hokkien songs mainly relied on copying the ex-colonizer's
music, namely. Japanese enka. On the other hand. Mandarin pop began to
flourish along with the grow ing domestic media industry and a recession of
Mandarin pop in Hong Kong.
When Cantonese pop arose in Hong Kong around the late 1960s to
cater to the emerging middle class and youth. Mandarin pop no longer
enjoyed its earlier superiority. Meanwhile, kung-fu and martial arts gradually
replaced the dominant role o f sing-song film s and musicals; as these two
genres declined so did Mandarin pop. and by the early 1970s, its production
was decreasing rapidly (Lee J. 132). The record companies in Taiwan then
had the chance to produce more Mandarin songs. Local songwriters and
singers also began to receive more attention, a development that was
accelerated by the coming o f television and demand fo r film songs in romantic
melodrama. Thus, with representations o f an urban and urbane sensibility, the
furnishing o f a more elaborate style, policy support, and media preference.
Mandarin pop became the high, middle-class, and "good" pop.
Hokkien pop. on the other hand, continued to stay in the
underdeveloped stage because o f political discrimination and the secondary
treatment accorded it by the record industry. Since it could only survive by
copy ing Japanese pop and recycling old hits o f the 1930s and the 1940s, it
developed into a "lo w " pop to be associated with "lo w " culture and
working classes. These characteristics then caused its exclusion from film
soundtracks.
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49
Despite being the dominant genre. Mandarin pop had not changed too
much since the 1960s, and because o f its failure to innovate, it followed
Hokkien pop in copying foreign music like Japanese enka and American pop.
Mandarin pop's formulaic repetitiveness made it e.xtremely unpopular among
intellectuals and students, who then turned to Western music as their main
source of entertainment and consolation. On the other hand, its love lyrics
and decadent style made conservatives quite unhappy, and there was a
tremendous, conservative backlack in the late 1970s. They called it
"degenerate noise" {"nii-mi chih yin')P But this stalemate was changed by
the modem folk movement around the mid 1970s.
The modem folk movement arose from college students' dissatisfaction
with pop and the desire to create their own music. When it was promoted by
the media, it was renamed as college folk and soon became a new favorite
among students. The assimilation o f folk by the record industry somewhat
reformed Mandarin pop. Many folk songwriters and singers were later hired
by record companies to become professional musicians.
The 1980s also witnessed the introduction o f rock into mainstream pop.
Several songwriters that emerged from college folk began to produce rock 'n '
roll songs. Most importantly, a singer-songwriter Luo Ta-yiu released his first
album Chih-hu-che-yeh. Composed o f the most common grammatical
particles in classical Chinese, this title was meant to call into the question o f
the misuse and appropriation of Confucianism by politicians over time. W ith
its clear anti-authoritarian political stance and an idiosyncratic rock style, this
'^A n anthology titled Liu-hsing ke-ch’iu fang [Talks on popular songs] complied
by a musicologist Hsu Ch’ang-huei. This book collects letters and reviews
(mostly complaints about pop songs) written by general readers in
newspapers.
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50
album was regarded an unprecedented innovation. Many young songwriters
began to follow the lead o f Luo Ta-yiu to create art rock. A t the same time,
changes were happening inside the industry. High technology was
introduced to strengthen infrastructure basis such as recording and mi.xing
techniques. Production budgets were raised to hire skilled musicians and
support promotional programs. W ith these structural changes. Mandarin pop
started to compete with Western pop and was accepted by the middle class,
intellectuals, and students. But formal innovations and new modes and means
of production did not change the status o f love songs in Mandarin pop. which
have remained the dominant genre to-date.
On the other hand. Hokkien pop was undergoing unprecedented
attention around the same time. Transformations in both social and political
structure in the late 1980s granted the long-suppressed indigenous culture a
compensatory legitimacy. The blossoming o f a nativist movement made
Taiwanese culture a new attraction in cultural practice. Even though Hokkien
pop at this stage still indulged in sentimental songs, it began to ascend from its
lowest status to become the new favorite among the middle class who needed
to rely on an “ indigenous" form o f cultural consumptions to label themselves
"Taiwanese."
The changing social and political environments not only influenced the
reception but also helped generate a new genre. Underground dissident
musicians began to incorporate rap music into their protest songs. The first
rap album, Son^s o f Going Insane. {Cho-k’ uang ke) was released in 1988 by a
Hokkien pop group named The Blacklist Workshop {Hei-ming-tan kung-tsiio-
shih). The name "B lacklist" denoted a distinct political message; it was a list
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51
o f the names of overseas dissidents who w ere prohibited to come back to
Taiwan by the Nationalist government.
Surprisingly, perhaps because o f the lifting o f martial law . government
censorship approved the release o f Sotv^.s of C o in In sa n e despite its
conspicuous anti-government statements. However, when it became the
number one requested album on the radio, the largest radio station. China
Broadcasting Company (Chunt’-kuo kuani>-po knn!’-ssii) owned by the
Nationalist Party, banned the song from being play ed on any o f its programs
(Huang K. C.). China Broadcasting Company was right to be cautious
because the album was very popular among different social groups who
shared similar politieal opinions and enjoyed the energetic physicality o f rap.
Many o f the songs from the album were play ed in numerous political and
labor protest movements to provoke people's sense o f outrage under the
suppressions o f the ruling Nationalist Party. By the early 1990s. rap became
an alternative genre to the mainstream pop dominated by love songs.
II. Pop Music in Policy Film
How was Mandarin pop used in film ? To deal with it on a general level.
I concentrate on two genres to demonstrate how pop was incorporated in film ,
especially in assisting narratives and confirming cultural myths. The two
genres are policy film and romantic melodrama, the two dominant genres in
Taiwanese cinema prior to the 1980s. Policy film especially reflected
government subsidization, an important aspect o f film production in Taiwan.
In order to supervise cultural production as well as manipulate cinema for
political purposes, the Nationalist Party has always maintained a close
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52
relationship with the film industrj Its main contribution to Taiwan's film was
the Central Motion Picture Company (CMPC). the largest film studio and
production company in Taiwan. Founded in 1955, CMPC was one o f the
party 's many cultural/political enterprises. In its early stage, its major task was
to produce policy films that "promote government policy, advocate Chinese
traditional culture. " On the other hand, due to the large scale o f its studio and
solid financial support from the party, it was actually the flagship in building
the film industry. It provided assistance to independent film companies by
renting out its studio facilities. It trained many directors, cinematographers,
and technicians who later became the major figures in the health realism and
the New Cinema. In short, its contributions to the development o f film in
Taiwan cannot be overestimated.
In independent production, the situation was somewhat different. In
order to ma.ximize profits and minimize costs, independent com pan'es used to
concentrate on popular genres such as martial arts, kung-fu, romantic and
fam ily melodrama, historical legends, and folklore. Among these, romantic
melodrama enjoyed a tremendous success and longevity for different reasons
which w ill be discussed later in this chapter.
As far as film music was concerned, policy film and romantic melodrama
had a close relationship with Mandarin pop. Policy film s often featured
patriotic songs to provoke patriotic sensibilities and national awareness.
Romantic melodrama often used love songs to intensify romantic atmosphere,
mesmerizing the spectator in the romantic fantasy. The conservative
ideological quality that had already existed in film and music allowed the two
media to form a close relationship within the homogeneous culture and
industrial structure. The reason that policy film and patriotic songs could form
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53
an affinity was rooted in their embodiment o f official ideology. The common
concern with private emotion and intimacy allowed love songs and romantic
melodrama to establish a relationship in film music. By e.xamining the ways
that these two genres used pop. the relationship between the two media can
be clarified.
A. Policy film and the construction o f official nationhood
Policy film , as the term indicates, is propagandistic film produced by the
government-owned CMPC. Although it never was a dominant genre, policy
film has a long history in Taiwanese cinema. From Awakening from a
Nightmare {Er-men^ elm hsini’). a 1950 anti-communist film to The Flyini'
National Flaf> {Ch'i chengp’iao-p’iao ). a 1987 anti-Japanese invasion film ,
hundreds of policy film s were made by both the CMPC and independent
companies. As a matter o f fact, it has been the bearer o f official policies since
the Nationalist Party re-established its film enterprise in Taiwan.^ Despite its
long history, it has only recently been regarded as an important genre by
critics.^ Basically, there are two reasons for this critical disavowal. The first
one has to do with the form that policy film employs. Policy film is
characterized by unambiguous depictions o f history in mythologizing the
8According to Tu Yun-chi’s Chung-kuo tien-ying shih [A history of Chinese
cinema], a three-volume book written from official and right-wing
perspectives, the Nationalist Party began to build its film studios between
1934 and 1935 to counteract the leftist films that were threatening the ruling
party (1: 122-30).
^Huang Jen, a veteran film critic in Taiwan, recently published a book devoted
to policy' film. Entitled Tien-yingyu cheng-chi hsiuan-ch’uan [Cinema and
political propaganda], this book contains very useful source materials for the
study of the postwar Taiwanese cinema.
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54
nation. This approach makes policy film unsophisticated as compared to other
myth-making popular genres. Secondly, because of its inherently official
status, it was despised for its propaganda functions that were considered
inappropriate to bourgeois notions o f art. However, policy film was more
complicated than it was generally perceived.
Policy film functioned best during times o f national crisis. In Taiwanese
film history , policy film played a crucial role during the 1970s when the
country was confronted by a series o f diplomatic failures. The first setback
was in 1971 when Taiwan's seat in the United Nations was taken by the
People's Republic of China (PRC). One year later, the Japanese government
terminated its diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favor o f establishing them
with the PRC. These diplomatic defeats shattered the people's firm national
identity as well as their confidence in the government.
Since the Nationalists' defeat by the Communists on the mainland and
their retreat to Taiwan in 1949. the political education implemented by the
Chiang Kai-shek administration was the formation o f a national identity
combined with Confucianism and anti-communism. W ith an orthodo.xy of
Confucian humanism and state capitalism, the Nationalist government was
able to condemn and deny communist China and in turn, legitimate its own
status. After a long-term implementation o f its ideology through education
and mass media, the government succeeded in indoctrinating the majority o f
the people into a belief that Republic o f China (Taiwan) was the sole
legitimate representative o f political and cultural China. This ideological
indoctrination has been termed the "China Com plex" ("chung-kuo-chieh")
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55
by political dissidents."' The late 1950s first witnessed challenges from
liberals (with mainland Chinese identity) to the institutionalizations o f the
"China Com plex."' ' But under severe political censorship, the attack on this
political myth stayed underground. Public deliberations on the issue did not
exist until the late 1980s. when Legislators o f the oppositional party, the
Democratic Progressive Party (founded in 1986) set the demythologization of
the "China Complex" as their primary task in the Legislative Y uan.
Back to the relationship between the "China Com plex" and
conditions o f Taiwan generated by the geopolitical restructuring in the 1970s:
in order to reassure the national identity and restore confidence in the
government, policy film was again upheld. Most o f the policy film s were box
office hits due to full official support and the employment o f specific genres
such as war. espionage, and national epic {min-îzu shih-shih). High
production values, melodramatic narrative, spectacular presentation, and high-
profile promotion were utilized in the genre to guarantee its popular appeal.
Among many o f the policy film s made during the 1970s, the 1976 film Victory'
{Mei-hua) was one that achieved tremendous popularity. It was one o f the
top ten best selling film s o f the year. The Premier Chiang Ching-kuo (the son
o f the President and m ilitary leader. Chiang Kai-shek) praised the film and
' OSee, for example, Shih Min-huei’s Tai-wan yi-shih lun-chan hsiuan-chi [An
anthology of debates on Taiwan consciousness],
' 'This challenge came from a leading political magazine called Free China
{Tsu-yiu chung-kuo) It was run by a group of liberal intellectuals who followed
the Nationalist Part)' to Taiwan in the late 1940s. Beginning from 1957, Free
China published a series of critical essays, discussing a range of problems in
national identity', political system, military policy, economical and social
policies, etc. The purpose of the criticism was to call for reforms. The National
Party finally took action against the magazine. The chief editor was arrested in
I960 under the allegation of “making propaganda for the communists” and
was sentenced to 10 years in prison. See Li Hsiao-feng’s Tai-wan min-chu
yun-tung ssu-shih nien [Taiwan’s democratic movement in the past forty
years] 55-82.
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56
suggested everyone should watch it fo r its noble depiction of the Chinese
national spirit (Huang 169). Why did the film stand out as an “ excellent"
national film ? The key to this question lies in its music.
B. "Plum Blossom" and Victory
The story of the film reiterates the hackneyed plot structure o f many
similar film s about the resistance movement during the second Sino-Japanese
War. But the film 's peculiar setting adds a deeper political implication. It is
set in a small tow n in Taiwan during the end o f the Japanese occupation. It
depicts the town's collective resentment toward Japanese colonial rule and
reveals the unyielding spirit o f the Chinese people. The intensity o f the
resentment is built up by tragic events taking place consecutively inside the
town.
The first event is the murder o f four town leaders by the Japanese
soldiers. In order to enhance the defense power against the Allies, a dam is
being constructed under the superv ision o f the Japanese army. Meanwhile, a
plan to remove a local graveyard to expedite the construction is going into
effect. The removal o f the graveyard is considered a violation to Chinese filia l
piety, the essential part o f Chinese ethical tradition. Upset by the Japanese'
disrespect toward Chinese filia lity. four respectable men o f the town organize
a protest. But the confrontation only causes them to mercilessly murdered— all
are beheaded by the soldiers on their way to the m ilitary headquarters.
The second event is a suicide committed by a local woman, a respected
schoolteacher in the town, who has to raise her extended fam ily alone since
her patriotic husband has joined the Nationalist army on the mainland. When
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^ /
an order to send local students to the battle front in southeast Asia is issued,
she asks help from her Japanese friend who serves in the army. Not being a
high-ranking officer, he can spare her class only. She is then misperceived as
having an affair with the Japanese captain. The misunderstanding causes the
entire townsfolk to act against her. Not being able to bear the discrimination
against her. she drowns herself to prove her innocence. Finally , when all the
students are dispatched except for her class, her innocence is proven. And the
town later holds a memorial ceremony to show their appreciation and regret.
Another dramatic climax comes from the sacrifice of several local
people for saving the life o f a Nationalist agent. This event is initiated by a
bombing plan that is commissioned by four Nationalist agents from the
mainland. The mission fails and only one agent survives. W ith the aid o f local
people, the agent successfully escapes. Refusing to co-operate with the
Japanese in the search o f the agent, several local people are arrested and
sentenced to death. When the convicts are marched to the place o f execution,
the entire town shows their solidarity with them by singing songs and joining
the march.
The last event comes with the successful bombing o f the dam. The
explosion is done alone by a local riffra ff who has been despised for his
collaboration with the Japanese. Having witnessed the brave sacrifice o f his
patriotic town fellows, he decides to destroy the finished construction in order
to prove his loyalty to the community and his country. As the standard
ending o f most propaganda film s, the film ends with the victory o f the
Nationalist government and fam ily reunion o f the main characters.
The political implication shared by the four events is the representation
o f a specifically Chinese national identity. The main characters are martyrs
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58
who sacrifice their lives to defend national culture, their countrymen, and the
nation. But what is the significanee o f making a historical film in the mid
1970s about the resistanee movement against Japan during the Second World
War? What kind o f spectatorship does the film try to construct? These are
the crucial questions about the film .
Given the historical context o f the film , its purpose o f unifying a
national identity seems unequivocal. By focusing on individual sacrifice in a
non-combative form of resistanee against colonialism and imperialism, the film
tries to create an imagined national space for the audience to occupy . The
representation o f the unyielding and holy national spirit is espeeially effective
through the use o f the theme song, "Plum Blossoms" ("M ei-hua"), w hich
gives the Chinese title o f the film . Mei-fiua, was written in 1973 by Liu Chia-
ch'ang, a popular songwriter*- and a film director. The song's title bears an
unmistakable mark o f the nation because mei-hua (whieh literally means plum
blossoms) is the national flow er o f the Republic o f China, the "legitim ate"
China that stands "righteously" against the "red" China, the People's
Republie o f China. "Plum Blossoms " immediately beeame a popular song
after it was released. It then became an inspiring m otif for Liu to make a
policy film featuring the song as its theme song and narrative framework. In
order to discuss the meaning o f the song better, I have romanized the lyrics
and translated them into English:
Mei-hua, mei-hua man t'ien-hsia, yueh len;^ t'ayueh
k'ai hua.
Plum blossom, plum blossom, it blooms all over the
place, the colder the air, the brighter the bloom
•^Liu Chia-ch’ang was said to be the most productive songwriter in Taiwan’s
pop history, please see Chang C. L. 110.
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59
Mei-hua chien-Jen hsiun^-chenf’ wo-men. wei-wei te
ta chun^-hua.
Her perseverance symbolizes our great expansive
China
*K'an no p'ien-ti k'ai le mei-hua. yu t'u-ti chin yu t'a
Plum blossoms bloom as far as eyes can see and
earth can reach
Pin^-hsueh feni’-yu t 'a tiio pu pa. 1 'a shi wo te kuo-hua
Snow and storm fail to fear her, she is our national
Pow er*
(repeat*)
Plum blossoms used to represent the nation is an effective metaphor.
By personifying and describing the characteristics o f plum blossoms in a
panegyrical manner, the song is able to suggest a nationhood with such
attributes as perseverance, purity, fearlessness, and immortality . Considering
Taiwan's diplomatic status o f the 1970s, these terms were important
components in re-building a national sense o f self. Allegorically, they were
capable o f undermining the humiliation that Taiwan had received from the
geopolitical restructuring o f the mid 1970s. More significantly, this film came
out in the year right after big events had occurred in history. In A pril o f 1975,
the country's leader, Chiang Kai-shek died suddenly. Two months later,
Vietnam was unified by the Northern communist army. In addition to the
explicit patriotism in the lyrics, the structure and presentation o f the song
contributed especially to its appeal.
The composition o f the song is concise and direct. It comprises only
four verses in two melodic sequences. Each o f the sequences bears
resemblance to the other. The musical arrangement does not aim for
complexities nor grandeur. It begins with a prelude o f simple notes
accompanied by acoustic guitar and when the verse portion enters, string
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6 0
instruments come into play to enhance the accompaniment. This pattern
reiterates and continues on in the rest o f the song until its end. The simplicity
and lucidity in both the musical and ly rical parts made the song accessible to
general listeners. Its popularity in the pop market initiated a film production
based upon the song's nationalistic theme. The collaboration between two
media— pop music and film — proved to be a success. The song's influence was
later intensified because o f the film and reciprocally, thanks to the song, the
film became a box office hit.
The primary function o f the song in the film is to help build up a few
emotional climaxes. As a result, the song is mainly incorporated in the
narrative by means o f an intradiegetic form to facilitate the audience's
identification with the narration and further, provoke their sense o f
nationalism. Intradiegetic music, as 1 have discussed in the review o f the
literature, means a musical narration given by characters in the diegesis. In
other words, it indicates that characters are the enunciators. if not the
producers, o f the music in the scene.
In Victory, music is presented as if it is sung by the characters in the
scene; in other words, the source o f the music seems to be clearly placed in the
fictional world. The first time that the film uses the song intradiegetically is in
the scene o f the schoolteacher's funeral. The scene depicts the remorse o f the
townsfolk by focusing on a student's mourning who had previously acted
contemptuously to the teacher. His grief is not represented by words but by
singing the song “ Plum Blossoms " and dedicating a bouquet o f plum
blossoms to the dead teacher.
The song, plum blossoms, and the funeral altogether constitute what
Roland Barthes calls the "dom inant" meaning o f the scene: to use plum
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61
blossoms as a metaphor to represent the self-sacrificing teacher. But the song
functions more than just textually in this scene. It is also used to allegorize the
sanctification o f the nation. The allegorical function is achieved by
dramatizing the song's depiction of the characteristics o f plum blossoms
accompanied by a compelling visual presentation; the characters are not only
acting the remorse but also singing the eulogy o f the martyr:
Plum blossom, plum blossom, it blooms all over
the place;
The colder the air. the brighter the bloom.
Her perseverance sy mbolizes our great expansive
China.
Plum blossoms bloom as far as eyes can see and
earth can reach.
Snow and storm fail to fear her. she is our national
flower.
The intradiegetic singing reinscribes the meaning o f the lyrics and
intensifies the emotional appeal of the song. It not only attempts to emphasize
the purity and greatness o f the teacher but also familiarizes the audience with
the original meaning o f the song— the sanctification o f the nation and its
nationality. Thus the function o f the song in the memorial goes jeyond the
textual level o f the narrative and constitutes a national allegory on the
extratcxtual level. In the funeral scene, the song begins w ith a single voice
that delivers the first verse and then is followed up by another single voice for
the second verse. The pattern continues after the bridge and changes to a
chorus which sings the song collectively.
Interestingly, the film ic deployment o f the song follows the pattern of
its musical arrangement; w ith solo begins the verse and chorus ends the song.
It focuses on specific characters in the first several shots and then goes on to
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62
contain the whole group at the end of the scene. For example, the funeral
scene begins a long shot that depicts a congregation o f the townspeople
moving towards the bridge. But the shot immediately changes to a medium
close-up o f the young student soloing the first verse o f the song. And the
creseendo o f the musical and narrative climax of the scene falls on the moment
when the whole community sings the song together.
The pattern is used again in the seene where several eivilians are
marehed to exeeution by the Japanese soldiers. It is initiated by the son o f a
butcher, the most uny ielding figure who endures cruel torture during the
investigation. Seeing his bruised father marching to death, the butcher's son
runs to the father, bidding a last goodbye. The buteher bravely consoles his
son by telling him to sing the song, demonstrating a fearless Chinese spirit.
A fter the boy sings the first verse, a character standing among the bystanders
picks up the second verse. Another character sings the third verse and so
forth until many o f the by standers jo in in the singing and form the chorus.
Meanwhile, the action o f the scene is also organized by the pattern o f vocal
arrangement. As each individual character is singing his/her verse, he/she
comes out o f the crowd and walks with the convicts. And when the song
reaches the chorus, the shot is also changed to a long take to accommodate
the anonymous masses coming from the fringe o f the frame to jo in the march.
What identification do the two scenes try to achieve? What kind o f
spectatorship do they intend to construct? M y analysis o f the two scenes
have shown their close relationship with song in terms o f its musical pattern
and lyrics. Moreover, they are specifically structured to foreground the
transition from the individual to the collective; the final moments o f the scenes
both end with a collective mobilization. The orchestration o f the song in the
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G 3
final, collective singing and action can bc seen as a crucial mechanism in the
total narrative. It is the creation o f a musical as well as a cinematic "imagined
community." Not only does the music create fictional marty rs for the
audience to feel sympathetic with but it also encloses a beckoning musical
and cinematic space. By so doing, the film is able to prov ide an imagined
community across historical boundaries.
The film 's political intention is more revealing in the context o f its
historical setting. The depiction o f the Taiwanese resistance was purely fictiv e
with no basis in historical referents. Except for a number o f uprisings that
occurred around the island during the first few years o f occupation, armed
confrontations did not happen again after the 1920s. Such intentional
miswriting, however, was not unusual. The discourse o f historical w riting in
the pre-martial law Taiwan was to impose Chinese nationalism on the
people.'3 As a result, the film exemplified a "reinterpretation” o f Taiwan's
colonial history. It presented a Japanese colony with Chinese ethnicity and
cultural background actively practicing Chinese patriotism during the late
days o f the Second W orld War.
Moreover, by depicting Taiwan as being identical to any small town in
China, the film places Taiwan as part o f China, and hence, homogenizes the
two national identities. The neglect o f Taiwan's different historical
Martial law was lifted in 1987. Immediately after, the Taiwanese began
actively to engage with politics. Almost every field in humanities began to
redefine Taiwanese identity and rewrite Taiwan history. The most rigorous act
was the “disclosure” of the February 28 Incident in 1947, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s
City of Sadness ( 1989) was a famous example of interpreting history from the
perspective of victimized Taiwanese, The reception of the film, therefore,
varied according to different perceptions of the film’s historical “accuracy.”
On the other hand, many books were published to add to the continual project
of constructing the history during the the most unstable period in postwar
history.
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G4
development from the mainland and hence its problematic Chinese identity is
not a result o f an ignorance o f history . Rather, it is the fulfillm ent o f the
government's long-term policy o f indoctrination: affirm ing the "China
Complex" to substantiate and legitimize the dominance o f the ruling party. In
this regard. Victory can be seen as a "successful" policy film coated with
appealing popular songs and stories o f emphatic marty rdom.
The theme song enabled the sanctification o f Chinese national identity
and spirit as opposed to the invasive and exploitative Japan. Its simple, lucid
structure made it easy to recite and remember, and it later became a staple in
many ceremonial events on national holidays and o f national games, where it
was often sung collectively. Many times it was the theme music of
choreographic performances and grand choruses. The immense popularity o f
the song made it an unofficial anthem o f the nation for a period o f time until
the mid 1980s when the "China Com plex" began to collapse. The song was
even disseminated to overseas Chinese communities, serving as a sort of
national anthem for Chinese immigrants who used it to secure their conflicted
identity.'4
The sentimental depiction o f Chinese nationality o f "Plum Blossoms"
accounts for its popularity in domestic and overseas Chinese societies. By
highlighting the extraordinary nature o f plum blossoms against severe, hostile
environments, the song is able to reflect the actual national conditions o f the
find an interesting representation of this phenomenon in Who Killed
Vincent Chin, a 1986 documentary film made by Christine Choy and Renee
Tajima. The film is about the brutal murder of a Chinese American man.
Vincent Chin, and the unsatisfying trial result of the murderers. Music is used
substantially to depict racial and cultural differences. In one scene that
depicts the life of the Chinese immigrants in Detroit, “Plum Blossoms” is being
sung by a girl who is performing in some community social gathering. It is a
good example to show the immense popularity of the song outside of Taiwan.
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65
mid 1970s when the country was traumatized by the shock from diplomatic
setbacks.
III. Pop Songs in Romantic Melodrama: The Case o f Ch ung Yao Movies
{Ch'ung Yao lieri-yin^)
Ch ung Yao was the most popular and prolific Harlequin-type novelist
writer in Taiwan in the 1960s and the 1970s. Because o f her novels'
popularity, between 1965 and 1983, a total o f 50 film s were based on her
works (Lin F. M. 320-22). Called Ch ung Yao movies, they constituted the
most important romantic melodramas and occupied a crucial role in Taiwanese
cinema for more than two decades. During its golden age in the 1970s,
Ch ung Yao movies and martial arts were the major film s exported to
Southeast Asian countries like Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
In the late 1970s, Ch'ung Yao movies began to decline, but later in the late
1980s, she made a successful comeback by making her novels into prime-time
television soap operas.
Centering on the conflict between traditional ethics and individual
emotions, Ch'ung Yao movies often focus on female desire and the fact that it
cannot really be satisfied in the patriarchal culture without going through a
process o f suffering and struggle. Because o f the lack o f explicit resistance
against patriarchy and traditional ethics, Ch'ung Yao movies were historically
regarded as the most embarrassing aspect of film culture in Taiwan. This point
o f view comes from impressionistic viewing, which fails to see the cultural
significance o f the films. 1 argue that Ch'ung Yao movies constitute a unique
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6 6
text that exempliues a feminine negotiation with traditional ethics and
patriarchy. I propose that music is precisely the place to disentangle this issue.
The music in Ch'ung Yao movies primarily indicates love songs that are
specifically written for the films. They are called "theme songs" {chu-t'i-
ch'iu) or "insert songs " (cli'a-c/i'in). indicating their association with the
story and spatio-temporal relations with the narrative. Theme songs are often
introduced in the opening credit sequence and insert songs usually appear in
the second or the third sequence. The functions that these songs serve in the
film can be divided into two major aspects: narrating characters'
psychological and emotional states and constructing the female protagonist.
A. Narrating characters' psychological and emotional states
E.xtradiegetic music in film often functions to supplement visual image,
intensifying dramatic elements in the mise-en-scene. The function o f dialogue
in film soundtrack is to give direct meaning to the mise-en-scene. But in a
scene without verbal language, music is used as a substitute for dialogue and
sui> }> ests meanings in the mise-en-scene. This takes place in many Western
films. For example, in A Hard Day's Nif>hr (Richard Lester. 1964) when Ringo
Starr goes on a city tour by himself, e.xtradiegetic music plays throughout this
sequence.
The music is the instrumental version o f "Tell Me Why. " It functions in
Starr's wandering Journey in two ways. First, it provides a narrative
transition. Starr's runaway from the rest o f the Beatles begins a new
sequence and slows down the pace o f the narrative. The change from vocal
songs to a peacefully lyrical melody precisely intends to insert a break from
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67
the endless, frantic chase sequences. Second, the music's lyrical quality helps
depict Starr as some sort o f anti-hero who enjoy s his lone meandering around
the city. It is used to accompany Starr's temporary role o f a "deserter"
wandering in the north part o f the city.
The use o f pop songs to depict or suggest characters' psychological
states is particularly favored by Ch'ung Yao mov ies for similar reasons. Yet
aside from promotional concerns (most soundtrack music consists of
mainstream pop songs) and lyrical romanticism, there is a textual reason related
to the use o f extradiegetic soundtrack music, namely, to enhance a utopian
connotation in the love relationship.
As mentioned earlier. Ch'ung Yao movies indulged in unrealistic
portrayals o f contemporary youth and im plicit treatments o f sexuality . The
avoidance o f a direct sexual depiction, however, created a problem for the
visual presentation of romance In film . Hence, romantic scenes were mostly
constructed by non-verbal actions depicting deep affection between lovers.
This kind of scene was conducted by certain techniques such as slow motion,
long takes, zooms, and formulaic mise-en-scene such as beach locales, daytime
settings, and most important o f all. lovers ecstatically running toward each
other from either ends o f the frame.
W ith these standardized devices and minimal verbal language, music
comes into play to convey a romantic aura. But the content o f the songs
rarely has a direct relationship with the narrative. It hardly supplements,
enhances nor ironizes the narration, but prim arily serves to create lyrical
moods and constitute the narrative "b re a k " And what does narrative
"break" mean in Ch'ung Yao movies? Scholars have agreed that music's
chief function in narrative cinema is to provide narrative transition, bridging
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6 8
gaps o f temporal and spatial discontinuity (Gorbman. Flinn). This analysis
helps to clarify the function o f nondiegetic music in film ; at least it prov ides an
explanation o f why music is played systematically at certain places and times
in the narrative. However, it seems to ov erlook the power of music in
representing the non-representahle part o f the narrative. This is the case in
Ch ung Yao mov ies.
Since the Ch ung Yao's narrative is structured by romance subject to
class difference, patriarchal tyranny, and fatalism, it often prov ides a temporary
relief from the v arying constraints typical o f a bourgeois social structure.
Thus music facilitates in the formation o f a utopian moment, an escape from
obstructions. In order to conv ey a utopian aura, the scenes are mostly formed
by a dream like mise-en-scene whose spatiality and temporality appear to
detach from the reality o f the diegetic world. The fantastic utopia is not a
political paradise envisioned by Thomas More but one less influenced by
moral and social v alues. It is in the moral and social vacuity that music
functions as a means for this regression. This pattern o f using music to
mediate the tension between individuals and their ethical/moral universe was
prevalent in romantic melodrama.
B. Constructing the female protagonist
Pop songs are used to construct the female protagonist in many o f
Ch ung Yao movies. There are two kinds o f female roles that can be
generalized from Ch ung Yao's heroines. One is the songstress and another is
a type o f sensitive, artistic, beautiful young woman. Music's association with
the first type shows through the female protagonist's professional identity.
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G9
She is often a singer in a night club, but a reluctant one who happy to be a
night club singer. The reason that she has to work to support her family.
Therefore, she sings sorrowful songs and appears dejected on stage. As for
the second type, it is presented through the songs that the heroine sings or
plays. In Ch ung Yao's 1975 film Fantusie.s Behind the Pearly Curtain (Yi
lien yiii mefu^). the female protagonist uses music to express her feelings that
she can hardly articulate to anybody.
Music for the purpose of presenting the identity o f a character is a
fairly common practice in Western film . For example, in blaxploitation films, a
theme song is always played when there is a need to foreground the identity
of the super-hero. In Gordon Park's Shaft (1970). the theme music "Shaft"
written by Issac Hayes is always on cue when the black James Bond
detective. Shaft, is about to take action. This way o f using music to facilitate
the identity o f the detective is later canonized as the "theme music" for the
super hero.
Hayes' famous rhythm and blues score music features a light, urban
savvy, corresponding to the hero's omnipotent street wisdom in order to
survive in the ghetto. Musie in the film can be seen as part o f the
orchestration o f what Jim Pines called the "cinematic code peculiar to the
ethnic construct" (121). The theme music successfully supplements and
enhances the construction o f a black hero for the black audience. In the 1988
parody film direeted by Keenan Ivory Wayans. I'm Gotta Git You Sucka. the
same music from Shaft is played to mock the musical packaging fo r the super
hero. It is played when a ghetto combat team is on its way to crack down on
the headquarters o f a local mafiaso. One o f the team members brings a boom
box to play the music and specifically addresses his reason: "every hero has a
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70
theme song." a reminder o f earlier blaxploitation film s indicating the
exaggerated heroism in the genre.
If Shaft gives a good example o f how a racially distinct ultra-
masculinity can be constructed through the assistance o f music, what kind o f
music is associated with femininity and Chinese femininity in particular?
Angela McRobbie and Simon Frith have tried to work on an alternative
approach to read sexuality subversively in rock.
They suggested that despite the fact that rock n' roll when they
wrote was a predominantly masculine culture in that women had almost no
role to play, women can still gain pleasure from rock. Sometimes female
autonomy can be heard in some songs and a female reading can be found in
the listeners. McRobbie and Frith go further to suggest that while women are
excluded in "cock rock." they seem to be able to have a voice in blues and
country music (384). Due to the limited scope o f my study, this is not the
place to discuss how country and western has represented white American
femininity . However, in Chinese culture and Chinese-language film s, female
singers indeed have a peculiar role to play and an identity to occupy .
In Chinese-language cinema, the songstress narrative has been
reinscribed repetitively since the 1930s. Its beginning can be traced back to
the first Chinese talkie film made in 1931. The Sonf^stress Red Peony {Ke-nu
hung mu-tan). This is a film based on the archetype o f a songstress narrative
in Chinese popular fiction: an opera songstress redeems her exploitative
husband through her selfless sacrifice.
The prevalence o f songstress pathos in popular culture has a social and
patriarchal root: to perpetuate the debased social role o f the songstress in
favor o f patriarchal domination. As in many pre-industrial societies when
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71
capitalist modes of mass culture did not emerge, a female singer in China is
called songstress {kt'-nii) instead of singer (ke-slioii) or singing star {ke-/isin<^).
The name implies the debased role of a songstress that is no more than a
prostitute U'lii-iiii). The association with prostitution makes songstress'
pathos viable for social critique.
But in order to articulate such a critique without threatening patriarchal
power, some other cultural factor has to be brought in to replace patriarchy as
the main target, fhe songstress' association with old opera which valorizes
feudalism is useful for such a displacement at work. A t the end of the film , a
man who has witnessed the stor\ gives it a comment. He says that the
songstress has been singing so many old operas that she no longer knows the
distinction between reality and the drama. In other words, he suggests that
her songstress identity has become her real life identity and she deals w ith her
marriage by follow ing the ethos o f opera. The songstress' self-sacrifice thus
receives sympathy and criticism at the same time. On the one hand, her
victimization is seen as a result of an abusive patriarchy. On the other hand,
how ever, it is her internalization o f traditional values indoctrinated by opera
that prevents her from rebelling and in turn, she victimizes herself. By
depicting songstress' pathos in such double vision, patriarchy, that is partly
the cause to her suffering, is displaced by traditional opera music.
W hile early Chinese bourgeois cinema reflected the ideological
contradiction o f the archetypal songstress narrative and reveals little hope in
reversing the victimization o f the songstress, one o f the best leftist films o f the
1930s. Street Aiv^el. refused to perpetuate the intrinsic pessimism o f the
songstress narrative. The film saw the songstress as a subversive
rev olutionary proletariat who was brave enough to say no to her oppressors.
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72
This idea is realized in ihe plot; the songstress Hsiao-hung elopes with her
poor lo\ er to avoid being a rich man's concubine. Although her resistance is
not rewarded at the end. her action suggests a possibilit) for creating a new
and equal society.
I he songstress story was occasionally used in post-1949 Chinese film
to address social injustice in the pre-revolutionary society . It also occupied a
significant role in postwar Hong Kong and Taiwanese films. .According to
( hinese film critic Stephen Teo. the "songstress m o tif was still regarded as a
useful narrati\ e schemata for liberal filmmakers to critique social injustice. But
Teo also pointed out that the critique was much m ilder as compared to the
leftist film s of the 1930s (23-24. 1994).
Due to the change o f women's roles in economic and social
structures, the songstress pathos was no longer useful in the 1970s. However,
the archetype o f this narrative form still existed in some films. For instance.
Siardust (Ch'un-hsin<^-huei. 1971) and an early Ch ung Yao movie Flying
Colorful Clouds (Ts'ai yun fed. 1973) both incorporated the songstress
narrative. The former depicted the lives o f a few songstresses who work in a
nightclub. Like many melodramatic films focusing on class conflicts, this film
showed how the private life of a songstress is influenced by her public image.
Likewise, the latter used the songstress narrative into the story to build a class
hierarchy as an obstruction to a romantic relationship in the story.
In 1979. the songstress narrative appeared again in Your Smilini’ Face.
But its original content was drastically changed. The change came mainly
from the nature o f the music used in the film . The film featured a new pop
originated from folk music, which changed the image and identity o f the
songstress. The "songstress" was no longer an extravagant singer in a night
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/
club but a plain. self-sulTicicnt folk singer in a Wcstem-style restaurant. 1 he
class structure in the film was also reconceived due to folk's presence.
Because o f her association with folk, she was considered as a good woman
with dignity, good cultural taste, and self-determination. Subsequently , her
romantic relationship with a rich man did not encounter objections in the
story.
W ith the evolution o f popular music and socio-cultural change, film has
changed the mode o f constructing female characters through popular music.
Your Siniluv^ Face exemplified such transformation. This topic w ill be
discussed at length in the next chapter.
IV. Conclusion
The examination o f the use of popular music in policy film and romantic
melodrama helps clarify the parallel development betw een popular music and
film . The ideological "specificity" of both media created a prominent stage of
film music. Policy film manipulated a patriotic song to construct an imagined,
holy nationhood and in turn, the song was elevated by the visual
representation of its ly rics. Romantic melodrama relied on love songs to
perpetuate its romantic aura and ideal world while love songs maintained their
domination thanks to the popularity of their affiliated film genre. This "cross
fertilization" precisely reflected the complacent nature o f the cultural
economy in the 1970s. The mass cultural products were made to please
government censorship, perpetuate cultural policies, and renew capitalism.
This strong affiliation with the dominant ideology made film and pop music
susceptible to forces that threatened national security and stability . The late
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74
1970s witnessed the media's mediation of a series of national crises. The next
two chapters discuss what the media did to advocate social stability and
reassure national identitv in critical historical moments.
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74
The Folk M o\ emcnt and Youth Film: Good Moniiii'^. Taipei and Your
Smiliiv^ Face
Why cannot our generation sing the song of our own language?. . Y es. we
are impotent, our generation can't sing the song o f our own language. What
a shame that the notes and \ ocahularies in our brain have really been raped!
Ti Shuang-tse'
The cultural landscape of Taiwan in the late 1970s presents a picture of
re\ isicnism. Revisionism is a term that 1 use to indicate a changing
perspective in cultural production. Prior to the mid 1970s. the official policy
that constituted the dominant cultural discourse centered on mainland
Chinese nationalism. The ruling Nationalist Party used it to indoctrinate the
Taiwanese in order to generate a unif\ ing force against communist China.
However, this national ideology had to adjust itself to a series o f diplomatic
setbacks and the rise o f the nativist movement. In the field o f culture, this
adjustment resulted in revisionist works that attempted to construct a Chinese
nationality that would sustain the ruling power's legitimacy. Sanctioned by
the government and mobilized by various groups, these revisionist w orks
sought new inspiration from indigenous folk art and culture to present a
revised picture o f Chinese nationality. This new perspective was not only
*Miao T’ien-wei, “Hsiang-ch’ou-ssu-yun--chung-kuo hsien-tai min-ke \ un-tung
chill sheh-huei yen-chiu” [Nostalgic tunes: a sociological studv on the Chinese
modern folk movement] (Taipei: Taiwan T. 1991) 56.
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/ D
present in high cultural fields such as literature, theatre, and dance but also
disseminated in popular forms.
The 1970s also witnessed a new youth culture which emerged from
youth's answer to the nation's struggle for a Chinese nationalism in Taiwan.
Generated by college youth, the folk song movement was the most significant
acti\ ity in the overall project of cultural re\ isionism. This movement created a
new folk music that articulated a unique nationality and identity. For se\ eral
reasons, this movement was soon assimilated b\ the culture industry in the
building o f a new nationhood. Cinema was one of the foremost cultural
apparatuses that incorporated folk music into the making o f film s concerned
w ith social change and issues o f national identity.
Representations o f folk music in relation to these issues can be
discussed in the two following film s concerning the youth and its changing
identity: Good Taipei {Tsao-an. r'ai-pei. 1979) and Your Sinilin;^
Face (Hiian-yen. 1979). Good Morn in Taipei represents health realism and
Your Sniiliiu^ Face is a romantic melodrama. Focus on these tw o film s and the
genre that each of them represents can provide an account o f how popular
music and fo lk songs w ere used to reconcile a generation gap and the
contradiction o f tradition and modemitv.
The Modern Folk Song Movement and Cultural Revisionism
The modem folk song movement (hsien-tai min-ke yun-tun^) is an
important musical and cultural event in the postw ar history o f Taiw an. The
rise o f the movement is often considered as part o f the nativist movement of
the 1970s. Nativism was not mobilized sinsle-handedlv bv certain dominant
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7()
groups but by dissidents from different disciplines w ith similar political ideals.
It was a movement committed to giv ing power to the people who believed in
Taiwanese identity but lacked the power to promote it openly in political and
cultural practice.
This idea was not completely new in the 1960s for an independent
magazine called Free Cliiiui (see chapter 1 ) had advocated sim ilar opinions.
However, it was in literary criticism that nativism generated an enormous
impact. In the mid to the late 1970s. several Marxist nationalists began to use
the nativist concept to challenge cultural elites who promoted modernism and
Westernization. These elites, mostly scholars in the humanities and writers
who were educated in the West during the heyday o f high modernism, were
enthusiastic supporters o f modernist literature. W ell-known writers and
college English professors founded journals to advocate modernism and
publish their work based upon modernist tenets. Modern Literature {Hsien-
tai nen-hsiieh) was the vanguard for entering modernism into the field o f
contemporary Chinese literature. Theatre (Chu-ch'an^) was somewhat an
underground film journal founded by young film buffs who began the wave
o f taking Federico Fellini. Andy Warhol. Ingmar Bergman and Luis Bunuel as
cult figures. The craving for Western high culture was not an independent
phenomenon but was part and parcel o f the modernization project conducted
by the Nationalist government and endorsed by cultural elites. These journals
thus can be seen as interesting historical documents o f the country's
Westernization, especially their roles in the construction o f a cultural
identification.
This overall enthusiasm in modernism was challenged by Marxist
literary critics and writers. The best-known figures in this group. Ch en Yin-
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/ /
cheng and Yu T'ien-ch'ung. advocated a new literature called "lisiani^-t’ ii
wen-hsiiL'h" ("homcland-soil literature") in replacing the "pale," "sold-out."
Western modernist literature. Both Ch en and Yu were both Marxists and
nationalists. Their political ideal in fact, was closer to the anti-imperialism and
anti-capitalism art and literary movement of the 1930s than to the nativism
dev eloped b\ Taiwanese writers and intellectuals since the Japanese colonial
pcriod.-
Given the changing international political structure and the emerging
nativ ist consciousness, the Marxist nationalists combined their politics with
nativ ist ideas to form their literary theory. The purpose was to attack
modernization. Westernization, and dependence on the First W orld at the
expense o f indigenous Chinese culture and identity.
They were particularlv dissatisfied with the way critiques o f the
capitalist class structure were ignored in the works o f the modernist camp.
Moreov er, they were concerned with neo-colonial conditions in Taiwan,
generated from Nationalist government's dependence on the United States for
gaining m ilitary power and financial support. They argued that the end of
W W II did not liberate Taiwan from colonialism because o f the following
div ision between the socialist bloc and the capitalist bloc. The split between
the capitalist Taiwan and the communist China only made it difficult for
Taiwan (read: China) to own a genuine identity and hence, an independent
literature. The historical dev elopment since the turn o f the century, as they
further pointed out, has made Taiwan/China dominated by endless
^.■Xccording to P’eng Juei-ching, a literary critic who holds a strong Taiwanese
identitv', Chen and Yu did not genuinely identify with the Taiwanese nativism
but only appropriated it in order to challenge the modernists. Politically they
were against the ruling regime but nationally, their identity was opposite to
that of the Taiwanese nativists.
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'8
colonizations: from Japan's occupation to the domination o f the First W orld's
cultural and political hegemony. As a result, they concluded that the
transportation o f Western modernist culture without thinking in these terms
onl\ created neo-colonial conditions in Taiwan.
These confrontations immediately invoked furious replies from the
modernists. The modernists criticized that the "homeland-soil literature" was
based on a vulgar literary perspective by reducing literature to political
propaganda. They went further to point out that the "nativist" argument
resembled nothing more than Maoist dogmatism on literature based on the
Yen an talks.' Therefore, both groups went into series o f debates based upon
their own perspecti\ es on how literature should "reflect" or "distance" itself
from politics. The exchanges between the two polarized views became the
most famous debate in Taiwan's postwar intellectual history.-^
The debate basically ended in the late 1970s. Although the Marxist
nationalists did not overthrow the modernists, the former's powerful
arguments were appropriated by the mainstream culture. Concurrent with the
nativist movement, international derecognition made the government's
cultural organization recognize the power o f indigenous cultural traditions for
revising the "China Complex. " Thus official cultural policy and elite culture
assimilated some o f the ideas from the Marxist nationalists into revising the
dominant cultural perspectiv e in order to gain more legitimacy and support.
'^See Mao Tse-tung. “Talks at the Yeiian Forum of Literature and .Art” Selected
Works 3: 69-98.
■^There are many Chinese-language materials on this debate but few in
English. .A recently published book called Modernism and the Nativist
Resistance: Contemporary Chinese Fiction from Taiwan (Duke HP, 1993)by
Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang has a succinct summary of this debate. But
according to Rosemary Haddon in her review on the book, Chang still fails to
“do justice to Taiwanese nativism in the way that the fiction deserves.” See
Modern Chinese Literature 7.2 (1993): 159.
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I'his brings us back to the term "cultural revisionism" introduced in the
beginning o f the chapter. Hxternal conditions and internal oppositions forced
the Nationalist government to re\ ise its political and cultural policies in order
to suppress dissatisfactions and answer to challenges. Politically, the party
began to allow native-born I'aiwanese to take important governmental posts
(Peng 104-105). Culturally, it implemented its own version o f nativism.
ad\ ocating a new cultural practice called "return to the homeland soil"
{"huei-kuci lisian<^-l'u"). Cultural production thus entered a historical stage
by answering to the official call to create a new Chinese culture in Taiwan.
The cultural revisionism was supported by almost the entire cultural
field, including such high culture as literature, painting, performing arts, and
low culture such as popular music, television, and film . One good example of
the high cultural response is the Cloud Gate Dance and Theater Company
(Yun-men wu-chi). Taiwan's first modernist dance company founded in 1973.
"Chinese should compose the music, design the choreography, and dance for
the Chinese" was the famous statement made by the company's founder. Lin
Huai-min (159). Cloud Gate, aceording to Lin's ideal, was founded to create a
modern Chinese choreography that synthesizes Western techniques and
Chinese materials. Almost all the choreographies were adopted from sources
o f either classical Chinese literature or indigenous Taiwanese cultural
traditions, including folk legends and immigration myths (Lin 157-8). In order
to carry out nativist ideas. Cloud Gate organized tours in cities outside o f the
capital Taipei and traveled to small towns to present their dancing to
countryside people.
Cloud Gate's effort gained a lot o f support from students, the middle
class, intellectual elites, and later, the government. Its popularity represented
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8 0
the successful syncretism of modernism and indigenous culture in the
production of high art. But how about the popular, ' low brow" form of
cultural expression? What is their contribution to and relationship with the
changing cultural and political contexts ? The response first came from the
modem folk song movement.
The modem folk song movement was inaugurated in 1975 by a concert
entitled "modern folk song creation concert" (''hsien-lai ch'iuni}’-
ÎS U O yen-ch'üiii’ liiic'D. It was organized by the Hung Chien-ch'uan
Foundation to pro\ ide an open event for young singer-songwriters to present
their works. Yang Hsuan was the major figure in that concert. He presented
eight folk songs that he composed out o f the poems of a renowned poet Y u
Kuang-chung. The concert was successful. The next year, another singer-
songwriter Li Shuang-tse protested against the colonization o f American
music in a folk concert. He sang several Taiwanese folk songs after breaking a
Coca Cola on the stage (Miao 56).
Yang and Li represented young musicians w ho w ere dissatisfied with
mainstream pop and got tired o f singing American songs. Inspired by the
American folk movement of the mid to the late 1960s. they were anxious to
write and sing Chinese songs. They wanted to create their ow n music that
had nationalistic characteristics and artistic quality. Unlike their American
predecessors who revised folk music by incorporating ideas o f modern music
in their songs, the college singer-songwriters went back to Chinese literature
and folk music to seek new inspiration. Politics is another distinction between
Taiwanese and American modem folk. American folk figures like Bob Dylan.
Joan Baez. Joni Mitchell, and less political figures like Don McLean. Cat
Stevens, and John Denver were very popular among college and high school
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81
youth. These people's music had a great influence on Taiwanese college
students. However, the social and political commitments that were essential in
some o f these people's music were not accepted by Taiwanese young singer-
songwriters.
The reason has to do with the fact that Taiwanese \outh prior to the
1980s were not particularly interested in radical politics. Severe censorship
(reading books on Marxist theory was regarded as a crime) and authoritarian
control in school and at home did not provide much space for cultivating
rebellion. Most college youth in this context w ere complacent with the
system. They were more interested in expressing their individual difference
than engaging w ith political or social movements. This fits w hat Da\ id
Reisman calls the "m inority group" identity. The way for young people to
show their distinction from other social groups w as to conduct something
contrarv to mass culture. W riting folk music was an example o f such cultural
rebellion.
This explains why the folk movement was only connected by formal,
not ideological, expression w ith its American counterpart. For instance, class,
sexual, and ethnic/racial issues were hardly mentioned in the music. Anti-w ar
messages were also muted because of the government's involvement in
assisting the American's anti-communist war against Vietnam. Instead, it was
the conventionalized folk ideology that was adopted and celebrated by the
young writers searching for a niche fo r their national and cultural expression.
Amateurism and pre-industrial modes o f presentation, eg., the use o f acoustic
guitar (rather than electric instruments) and plain form of performance, are
frequently seen in their music. Notions o f authenticity, spontaneity, creativity,
and self-expansion constituted the ideological backbone in many songs.
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82
However, according to Miao T'ing-w ei and Chang Chao-wei, the authors of
two master's theses written on the movement, this movement was not as
"independent' as it thought. In different contexts, each of the authors argued
that the movement from its beginning was closely connected with the official
cultural policy and ideology.
The major founder o f the modem folk song movement. Yang Hsuan.
identified with Chinese nationalism. He used the work of Yu Kuang-chung to
compose the new Chinese folk music (M iao 43-44; Chang C. W. 39-49). Yu
was not an ordinary poet, but a celebrated one known for his superb
sensibility to language, imagery, rhythm, and sound. Besides being a poet. Yu
was also a translation expert on English poetry and a Chinese nationalist.
Many o f his poems depicted his anger at the communist government in China
and his nostalgia for his motherland. His poems that were adopted by Yang
Hsuan were mostly about the painful quest for the mother China. Despite
explicit sexual implications in some metaphors. Yu's poems echoed the main
points o f the "China Complex." And they also attempted to respond to
debates on nativism and modernism by incorporating Taiwan into the map o f
the motherland. The fact that Y u's poems were used as the primary source for
creating modern Chinese fo lk reflected the movement's attachment to the
quintessential official literature. It thus predetermined its ideological stance
and circumscribed its potential o f transgression.
Secondly , the movement at its outset sought support from semi-official
cultural institutions. Since the young musicians were reluctant to associate
themselves with commercial music, they went to seek support from non-profit
organizations. After reviewing Yang Hsuan s proposal and the
recommendation o f a popular radio station D.J. T'ao Hsiao-ch’ing. the Hung
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8 :^
Chien-ch'uan Foundation agreed to sponsor the inaugurating concert (Miao
85-6: Chang C. W. 39. 49). The foundation was a non-profit literature and
education organization that sponsored "healthy." correct and art-oriented
cultural activities. It later also helped release Yang's first album.
However, most foundations like the Hung Chien-ch'uan were
unofficial institutes w hose actual business was to promote official cultural
policies. The affiliation with such institutes suggested the movement's
innately conservative politics. It was then not surprising to see its later
involvement w ith the culture industry. Two years after the inaugurating
concert, the movement began to be assimilated by the media, especially by
record companies and television.
In order to accommodate modern folk song into the realm of popular
music, the record industry re-labeled it by giving it a new name; "college folk
song " {''hsiao-yuan min-ke'').^ The re-naming revealed a process o f
purposeful screening and adjustment. First, the term "modern " was taken
away in order to reduce the elitist, high brow aspect to the minimal e.xtent so
that it could become more accessible to general consumers o f pop music.
Second, in order to preserve the original "difference" o f the modem folk, the
word "hsiao-yuan." literally meaning "campus" is added to let the new term
maintain the original youth identity .
But the Chinese term for folk song, min-ke. was kept unchanged,
instead o f being substituted by a more popular term "min-yao." Min-yao in
Chinese means "ballad." connoting its wide circulation among different areas
despite its originally rich "local color " (ti-fan-t'e-sse). "Min-ke" indicates
^The concept applied here is drawn from Dick Hebdige’s Subculiure: The
.Meaning of Style in which Hebdige discusses the process of co-opting youth
culture into mainstream commodity consumption (96-99).
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84
popular ballads with indigenous and regional attributes. In the 1930s. many
local /niii-kc' were rewritten into art songs. In this w a \. the term niin-ke
became to be associated with a high-art connotation. Thus it was considered
more appropriate than the colloquial min-yao to define college folk. This re
naming was in fact a cancellation o f its original meaning. The avant-garde
aspect coined b\ the term "m odern" was eliminated. The term "college" was
used to maintain its novelty as well as immaturity and hence, implied a sense of
trivia lit) . These steps could be seen as a way o f "hazing." to keep the songs
in the higher level o f cultural hierarchy while maintaining its popular appeal
(Change. W. 1.30).
Miao T'ing-w ei provides a lucid discussion in the appropriation o f the
modern folk song movement.^’’ According to Miao. the first company that
cashed in the new music was Singer (Hsin-ke) record company. As a new
company in the record industry. Singer set out two tasks to establish a distinct
identity for itself: targeting on the young consumers and creating a
commodity identity o f its own (98-103).
Singer realized that most young consumers (mostly high school and
college students) only listened to American pop. They especially loved the
easy-listening folk music with a slightly rebellious attitude. College folk thus
fitted quite well to the need o f young consumers. Singer also saw the validity
of folk for labeling itself as different. College folk w ith all its attributes clearly
distinguished itself from mainstream pop. By being its patron. Singer was able
to create a commodity identity for itself, and territorialize" itself from the rest
of the record companies.
^Chang Chao-wei in his thesis also gives a similar but less clear description of
Singer’s invoK ement in commodifying modern folk.
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85
Singer Ihus presented a new genre called new folk'new pop.' The
company held composing and singing contests in order to collect sources for
future albums to be released. From 1977 to 1980, it gathered a good number
of songs and discovered several talented singers. During this period, it
released a total number o f thirteen albums. Singer's policy helped initiate the
new wa\ e o f folk songs in the record industry. By the end o f 1970s. college
folk became the most important music. Folk singers became the most exposed
celebrities in radio and tele\ ision programs. W ith the increasing popularity of
folk singers and systematic assimilation b\ the media corporations, folk song
was became the dominant pop genre in Taiwan.
By the early 1980s. the industrialized folk song had lost its charm and
market value. According to Miao. because o f the immense success of
industrial folk music, censorship began to interfere (104-7). To a large extent
conformity and repetition appeared in the new songs as a result of
compromising with censorship. As folk was totally assimilated by the culture
industry , it had to accept the regulation o f market economy. Due to
constraints from censorship, lack of innovation in latter works, and a pop
blending with folk and rock n' roll, college folk beeame passe and was no
longer popular in the early 1980s.
The studies o f Miao T'ien-w ei and Chang Chao-wei clearly inform us
that it is the inherent ambiguity o f the movement that made it susceptible to
the manipulation o f the media. Its embodiment o f high and popular cultural
quality prepared a niche for itself in the commercial sy stem. The eulture
industry was espeeially attracted by its endorsement o f normalized youth
sensibility. Chinese nationalism, and nativism. Its "m ultivalent" quality was
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thus very helpful for the industry to promote a new commodit\ with a
"correct," officially approved, national identity.
Based on similar purposes, mainstream film noticed the manipulative
qualities o f college folk and the powerful cultural meaning that it represented.
In 1979. two important film s of the year. Good Mornin;^, Taipei and Yaiir
Smilin(> Face incorporated new folk/new pop into the narrative. They both
used this new music to represent a new cultural identitv that tried to reconcile
the young and the old. and negotiate traditions with modernity.
II. Good Morniit'^. Taipei: Youth and the Politics o f Folk
From the beginning to the end. musical creation was my extracurricular
interest. It wouldn't be appropriate if I took it as a wav of living.
— Yang Hsuan^—
Directed by the renowned v eteran director. Lee Hsing. written by his
then assistant director. Hou Hsiao-hsien. the film 's story is based on Lee's
favorite topic— the negotiation between the old. conserv ative concepts and
new. liberal ideas. Unlike Lee's prev ious works that deal with the similar
topic. Good Mornin;^. Taipei particularly uses music to represent a youth
identity as opposed to parental authority. The narrative of the film is thus
organized to present a process of the negotiation between the youth identity
and the conservative patriarchal ideology.
' Yang Hsuan, interv iew, “Ching-sheng ling-v'u te hou-hua-v uan” [The rear
garden of spiritual field] Free Daily 12 July, 1995: C6.
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87
The plot of the film centers around the main character. Yeh T'ien-lin.
Yeh is a college student who is concerned more with his music than a college
degree. As the film begins, we see him cutting class in order to sing at a
restaurant. He keeps his daily gig from the knowledge o f his family, especially
his father, an uptight professor who prohibits the son's interest in music. The
father has a reason, though: Yeh's mother abandoned the fam ily years ago
because o f her craze for music. When this is disclosed, conflicts erupt, but the
father is finally reconciled. However, when Yeh's best friend dies from
excessive work for money, he decides to quit music and goes back to school.
Despite the fact that music broke his fam ily apart, his belief that music is
minor and insignificant is the main cause o f the father's objection to his son's
involvement in it. The film then tries to undercut the father's prejudice against
music, arguing that his view fails to do justice to the good music practiced by
good youth for good reasons. The narrative o f the film is consequentK
organized to fu lfill the distinction between good pop. i.e.. folk oriented pop
from bad pop. i.e.. degenerate industrial pop. and good youth from bad youth.
The film presents Yeh's association with folk by follow ing the
conventional notions o f folk. First. Yeh follows the ideological prototype of
folk musicians; he is a singer-songvvriter. His ability to compose and sing his
own music is show n many times in the film . Second, his practice o f the
ideological orthodoxy of folk is shown in the ways that he presents and
performs his music. He uses only an acoustic guitar as his accompaniment and
sings his songs in a low-key and casual voice. Sim plicity and directness
constitute the form o f his musical presentation, precisely the form that is
central to folk.
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88
Besides representing Yeh's practice o f folk as orthodox and thus,
correct and good, the film also utilizes the "norm alized" sociological
component o f folk to show the music's positive effect on youth. Yeh is
depicted not only as a good folk singer-songvvriter but also as an innocent,
good-natured, and benevolent young person. He likes to create good music
for him self and his communities: he sings in an orphanage on Sundays,
entertaining and serv ing as a big brother to the orphans; he offers material for
his friend's radio program called "Good Morning. Taipei. " a community radio
program that plays good music.
Although Yeh is paid to perform, the film av oids depicting the financial
transactions between him and his patrons. Rather, it focuses on the influence
of his music on his patrons, most of w hom are young people. In order to
emphasize his music's association with youth culture, the film juxtaposes his
performance w ith scenarios o f a couple going through a process from fighting
to reconciliation. By doing so. his music means more than just being part o f
the ideological justification for music but also an important means of
expression for youth in general. It rev eals folk's collectiv ity and especially its
relationship with a specific social group, i.e.. the college youth.
However, even with these positive depictions o f folk and its
association w ith youth, the film still manages to insert some forms of
indoctrination. This results in a contradictory use o f college folk. Folk is first
used to defend music and rectify the incorrect viewpoint toward the music
that is good and healthy to young people. In this regard, its function in the
narrative is to assist on reconciling the conflict between the protagonist and
his conservative father. Secondly, it is used as a plausible representative o f
good music as opposed to bad pop. Folk in this context functions to attack
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89
''decadent ' popular music that is derogatory to youth culture and national
spirit. Finally, the film cancels folk's legitimacy in order to bring the
protagonist back to school. From the trajectory o f folk's ideological and
narrative functions in the film , we can see that the film shows a similar
treatment to folk as the record industry. To the media, folk's usefulness is
transitory, temporal, and instrumental. It functions to legitimate dominant
ideology and once it accomplishes its Job. it has to be discarded. Let me begin
the examination of the film 's manipulation o f folk with the first aspect.
A. The instrumental use o f college folk
By representing Yeh's practice o f folk as orthodox and correct, the film
makes the point to show that youth's association w ith music, particularly folk,
is healthy, non-corrupt, and non-deviant. This point makes professor Yeh's
objection seem conservative and uninformed. However, while representing
the positive sides o f folk, and presenting folk as a good and legitimate youth
music, the narrative also tries to belittle that legitimacy. First, the film
questions the integrity o f folk music by showing Yeh's involvement with the
media. A scene shows him singing commercial Jingles in a recording studio.
Later in the film , he goes for an audition in a record company. But when the
company's manager wants to sign a five-year contract with him right after the
audition, he backs off. His reason is that he is not certain to commit himself as
a professional musician.
His lack of enthusiasm for a career in the music industry suggests the
film 's uncomfortable attitudes toward folk and college youth's involvement
with the music industry. Here the film reveals its real attitude toward the
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90
music and its users. On the one hand, it approves o f youth's use o f folk for
self-expression and search for freedom. On the other hand, it sets up the fine
line of using folk as a form o f transgression. It implies that the amount of
practice needed for a career planning is excessive. In other words, it suggests
that the fixation on music is not a rightful path for youth. This refusal of
acknowledging folk's legitimate status in youth career explains Yeh's
uncertainty about taking music as his lifelong profession. It is then not
surprising to see the film end w ith his abrupt w ithdrawal from music and
returning to sehool after his father has already forgiven his revolt.
Secondly, the film suggests that folk is not at all a serious music by
showing how it serv es as a backdrop for trifling romantic affairs. This
belittling o f folk is show n in a love scenario featuring a couple w ho arc
regular patrons in the restaurant w here Yeh performs. The orchestration of
the love scenario and the intradiegetic music suggests the triviality o f young
people. In the scene. Yeh sings tw o easy-listening love songs in an non-
emphatic way. This implies that the narrative does not intend to emphasize
the music too much. It suggests that music is only for providing background
atmosphere. Music is thus put in an ambivalent position: as a referent for
young people, it is necessary, but as a form essentializing the meaning o f
youth, it takes a back seat. This ambivalence reveals the film 's true attitude
toward college folk and youth. It wants to represent youth in their "norm al"
state of life, including their love troubles and their music. But it also wants to
show that their life is actually trivial and insignificant. In this way. youth is
properly represented as a demographic category. Its meaning, however, is
dow ngraded and subject to the Judgement o f adults.
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B. The ideological distinction between folk and popular music
While Yeh T'ien-lin is represented as a good young man. a minor
eharacter, Kao Wen-ying. the roommate o f Yeh's best friend T ang Feng, is
proffered as his contrast. Due to his involvement with popular songs. Kao is
portrayed as a trite, stupid character. When Kao first appears in the film , he is
clearing his voice to get ready for his singing practice. At this time. Yeh is
play ing his guitar, try ing to compose something. Kao's voice is squeaky and
loud, a sharp contrast to Yeh's low-key. quiet guitar music. After he clears his
voice. Kao begins to praetice a pop song called "God o f Love " ("Ai-sheng").
a song that he is going to sing in an upcoming singing contest.
"God o f Love " was a popular song at the time. It was sung by a
famous singer named Ts ui T'ai-ch'ing. who was known for her se.\ appeal.
"God o f Love" is precisely a song with the quality of easy listening, sexiness
and banal romantic idealism. These characteristics epitomize the singer's
strength in sexual appeal and weakness in singing abilities.
As far as the narrative is concerned, the song itself is not sufficient to
represent the "lo w " qualities of this pop fan. Kao's room is show n to be
decorated with posters o f pop singers who represented the antithesis o f folk
singers. The posters reveal the character's bad taste and his degeneration.
Kao's manner is also depicted as "abnormal." and appears sissy when he
sings. The homosexual "deviancy " that underlines Kao's character clearly
shows the film 's antagonism against pop. In the second scene of his presence,
he sings another pop song. "The Kiss o f Zephyr Hits on M y Face" ("C h'un-
feng t'a wen-shang le wo te lien"). He makes a remark about the centrality of
pop when he tries to explain to his friends his strategy for winning the singing
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92
contest. He states that his practice is working toward the perl'ection o f his
voice, since a beautiful, sw eet, and crystal voice is the criteria for a good pop
singer.
Kao's remark evidently makes a distinction betw een pop and folk.
Being placed in the center o f mass culture, industrial pop needs some extra
aesthetic values to increase its effect. It requires skills in singing, but also
image-making, theatrical decor, and choreography to orchestrate the
performance as an integrated musical and theatrical art. Being situated on the
boundary between capitalist commodity (pop) and pre-industrial ballad (folk),
folk represents a different aesthetics from pop. It is written and sung under
the notions associated with the everyday, improvisation, spontaneity, and
amateurism. Although since the 1960s. the distinction between pop. rock, and
folk has become less and less definite, the notion o f folk's superiority over
pop still functions among folk songwriters and listeners. These people would
still like to use the distinetion to carve out a territory w here a collective
musical identity is kept intaet.
Yeh T 'ien-lin's association with folk is a stamp o f a good youth
because his use of music is individual, non-profitable, communal, and ideal.
Conversely. Kao's relationship with music is profits-driven. selfish, and co
opted. Thus he is stamped as a bad youth. The narrative's diverse attitudes
toward the capitalization o f music is clearly shown in comparing the two
men's relationship with music.
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93
C. Bringing young people back to school: terminating youth transgression
W hile the good youth and their involvement in music is approved
under certain conditions, the bad y outh's association with pop is ridiculed
without any reservations. This makes GooJ Morning. Taipei an interesting
text to see the way that mainstream cinema view s music and music's relations
w ith youth culture. It. in fact, reinstates the ideology o f many American youth
film s of the 1950s. As one might argue further, it reflects the dominant
culture's anxiety toward youth as a distinct social group.
In the field o f Western social science, youth did not begin to become a
subject o f studies until the 1950s. In sociology, youth is defined as a separate
social group w hose ways o f thinking and modes o f behavior are different from
general adult groups.^ Youth as a social "other" is often treated w ith
ambivalence by the reigning authority. Because o f their repressed position in
social institutions, rebellious youth often produce threats to society. But also
because o f their lack o f real power in struggling with adults, their rebellion is
frequently trivialized and ridiculed and hence, becomes too unstable and
insubstantial to subvert the ruling ideology. The British cultural studies
scholar Dick Hebdige has suggested that the way mainstream mass media has
diffused the threat o f subcultural groups is by assimilating subcultural styles
into the mainstream commodity system. Once the subversive elements of
&The concept is drawn from the following sources: Youth: Divergent
Perspectives, edited by Peter K. Manning: Dick Hebdige's Subculture: The
Meaning of Style in which he traces the construction of deviant youth back to
the 19th century; “The Young Audience” by Stuart Hall and Paddy Whannel in
On Record, edited b\' Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin, and David Riesman’s
“Listening to Popular Music” in the same anthology.
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94
subcultural signs arc domesticated and made available fo r mass circulation, the
deviance o f youth semiotic system is entirely jettisoned (96-99).
Based upon the contradiction between rebellion and powerlessness,
young people are often used to address adults' fantasy of rebellion on the one
hand. and. social control on the other. Thus, good and bad youth are
specifically differentiated to coach the youth on the fine line of transgression.
Rational challenges to authority are both culturally and socially accepted as a
necessary cultivation o f independence and individualism. Nevertheless, the
surplus o f "tolerated rebellion" not only w ould lead to social condemnation
but also cause individual destruction. American classical youth film s in the
1950s like Rebel Without A Cause (Nicholas Ray. 1955). The Wild One (Laslo
Benedek. 1954). Jailhouse Rock (Richard Thorpe. 1957) and The Blackboard
Juui’le (Richard Brooks. 1955) all tried to make a clear distinction between
good youth and bad youth to perpetuate the borderline between sound and
destructive rebellion.
Youth cinema in Taiwan hardly constituted a genre, considering the
small-scale size of the industry and the market.'^ However, during the early
1980s. several youth film s under a genre called "student film " {hsueh-shenj>
tien-yin;^) were made by one director Lin Ch'ing-chieh. Being a high school
teacher for a long time. Lin was sympathetic with teenagers who suffered from
the s tiff educational sy stem and ethics. He tried to expose and critique the
unreasonably high standard on students' moral conduct in his films.
9 In the 1960s, Mandarin films made from Taiwan controlled most Mandarin
theaters in southeast Asia. But the domination was soon changed when Hong
Kong Mandarin films (mostly Kung-fu, martial arts films) took over the
southeast film market in the late 1960s.
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95
Among the nine student movies that he made during the earl) 1980s.
none of them resembled American youth film s because he was more interested
in dealing with the bureaucratic system than the nature o f youth. Youth in his
film s were thus depicted as innocent teenagers who had no intention to rebel
against authority . In his Student Love (1981) and Cla.ssniutes ( 1982).
individual students resorted to reactionary behaviors to express their
discontent o f severe educational policy, not the dominant ideology. The
director wanted to suggest that nothing was wrong with teenagers: the real
criminal in youth delinquency was the s tiff educational system.
l.in 's view o f youth was also echoed by the style in his films. When his
teenagers were away from school, they were often placed in the sun-shining
and pastoral landscape. The placement o f youth against the backdrop o f
nature is used w as to idealize and romanticize youth. It not only defused the
inherent danger o f youth subculture but also reduced threatening youth to
innocent childhood. This ideology existed in almost each o f Lin's film s and
made his young students nothing but ty pical pubescent teenagers having
trouble in dealing with school bureaucracy.
As critic Ts ai Kuo-jung accurately points out. most o f Lin's student
film s actually fail to reveal the aspects o f youth culture. They were more like
light comedies about high school life (283). This conservative ideology of
youth representation also dominates Good Monnng, Taipei. More
importantly , this conservatism is supported by a style called "health realism"
(see chapter 3).
The underly ing notion o f health realism is that the world must be a
wholesome plaee where there are no real villains, no real corruption, and no
problems that cannot be solved. From a conservative viewpoint, popular
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90
music is associated with moral and sexual corruption and therefore, it must be
condemned and dissociated from good characters. Folk music is compatible
with the healthy and realistic fictional world because it brings harmony and
love to society. Thus it is a legitimate music. The film ends with a perfect,
zero-contradiction world. The earlier "discrepancies" in the story all
disappear at the end: Yeh's best friend T ang Feng, who does not know to
appreciate life, dies o f overworking: the pop-loving, fame-driven, sissy Kao
Wen-ying fails to make through semi-final in the singing contest. But there is
still a problem that is not solved yet, that is. Yeh's neglect o f his schooling
because o f his involvement with music. The film then has to seek a way to
solve this problem by sending Yeh back to school so that order can be
restored. This solution is manifested in the film 's ending.
The film is ended by a long shot containing a panoramic view of Taipei
as a new day begins. The presentation of the beginning o f a new, conflict-
free, and healthy Taipei is accompanied by the broadcasting o f a community
radio program called "Good Morning, Taipei." As the shot tilts up to reveal a
broader view o f the city scape, the radio hostess starts to play the song "Good
Morning, Taipei" to greet the city in its morning mist. The song is written by
Yeh T'ien-Iin for the program. Earlier in the film , he actually sings the song
once for the children in the orphanage. But this time, it is being sung by
someone else. A real-life pop singer named Hsiao Li-chu, w ho is known for
her good singing abilities, is singing the song in the ending sequence. The
film 's essential ideology thus entirely unfolds: absorbing all contradictions,
recuperating health realist world, and introducing new, healthy popular music
performed by a real professional singer.
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III. Your Sitiilin;^ Face: Romantic Melodrama, Female Subjectivity and New
Pop
In Good Morniu}’. Taipei, we see a clear ideological distinction
between folk and pop. We also see the film 's treatment of folk music in
representing a somewhat liberal but essentialh conservative youth image.
Another film .Fm /r Sinilini’ Face, made in the same year but with a better box
office success, adopted different attitudes toward music in showing a new
female subject.
A. Female subjectivity and the revisionist romantic melodrama
Your Stnilin;.f Face is a romantic melodrama that deals with
sexuality more realistically . Compared to such contemporaries as Ch ung Yao
movies, its relationship with the genre is ambivalent because it does not
actually follow the genre's conventions. It presents a novelty in terms o f its
story and representation. On the story level, the novelty is shown in the
female protagonist's attitude to pre-maritai sex and pregnancy , abortion, and
single motherhood. In the representational level, the innovation is expressed
in the image o f the female protagonist. In these regards, the film can be seen
as having injected new views to romantic melodrama dominated by Ch'ung
Yao movies.
Another reason that makes the film worth discussing is its soundtrack
music featuring new pop. a co-opted fo lk arose from the late fo lk song
movement. The film uses new pop substantively to supplement the
representation o f a new female attitude. The reason to use "supplement" here
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98
rather than "reinforce" is that there exists a gap betw een the songs and the
ideological stance of the narrative. The soundtrack music o f new pop
enhances the film 's art appeal. However, the conventionality of the lyrics
short-circuits the female subjectivity that the film tries to convey.
The film 's protagonist. Ch i Ying. is a young woman who sings in a
restaurant. Her boyfriend, an orphan, has Just graduated from college and
decides to take a teaching Job in the aboriginal area. Meanw hile, a rich
w idow er comes regularly to hear her sing because her voice reminds him of his
dead w ife. Ch i Ying's boy friend later dies in an accident. The tragedv
brings her and the widower together. But as their relationship gets closer.
Ch i Ying discovers that she is pregnant, a result of her last night w ith her
former boy friend. The pregnancy soon becomes an obstacle to the new
relationship. The widow er proposes abortion, but Ch i Ying's surprising
decision is to keep the baby. Her reason is: since the boy friend has no family
all through his life, the baby is the only way to prove his existence. The
decision means an end to the promising relationship and the possibility o f a
good marriage. After she gives birth, she goes back to work in the restaurant
and finds the widower sitting in his familiar place, listening to her sing again.
The film was a major hit in 1979 and also received critical acclaim and
institutional awards. In 1980's Golden Horse Award {Chin-ma-chiani>). a sort
o f Taiw anese Academy Award, the film w on the prizes o f best supporting
actor, best insert song, and good film {19H0 cinema yearbook 76. 78). It was
also one o f top-ten hit film s o f the year. Judging from its marketing strategy.
It is not difficult to surmise the film 's success. First o f all. it used three new
actors, an "innovation " to the standardization o f the Ch'ung Yao movies
whose form was based upon on standard casting, standard settings (i.e.. the
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99
so-called three locations: living room, restaurant, and cafe), and similar plot
structure. But what really makes the film different is a combination o f two
other elements: the soundtrack featuring folk and its treatment o f pre-marital
sex and its consequences.
As compared to Ch'ung Yao romantic melodramas at the time, the film
boldly addressed the issue o f sexuality , and affirms female subjeetivity. It was
believed that a paradox has been existing in Ch'ung Yao novel and film
beeause o f its love themes and its avoidance o f explicitly depicting sex. Most
of the stories depiet misunderstanding, parental intervention, and fatalism that
obstructed the romantic relationship from progressing. W hile the film s always
presented love seenes. sex was rarely mentioned. Censorship was certainly an
important factor that prevented sex from being depicted. But the real reason
had to do with the emphasis of spiritual love in the original novels.
Given the sexual suppression in the original sources and moral standard
enforced by censorship. Your SmUin;^ Face was a breakthrough film for
several reasons. First, it did not objeet pre-marital sex but affirmed it as a way
that young people committed themselves to passion and devotion. Second.
Ch i Ying's decision gave a blast to the bourgeois values and suggested a
possibility of female self-determination. A conventional plot o f a story o f this
kind would go through stages o f fam ilial eonflicts (i.e.. negotiation with
parents), social pressure (i.e.. discrimination from the community ), and
reconciliation (i.e.. the restoration o f peace and order by some sort of
negotiation between the two parties). Hence, a conventionally perfect ending
for a film like Your Smilini> Face would be to let the female protagonist have
an abortion and marry to the rich, outlandish man for love and security. But
her decision counteracted this normal expectation.
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1 0 0
Although the reason for keeping the unborn baby appears sentimental,
the result is nonetheless an action o f self-determination. Here the film
apparently wants to emphasize the female protagonist's subjectivity by
show ing her choice o f a single, d ifficu lt motherhood over a lov ing and
comfortable marriage. In the earlier part o f the film , the widower's
qualifications as an eligible husband is emphasized to a great extent by
showing his power at work, his mansion, bourgeois life style, and an athletic,
masculine body. In addition, his quality as a sincere and caring man is
delineated by the devotion to his dead wife. Yet all these qualifications of an
ideal husband (from the perspective o f bourgeois values) fail to compete with
the importance o f a woman's w ill. Therefore, only after she has her own way
of life and fulfills her w ill does the film come to the moment o f reconciliation.
The ambiguous ending seems to suggest that the widower finally comes to
respect her and accept her decision.
By depicting the victory o f a woman's self-determination, the film
presents quite a new female image and gender relationship. How does new
pop function in the depiction o f this female identity ? An examination o f the
way that music is used to construct class identity can provide an answer to
the question.’'*
’Opor the most part. Your Smiling Face still follows the pattern of the musical
discourse in earlier Ch’ung Yao movies in which music, particularly pop song,
is used extradiegeticallv' to facilitate narrative transition. Moreover, it
supplements the visual image, intensifying dramatic elements In the mise-en-
scene and creating lyrical moods. For example, music occupies a crucial role in
the sequence when Ch’i Ying and the widower are having fights about the
issue of abortion and refuses to see each other. .A dichotomous spatial
relationship is set up to narrate the couple’s temporary separation. The
widower’s frustration is depicted in a scene where he is seen to roller skate
alone in a mountain road. A song from the soundtrack called “Stars in the Sky”
( “T’ien-shang te hsing-hsing”) is played to provide a lyrical backdrop for his
melancholy: “Why are the stars in the sky so crowded like people on the earth?
Why are people on the earth so lonely like the stars in the sky?” Meanwhile,
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101
B. Music and class division
The film 's opening scene defines folk and marks folk's relationship
with class identity. The scene opens with Ch i Ying singing and playing the
song "O live Tree." A style of a romantic mysticism is employed to depict this
scene. In the darkness, we hear guitar music delivering the prelude o f the
song and w e see Ch i Ying's back facing the camera as she plays the song.
Then w e hear her monologue; "at a chilly raining night. I encountered a
vagabond orphan; he changed my life. We fell in love. I remembered asking
him; "Where did you come from ?' He said.. . . " The answer to the question is
then picked up by the first verse o f the song as she turns her head toward the
camera, revealing her face. And she goes on to sing the song;
Don't ask me where I come from.
My homeland is far away.
Why vagabond? Vagabond yonder, vagabond!
For the flying little bird in the sky. the flow ing light
stream in the mountain, and the vast grass field.
Vagabond yonder, vagabond.
There is something else— for the olive tree in my dream,
the olive tree.
The song epitomizes the canon o f college folk music, i.e.. poetic
inspiration and simple style. Images o f vanishing boundaries, obscure
identities, and natural landscapes constitute the lyrics. The structure o f the
song is organized by three short and identical parts in order to make the song
easy to remember and recite. The musical arrangement also corresponds to the
Ch’i Ying is also seen in scenes that are presented only by music and actions.
The use of music here suggests the passing of time, and the state of being of
the characters.
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structure itself. Guitar accompaniment dominates the entire song without any
other accompaniment.
The vagabond mentioned in the monologue points to Ch i's boyfriend
Wang Shu who writes the song based on his miserable childhood. This brings
up folk's class association, which the film wants to emphasize. Both Wang
and Ch i belong to the lower-middle class, especially Wang, who has been an
orphan since his childhood. But their class identity does not necessarily mean
their lack o f interest in culture. On the eontrary. according to folk ideology, it
is precisely a lower class identification that makes good music. Orphanage,
difficult youth, a lower class identity , and folk talent makes Wang Shu a
quintessential folk figure. And these are the qualities that make Ch i Ying
identify with him. singing his song, telling his story, and eventually, keeping
his child.
The antithesis o f the lower middle class is placed in the widower Huang
Chi-chung. Huang's upper class identity is clearly suggested in the first time
he appears in the film . The film uses parallel editing to introduce Huang and
Wang in a context o f same time but different space. They are first seen in the
film when they are both on the road. Huang is driving his car while Wang is
riding a bus. The use o f parallel editing is able to set out the class difference
between the two characters.
The class difference is then continued to manifest itself through
intradiegetic music. In one scene that depicts Ch i's teaching in a children's
choir, we hear them singing a famous Chinese fo lk song called "Ballad o f
Collecting Lotus Seeds" ("Ts ai lien yao"). This scene is soon cut into a
scene where Huang is seen with his daughter at his office, receiving a
completed portrait o f his dead w ife from a painter who has been commissioned
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103
to do il. As Huang is assessing the portrait with his daughter, w e hear
V ivaldi's "Four Seasons" playing on the soundtrack.
These examples demonstrate how the film utilizes folk to set out the
identity of the main characters. Ch i Ying's identification w ith her poor,
independent, and artistic boyfriend clearly marks her as a positive character.
But how does her own professional identity, i.e.. a folk singer, construct her as
a modem woman? How do the songs that she sings inv alidate her quality as a
progressive woman? Let us begin to answer these questions by looking at the
film 's soundtrack album Olive Tree.
C. Olive Tree {Kan-lan shu ). new pop. and a progressive female image
The soundtrack album entitled Olive Tree was released by the Singer
record company at the time when the film came out. This album e.xemplified
the collaboration between classical and folk music. As mentioned, during the
heyday o f college folk, the ideological components of folk were standardized.
But at the same time, its association with art music attracted classical music
composers to write art songs for the record companies. The result was the rise
o f a subgenre in new pop; art folk.
Olive Tree was the first attempt to create art folk in the market
dominated by mainstream pop and the gradually declining college folk. On
the one hand, it was a commercial product directly generated from the
collaboration o f two industrial mechanisms: reciprocal promotion for the
newly released film and record. On the other hand, it tried to incorporate the
defining features o f fo lk such as originality and creativity into the making of
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104
an arl folk. Different from the sim plicity and the spontaneity that
characterized earlier folk songs. Olive Tree has an elaborate form. A ll the
songs were composed by Li T'ai-hsiang. a composer and violinist who had
received a complete classical music training. Li incorporated classical methods
such as sy mphonic accompaniment and a complete three-part structure into
the making of the album.
Moreover, the album was sung by a new singer. Ch i Yu. ' ■ She has a
unique soprano voice, similar to the quality o f Joan Baez's. Ch i's singing
voice was distinctive as compared to her contemporaries. Given the art
quality that the album strived to achieve. Ch i's singing can be attributed to
what Roland Barthes has called "pheno-text." In his article. "The Grain of
the Voice. " Barthes discusses his conception o f the semiotics in vocal
performance. "Pheno-text." a term Barthes borrows from Julia Kristeva to
indicate an individual, spontaneous, and a non-conformist articulation.
Conversely, "geno-text. " means a conventional way o f interpreting and
singing the music according to generic regulations. Barthes uses the terms in
discerning a parole and a laiii’ue in singing. Like parole in speech, "pheno-
text " does not try to avoid frictions in the speech o f singing while "geno-
text " conceals the actual process o f vocal enunciation. It is "pheno-text"
that creates semiotic instability that gains Barthes' praise. By this notion. Ch i
Y u's voice can be looked at as a "geno-text " because her aspiration,
pronunciation, and interpretation present an emphasis rested more on a
professional perfection rather than an individual uniqueness. W ith Ch i's
* iThe promotion of both newcomers, i.e., the actress Hu Huei-chung who
played the female protagonist and the singer Ch’i Yu, was evidently shown in
the similarity between the singer’s name, Ch’i Yu, and that of the female
protagonist, Ch’i Ying.
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105
"geno-text" as its artistic signature, the album establishes its quality as art
folk.
The fusion made by Olive Tree was a success.*- It attracted people
who disliked folk for its simplicity and naivete by adding a slightly more
sophisticated structure and a quasi-art song singing style. By doing so. it
proved that the synthesis o f the two seemingly oppositional musical genres
was not only possible but also marketable. Also, thanks to the film , it
expanded the interests o f an audience w ho prim arily listened to pop.
A ll the songs are played in the film . The actress Hu Huei-chung. who
plays the protagonist, lip syncs with Ch i Yu's singing to appear as if she is
the singer of the songs. Her lip sync is convincing and helps construct her
image as a genuine new pop singer as well as the facade of the film 's art
appeal. But if we pay attention to the content o f the songs, we recognize that
new pop has actually lost its connections w ith folk. W ith the exception of
"O live Tree." the lyrics o f the songs are very sim ilar to most pop songs in that
a frustrated love relationship (pop's favorite cliche) is the major theme. Lyrics
like "m y memory o f you is like mountain high, ocean deep, sweet, and
beautiful" ("W alking in the Rain"), "yo u r smile enchants me. only your
smiling face can accompany me in a long Journey through the night " ("Y our
Sm iling Face") clearly reveal their affinity with conventional pop songs.
Under the camouflage of elaborate instrumentality and high singing skills,
these virtually conventional pop songs become art folk and new pop.
’ ^The album’s theme song, “Olive Tree,” defeated two other patriotic songs
featured in two m ilitary films and won the prise of best insert-song in the
1980’s Golden Horse .Award. See 1980 cinema yearbook 74. It was also one of
the top-ten best-selling albums of the year.
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106
The camouflage is also used in the image o f the female protagonist.
When she appears for the first time in the film , folk ideology is manifested not
just through the song that she sings but also through her image. Besides
creating a mystic aura that tries to make an impressive innovation in the
beginning, the film attempts to present the female lead with a new image. The
guitar, her costume, hair style and the accessories that she wears in the scene
construct an image o f a young hippie folk singer. Ch i Ying's hippie image
continues to appear later when she sings in the restaurant.
Despite her hippie image, she has little relationship w ith the
countercultural meaning inherent in that style. Ch i Ying is not an anti-social
heroine w ho has oppositional ideas about society, culture, and politics. This is
why w e never see her in a hippie style when she is not at work because it is
not an intrinsic component o f her identity. In this regard, the use o f American
counterculture is no more than a signifier for its utility as a style, a dressing
code, and a superficial identity.
IV. Conclusion
Taiwanese cinema o f the 1970s played a significant role in the overall
cultural revisionist project. In its contributions to the reconstruction o f an
official nationhood and a new socio-cultural and gender identity , mainstream
cinema also sought to make revisions to increasingly stagnant genres. In
particular, it saw the fertility o f pop. college fo lk and new pop in the
production o f revisionist works. Good Morning, Taipei utilized college folk
to recuperate a “ healthy" world within the form o f health realism, a style that
had not been popular for more than ten years. Your Smiling Face
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107
incorporated new pop into a representation o f a new female image and
identification.
Both film s tried to suggest a new youth image that embodied a slightly
progressive soeial view without posing threats to the exist ng system. Good
Mornin'^. Taipei reproduced the eontradictions o f most youth film s in their
promotion and assimilation of youth culture at the same time. Your Sniilin;^
Face revealed a problem when a film tried to make innovations by
ineorporating an inherently conservative but new type o f popular music in its
narrative. These examples showed the somewhat uneven situation o f cinema
as a whole during this period when the unifying cultural discourse was no
longer capable o f encompassing every change in the society.
But when the eountry experienced the most traumatic setback in 1978.
the film Land o f the Brave appeared to mediate identity and social conflicts.
And this time, college folk was the unifying force that brought people from all
walks to commit themselves to two missions: patriotism and social conformity.
The next chapter discusses this film .
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108
Folk Music and National Identity: Land o f the Brave
lam i.
Standing like a Peking man.
Dignified and imposing Peking man I am.
Belongs to China, not Peking.
Yang Hsuan/Yu Kuang-chung'
We have to know that music can fu lly represent the rise and fall o f a nation.
Thus in this enterprise o f nation-building and revolution, in the war against
China and Russia, we must cultivate a correct national and fighting spirit. We
have to exalt our energetic spirit and genuinely bright bearings and inject
them to our music and songs so that they can rectify decadent music and
degenerate songs.
Chiang Kai-shek-
The film s discussed in the previous chapter represent examples o f how
folk music is used in two youth film s to impose a government-approved youth
identity. Despite slightly different thematic emphases, they both use music in
a mediated way to reinforce the dominant ideology toward youth, even
though they avoid reducing musical form, style, and ideology to propaganda
or dogma. However, the film that is discussed in this chapter. Land of the
^ Miao T’ien-wei, “Hsiang-ch’ou-ssu-yun— chung-kuo hsien-tai min-ke yun-tung
chih sheh-huei yen-chiu” [Nostalgic tunes: a sociological study on Chinese
modem folk movement] (Taipei: Taiwan U, 1991) 57,
^Ho Ming-chung, “Chiang-tsung-t’ung tuei hung-yang wo-kuo wen-hua yu
yueh-chia chih-shih” [President Chiang’s instructions toward the promotion of
our national culture and musical education], Chung-hua wen-hua yu chung-
kuo yueh-chia mu-lu [A catalogue of Chinese culture and Chinese musical
education] (Taipei: Chung-kuo yueh-ch’i hsueh-huei, 1977) 212-13,
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109
Brave {Lung te ch'uan-jen), explicitly manipulates music to construct an ideal
nationhood.
Directed by the veteran filmmaker. Lee Hsing. produced by the CMPC
in 1981. Land o f the Brave is a policy film made to address the national shock
that took place two years earlier when the Carter administration derecognized
Taiwan in exchange for establishing diplomatic relations with the PRC.
College folk music is featured to codify a national space w ith nationalistic and
nativist precepts. Most importantly, the Chinese title o f the film is borrowed
from the most popular folk song in this period: "Descendants o f the Dragon"
("Lung te ch'uan-jen"). The song was a huge hit in 1979 for its explicitly
nationalistic inscription written in a beautiful ballad. Through the media's
promotion, it almost became a national anthem. It was soon made into a policy
film which wished to rely on its nationalistic appeal in order to effeetively
affirm people's belief in the Nationalist government; a belief that this
government is capable o f building a modem China in Taiwan.
Music is used in conjunction w ith four important contexts o f the
cultural revisionism in Taiwan between the late 1970s and the early 1980s (see
chapter 2): the college fo lk movement; conflicts between tradition and
modernity; a genre o f health realist melodrama; and a diplomatic national crisis.
The film draws from these seminal issues to organize its narrative and modes of
representation. In order to discuss the film in light o f these four contexts, this
chapter is struetured accordingly.
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110
I. College Folk Music: the Integrating Force
College folk, the major source music, is seen as a powerful force to
assimilate all the differences and conflicts in Taiwan's social, cultural, and
economic structures. It is used in both intradiegetic and e.xtradiegetic forms.
Intradiegetically, college folk represents the dominant pop that is part o f the
public life: it is the music heard from the television and in the street, and. it is
the music that college youth use to express their patriotism and nativist
identification. Extradiegctically, college folk helps construct a peaceful and
harmonious national space.
A. College folk and the national crisis
College fo lk first appears on the scene when the main character, Ching-
t'ao, is eating with his girlfriend Chang Shu at a noodle stall. The radio at the
stall is playing a famous fo lk song "To Catch a M udfish" ("Chuo ni c h 'iu ” )
sung by a fo lk singer, Pao Mei-sheng.
The scene occurs right after Ching-t'ao has rejected an invitation from
his rich brother-in-law to dine at a fancy Westem-style restaurant. Instead, he
chooses to have his dinner in the neighborhood noodle stall. In contrast to
the high-scale Westem-style restaurant, the plain and cheap noodle stall
serves home-style food. Ching-tao's behavior explains his strong
identification with the country and a down-to-earth lifestyle. In order to
show his nativist identification more directly, the narrative provides an
antithesis to his patriotism. This antithesis is embodied in his girlfriend Chang
Shu, who tells him that she has decided to go to Japan to learn cosmetology
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while they are eating. Upon hearing her plan, Ching-tao does not hesitate to
express his objection, since he has just given up his plan to study classical
music in Italy. His girlfriend's decision sounds like an act o f betrayal to the
country, and so an argument occurs between them.
As he is persuading her to stay, a famous folk song "To Catch a
M udfish" enters the soundtrack. The song sings: "The rain stops and the
pond is filled with water. Mudfish is everywhere in the furrow. 1 am waiting
for you to take me to catch mudfish everyday. Let's go get the mudfish, big
brother.. . ." The song is written in a nostalgic rhetoric that celebrates the
supposedly genuine, care-free life o f the pre-industrial period. References to
innocence, nature, spontaneity, and playfulness glorify the lyrical persona's
home land and suggest a childhood paradise. Its simple melody pattern and
cheerful tune complement the utopian past.
The song enjoyed a tremendous popularity at the time because it bore
the prototypical features o f college folk: sim plicity, innocence, and nostalgia.
These attributes renders it an effective song to be used in the diegesis,^ and in
fact, its function is crucial. W ithout loudly announcing itself, it deftly
introduces the themes o f nativism, youth activism, and patriotism.
The next intradiegetic music is also related to the theme o f patriotism.
This occurs in the scene^ where Ching-t'ao is holding a meeting with his
^Another popular song that featured similar scenarios was “My childhood”
(“T’ung-nien”). One interesting example shows the importance of “To Catch a
Mudfish” in the history of college folk is to look at a pocket-sized anthology of
college folk. The order of the songs is compiled according to the popularity
that each song had achieved at the time when it was released. “To Catch a
Mudfish” was placed as the first song of the anthology and “Descendants of the
Dragon” was the second.
^It is important to note here that the scene is preceded by an announcement
to organize an agricultural survey team in the countryside in a government’s
agricultural development office. The staff is seen to welcome this
announcement. After the announcement, the shot is quickly cut into Wang
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112
friends to discuss how to transform their patriotic passion into something
concrete and useful to the country. They finally decide to organize a folk tour
around the country, spreading good folk songs to the rural population. This
scene opens with a performance by a college folk band. In order to signify
the band's association with the upcoming plan, canonical modes o f
representing good youth are used. Their performance appears cheerful,
upbeat, and engaging and the music they play has similar features. Another
significant visual depiction o f the band is the image o f the lead vocal, cast by a
real-life folk singer Wang Hsing-lien. Like most college folk singers at the
time, Wang is known for her plain image. Her appearance resembles the
orthodo.x image o f Western folk; the "natural look” o f long-hair and no
makeup, that present her as a typical college singer.
But the most stunning aspect o f the scene is the appearance o f two
folk figures in the meeting: Li Chien-fu and Hou Teh-chien. These two men
were well-known in the late 1970s for their connection with the influential
song, "Descendants o f the Dragon," the Chinese title o f the film . Li was the
singer and Hou was the writer o f the song. These two figures establish the
"authenticity” o f the representation o f college folk on the one hand and the
song on the other. The meaning they is not only musical but also political.
When college folk was entirely assimilated into mainstream music in the early
1980s, many college students were assimilated by the record companies and
switched their identity from fo lk musicians to pop singer-songwriters. Li
Chien-fu and Hou Teh-chien did not go to work for the pop music industry,
but remained committed to making folk songs with cultural and political
Hsing-lien and her band performing in the student’s club. These two
consecutive scenes reveal the film ’s intention to promote nativism.
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113
ideals. Their "non-contaminaled'' label was thus useful to the film in its
construction o f a national culture with authentic, sincere, creative, and
patriotic characteristics.
Hou Teh-chien was also the songwriter for the film , writing all the
songs except for one song called "Let's Go Watch the Cloud " The high
profile o f Hou's music explained the film 's concern with folk's extra-musical
meaning. Hou was not only known for his music but also his hard-core
Chinese nationalism, proven by his strong identification with the countryside,
that produced the metaphor for the native land in "To Catch a M udfish."
"Descendants o f the Dragon" could be seen as the best example of his ultra-
Chinese national identity. Hou Teh-chien's nationalist craze finally erupted
when he defected to the PRC in 1983 (Chang C. W. 1989. 147).
"Descendants o f the Dragon. " along w ith his other songs, were consequently
banned for almost a decade.^
The featuring o f Hou Teh-ehien's songs shows the intention to
appropriate his music to represent nativist ideas. Likewise, the decision to
organize a folk tour is also a manifestation on the theme o f nativism because it
suggests that college fo lk can only signify substantially when it is able to
circulate around the country regardless o f class and regional boundaries.
^Hou was also an activist during the Chinese students movement in the spring
of 1989. Because of his participation in the movement, he was evicted by the
Chinese government. The Taiwanese government later allowed him to come
back to Taiwan in 1990. Since then, his musical career has not been quite
advanced but he has involved in film. He played the role of a policeman in
Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day and another key character in Moonlight
Boy (Yueh-kuang shao-nien, 1993).
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B. College folk and nativ ism
The climax o f the ideological meaning o f folk music takes place during
the tour around the countryside. It unfolds in a rural landscape where two
trucks loaded with the students are riding on the road. Happily enjoying the
ride, the students sing another well-known college song. "Let's Go Watch the
C loud" (“Jang wo-men k'an y un ch'iu").
Produced by the Singer record company. “ Let's Go Watch the Cloud"
was written by another known college folk figure. Huang Ta-ch'eng. It was
sung by a female folk singer Ch en Ming-shao who is known for her
“ natural " and refreshing singing voice. Like “ To Catch a M udfish." the
song emphasizes the regression back to the innocent and care free youth.
Speaking in an encouraging tone, the lyrical persona urges the addressee, a
young girl, to stop grieving and enjoy her youth in the beautiful nature.
Originally, the song was sung by a single voice. In the film , however, it is re
arranged in a gendered chorus form . The verse part is sung alternately by
female and male voices and then the chorus part is sung by both voices.
The re-arrangement signifies a collective euphoria o f reaching out to
the hsiang-t'u, the “ homeland soil.” The concept o f the hsian^-t'u is utilized
to represent the essence o f the nationhood in the 1970s and the early 1980s.
which had appeared first in the nativist literature that commonly used the
exploited peasants and workers as its subjects. But in the rendition o f popular
culture such as cinema, the representation o f the hsian^-t'u is often reduced
to an ethnographical spectacle codified by rural landscape, the agriculture,
and happy peasants.
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lis
Land of the Brave works in a similar vein. Countryside children are
seen not as the subjects o f the narration but part o f the rural spectacle who
enhance the realism o f the depiction. They are seen laughing, chasing after the
visitors from the city, and running around all the time, perfectly complemented
by the easy-listening, light folk songs.
There is another reason, however, for highlighting the song in the
scene, that is. the communal component assumed to be inherent in both folk
music and traditional agricultural life. A function o f the concept o f the family ,
communaiity is the most important component in Chinese traditional culture,
and the center o f traditional Chinese social life (Ch'ien 23; Sun 234). But
during the late 19th century when China began to modernize, communaiity
fell into a crisis, as China's urbanization, modernization, and capitalism caused
the disintegration o f traditional extended fam ily structure, and feudal sy stem
and social relations were forced to change to adapt to modem life.
One major task of policy films precisely was to re integrate the
traditional social structure in light o f modernity, and in the case o f Land of the
Brave, college fo lk was used for this purpose. College folk and the immersion
with the rural life are the glue that consolidates people together to go on the
journey back to the lost utopia. In order to concretize the concept o f
communaiity, specific cinematic codes are utilized. In the scene that depicts
the choir's first tour, this notion is specifically conveyed by framing, mise-en-
scene, camera movement, and editing. The scene begins with a pan shot from
the right end o f the frame, passing through a stream w ith fresh water, then a
tree living by the stream, and stopping at the choir facing the listening
villagers. Then the shot zooms in to reveal more detail o f the choir, as we hear
the soundtrack playing the students' singing o f the same song (“ Let's Go
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116
Watch the Cloud"), it cuts to the next scene where the students are
performing in a place surrounded by huts.
Shot from a bird's eye view, the next shot unfolds zooms in to a crowd
packed like sardines, enabling us to identify the students in the crowd, w ho
are m ingling with the villagers. Some are playing guitars and some are moving
around among the people who are greeting them. The bird's eye view shot
facilitates the showing of the rural people's warm reception to the students.
The next scene maintains similar narrative thrust, but with different
cinematic codes. By utilizing two sets o f shot patterns the scene clearly
expresses its enthusiasm for aligning college fo lk with nativism and the notion
o f communaiity. The shot patterns are: firstly a shot reverse shot with
variations and secondly the alternation between shot reverse shot and master
shot. W ith the shot showing school children cheerfully and a bit frantically
running toward the screen, the scene immediately sets up its festive tone. The
soundtrack continues to play "Let's Go Watch the Cloud, " maintaining the
narrative continuity in spite o f obvious temporal ellipses and different
locations. The scene is composed o f ten shots:
1. a medium shot o f the known folk singers, including Wang
Hsing-lien, Li Chien-fu, and Yang Yao-tung as they lip sync the
song:
2. a long shot o f the choir singing in front o f a temple and the
listening crowd:
3. a medium shot o f Lin with his survey team who happen to
travel to the town; Lin is seen to appreciate the music:
4. a medium-long shot depicting the choir clapping their hands with the
rhythm as they are singing the bridge part:
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5. a medium-long shot serving as the reverse shot o f the preceded one.
depicting the fervent response o f the village children, who quickly pick
up the cue and jo in the clapping:
6. a medium shot o f the side part of the choir, showing the choir's
leader Ching-t’ao enjoying his participation and noticing someone
fam iliar in the audience:
7. a medium shot back to Lin who is clapping with the choir and
making a thumbs-up sign to Ching-t'ao:
8. a medium shot depicting Ching-t'ao's response:
9. a medium shot o f Chang Shu and other choir members:
10. a master shot from the back o f the choir, showing the entire
audience watching the performance in front o f the choir.
W ith the exception of the two shots (shot 8 and shot 9) that focus on
the interaction between two acquaintanees (Ching-t'ao and Lin), the shot
composition is done by a consistent shot pattern to create the notion o f
communality. A shot o f the choir is often proceeded by a shot o f the
audience. This is the pattern that we can identify in shot 1. 2. and 3, shot 4
and 5, shot 6 and 7, and finally shot 9 and 10. Such editing patterns
apparently attempt to emphasize not just the performance but also the
reception o f the performance. More importantly, by structuring the shots into
a narratively linear sequence, it creates a fictive sense o f time and space in
which an ideal, though temporary, community is musically formed.
In addition to displaying college fo lk ’s communality, the film also tries
to interweave nativism into it. The program proceeding fo lk is classical
"south m usic" Cnan yiieh") performed by a local amateur band. Correctly
termed "nan-kuan" (south flute) or ‘ "'nun hsi'' (south theatre), south music
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118
originated from classical Chinese court music sometime in the Yuan dynasty
(Lu S. S. 187-94). In the course o f time, it evolved into a specific regional
music. Due to its archaic form and style, it has become a rare music to be
studied and practiced in conservatories or committed musical groups. The
insertion o f south music in the scene is no coincidence. Despite its
unpopularity, south music epitomizes the quintessential Taiwanese music. To
place it after folk performance intensifies the narration o f the nativist theme.
So far I have discussed how music is used as a means of emphasis. The
next example shows how this issue is expressed specifically through cinematic
codes. This occurs in the scene where Ching-t'ao is chatting with Lin, his
future brother-in-law. Shortly after they begin to talk, Chang Shu is asked to
join them. The place where they stand is in front o f the temple's side
entrances. It is used as the graphic spatial division between Ching-t'ao.
Chang Shu on one side and Lin on the other. As they are talking, several
people passing by. entering the scene in a diagonal line either through the
foreground or the background. Depth o f field is employed so that both the
talking characters in the middle plane and the townsfolk who are chatting
outside o f the temple are seen clearly.
South music at this time is still playing in the off-screen space. The
mise-en-scene signifies, again, the sense o f communality by conflating the
private and the public space. But why does the film choose to employ a
rather obscure sign to signify such an important notion? The reason is the
consistency o f the health realist style that prefers understatement to
outspoken message. The essential feature o f health realism is the integration
o f the individual and the public space to portray a happy and harmonious
community.
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The disappearance o f the division between the personal and the
public (in the creation o f the national) is precisely the centrality of
communality and nativism. It wishes to eliminate alienation o f any kind (be it
psychological, social, cultural, or national) by allegorizing the ideal community
as a consolidated nation.
C. College folk and nationalism
In addition to cultural and social functions, college folk is used to
reinforce national consciousness. The political meaning o f college folk begins
to manifest itself at the wedding o f Chang Shu and Ching-t'ao. Despite the
objection o f her father. Chang Shu elopes with Ching-t'ao on the day when
she is scheduled to fly to Japan. Instead o f going to the airport, Chang Shu
follows Ching-t'ao to the municipal office to get married. Witnessed and
blessed by their choir friends, the wedding is a unconventional one. The choir
members sing another famous college folk song ‘That Pot o f Fire " (“ Na yi
p'eng huo") as the substitute for the wedding march.
Unlike the previous “ Let's Go Watch the Cloud " that reveals college
fo lk's childish and unthreatening quality, ‘That Pot o f Fire" represents a
sublime national identity. It was written by Hou Teh-chien. the writer o f the
famous nationalistic folk song, “ Descendants o f the Dragon. " Characterized
by vivid imagery o f traditional Chinese New Year and ancestor worshipping.
That Pot o f Fire " writes the nostalgia o f cultural China:
The voice o f New Year's Eve revelry is singing from afar;
chilly wind is blowing from the north, ceaselessly.
I always look at the burning ashes flyin g slowly in
the air.
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It was kindled by Grandfather and passed it
down to me; I wonder how did I get to fail in love with
this flaming pot.
The raging flames goes on. burning the paper
money, layer after layer; the golden color evokes
my nostalgic tune.
D on't ask me what's the sweet, remote tune that I am
singing! You know it all.
W ind your rusted heart string, gently sing your
nostalgic tune.
The song is distinctly structured by nostalgia which usually indicates a
memory o f a lost object or person. In the lyrics, it is not clear what the object
o f the persona's grief is, though ancestor worshipping provides a hint.
Ancestor worshipping usually means the desire to remember deceased family
members through a ritual ceremony . The first verse uses images o f the ritual
and the memory o f the grandfather to establish a more precise meaning o f its
nostalgia. The lyrics suggests that the ritual is being appropriately performed:
(utensils are present and the tim ing seems right), but it is practiced with a sense
o f unusual sadness. Words like "remote" and “ afar" are used as attributes in
the "New Year's revelry" and in the "nostalgic tune " to imply a spatial
dislocation. But where is the "remote " place that the persona is
remembering? The first line o f the first verse: "chilly wind from the north
blows ceaselessly," provides an explanation o f the location.
The northern wind is used as a metaphor to im ply some obstacle that
prevents the speaker from obtaining the object that he/she desperately needs.
Assuming the place from which the persona is speaking is Taiwan, the place
from the north seems to indicate China, the motherland. The identification
with China characterized by cultural rather than political symbols makes the
song a fruitful text for evoking cultural and national identity. A song like this
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121
was viable for articulating a national identity w hen Taiwan's identity was
continuing to be denied around the world.
The first time that the song appears in the film is in the wedding scene.
A t the wedding, traditional wedding march music is replaced by "That Pot of
Fire." It is sung by the choir in a blessing solemnity. The presence o f folk
signifies at least two things. First, it suggests that it is folk that binds the
couple. Second, it adds a cultural and national significance to the ritual. The
union o f Chang Shu and Ching-t'ao is not just a secular relationship but a
holy matrimony bound by a firm national concept. After the wedding scene,
the song continues to play on the soundtrack as the choir is going on in their
second tour. This time they do not perform in village plazas but in grand halls.
And unlike the first tour, much o f the focus has shifted to the audience.
In the series o f snapshots, the audience is shown in long shots to
emphasize its group identity. In these shots, punctuated by medium shots to
show individual faces, the audience is seen sitting quietly, attuned to the
music as if they identify w ith the song's nostalgia and are provoked into the
sense o f the cultural nationalism suggested at the end o f the song. The
identification is not solely determined by the song's lyrics; it is also influenced
by the presentation o f the music.
Again, we have to make the distinction between the original version of
"That Pot o f Fire " and the rearrangement used in the film . As mentioned, the
song is originally sung by Pao Mei-sheng, a female folk singer known fo r her
high-pitched, delicate voice. In her rather fem inine " interpretation, the
song’s "masculine, " (read: patriotic) appeal seems to be more suppressed.
But in the film 's version, it is sung collectively by all the members o f the choir.
This arrangement prompts the song's intended ideology, cultural nationalism.
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and facilitates the delivery o f that ideology. It renders the song a eollective
enunciation rather than an expression o f individual distress. But on what
ground does the film has to set up the needs to use music to reconstruct
national identity? And by what form does the film address the issues of
identity erisis and socio cultural contradictions that pave the way for folk to
function valuably? 1 w ill discuss these issues in the following three contexts.
1 1 . Tradition and Modernity: the Binary Strueture
The generation gap that Lee Hsing likes to explore was prim arily
caused by the clash between traditional ethics and modernity. The validity of
traditional ethical characteristics such as filia l piety, decorum, and respect for
tradition were challenged when modem influences began to challenge
Chinese communities in the early 20th century . These Confucian values were
regarded as obstructions to development, efficiency, and progress.
This thesis has been present in many o f Lee Hsing's film s since the
1960s. In this 1981 film , he uses two families, the Fan’s and the Chang's, to
structure the complex relationship between modernity and traditions in
modem Taiwan. By depicting their different reception to the televisual
broadcasting o f the airport demonstration, the film deftly establishes the
contrast between the two families.
A. Two kinds o f citizens
As the film unfolds, two activities that are going on simultaneously in
the Chang’s living room tell us what kind o f fam ily it is. As Chang Shu is
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altentively watching the television report, Mr. Chang, his supervisor, and two
other colleagues are playing a game o f ma-chianf’ and making dismissive
comments about the airport demonstration. Mr. Chang and his friends are
civil servants who work at the office o f agricultural research and
development. It is a violation o f professional ethics for civil servants to play
ma-chicm^. Because nia-chian;^ often involves gambling, the government
specifically prohibits civil servants from playing it so that they can exemplify
good citizenship. This prohibition was part o f the bureaucratic reform
campaign launched by the Nationalist government in the 1970s and the
1980s. But in an East Asian state like Taiwan where custom sometimes
overrules modem administrative systems, the case o f nta-cliian^ exemplified
the difficulty o f replacing traditional customs with modem bureaucratic
values. For cultural elites who favored modemity for its capability to eliminate
the backward elements o f the culture, this die-hard leisure activity was viewed
as an obstacle. It was often used to address the resistance to modemity, and
here it underlines the representation o f the game in Mr. Chang’s home. It also
signifies an odd situation in a supposedly modem domestic space. And for
civil servants to play the ma-chiang tiles at the nation’s critical moment is an
egregious, and noisy, violation o f patriotism.
But none o f the violations seems to bother Mr. Chang and his
playmates. Mr. Chang then bids his daughter to quit watching television in
order to serve tea to the guests. When the daughter goes away to fetch hot
water, M r. Chang tums o ff the television. This is when an interview with a
patriotic cab driver is being broadcast. Although the daughter tums the
television back on when she retums from her chore, the film moves to another
fam ily which has a contrasting response to the television coverage.
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As the taxi driv er indignantly says; "we don't need to rely on
foreigners!" the eamera begins to move, patiently pacing upward into the
domestic space o f another family living one floor above the Chang's. This is
the second family in the story, the Fan's. As the camera tilts upward into the
Fan's living room (with three o f the Fan fam ily members framed in a master
shot), they are watching television attentively . Then the eamera cuts into a
medium shot o f the father, the central figure o f the preceding shot, and shows
how deeply he is drawn in by the taxi driver's statement. The narration o f the
shots obviously presents the Fan's as a “ healthy" fam ily where no corrupt
leisure activity contaminates the domestic space and obstructs their attention
to the national issue.
The Fan family 's concerns with the event marks a contrast w ith the
overall reaction o f the Chang's. Here the film uses the reception o f a
television report to differentiate good and bad. patriotic and unpatriotic
citizens. Chang and his colleagues are bad citizens because they let their
attention be occupied by ma-chiang. an unethical activity to engage during
the critical period o f a national crisis. Conversely, the Fan fam ily members are
good citizens because they engage themselves in the event. The depiction o f
the Fan fam ily as having a preferred spectatorship also makes room fo r the film
spectator. By representing the Fan family as a good, decent, and patriotic
fam ily, the film suggests that the Fans' identification w ith the event should be
a better viewing position to be occupied by the film spectator. Thus, the
television spectators at this point converge w ith the film spectator. Though
differently situated in time and space, all are watching the historic event at the
same time.
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B. The two fathers
Mr. Fan is also a civil servant, actually a co-worker o f Mr. Chang, and
in terms of the class and regional background, they have a lot in common.
They both belong to the lower-middle class, and their accents and ages
indicate they belong to the social group known as "ta-lu je n " (the
mainlanders). This particular group settled down in Taiwan after they left the
mainland with the Nationalist Party in 1949. But Mr. Chang and Mr. Fan
differ a lot in terms of their ideas of ethical issues such as jo b obligation, social
and national responsibility , and the role o f father.
Their diverse attitude toward work is evidently demonstrated in the
office scenes. Mr. Fan is a responsible civil serv ant who takes pride in his job
and tries to do his best even when he is constantly exploited by his
supervisor. Mr. Chang, on the contrary, is an opportunist. He does not feel
compelled by his responsibility and obligation; he spends most of his working
time in making connections and flattering the supervisor. Mr. Fan and Mr.
Chang also differ from each other in their treatment o f their children. Like a
typical patriarchal father in Chinese culture. Mr. Chang exercises full control
over his daughter, ranging from her career plans to her sexuality. Mr. Chang
reacts strongly against her romantic relationship with Ching-t'ao, the son o f
Mr. Fan. The objection appears to be based upon some practical reason (she
is leaving for Japan to create a better life), but the real reason is that Mr.
Chang finds his self-assertive idealism impractical and his challenge to the
elder unacceptable.
The contrast to Mr. Chang’s dictatorship is Mr. Fan’s liberal attitude.
Unlike Mr. Chang’s insistence o f sending his daughter abroad. M r. Fan
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respects his son's autonomy. He even tolerates the son's involvement with
his enemy's daughter. Moreover, he approves o f his son's active
participation in organizing a folk tour around the island instead o f going Italy
to study classical music.
The binary oppositions set up between Mr. Fan and Mr. Chang clearly
distinguishes the good civil servant from the bad. and the good father from the
bad father. But this is not the only narrative unit in explicating the conflicts
between tradition and modemity. Tw o other binary oppositions also
contribute to the issue.
C. Journey to the west and homecoming
Another important issue presented in the narrative through binary
opposition is the problem o f the brain drain. The beginning o f the brain drain
problem can be traced back to the 1947 massacre known as the February 28
ineident, in which many elites on the island were either killed or found
missing. After the massacre, many Taiwanese intellectuals took the path o f
exile. Even after the Nationalist rehabilitation in 1950. the brain drain still
remained a problem. Tw o factors contributed to the continuation o f the
problem from the 1960s to the early 1980s.
The first one was Taiwan's ambiguous status in the global political
system. The outbreak o f the Korean War in 1950 clearly warned the
Nationalist Party o f its shaky station in Taiwan in terms o f its proclaimed
opposition to the PRC. The fear o f the Chinese communists’ aggression made
many o f the island's residents seek shelter abroad. Since then the emigration
tide has never really stopped. It reflected the people's doubts about Taiwan's
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political future and the ftm of socialism. Two historical moments witnessed
the largest wave of emigration: the first was in the early 1970s when Taiwan
was forced to leave the United Nations; the second was after the American
government terminated its diplomatic relations with Taiwan.^ The second but
less direct reason for the brain drain was the uneven development between
the East and the West. During the heyday o f modernization, the government
encouraged young people to pursue training in the West and return to Taiwan
to facilitate technological, industrial, and economic development. But the
policy also generated a side-effect. W hile many people did return to Taiwan,
many more stayed in the First W orld for better financial rewards and social,
political stability.
The film tries to negotiate this brain drain at the nexus of national crisis,
modernization, and Confucian ethical values.^ It presents three subplots to
explicate its viewpoint on this issue. Ching-t'ao represents an “ enlightened"
man who refuses to follow the convention o f the general educational pattern
for young people. Between going abroad to pursue a higher degree and
staying home to make contributions to the country, he chooses the latter.
^ The emigration trend continues to date mainly because of the fear of
communist invasion. In the past few years, the Chinese government has
constantly stated its policy of unification and objection of Taiwan’s
independence. These announcements deeply threaten the wealth people in
Taiwan and lead them to react in a way sirnilar to the so-called 1997 syndrome
in Hong Kong.
"Prior to Land of the Brave, brain drain was already dealt with in Home Sweet
Home (Chia tsai t’ai-pei), a very important fam ily melodrama made in 1969.
The film was directed by Pai Ching-juei, a young director who received his film
education in Italy. Pai uses multiple plots to present different attitudes toward
emigration. By emphasizing the importance of homeland and Chinese ethical
tradition, the characters who are previously reluctant to stay in Taiwan all
change their mind at the end. This film is regarded to exemplify the
negotiation among state policy, traditional culture, and modernization, the
most important agenda in Taiwan’s postwar history.
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One thing that journalists liked to report during the period o f the
national catastrophe in 1978 was the homecoming o f many patriotic
intellectuals who gave up their Jobs in the US and rushed home to show their
rage over the American government's decision. Echoing this journalistic
narrative, the film uses the character Lin Ch'ao-hsing to depict this
phenomenon. Coming from a poor, rural background, Lin is a self-made man
who overcomes class obstacles and becomes a member o f the social elite. But
he represents a "good" social elite who is proud o f his nationality. When he
t'lnds out about the diplomatic setback, he gives up a highly paid jo b in
America and retums to Taiwan to contribute his expertise by taking takes a
job in an agricultural development office where he becomes the new
supervisor o f Mr. Fan and Mr. Chang. Besides being patriotic, he is a
forthright man and is not ashamed o f his originally low class background.
When he leads his inspection team to the countryside, he brings his colleagues
home to meet his plain, hard-working, and happy-go-lucky folks. Lin's
identification with the land places a contrast with Westernized people who
have lost the connection with the hsian^’-t'u (homeland soil).
Conversely, Chang Shu represents the confused youth who is
somewhat patriotic but not persistent in carrying out her ideas. The reason o f
her wavering patriotism is attributed to her Confucian upbringing and passive
personality. In Confucian doctrines, filia l piety regulates the relationship
between parents and children. The parents' obligations are to raise and
educate their children while the children are expected to be loyal and
obedient to their parents in return. Raised in such an ethical tradition, Chang
Shu never confronts her parents even though she disagrees with them, and
she lets them plan her future based upon pragmatism. Therefore, while Ching-
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t'ao has already given up his plans lo go abroad to study music, Chang Shu is
still preparing for her journey to Japan.
These oppositions are not produced by pure fabrication fo r narrative
mechanism, but so much as largely deriving from actual social and cultural
issues. But the film is not content simply to disclose the problems; it is also
interested in assimilating the "difference” existing betw een each set o f binary
opposition to eventually eliminate all the contradictions. The form that the
film relies upon is the combination o f health realism and family melodrama, the
two inter-related forms that have dominated Taiwanese cinema for decades.
III. Cinematic Paradigms: Health Realism and Family Melodrama
A. Health realism in a changing historical context
In 1972, after the President Nixon visited mainland China, the change
in the American attitude frightened the Taiwanese. But what was more
shocking was the death o f President Chiang Kai-shek in 1975. Although the
stability o f domestic politics was not influenced by Chiang's death because o f
a peaceful transition o f the power to his son Chiang Ching-kuo, an
unprecedented crisis from the US government's recognition o f the PRC struck
the island's identity. In 1978, the Carter Administration o f the United States
announced in the intention to establish diplomatic relations with the PRC.
These factors paved the ground for cinema to come up with a
resurgence o f an important genre in the past, health realism, to contribute a
restructuring o f national identity and national culture under urgent
circumstances. The Story o f a Small Town {Hsiao ch’ eng ku-shili, 1979),
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130
Good Mornini^. Taipei {Tsao-an I'ai-pei. 1979), and iMtid of the Brave {Liini’
te eh’ uan-jen. 1981) were the examples o f recycling health realism in a new
light to participate in the continual but increasingly necessary construction o f
the Chinese identity in Taiwan.
The term "health realism" {''chien-k'an^-hsieh-shiir) was coined by
the president of the Central M otion Picture Company. Kung Hung. By
appropriating Italian neo-realism. Kung Hung wished to create a national
cinema with commercial potential and artistic quality (Liu 53). Taiwan's
Chinese film market was dominated by Hong Kong Mandarin film s for nearly
two decades since the early 1950s. Locally produced films were far from
capable o f competing w ith their Hong Kong counterparts. This problem came
to concern Kung Hung when he came to power in the CMPC.
In addition to commercial competition. Kung Hung intended to utilize
health realism to construct a plausibly realistic world o f social harmony and
state progress. He found Italian neo-realism a useful aesthetic precedent for
health realism. Characteristics o f Italian neo-realism such as the observational
depiction o f daily life, socialist humanism, and a nationalist consciousness
were precisely what health realism was looking for to establish its own
aesthetic foundations. By having neo-realism vouch for it, Kung Hung hoped
that health realism would be able to produce propaganda works without
sacrificing the characteristics o f an artistic practice.
Health realism was the earliest incorporation o f the concept o f art into
film m aking by official efforts.* It focused on the authentic, natural, and pre-
^By looking at the history of health realism, it informs us that the official film
policy was aware of the importance of art cinema for political reasons. This
discovery leads a new approach to the New Cinema movement of the 1980s.
By comparing the official support in the two cinemas, the New Cinema
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industrial slate o f life to allegorize the Nationalist Party's benevolent rule.
Countryside scenery, agricultural life style, peasants and working class were
the objects o f depiction and subjects o f the narrative. These features were
demonstrated in the best known health realist film s like The Oyster Girl {K'e
////, 1963), Beaiitijiil Ducklings {Yari}’ ya jen-chia. 1964), My Daughter Ruo-
lan {Wo nu Ju-lan. 1966), and Road {La, 1967).
Although health realism as a whole has an immediate debt to Italian
neo-realism‘s ^ as well as more generally to Japanese shomin geki ("common
people's drama"), its resemblance to both national cinemas lies mostly in style
rather than in ideology. Italian film s like Bicycle Thief, Umberto D. and La
Terra Trema are celebrated for their socialist critique of the postwar Italian
social and economic structure and proletarian humanism. The Taiwanese
health realist film s, however, were not concerned with socialist expose or
studies o f the social relations o f the working class and the peasants. Neither
were they interested exploring the bittersweet, fatalistic life o f the lower
movement can he seen as the second wave of the official attempt to rejuvenate
film culture and the industry ,
^The course on international cinema in American film institutes has been
organized by a Eurocentric perspective. It often begins with either prewar
European modernist film or postwar Italian neo-realist film and then proceeds
to other national cinemas by using the these models as yardsticks to discuss
“Third Cinema”, Latin-American, Russian, East European, African and Asian
cinemas. The result of this perspective is a false assumption toward non-
Westem cinemas. It stereotypes all non-European cinemas as “new” cinemas
that rose to rebel the “old” establishment. Further, it consolidates these
cinemas as somewhat being embedded with Italian neo-realism. These
characteristics seem to suggest that most non-Western films only come to being
after the birth of the postwar Italian cinema. This inclusive canon also creates
a “stigma” of the Third-World cinema as being politically committed and
aesthetically provocative, I am not suggesting tiiat such attributes cannot be
found in many third-world or non-westem cinemas. But it is a misconception
that excludes prewar films that have a significant influence on the postwar new
wave. The notions of continuity and heterogeneity rather than discontinuity
and homogeneity might be more useful approaches to investigate
(inter)national cinema.
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132
middle class as in the mono no aware ("the sadness o f things") o f some
Japanese shomin ;^eki films. Rather, they were interested in borrowing the
stylistic features from the neo-realism to make a cinematic interv ention new to
the audience. They strove to depict Taiwanese society under the governance
o f the Nationalist Party as natural, peaceful, and healthy. Poetic portrayals o f
fishing village life {The Oyster Girl), observational modes o f cinematographic
images {Beautiful DuekUni’s) and true-to-life delineation o f the lower class
urban dwellers {Road) constituted the modes o f depiction o f health realism.
Under a strong promotion by the CMPC. the genre was popular during
the mid to the late 1960s. It was then replaced by “ health variety " {"chien-
k'an!’-tsun^-yi") film s— combined with entertaining, educational, and ethical
values (Ts ai 113). As a pilot genre for creating a cinema with both popular
appeal and art quality, health realism failed to survive due to its lack o f high
commercial values. Its influence, however continued.'^’ It rose again in the
late 1970s when the nation was desperate to reassure citizens' self-confidence
in every possible way.
The continuity of great cinematic tradition is certainly one important
reason for the resurgence o f health realism. It is especially needed after a
decade o f the reign by Kung-fu and romantic melodrama films. Other factors
such as changing political contexts, social structure and diplomatic failures
also influenced the extensive recycle o f valuable, old forms.
l^ If we look at the later works of the veteran directors like Lee Hsing and Pai
Ching-juei, the input of health realism on later films was obvious. Another
useful example would be to look at the films collaborated by Hou Hsiao-hsien
and Ch’en Kun-hou (two pioneering figures of the New Cinema) in the early
1980: Cure Girl, Growing up and The Green, Green Grass of Home. Although
many supporters of the New Cinema have emphasized the discontinuity
between the new and the old cinemas, the style of health realism clearly
manifested in Hou’s early films and further constituted a trademark in the New
Cinema.
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B. Sinicization and localization: reinvesting I'amily melodrama in health realism
I have discussed the various approaches to Chinese-language
melodrama in the review o f the literature. Citing Ma Ning's several works on
the genre and Rev Chow 's studies on “ Mandarin Duck and Butterfly
literature," I have suggested several approaches to be used to analyze
Chinese-language melodrama. They are: Sinicization; traditional concept o f
fam ily; and influence o f both classical and modem popular fiction. These
elements helped formulate and constitute the multivalence o f family
melodrama in Chinese-language films. But how does this heterogeneous
formation help us approach Taiwanese postwar fam ily melodrama in general
and health realist melodrama in particular? How are these approaches relevant
to our subject?
Several Taiwanese critics who basically treat Taiwanese cinema as
synonymous with Chinese cinema echoed Ma Ning's and Rey Chow's ideas
in their writings. For example, the veteran critic, Huang Jen, points out that
the health realist film is actually an ethical film . From the early days o f Chinese
cinema, film was believed to fu lfill a twofold function; ''yu-chiao-yii-le"
(“ indoctrinate the audience within the form o f entertaining "). When a film
portrayed the positive, “ healthy" side o f the society, it fulfilled the ethical
requirement.' '
' ' Huang Jen raised this point in his article “T’ai-vvan chien-k’ang-hsieh-shih
p’ien te hsing-ch'i han ying-hsiang” [The rise and influence of Taiwan’s health
realist films] Film Appreciation 12. 6 ( 1994); 25-37. The film that he cited to
support his point was a 1923 film called Orphan Rescues Grandfather (Ku-erh
chiu tzu chi ) made in Shanghai. The story is about a young man who saves the
life of a rich old man. The rescuer turns out to be the rich old man’s lost
grandson.
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According to another critic, Ts ai Kuo-jung, the reason that family
melodrama occupies such an important place has to do with an essential socio
cultural element, that is, the centrality o f fam ily (5-6). He argues that the
Confucian doctrine o f an orderly fam ily is the main ideological underpinning
in family melodrama. Unfortunately, both critics fail to cite any Taiwanese film
to further explicate their points. Their ideas, however, are helpful in examining
the film s made in the postwar period. *-
This special concern with incorporating ethical issues into film m aking
has given Taiwanese film a peculiar cinematic quality characterized by
referents to social and cultural events. As a result, the emphasis on film 's
socio-cultural function has made the family melodrama distinctive from its
Western counterpart (i.e., the Hollywood family melodrama). While in
Western melodrama, the social and sexual oppression o f the individual has
been a primary topic, in Taiwanese melodrama (and Chinese-language at
large), it is only a secondary subject matter. Instead, socialization and
Sinicization are considered more important issues. Melodrama under this
discourse tends to blend social, national, and cultural issues directly into the
fabric o f the narrative. It also tends to represent social and cultural life
somewhat transparently in order to convey a clear association with the social
reality and to evoke social or national consciousness.
^^Huang Jen did not cite any Taiwanese films to establish the premise of his
point. The similar failure also took place in Ts’ai Kuo-jung’s book Chung-kuo
chin-tai wen-yi tien-ying yen chiu [Studies on modem Chinese melodrama].
The neglect to cite specific films, especially Taiwanese films made prior to the
domination of Mandarin film , makes a serious mistake. It suggests that
Taiwanese cinema begins from the postwar period and underwrites the
Hokkien films that were quite important during the occupational period and
the first twenty years after 1945.
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The goal of making film as part of the social practice did not necessarily
cause a monological film culture.'-'* Although such film policy gave
propaganda film a priority, it also made a significant contribution to the
Taiwanese cinema. Health realism o f the 1960s was the best example o f a
policy-direeled form that gave the cinema a refreshing look.
As mentioned in the previous section, health realism emphasizes a
world view o f "the middle way.” The "m iddle w ay" approach allows an
obscurity to exist in the depiction o f right and wrong, good and bad. It
avoids utilizing intense confrontation and exaggerated emotion to achieve a
melodramatic reconciliation at the end. Instead, its method o f reaching
reconciliation emphasizes the process o f negotiation rather than radical
change. Thus villains never truly exist in health realist film s and the conflicts
are always resolved by compromise rather than coercion. Land o f the Brave
precisely employ s these precepts in its plot.
C. Debunking binary oppositions in health realist fam ily melodrama
According to health realism, contradictions must be resolved by a
mutual understanding between the two conflicting parties by means of
' ^This point has been discussed in two recently published articles in the
special issue of health realist film put out by Film Appreciation. Liu Hsien-
ch’eng in his “Liu-shih-nien-tai chien-k’ang-hsieh-shih ying-p’ien chih sheh-
huei li-shih fen-hsi” [A socio-historical analysis of health realist films of the
1960s] mentions that the rise of health realism was determined by political,
technological, and economic factors. See Film Appreciation 12.6 (1994): 48-
58. Liao Chin-feng in the introduction of his article “Mai hsiang chien-k’ang-
hsieh-shih tien-ying te ting-yi” [Toward the definition of Taiwanese health
realist films] states that the health realism contributed the flourishing of
Taiwanese cinema m the 1970s and the 1980s] Film Appreciation 12.6
(1994): 38.
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136
negotiation. Some o f the binary oppositions that 1 have laid out earlier are
thus not dismantled by melodramatic incidents but are gradually dissolved
when characters are enlightened by some “ positive force." The first and
foremost dissolution o f the binary opposition is the one about the two fathers.
They are both assigned by their new supervisor Lin Ch'ao-hsing to conduct
an actual agricultural inspection in the countryside. Witnessing the stagnant
working ethics among the older staff. Lin is determined to improve office
bureaucracy without violating traditional ethical codes. Instead of
manipulating his authority to force senior staff to change their work attitudes,
he offers them an opportunity to see the light o f change.'-^ The field study is
the way that he tries to let the staff understand the importance o f synthesizing
practice and theory.
Their survey trip is presented in documentary style with non-stop
background music featuring folk music. In a documentary mode and with the
score music o f “ Let's Go Watch the Cloud. " the survey team is seen to work
with farmers in the field, examining crops through hands-on practice. The
music adds a refreshing and light mood to the visual image and. when the team
stops at one point to have lunch at a noodle stand. Mr. Chang and his
gambling colleagues express their appreciation o f the countryside life. They
all feel rejuv enated in the field trip, and Mr. Fan also feels rewarded for he
realizes the importance o f integrating theory and practice. Moreover, the trip
reconciles M r. Fan and Mr. Chang. Earlier in the plot, Mr. Chang and Mr. Fan
•"^lin’s strategy is clearly based on a Confucian notion that disapproves of
direct challenges to the elders. Yet social progress and work efficiency must
not be sacrificed at the expense of the conformity to tradition. In order to find
a balance between these two issues, Lin has to solve the problem by a skillful
way. This suggests that modernization does not only exist in the base-
structural level but also in the superstructural level of negotiation with
tradition.
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137
are having quarrels because Chang blames Fan for his daughter’s elopciVicnt
with Fan's son Ching-t'ao. Again, by follow ing health realist precepts, the
film does not design a melodramatic incident to reconcile their disagreement
but use the trip to make them turn antagonism to friendship.
The score music o f "Let's Go Watch the Cloud " (played by a flute)
also functions to expand the nativ ist meaning o f college folk. This point
enables us to put the two sequences together under the discourse o f nativism.
Just as the choir is committed itself to using folk to unite people, the goal of
the field trip is to get close to the land and the working peasants. The field
trip ends w ith a positive and productive result: the ageing civil servants regain
their confidence and sense o f honor, feeling their work needed and rewarding.
IV. The Diplomatic National Crisis
The climax o f folk's presence in the film is the title song "Descendants
o f the Dragon. " The song first appears in the opening sequence in its
instrumental version to specify the theme o f the film . The opening sequence
features a journalistic report on the impact o f the US government's
announcement to terminate its diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1978. In
order to represent the shock in the most vivid manner, the opening sequence
employs documentary-like devices. On-location shooting, a montage o f
newspaper headlines, and casting real television journalists in street interviews
are the devices used to record the history as it is.
In addition to these devices, the film re-enacts pro-film ic materials to
make the representation closer to the event. For example, the participation in
massive donation activities includes all walks o f society regardless o f gender.
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138
class, and age difference. But the modes o f transforming the pro-film ic event
to the film ic "reality" are clearly dramatic. The interesting thing about the
transformation is that the film has no intention to hide its ideological
functioning behind the re-enactments.
In order to emphasize the shock, the narrative employs a melodramatic
form in the representation o f the street interviews. Housewives who are
interviewed in the market burst into tears when they talk to the journalists.
Mainland veteran soldiers raise their hands tattooed w ith standard patriotic
phrases such as "E.xtinguish the Communists! Restore the M ainland." hailing
patriotic slogans to show their loyalty. Little girls go to the donation station
to present their piggy banks, and patiently wait in line for them to be broken.
But none o f these is more dramatic than the ending scene o f the sequence.
The final scene depicts an Anglo man walking down the street,
accompanied by two young Taiwanese women. As he is cheerfully talking to
his companions, with his arms around their shoulders, three college student
activists approach him. Witnessing the scene o f interracial flirtation, the
students are enraged by the public display o f a presumably national
humiliation. Here the film is very conscious o f staging the tension between
the two groups by using two devices. First, it uses cross-cutting to show the
two groups approaching each other from opposite directions. In depicting
two groups meeting at a nexus from opposite directions by means o f cross
cutting, the narrative is able to pre-establish the upcoming tension between
the two groups.
Next, the film uses a quick zoom-in to frame each o f the students within
an extreme close-up. By foregrounding the students' eyes and their gazes,
the close-up unambiguously signifies their outrage toward the situation.
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139
Alarmed by the students' hostile and resentful look, the Anglo man adopts a
skittish way to deal with the upcoming confrontation. As he is making funny
faces to the students, he suddenly zips his jacket dow n, revealing a tiny
rectangular banner written in bright, big red words: 'I am Australian." This
revelation o f his true identity presents a shocking and yet comic effect. The
Australian man sarcastically defends himself by saying: “ hey. I am white
alright, but don't mistake me for the evil American. In fact. 1 am Australian. "
W ithout a doubt, the entire scene is conducted in a comic tone. However, it
fits quite well to the patriotic theme in the opening sequence.'-’’ By
emphasizing the collective resentment in such an exaggerated manner.
Taiwanese are portrayed as loyal patriots.
This comic ending leads to the film 's main narrative thrust. The story
begins to take place in the living room o f M r. Chang's apartment. His
daughter Chang Shu is watching television. Here the film does not provide
any shots o f the television broadcast, but it does provide sufficient
information about the broadcast through the intradiegetie sound, telling us
that it is live broadcast o f the protest organized by civilians at the airport for
the arrival o f the American delegation led by the Secretary o f State. Warren
Christopher.
Warren Christopher was sent by the American government to handle
the termination o f diplomatic relations. Despite staging, the report is based on
' 5If we look at the movie as a whole, it is not difficult to understand why the
film chooses to end the opening sequence this way. Thematically, the
melodramatic narration refers to a historical situation; formally, it prepares for
the main plot to enter the diegesis. As far as the first aspect is concerned, it
can be seen as a continuation of the earlier representation of tlie general
reaction to the diplomatic setback. As for the second aspect, its suggests that
all the street interviews and activities previously occur in the sequence are as
staging as the last scene. By doing so, it provides a smooth transition from the
pseudo documentary to the main fiction.
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140
a real event that took place on 27 December, 1978. Patriotic Chinese in
Taiwan organized a demonstration at the airport to show the delegation their
rage.'^ The incident was a historic event, for before 1987, demonstrations
were not legal under rule by martial law. However, because o f this diplomatic
crisis, the demonstration was “ tolerated” by the police in respect of the
people's patriotism. The climax o f the protest occurred when the delegation's
vehicles were about to leave the airport. Agitated demonstrators threw eggs,
tomatoes, peanuts and stones at the vehicles, but no serious damage was
done.
In the film 's version o f the demonstration, however, none o f these
sensational acts are covered. Instead, it chooses to represent the incident by
highlighting an interview given by a taxi driver, Mr. Hou. In a loud
intradiegetie sound (the television volume suddenly pump up), we hear Mr.
Hou's moving testimony (my translation and the underline is also my
emphasis):
Reporter: OK. Mr. Hou, could you tell us your opinions?
M r. Hou: (emotional and hesitant) I . .. I . .. I was very angry when 1
heard about the news at home. I drive, working very hard everyday.
But we don't have to rely upon foreigners.
Although we are taxi drivers, I can still support my whole family,
managing a good life. Now we need to wor"^ ' .rder: no need to rely
upon them!
Reporter: A ll right, you don't need to get excited. Could you say
something more?
M r. Hou: No, that w ill be all. (italic emphasis mine)
’ ^It is commonly thought that this demonstration was actually organized by
the Nationalist Party to show its unofficial protest against US’s decision. For no
one was arrested nor arraigned for violating martial law which specifically
prohibited any public political activity.
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141
Spoken in a highly emotional tone. Mr. Hou expresses his anger as well
as his determination in overeoming the setback. The conflation between a
personal and a collective pronoun happens when he says "I drive, working
hard. . . but we don't need to rely upon foreigners," "Although we are taxi
drivers, / can still support my whole fam ily." Influenced by his agitated
emotions, the fragmentary syntax in his statement is understood. But there is
another implication for making him speak in ambiguous pronouns. Who are
the "w e " that he is talking about? The "w e " in his statement obviously does
not simply refer to him and his fam ily or even his colleagues, judging from the
context o f the broadcasting.
A bold assumption on the "w e" can mean the nation-state and the
people. Subsequently, the "outside help" refers to the American aid. The
assumptions are based on the follow ing reasons. First, this is presented as a
sample statement from the demonstrators at the airport. Second, it can be seen
as a continuation o f the earlier street interview shown at the opening, a
follow-up o f the journalistic discourse on the diplomatic national crisis. The
same melodramatic impulse in the street interviews is employed in the driver's
testimony but the mode o f (re)presentation is different. Unlike its counterparts
in the previous sequence that are only represented in visual terms, the later
one is strictly sonic. Despite the absence o f visual image, the sonic testimony
registers more affect because the articulation is embodied with a specific class
identity.
The interpretation o f the statement thus cannot be limited to its literal
meaning. It is not only to be read as a personal statement from a worker but is
also narrativized as a national statement. The class identity o f the taxi driver
in a capitalist society is appropriated here to im ply the status o f Taiwan in the
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142
global geopolitical structure. The way that countries o f the world is
categorized by their technological advancement and financial affluence can
be compared to the class structure in a capitalist society. The ta.xonomy o f the
adv anced, the developing, and the underdeveloped in the global system is like
class division among upper, middle, and lower class in a society. Like other
developing countries in the late 1970s, Taiwan was endeavoring to increase
its wealth in order to be upgraded to the group o f developed countries. This
situation is similar to a blue-collar worker striving to become a member of the
middle class.
The testimony from a taxi driver, a member o f the lower class, is thus an
effective metaphor in eonstructing an imagined, collective identification with
the nation under plight. This interview openly shows the deep national
wound caused by American government's "betrayal." An open wound
needs to be healed. "Descendants o f the Dragon" is the medicine for such a
wound. This song is used in the ending sequence to overcome the humiliation
by reassuring the national identity.
B. "Descendants o f the Dragon'
W ritten by Hou Teh-chien. sung by Li Chien-fu. "Descendants o f the
Dragon " marks an unprecedented phenomenon in Taiwan's pop history.
After the termination o f diplomatic relations with the US. many nationalistic
songs came out to jo in the official demand fo r reaffirming the national identity
(Chang C. W. 1992, 140; Chang C. L. 138). "Descendants of the Dragon"
was the most influential one coming from the array o f patriotic folk songs.
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The song was wrillen in 1979, right after the termination o f the
diplomatic relationship with the United States. When it was released by
Singer record company, it immediately became a hit. Hou wrote the song
particularly to express his indignation for the "hum iliation" that the country
had to bear. Written from a distinct historical context and fo r a national
population, the song reiterated the mythical codes of China, i have translated
the lyrics as follows:
There is a river in the far orient. Yangtze is its name.
There is a river in the far orient. Yellow River is its
name.
Despite not having witnessed the beauty o f the Yangtze
River. I dream o f cruising on it.
Despite not having witnessed the magnificence of the
Yellow River, its roaring turbulence rises in my dream.
There lived a dragon in the ancient orient. China is his
name.
There lived a group o f people in the ancient China,
descendants o f the dragon they were called.
Growing up beneath the giant dragon's feet. I have
become the descendants o f the dragon.
Black eyes, black hair, and yellow skin, forever the
descendants o f the dragon I am.
One hundred years ago. at a silent night, the
eve before the shocking change.
Gun fire cracked the silence; self-indulgence brought
in the swords and the Chu tune is coming from all
directions, chanting for our defeat.
The cannon fire is still roaring after so many
years; how many more years, and how many more years!
Giant dragon, giant dragon, polish your eyes; polish
your eyes forever and ever.
The first two verses set up the subject o f the song, the "dragon” and
the dragon's descendants, with the im plication o f China and the Chinese
people respectively. The association is supplemented by the mythical (the
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dragon in the ancient orient) and geographical (the Yangtze river and the
Yellow river) symbols o f the Chinese civilization. These sy mbols are
described by panegyric "magnificence." "beauty ." and "giant" to glorify the
Chinese nation.
The physical features o f the Chinese people; yellow skin, black eyes
and hair, indicates more than just an identity. Its racial emphasis is
contcxtualized in the presence of the Western imperialism. The referring to
the Western imperialism is implied by a historical reference to the Opium War
(1842-1859). which occurred "one hundred years ago." By suggesting that
the battle is not yet over, the song ends with an evocation to the dragon,
hoping it comes to its senses to resist the continual exploitation o f the
imperialist power.
"Descendants o f the Dragon" can thus be read as a national elegy o f
the wretched Chinese history in the modern period. "Roaring gunfire" points
to the imperialist invasions beginning in the late 19th century. But the song's
more important message is the modem Chinese diaspora. The fact that the
speaking subject has never seen the defining symbols o f China indicates a
deprivation; that he can only see China in his dream suggests a state o f
diaspora. The loss o f the cultural, the mythical, and the "real" China is clearly
stated in the lyrics; "Despite not having witnessed the beauty o f the Yangtze
River, I dream of cruising on it. Despite not having witnessed the
magnificence o f the Yellow River, its roaring turbulence rises in my dream."
Despite the fact that the persona has never stepped a foot on the motherland,
he still considers himself an dignified Chinese; "Black eyes, black hair, and
yellow skin, forever the descendants o f the dragon I am."
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The song was not entirely approved by the government when it first
came out. It actually encountered some interrogations at first. Some people
considered that a feminine tone dominated the song. They suggested that the
lack o f a “ masculine" cadence o f each verse produced a "fem inine,"
"pessimistic," and "negative" portrayal o f the nation. The head of
government o f information bureau, James Sung, actually had rewritten the
lyrics to try to make it sound more masculine and hence, "positive." But the
attempt failed to compete with the song's inherently powerful nationalistic
characteristics (Chang C.W. 1992, 142-43). "Descendants o f the dragon"
could easily be interpreted as a complaint about the "unnatural" separation
between Taiwan and the PRC. In this regard, it risked the danger o f being
banned by the government for not making the distinction from the evil PRC
and the righteous ROC. However, the songs' nationalistic configuration is
too distinctive to be ignored. It soon became extremely popular thanks to the
promotion of the media.
"Descendants o f the Dragon " swept the folk billboard in the first week
when it entered the chart and continued to reign for 14 weeks until another
patriotic song "H ail, the Republic o f China" ("Chung-hua min-kuo sung")
came to replace it. In sum, it stayed on the chart for 40 weeks. However, its
impact did not just exist within the pop field. It later came across to the film
media and initiated the production o f a policy film .
C. The triumphant finale
A fter Mr. Fan and Mr. Chang come back from the field trip, all their
conflicts disappear. They begin to get along well and Mr. Chang accepts
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146
Ching-t'ao as his legitimate son-in-law. One day on their way to work. Mr.
Chang and Mr. Fan agree to attend the flag-raising ceremony on the 70th
anniversary o f the national holiday . The reconciliation between the two
patriarches prompts the film to its grand finale. Later when Mr. Chang and
Mr. Fan enter the office, they see a staff member thanking the superv isor Lin
for his leadership in reforming the stagnant civil service. Lin modestly deflects
the compliment to encourage his staff to worker harder to celebrate the
country 's 70th birthday.
Following Lin's statement. "Descendants o f the Dragon " begins to
come into play on the soundtrack. The prelude o f the song is synchronized
with the footage shot of the m ilitary honor guard marching across the screen.
With this fam iliar ritual referent, the film brings us to the Presidential Hall
where the flag-raising ceremony is held annually .
Parallel to the opening sequence where the diplomatic setback is
depicted as national pathos, this ending sequence is also conducted in a
highly monumental style to highlight the sanctification o f the ceremony . The
sequence is chiefly composed by long shots to convey the congregation of
the masses, punctuated by medium close-ups to show individual reactions.
First we see people holding national flags approaching to the Presidential Hall
from different directions. These shots try to show the collective, volunteer
spirit o f the people in paying their respect to the nation.
The ending also incorporates a humanistic representation into the
unanimous portrayal o f the congregation lest it be reduced to propaganda.
One shot that particularly rests on a fam ily is inserted in the series o f snapshots
o f the volunteer citizens from all walks. We see the parents stopping shortly
on the way so that the father can carry the young child to jo in the ceremony
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on time. A fter this preliminary presentation, a long shot pans slowly to reveal
the gradual constellation o f people in front o f the Presidential Hall. Then we
see the characters o f the film joining the procession in a casual order. Finally ,
the ceremony begins. As the flag being slowly raised to the top o f the pole,
the masses are hading slogans, paying the ultimate reverence to the nation and
the president. A long shot pans across the masses and tilts up to show the
Presidential Hall sitting in the morning sunlight. This puts a full stop to the
film.
Like the opening sequence, the ending employ s a pseudo-doeumentary
cinematic code. Both sequences rely heavily upon action and music and
suppress dialogues to convey meanings. They both feature "Descendants of
the Dragon” in the soundtrack in order to reinforce the narration of
patriotism. In the opening sequence, the song's instrumental version helps
create a pathetic mood. In the ending sequence, the song is placed equally
with the action in moving the narrative.
The extradiegetie song is employed by two devices. One o f them is by
excluding all the other sound effect in the soundtrack and the other is the
subtitling o f the lyrics. The first device enables the music to continue its
bombastic presence in the entire sequence. This subsequently helps sublimate
the monumental ceremony. W ith the subtitled lyrics, the song exercises its
mythical nationalism to the audience, providing a space fo r identification.
What is the purpose o f allowing a sound discourse to narrativize
interdependently if not independently, with the visual track? What function
does it play in the diegetic level and the spectatorial level? Let me go through
the trajectory o f the narrative to discuss these questions.
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148
The film opens with the representation of the most traumatic national
experience in the postwar history o f the Nationalist Party. In a pseudo
documentary style, the film has tried to "fa ith fu lly " depict the most
unbearable indignity that the country and her people have to bear. But after
the beginning, the film seems to focus more on domestic melodrama rather
than national issues. This does not mean that the film has forgotten its task.
In fact, it has tried to come to term with the trauma by imbricating crucial
socio cultural issues that have obstructed the country's modernization. Thus
healing and negotiation are carried in the construction o f the mythical
nationhood. It incorporates individual stories into the depiction o f an
collective effort to rebuild the nation. The individual instances are eventually
assimilated into the central theme o f the film : the affirmation of a holy
nationhood and an iron-clad national identity.
Narratively speaking, the song serves a closure to the question initiated
by the opening sequence. Through the orchestration o f the song and the
newsreel footage and staging scenarios, the film is able to fu lfill its task. By
practicing the paradigms o f college folk and health realism, it weeds out the
impurities o f the community and successfully consolidates the nation. The
final destination o f the consolidation aims for the spectator. Whether or not
the film audience is being indoctrinated by the song, the story, and the
orchestration o f the two discourses, remains a question. However, there is no
doubt that the monumental ritual, the quasi national anthem, and the
transcribed lyrics on the big screen all work together to send an unambiguous
national sublimation to the film audience.
Land o f the Brave was indeed a product o f history. It was a history
spoken by and for the Nationalist Party. But, it had another historical
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149
significance that was perhaps more important. Made in the tw ilight o f the
college folk movement, it marked the end o f the close partnership between
cinema and popular music. The rise o f the New Cinema one year later
witnessed the decline o f pop in film . More importantly, being perhaps the last
health realist film before the challenge o f the New C\nema^'^ L mhü o f the
Brave also represented the last instance o f film 's subordination to the official
ideology. Taiwanese cinema, under young directors' efforts, began to depart
from the dominant historical discourse and to form its independent
interpretation o f Taiwan's history.
^ "Critics have different opinions regarding which film can be seen as the end
of health realism. Liao Chin-feng suggests Good Morning, Taipei can be looked
at as the last health realist film, see Liao in ibid., 45. On the other hand,
Huang Jen included early New Cinema films such as Growing Up ( 1983) and
Banana Paradise ( 1989) in his list of health realist films, see Huang Jen in
ibid., 35.
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Sonic Realism, Popular Music, and the Taiwanese New Cinema
I wish 1 could film the activities o f people under the law o f nature.
Hou Hsiao-hsien'
Realist writing, o f which history offers many widely varying examples, is
likewise conditioned by the question o f how, when and fo r what class it is
made use of: conditioned down to the last small detail.
Bertolt Brecht-
I. Introduction
The 1980s witnessed a formal and ideological change in a large number
o f film s termed the New Cinema {hsin tien-ying). These film s were made by
young directors who reacted against the superficiality (prevailing in romantic
melodrama such as Ch ung Yao movies) and artificiality (the style in policy
film s such as Victory and Land o f the Brave) that basically shaped the
outlook o f Taiwanese cinema before the 1980s. The domination o f these two
modes o f representation gradually produced a monolithic cinema
characterized by standardization. Most film s were made according to generic
formulae (romantic melodrama, family melodrama, martial arts, kung-fu, and
policy film ). Even within the same genre, repetition was often seen in type
ijh is statement is cited from the preface to Pei ch’ ing ch’eng-shih [City of
Sadness] (Taipei: San-san, 1989) 31, This is a published script of the film,
^This paragraph is quoted from Brecht’s article “The Popular and the Realistic”
in Brecht on Theatre (New York: Hill and Wang, 1964) 109.
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casting, story patterns, music, and settings. The long-term practice o f standard
forms rendered domestic cinema as cheap entertainment as compared to the
film s made by the dream factory o f Hollywood. W ith the rise o f home
entertainment such as video and the new Chinese-language cinema from
Hong Kong, Taiwanese cinema was confronted by an unprecedented crisis.
In this context, new directors were given opportunities to make film s
and the freedom to make films with new forms and substance. As art film was
introduced to mainstream film m aking, it changed the standard practice o f
soundtrack music. In order to avoid affiliating with popular culture, the New
Cinema reduced the use o f pop which, at this time, consisted mainly o f
Mandarin pop. On the other hand, a new form o f realism and cine-modemism
was adopted to inject novelty into Taiwanese film . The incorporation o f these
two aesthetic forms into the making o f new film s made the New Cinema a
remarkable era in the history o f Taiwanese cinema. But most importantly, they
greatly influenced the way sound was used in film narratives.
Cine-modemism was used in many other national cinema to call into
the question o f the artistic quality o f film and challenge the dominance o f the
entertainment film . But realism in this case was another story. In fact, its has
been an important style in Taiwanese cinema since the rise o f health realism in
the 1960s, as I have discussed in chapter three. But after the health realist
film s, the sort o f realism expressed by many film s was based on a pseudo
realist discourse. W ith the slightly different orientation o f health realism in the
1960s (see chapter 3), most film s were made in this pseudo-realist style to
present the audience w ith a recognizable fictional world. This tendency was
especially evident in two popular genres-Ch ung Yao movies o f the 1960s
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152
and the 1970s and the so-called “ social realist m ovie" {"sheh-huei hsieh-shih
p ’ien") o f the late 1970s.
Why were these film s called pseudo-realist? According to critics, these
film s never intended to address reality even though their fictional worlds were
based on the material reality with which audiences could identify. For
example, the settings of Ch ung Yao movies were, to an extent, realistic. The
stories, however, were hardly based on real social and cultural events. They
mostly dealt with heterosexual romantic love within a closed social system.
As for the "social realist" movies, their “ realist" impulse relied on actual social
incidents to emphasize a sense o f reality in its sensational portrayals o f gang
crime and sexual exploitation o f women. This manipulation o f realist form and
appropriation o f reality upset young critics who strongly believed in cinema's
commitment to social and cultural reform. In this regard, neither Ch ung Y ao
nor the “ social realist" film s could be qualified as 'realist " because they are
not interested in dealing w ith the social situations upon which their narratives
were based.^
“ Escapism" (t’ ao-pi-chu-yi) and “ fantasy" {meng-huang) were the
two terms that the local critics used to attack Ch ung Yao movies (Chiao
281). Ch ung Yao romance and its film adaptations were generally taken as a
sort o f exploitative popular myth because their primary concern was to create
a self-sustained fantasy world to provide the underprivileged working class
women and bored housewives an escape from their humdrum social and
^The best way to grasp young critics’ attack on pseudo-realism is to look at the
critical anthology entitled Tai-wan hsin tien-ying [The Taiwanese New
Cinema], published in 1988 by the most supportive critic of the New Cinema,
Chiao Hsiung-p’ing.
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153
domestic lives.^ However, the result o f the continual perpetuation o f fantasy
as the representative o f social situations was devastating: commercialism and
escapism continued to be upheld as the primary tasks o f film production.
The Frankfurt School's critique o f mass culture as a systematic and
invisible exercise o f social, economic, and political control underlined the
criticism o f popular films. Also, the high cultural prejudice against lowbrow
cultural consumption was implied in the complaint about the extremely low
(or non-existent) artistic quality of the domestic cinema. Despite its
ideological overtone informed by Marxist cultural criticism, the criticism
however laid out the critical ground fo r the New Cinema to emerge. When
Hou Hsiao-hsien's Green, Green Grass o f Home {Tsai na he pan ch’ing ts'ao
ch’ing) and In Our Time {Kuang-yin te ku-shih) appeared in 1982. the film s'
attempt to inject new ideas and forms into film m aking excited the critics. The
optimism brought about by these film s was further confirmed by the surprising
success o f the follow -up film s made by several other new directors: Ch en
Kun-hou's Growing Up {Hsiao-pi te ku-shih, 1983) and the three-part movie.
The Sandwichman {Erh-tzu te ta wan-ou, 1983). Hou Hsiao-hsien's Boys from
Feng-kui {Feng-kei lai te jen, 1983), and Edward Yang's That Day, on the
Beach {Hai-t’ an shang te yi-t'ien, 1983). By postulating a contemplative
realistic depiction o f Taiwan's history, society, and youth culture, a break with
mainstream film m aking began. The formation o f the new cinematic practice is
seen in the stylized rendition o f Bazinian realism in Hou's Boys from Feng-kui
^This view has recently expanded and explored in a book entitled Chieh-tu
Ch’img Yao lang-man ai-ch’ing wang-kuo [Decoding Ch’ung Yao’s romantic
kingdom] written by a feminist scholar Lin Fang-mei. By incorporating recent
theoretical developments in mass communication, cultural studies, and
sociology, Lin presented a thorough inquiry of Ch’ung Yao’s influence in
Taiwan’s popular culture.
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154
as well as in ihe complex narrative structure characterized by a circular
reiteration in Yang's That Day on the Beach. The appearance o f these film s
show ed that an art cinema was about to sprout in the barren soil o f Taiwan's
film culture, and moreover, it announced a rejection o f the standard practices,
namely, the alleged pseudo-realism, escapism, and fantasy.
The New Cinema at its inception was committed to form ing a new
cine-teleology. Film was no longer the ideological gatekeeper nor a tool for
indoctrination. Young filmmakers were tired o f being subjugated to politics
and commercialism in their increasing awareness o f the medium's power.
They began to treat film as a complex medium fo r social critique, identity
politics, and historical writing. The theme o f social critique emphasized class
division, gender inequality, and ethnic discrimination in the postwar
development o f Taiwan. It was the main discourse in the works o f Wang
T ung and Wan Jen and helped constitute the com plexity o f the narratives
and the dynamism o f the representations. Identity politics was manifested in
the multilingual scenarios o f the semi-autobiographical film s o f Hou Hsiao-
hsien and Edward Yang respectively. Through their presentation o f the
interplay among different languages as a crucial recuperation o f the “ true"
history, the suppressed multicultural aspects o f Taiwan's social and cultural
life were further exposed. And historical w riting came from the preoccupation
with rewriting history as what it “ was" based on a discourse o f objectivity
rather than what it should be according to political dogmas. Many film s
shared this topic and tried to use the most comprehensive way to convey their
emphasis on the historicity o f their narrative events. The most conspicuous
sign o f rewriting history was seen in the inscriptions o f dates o f the events
and describing historical development chronologically.
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155
On the other hand, the devices o f cine-modemism such as elliptical
narration and spatio-temporal discontinuity were incorporated into this
innovative movement. Edward Yang and Tzeng Chung-hsiang were the
greatest enthusiasts. Temporal ellipsis, fragmentary narration, and suppressive
characterization were the common devices in Yang's That Day, on the Beach.
Taipei Story {Ch'ing-mei-chii-ma, 1984), and The Terrorizers {K'lmg-pu-fen-
tzu. 1986). Tzeng's Wrath o f a Woman {Sha fa. 1984) adopted modernist
detachment in depicting a story o f a woman who chopped her butcher
husband into pieces to avenge herself as a victim o f sexual and emotional
abuse. Unprecedented in Taiwanese film , these modernist experiments not
only distinguished the New Cinema from the old cinema but also pluralized
the movement itself.
Although modernism occupied a crucial place in defining the New
Cinema, realism was still considered the most important form for the
recuperation o f the “ real" history. Bazinian realism that aspired toward
minimal distortion in the transformation from the profilm ic to the film ic was
particularly favored by the directors. This Bazinian concept o f the “ total
cinema" was seen in Hou's use o f deep focus and long take to preserve rather
than manipulate the profilm ic material.^
5 I have to explain here in order not to cause a misunderstanding that Hou
may sound like a documentary filmmaker. In practicing the Bazinian realism,
Hou was not content to document the phenomenal world mechanically; he was
also very much concerned with representing reality in hterary terms such as
poetic and lyrical that would endow the figuration of Taiwan with a unique
nationality. The critic Yen Huei-tseng used the term “poetic realism” to
describe Hou’s unique use of realism. Hou’s consistent practice of “poetic
realism” eventually caused a problematic of representing history in his epic
film City o f Sadness. Critics and scholars who anticipated a true representation
and disclosure of the Nationalist army’s brutality during the massive massacre
of 1945 were disappointed at the indirect and hence, evasive historical
depiction. They argued that Hou’s use of “poetic realism” in portraying a
history that required a rectification was a proof of his cowardice in confronting
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15G
Cinc-rcalism indicated the faithful representation o f the phenomenal
world visually. In other words, cine-realism was prim arily defined in v isual
terms. But photographic realism was not adequate for the new directors to
realize their ideas o f a true and good realism. They also wanted to expand this
realist ideal to the audio dimension. In order to make the audio representation
"true-to-life." a special approach to sound that included sync sound, ambient
sound, off-screen sound to indicate the expansion o f screen space, and the
exclusion o f pop songs in the soundtrack was generated. “ Sonic realism" is
the term that I use to define the prevalence o f a plausibly real sound in many
new films. Such practice was realized using actors' real voices and the sound
recorded on locations to lend a sense o f greater immediacy and presence. This
was a major departure from conventional sound practice.
One may wonder why these two elements are worth emphasizing since
they arc fairly common aspects o f film sound after W W II. It is commonly
known that The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, 1927) marks the beginning for
the making o f “ talking" pictures. Its significance in film history is its
incorporation o f a spontaneous speech in the middle o f a synchronized
singing performance. When the audience actually heard A1 Jolson talk while
he was singing a song, that was an unprecedented cinematic experience in the
late 1920s. David Cook provides a compelling description o f this historic
event in film history that is sufficiently important to quote at length here:
the government. For more detail, see my Chinese article, “Nu-jen chen te wu-fa
chin-ju li-shih ma?” [Are women really not able to enter the history?] Con
temporary 101 (September 1994): 64-85, and Hsin-tien-ying chih-ssu [The
death of the New Cinema], For English source, please see my interactive project
on City of Sadness co-written with Abe-Nomes Markus, “Narrating National
Sadness: Cinematic Mapping and Hypertextual Dispersion.” Cinema Space
(Berkeley: Film Studies Program at UC Berkeley, 1994). The electronic address
to access this project is:
http://rem arque.berkeley.edu/~xcohen/Papers/CityOfSadness/table.htm l.
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157
A t one point near the beginning o f the picture, Jolson
speaks to his audience in the middle o f a nightclub act. . .
Later in the film , as he sits at a piano in his mother's
parlor, he has a sentimental exchange with her that lasts
several minutes, between verses o f "Blue Skies." This was
the only spoken dialogue in the film , yet its impact was
sensational. Audiences had heard synchronized speech
before, but only on form ally contrived and easily anticipated
occasions... Suddenly, here was Jolson not only singing
and dancing but speaking inform ally and spontaneously
to other persons in the film as someone might do in reality...
Thus, we say that the “ talkies" were bom with The Jazz
Singer not because it was the first feature-length film to
employ synchronized dialogue but because it was the first to
employ it in a realistic and seemingly undeliherate wav
(260-61).
Cook's last sentence (the italic emphasis is mine) illuminated the role of The
Jazz Singer in film histoiy. For it was not merely the presence o f the
synchronized sound but the way that it was presented that made it incredibly
appealing to the audience. Jolson's “ seemingly undeliberate" talk conveyed
a sense o f authenticity and immediacy that was never experienced before in
silent film . By delivering the sync sound in a “ spontaneous" manner, sound
was integrated with images to become part o f the realist experience. This
example shows how sound can provide a different dimension o f the cinematic
reality in addition to visual image. Thus voice, particularly lip-sync voice
became a very important aspect in film sound and a major part o f an actor's
performance. This is the case in Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley
Donen, 1952). The film demonstrates the transition to talkies in which a high
quality speech voice becomes a necessity for actors to be cast in film .
Around the same time when talkies arose, Hollywood also began to pay
attention to ambient sound. According to Lucy Fischer's essay on Applause
(Rouben Mamoulian, 1929), ambient sound was used to build the “ corporeal "
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158
and "inanimate” universe in mise-en-scene. In this film , she found an
exeellent exploration of the incredible power o f sound's essential relations to
spatiality. Ambient sound later became an essential element in films that
managed to represent the world more realistically.
But neither o f these two fairly basic sound elements was sufficiently
present in Taiwanese cinema before the 1980s. Ambient sound was absent
from most films. It was not even sufficiently applied in health realist film s that
claimed to be highly realistic. The lack o f ambient sound was mainly due to a
lim ited infrastructural support.*^ The industry's low production budget did
not allow elaborate sound practice. Ambient sound which involved with the
simulation o f actual environmental sound was a costly production for most
films. It was then excluded from the common practice of sound. But this
exclusion created a awkward sound narrative. In order to overcome this
problem, extradiegetie music was thus used as a replacement (Lin H. 17). As a
sound technician Tu Tu-chih noted, one o f the functions that film music
served in Ch ung Yao movies was to compensate fo r the lack o f ambient
sound effects (Tu T. C. 277).
The use o f actors' real voices also suffered from limited technological
and financial support. Low production budget and underdeveloped
recording system made no room for sync sound and complicated post
production mixing.^ But the real problem lay in the uniformity o f speech
6 A veteran cinematographer Hua Huei-ying who had worked in the CMPC for
a long period of time once pointed out that the studio of the 1960s had
thought of using sync sound. However, the lack of advanced equipments
prevented it from making sync sound an accessible practice. As a result, CMPC
had to go back to dubbing to avoid technical compUcation. Please see “ Shih-
tai te tuan-chang” [The fragmented chapter of time] Film Appreciation 12.6
U 994): 23.
~A good article written by Wu T’ung-huai about film sound in Taiwanese
cinema advocated the importance of sync sound in making good films. See
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159
accent in film . In order to help the government promote the Mandarin
campaign, the Mandarin film s tended to homogenize linguistic m ultiplicity.
This tendency became really obvious after the Mandarin film replaced the
Hokkien film to become the mainstream film in the mid 1960s.^ when a
"standard" Mandarin accent was privileged so as to present a unifying
spoken Mandarin. This created a problem fo r good actors whose speech
voices did not conform to the standard. Dubbing was then used to conceal
the actual m ultiplicity o f the actors voices."^ and gradually became a standard
sound practice in film production.
Through more than two decades o f practices, dubbed dialogue, pop
songs, and the absence o f ambient sound produced a cinema with a heavy
audio artifice. This situation was drastically changed by the New Cinema that
committed itself to both photographic and sonic realism.
“T’ung-pu-lu-ying: chung-shih sheng-ying tsai tien-ying chung te ti-wei” [Sync
sound: take the role of film sound seriously], 1988 Chung-hua-min-kuo tien-
ying nien-chien [1988 cinema yearbook of ROC] (Taipei: Tien-ying chi-chin-
huei, 1989) 101-102.
^Robert R. S. Ch’en’s doctoral dissertation Dispersion, Ambivalence,
Hybridity: The Cultural and Historical Experience in Taiwan New Cinema ,
(University of Southern California, 1994) provides a concise English discussion
on this issue. Chen’s account is prim arily based on Lu Su-shang’s T’ai-wan
tien-ying hsi-chu shih [A history of cinema and drama in Taiwan],
^ 1 have not yet found direct sources to support this p o in t, My “speculation”
on the fact that standard Mandarin was insisted upon in film dialogues was
based on the films made around the 1960s. From my viewing, I found that
dubbing was a very common aspect in these films. This discovery corresponds
to the technician’s complaint about the lack of investment on speech training
and recording equipments. Another indirect source was found in Tu Yun-
chi’s book Chung-kuo tien-ying shih [A history of Chinese cinema] in which he
talked about the relocation of Hokkien actors after the demise of Hokkien film.
He mentioned that while several young actors were recruited by the CMPC,
most actors went to work for television that just began the production of
Hokkien programs (3: 90). Tu’s statement helps figure that language barriers
might be the main difficulty for Hokkien actors to be recruited to Mandarin
film .
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160
Dubbed dialogues, pop songs, and the artifieial sound were the
standard sound elements that the New Cinema worked to eliminate. The New
Cinema directors such as Hou Hsiao-hsien. Edward Yang. Chang Y i. and
Ch en Kun-hou all rejected dubbed dialogue and encouraged the actors to
present their own speech voices. They began to emphasize the importance of
ambient sound in the extradiegetie sound narration (Tu T. C. 274-78). The
commitment to art cinema reduced the use o f Mandarin pop in the
extradiegetie soundtrack. On the other hand, the demand for a realistic
representation o f the society and Taiwanese people brought Hokkien pop
into the intradiegetic soundtrack.
This chapter examines these changes o f music in the New Cinema. It is
divided into three parts. The first part discusses how and why Mandarin pop
was considered an incompatible component in the sonic realism o f the New
Cinema. The second part discusses how Hokkien pop was used as a
structuring signifier' in the fulfillm ent o f sonic realism. The use o f pop to
represent the working class is examined in the last part, to argue that the
musical representation in some texts reveals the haunting conservatism o f the
New Cinema. I argue that the use o f Taiwanese pop in the realization o f a
"good" realism becomes a misuse o f working class culture. The misuse not
only fails to do justice to the under-represented lower class but also reduces it
to a trope o f "othering" in closing o ff the contradictions o f a class society
structured organized by capitalism, ethnic, and linguistic difference, and
authoritarian politics. M y analysis demythologizes the New Cinema and
clarifies its ambivalence in dealing with popular culture within its form o f art
cinema.
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1 6 1
II. The Decline o f Soundtrack Music
A. Differentiating art and popular, new and old cinema
The distinction between art and popular cinema has been a crucial issue
in film studies. Dudley Andrew's book Film in the Aura o f Art clearly
reveals an established scholar's enthusiasm in exploring a deeper theoretical
understanding o f art cinema. Although art cinema traditionally enjoyed an
institutional preference in film criticism, the history o f film show s us that it was
never easy for art cinema to surv ive or even compete with popular cinema.
Because o f art cinema's unstable relationship with the film industry , its status
inside o f a film industry and a film culture depends upon various historical,
national, and industrial contexts. For example, art cinema in Europe and. to
some extent. North America, has maintained a certain status since the 1960s
when high modernist film s began to attract many moviegoers. The situation is
even becoming better now, thanks to the logic o f late capitalist cultural
production and consumption. By reformulating itself to satisfy the new idea
o f commodity culture and aesthetic, art cinema is able to find a more secure
position in the global film market. However, in many Third W orld countries
where full-fledged film productions begin much later as compared with their
Western counterparts, the room for art cinema has not been sufficiently
developed.
Film production in Taiwan before the 1980s operated directly under the
dictates o f capitalism and politics. And popular cinema was the mainstream o f
lOsee especially the first chapter of his book, “Introduction: The Art Cinema
and the Work of Interpretation" (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1984) 3-15.
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162
production, responsible for gaining profits and/or political indoctrination.
Populism and commercialism thus became essential components after having
occupied the center o f film production fo r several decades. Prior to the early
1980s, stars, genres, and especially soundtrack music featuring Mandarin pop
were the standard practices. Soundtrack music especially epitomized the
commercial operation o f both the film and record industry. Most films made
during this period were equipped with soundtrack music. The songs were
sung by famous pop singers who wished to use the film s to promote their
records, a corporation between film and record industry that was most
prominent in Ch ung Yao movies. The release o f soundtrack albums and the
use o f songs from certain singers' albums helped promote singers. When the
novelist herself established her production company to produce film s based
on her novels in the 1970s, she also began to raise her proteges in the record
industry. New singers who were asked to sing soundtrack songs in her
movies were guaranteed a promising career ahead. ' '
Second, the function o f the music in the narrative was to enhance the
romantic aura (see chapter 1 ), which was one o f the major elements o f
romantic melodrama o f the 1970s. W hile the story pattern was mostly
predictable and the ending was anticipated (especially to Ch ung Yao readers
who were already fam iliar with the .lovels), the purpose o f going to these film s
was to experience romance through film ic adaptations. This was where the
music functioned most importantly. Music often came into play in the
courting scenes. Certainly, the music, as mentioned, functioned to conceal the
^ ^ A popular singer of the 1970s, Kao Ling-feng who sang songs for several
Ch’ung Yao movies mentioned this mentor-disciple relationship. In his
memoir, he especially thanked Ch’ung Yao for her promotion. Please see Yi-ke
hsiao-ch’ou te tu-pai [A confession of a clown] (Taipei: Crown, 1985) 101-06.
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163
lack o f ambient sound, but the ideological function was no less important to
note. In these instances, music helped the spectator to reinforce her/his sense
o f living in the virtual space of a romantic aura.
This trite repetition o f representing or manipulating music epitomized
the operation o f the entire film industry. W ith the continual interference of
repressive politics, it was even more d ifficu lt fo r new works to be produced, a
situation that gradually petrified film e.xhibition. production, and reception. It
formulated the standardization o f film production and music's participation in
the meaning-making process. The reproduction o f this conservative cultural
politics in cinema and music continued throughout the 1960s and the 1970s
until they could not meet with new developments o f internal rebellion and
external challenge (Huang C. Y. 48-53). The victory o f the industrialized
modem folk forced the stale Mandarin pop to reform itself by appropriating
fo lk music. The successful “ invasion" o f the new Chinese cinema from Hong
Kong in the early 1980s evoked the sense o f crisis in the domestic industry.
The need to compete and reform within the industry thus opened the chance
for the new directors to undertake new modes o f filmmaking, o f which art
cinema practice was the most radical reaction to the old norms.
In order to fu lfill the notion o f art cinema, the New Cinema at its
inception was cautious to keep a distance from commercial cinematic
practices. Studio monopoly, familiar stars, genre, and popular music that
characterize popular film production were actively avoided by most new film
directors. Big stars were replaced by less known actors who were thought to
be more capable o f natural, realistic, and spontaneous acting. Most film s did
not have a distinct generic traces except fo r sharing a narrative outline o f
fam ily historical drama. Moreover, no soundtrack album was ever released
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164
along with any film in order to reduce the connection with commercialism and
lowbrow culture. In short, the rejection o f pop culture was actively pursued
in most new film s in order to establish its meaning o f “ novelty ."
B. The transitional period
1 . The case of Hou Hsiao-hsien
The decline of extradiegetie music did not happen abruptly. A
transitional period took place before it came to its worst phase. The early
career o f the most prominent director o f the New Cinema Hou Hsiao-hsien
clearly demonstrated this transition.
Since he was the assistant director to Lee Hsing for several years, Hou
Hsiao-hsien's earlier works bore a resemblance to Lee's health realist film s
(see chapter 2 and 3). From 1980 to 1982, Hou made three popular film s: Cute
Girl (Chiu shih liu liu le ta. 1980), Cheerful Wind {Fenf> erh t ’/ ta ts 'ai,
1981 ), and Green, Green Grass o f Home (1982). Like Lee Hsing's health
realist film s {Good Morning, Taipei, The Story o f a Small Town, and Land of
the Brave), these three film s were based on a populist organization o f their
modes o f representation and spectator construction.
The populist stanee in Hou's early film s was best seen in the casting.
Cute Girl and Cheerfid Wind starred Feng Fei-fei, the most popular pop
singer in Taiwan’ s pop history. Green, Green Grass o f Home cast a new but
promising singer, Chiang Ling. The casting reflected the interest of intermedia
collaboration: manipulating stars who had cross-over potential (from musie to
film ) to increase the sales o f the film s and the soundtrack albums. The
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1G5
appearance of the pop singers in the film facilitated the incorporation o f music
into the visual presentation, which then was helpful for promoting the songs.
Moreover, it is a double treat for the film audience to hear and watch the star
perform simultaneously.
But in addition to commercial motivations, the singers' populist appeal
was another important reason for their presence in these films. Despite their
conspicuous star status, the pop images o f both singers embodied some basic
elements o f folk meaning: pure, plain, ordinary, and association with rural
roots. These qualities were often reflected in their songs that were written in
the combination o f folk and pop forms. In terms o f the subject matter, their
songs involved lyrical romanticism as well as folk themes such as celebration
o f nature, the commonplace, the working people, and the rural life.
Folk themes especially distinguished them from other mainstream
singers who professed their love in songs that were characterized by a
formative style originating in Japanese enka. Enka is known for its
sentimental singing characterized by exaggerated expression o f emotion and
elaborate singing style in terms o f aspiration and enunciation. Neither singer,
with the exception o f the earlier career o f Feng Fei-fei. belonged to this
category . On the contrary, under the influence o f college folk (see chapter 2).
their music and image were constructed by a strong folk style in an attempt to
expand their popular appeals. And such synthesis o f folk and pop was
proven a successful commercial "innovation." Both singers were able to
expand their listenership across a wide range o f age, gender, class, and lingual
difference. It was precisely their public personae as "neighborhood girls"
that made them qualify for the emphasis on the sense sense o f folk community.
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166
For example, in Cheerful Wind, Feng Fei-fei plays a sensitive
photographer who likes to go to the countryside to capture the “ true" face of
life. Fier "innate" compassion for people makes her help a blind and poor
musician and eventually, becoming romantically involved with him. Yet the
film refuses to wrap up the film in a conventional happy ending way. It ends
with the departure o f the photographer fo r Europe, leaving her new lover
behind. As an independent career woman. Feng decides to put her new
romantic relationship aside and go to Europe to expand her horizon as a still
photographer.
Her characterizations as an independent woman with a sense o f justice,
responsibility, and compassion are repeated in Cu/e Girl, in which she plays
an anti-traditional woman who rejects parental authority and insists on living
her life her way. In these two film s, she is also the key character that helps
negotiate conflicts in the communities in order to restore order. The songs
that she sings in the film are marked with a clear folk style: cheerful melody
and liltin g rhythm. Songs like “ Play W hile You're Flaying" ("Feng erh t'i t'a
ts'ai"), “ Cute g irl." are written in a quasi-folk pop style that both satisfies the
romantic aura o f the love scenes and the folk association.
In Green, Green Grass o f Home. Chiang Ling plays a schoolteacher in
a countryside town. Later when leaders o f the town initiate an environmental
protection campaign to promote government's nativist policy, she is one o f
the active participators. Here her folk association is introduced to reinforce
her activist image. When the entire town is mobilized to clean up a river, she
leads her students to jo in the project. As she is happily putting fry in the river,
and planting trees in the riverbank, she sings: “ Green, green grass, please stop
for a while for the spring fish are swimming across the the green, clean rain
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167
drops." When she sings these lines, the shots present a picture o f the union
between the townsfolk and nature.
Hou's populist theme changed its way o f expression as he became the
leading figure in the movement. As the pioneer o f the New Cinema. Hou
began to alienate himself from pop and soundtrack music and concentrate on
the exploration of the real voices o f people. His 1983 feature film Boys from
Fen^-kuei still used extradiegetic Mandarin pop to emphasize the culture o f
the young rebels as well as to serve as a comment on the characters.
However, after Boys from Fen^-kuei, Hou no longer employ ed pop songs in
the soundtrack. One interesting example to look at his rejection o f pop songs
is his autobiographical film . A Time to Live and a Time to Die {T'um^-nien
wanf’-shih).
The film 's theme music was made into two formats; an instrumental and
a vocal version. The vocal format was compiled in a pop album which came
out around the same time as the film 's release.'- But in the film the music was
only presented in its instrumental format, which was played by the piano, to
convey lyrical moods and smooth narrative transitions. This case showed
how pop was deliberately screened out in one o f the most acclaimed film s o f
the New Cinema. Ironically, the pop song was able to circulate in the market
while the piano version could only exist in the film .
Hou's 1987 film Daughter from the Nile {Ni-luo-he te nii-er)
demonstrated his reluctance to use pop in the narrative. Hou cast a
teenybopper named Yang Lin (an unusual commercial compromise fo r him) to
' ^The song was sung by a well-known pop singer, Ts’ai Ch’in, and was collected
in her 1985 album Sheng-hsin wang-shih [Sorrowful past]. Besides this song,
Ts’ai sang for several films including Rapeseed Girl and The Spring Outside
the Fence.
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168
play a tomboy type young woman w ho has to play different roles to protect
her gang, her family, and her brother. The film is about this young women’s
complicated life. Such subject matter is a bit unfamiliar to Hou given his
consistent interest in the rural theme in all his previous films. As a result, the
film ends up as not only a commercial flop but also considered by critics the
worst film that Hou has ever made.'-^
One may speculate that perhaps Yang Lin is the cause o f the film 's fall
because o f the incompatibility between her pop quality and Hou's highbrow
association. 1 argue that it is not what the singer represents that drags down
the film but the denial o f what she represents that presents the film from
accomplishing its critique o f urban culture. In Hou's earlier film s that cast pop
singers {Cute Girl, Cheerful Wind, and Green, Green Grass of Home), the
intention to manipulate the singers' association with pop music was never
concealed. Those film s foreground the leading characters' singer identities by
making them sing in either the intradiegetic or extradiegetic space. But
1 ^Critic Chiao Hsiung-p’ing pointed out that the film ’s failure was rooted in
Hou’s unfamiliarity and discomfort in dealing with urban themes. Chiao’s
statement might be accurate by placing the film in Hou’s oeuvre that centers
around small town communities. However, I argue that the failure precisely
derives from the paradox of practicing art cinema within the format of
commercial system. After making three art films, including Summer at
Grandpa's, A Time to Live and a Time to Die, and Dust in the Wind, Hou was
considered a box office poison by many producers. Daughter of the Nile was
Hou’s attempt to prove that he could make a popular film. By casting a
teenybopper who had never acted before, Hou made it clear that he wanted to
re-negotiate with popular cinema. See Hou Hsiao-hsien, “Tien-ying ta-shih
chi” 153. And the way to return to the popular was to recycle the form of his
earlier films that were rigorously populist in the sense that they all cast pop
singers as protagonists. But this recycling did not succeed partially because of
Hou’s detachment from his subject matter and the detached aesthetic that he
applied to the film. This case shows the difficulty for a filmmaker who has
been too saturated in art cinema to return back to the popular. Later when
local producers became reluctant to support the New Cinema directors, Hou
founded his own production company and began to seek international capital
to solve this financing problem.
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169
Daui^hter o f the Nile did just the opposite. In this film about urban youth
subculture. Yang's pop identity was not made use o f but suppressed to hide
its commercial intention and association with pop culture.
Yang plays a teenage woman who leads a somewhat double life — a
devoted daughter at home and tough gang leader in public. Because of the
constant absence o f the male adults in the fam ily (the father is a cop based in
another city and the brother is a gigolo who is also a burglar from time to
time), she has to take care o f her grandfather and her younger sister. Outside
o f the domestic domain, she is a gang leader. Unlike her real-life star image, in
the film she smokes, fights, swears, rides motorcycle. Yang's role o f a tomboy
is quite unusual in Taiwanese cinema. This extraordinariness not only
presents an anomaly in terms of the cinema's paradigmatic tradition, its fallouts
also expand to the non-cinematic text, namely, tne opposition to Yang's real-
life star image. Hence, in order to intensify her rebel image, her pop persona
w ith an association w ith adolescent purity and youth conform ity has to be
suppressed.
Despite the thematic consistency that renders Yang's pop identity
nonviable and hence, invisible, it is somewhat represented in two narrative
events. The first event takes place when she is riding a motorcycle to her
brother's gigolo club. She is not alone on the road: her brother's best friend
who also works as a gigolo is driving his jeep on the other lane next to hers.
This, to her, is a marvelous experience fo r she is secretly in love with him
although he is involved with a mistress o f a fearsome gangster. An
extradiegetic song sung by her comes to play in the soundtrack to depict her
jo y for having a spare romantic moment with the man whom she is forbidden
to love.
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170
The second time that we hear her singing is in the scene where she is
enjoying her solitude. She is alone in her room, reading her favorite comie
book "Daughter o f the N ile " (the film 's pretext) and listening to musie
through a walkman. The music from the walkman is her singing o f the title
song "Daughter o f the N ile ." This intradiegetic music separates her from the
outside world until her incompetent sister breaks the tranquil sound screen by
yelling at her for help.
Although these two instances do use pop to advance the narrative,
their incorporation of pop in the narration is very spare. The first instanee
only features the song fo r the first two verses and so does the seeond
instance. This sparseness o f pop presenee suggests a lack o f interest in
placing pop more conspicuously in the film . It even implies a sense o f anxiety
in dealing directly with pop given the rather hasty and violent withdrawal of
pop from the narrative. It seems to indicate that Hou is simply giving a
nominal space for pop in order to acknowledge Yang's pop identity and
promote her record.
Through the ways that pop was employed in Hou Hsiao-hsien's films, it
showed the perception o f Mandarin pop in the New Cinema. But Hou's case
did not solely represent the transition as a whole. Several New Cinema film s
still practiced theme songs to reinforce the narrative.
2. Theme songs and their obscure place in the narrative
Theme songs appear in several film s made in the early period o f the
New Cinema Movement. For example, Ch en Kun-hou's Growing' Up
(which is generally taken as one o f the forerunners o f the New Cinema) uses
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171
pop (a syniltcsis old pop and college folk) in its soundtrack. As its Chinese
title Hsiao-pi te ku-shUi suggests, the film is about the story o f a fatherless
child called Hsiao-pi who is conceived during his mother's passionate affair
with a married man. As a young child. Hsiao-pi is filial to his mother but
cannot accept her marrying to a much older man for social and economic
security. No matter how nicely his step-father treats him, Hsiao-pi is
determined to keep a distance from him.
In this film , the director Chen Kun-hou and his co-writer Hou Hsiao-
hsien employed fam ily melodrama to indicate a common social situation of the
1960s and the 1970s, i.e., the restructuring o f postwar family. In order to
describe the sweet, sorrowful experience o f growing up in a new fam ily, two
pop songs "G rowing up" and "Childhood” were featured extradiegetically.
They were written by the a new pop songwriter Li Tzung-sheng w ho
specialized in writing songs about youth, nostalgia, and ordinary life.
"Childhood" was inserted in the middle o f the film to indicate Hsiao-pi s
transition from a child to an adolescent. "G rowing up" appeared at the end
o f the film , commenting on his adolescent rebellion that causes his mother's
death.
In Ch en's other film . My Favorite Season {Tsui hsiang-nien te chi-
chieh, 1985), Li not only wrote the theme song for the film but also played the
male protagonist. The theme song “ M y Favorite Season" was used twice in
the extradiegetic soundtrack to narrate the character’s state o f mind. These
two film s showed that although pop was still situated in its usual place in the
narrative, its role in film was becoming less important. Mandarin pop no
longer enjoyed an essential role in the New Cinema. This situation persisted in
the following films.
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172
Wan Jen's Rapeseed Girl {Yiu-ma-ls'ai-lzu. 1984), Ch'en Kun-hou's
1987 film Osmunthus Alley {Kuei-huu hsian^), Li Yiu-ning's The Old Mo's
Second Spring {Lao-mo te ti er ke ch'un-t'ien, 1985) and The Spring Outside
the Fence {Chu-li-pa wai te ch ’un-t'ien, 1986) all had theme songs that
shared the same film titles. And the songs were all featured by a similarly
limited way in the films.
The theme song "Rapeseed G irl" o f Rapeseed Girl appears at the final
scene o f the daughter's reconciliation w ith her mother after hav ing suffered
her tyranny for nearly two decades. The song highlights a realization o f the
deep-rooted patriarchal inscription in an abusive mother-daughter
relationship:
I've come from those d ifficu lt days o f unavoidable
endurance, but today in your sm iling tear I've found the
love and care that I've never had.
Who says that my fate is like that o f a rapeseed? It is just
because you don't know where to plant it.
Even if my fate is like a rapeseed. I've learnt how to love.
I wish you can hold me into your arms again.
In your arms, my life has swung by those
failed expectations to the present time;
I am so happy that I have found my future, (my
translation)
The image that focuses on the weeping, embracing women (a typical
ending fo r women's melodrama) suggests a reconciliation between the mother
and the daughter. The orchestration between the song and the image
suggests that an Epiphany has finally reached them, helping them realize the
difficulty o f maintaining a harmonious mother-daughter relationship. But it is
through the song that the cause o f a sadistic motherhood (a product o f the
inescapable patriarchal domination) is revealed. Although it seems to reinstate
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173
women's habitual internalization of their v ictimization, it clearly expresses the
daughter's understanding o f the cause. Such an ending is what makes the
film a remarkable text for feminist film criticism.
In Old M o’ s Second Sprint’, the theme song that shared the title with
the film was used to signify the victory o f a trade marriage between an old
veteran named Old Mo and a young aboriginal woman named Y u-mei. A
marriage like this was often considered a "perverse " degeneration by the
society for it embodied social and cultural fears such as interracial sex. father-
daughter incest, and financial transaction. Therefore, the film was committed
to making this trade marriage work to counteract social prejudices.
After all the misunderstanding between Old Mo and his young wife is
clarified, the ending shows Old Mo holding the hands o f his pregnant wife,
enjoying the moonlight on a quiet night. A t this moment, the theme song
enters the soundtrack: "How many years that we have walked through in our
lives, how many times that we have misunderstood each other.. . . " It is co
sung by the actor named Sun Y ueh, who played Old Mo, and a female pop
singer P eng Yueh-yun. The use o f the actor’s real voice to sing the song
suggests the film 's effort to construct a successful marriage. By emphasizing
Old M o's "authentic " articulation o f his feelings o f jo y and gratitude, this
marriage is proven sincere and pure.
Again, the use o f a theme song to conclude the story is repeated in
Osmanthus Alley, a film about a woman's life in the feudal past. Its theme
song "Osmanthus A lle y " is used in the ending scene to complement the
shocking visual image o f the woman. Close-ups o f the protagonist, who is
^•^My master’s thesis entitled “Representations of Women in Taiwanese New
Cinema” (University of Maryland at College Park, 1991) applied feminist film
criticism to analyze representations of women in this New Wave movement.
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174
now 90 years old. illustrates her defeat by age. The power o f such visual
illustration is enhanced by the song. Sung by a weeping female voice, the
song elegizes the empty result o f her life-long efforts to gain control, power,
sex. and entitlement.
In terms o f how and where these theme songs are situated in the
narrative, they do not differ that much from the old norms o f musical
(re)presentation such as the music in Ch ung Yao movies (see chapter I.
section II). But in terms o f their relationship with the narrative context, these
songs are used to enhance the awareness o f historical development and the
suppressive patriarchal culture. "Rapeseed G irl" expresses a woman's
realization o f her own and her mother's victim ization. "O ld M o's Second
Spring. " "Childhood. " and "G row ing up" reveals a historical consciousness
toward social change.
These examples demonstrate that pop was treated as a valuable but not
essential narrative agency in the new film s. Pop was still situated in the
extradiegetic soundtrack from time to time. It still occupied an important role
in cross-media operation. This was shown in the fact that all the theme songs
could be found in the albums o f the singers. Nevertheless, compared to earlier
film s which featured pop substantially, pop's importance in the narrative was
definitely diminished in the New Cinema. This subsequently influenced the
commercial relationship between film and music.
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175
III. Sonic Realism; Intradiegetic Representations o f History and the
Present Society
The emphasis on “ quality" excluded pop from the film narrative. Yet
because o f sonic realism, pop was engaged in the ambient sound space. This
situation was especially prominent in the representation o f the past and the
present. First, in order to accurately portray history as it is. the
Shanghai/Hong Kong Mandarin pop (the old pop. see chapter I ) was present
in the diegetic sound space o f film s that focus on representing history.
Second. Hokkien pop became the most important ambient sound source for a
sim ilar goal. It was used to accurately depict current social situations and
moreover, to signify contemporaneity, sexuality, class and cultural identity .
Before I continue to discuss pop's structural presence in the New Cinema,
some important concepts on sound need to be introduced.
When sound was introduced to film m aking in the late 1920s. film
theorists noticed the importance o f sound in terms o f cinema's relations to art
and its representation o f the phenomena! world. Both formalist and realist
theorists had tried to establish sound as an indispensable part o f cinema. In
the writings o f Bela Balazs and Siegfried Kracauer. both theorists emphasized
sound's function in enhancing cinema's artistic quality and realist potential.
As film theorist Balazs wrote in 1952.
Sound has no images. The sound itself is repeated in its
original dimension with all its original physical qualities
when it is echoed from the screen. There is no difference in
dimension and reality between the original sound and the
recorded and reproduced sound, as there is between real
objects and their photographic images (216).
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176
This slatement clearly shows Balazs' faith in (or misconception of) the
reproduction o f sound, for sound, unlike images, does not impede its
authenticity when it reproduces itself. Balazs seems to tell us that visual
representation always bears the potential o f being interfered or
“ contaminated" by outside influences that eventually render it different from
the original, the "real objects." But auditory recording, in his mind, does not
have to suffer from reduction in the process o f reproduction because audio
reproduction by itself, equals the original sources.
The reproduction o f sound in film is elevated to a higher position than
photographic reproduction in Balazs' theory. Nevertheless, from the French
poststructuralist perspective, especially Louis Althusser in his writing o f the
theory o f ideology and its rendition in film studies by the critics o f Cahiers du
Cinema, the role o f the producer, or the recorder is neglected in Balazs' praise
of the virtue o f sound recording. As sound theorists Rick Altman and Am y
Lawrence have pointed out, the real problem involved in sound recording is
not just what exactly is recorded, but why it is recorded, and in what context
it is reproduced. The issue o f context is pivotal in terms o f determining what
kind o f meaning is produced by sound.
W ith this in mind, Balazs' theory can be applied in the presence o f
popular music in film . W hile we do not have to follow his rather formalist
approach that argues for the ontology o f sound in film , the concept that the
representation, reproduction, or just the very presence o f sound embodies a
realistic connotation o f reality is useful fo r clarifying pop's signification in the
diegetic space o f film narrative. Let me first begin with pop's function in
representing history.
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177
A. Historical representation: Shanghai/Hong Kong Mandarin pop {hai-kan;^
p'cii kuo-yu ke-ch'iu)
Perhaps nothing supersedes historical representation in the New
Cinema as its chief defining and discriminating characteristic. The emphasis
on history constitutes the core of the teleology in the New Cinema. How to
represent history in the most faithful and critical way is a pivotal issue in many
national cinemas. It is no c.xception to the Taiwanese New Wave. There are
many ways to represent the history or the past as it is. Props, costumes, and
settings are the primary visual forms to evoke the memory o f the past. But
sound is perhaps even more effective, for it sometimes provides a greater
immediacy than image.
Let me cite an example to explain the superiority o f sound in
constructing a sense o f history . Chang Y i's Kuei-mei, a Woman {Wo che-
yan^ kuo le yi-sheng. 1986) opened in a scene set in 1950. In order to
convey the sense o f real history, the first two sequences featured old pop
songs in the diegetic soundtrack. First, in the scene where the female
protagonist Kuei-mei was on a date w ith her would-be husband. Hou. a well-
known pop called 'T he Little Nocturne o f Green Island” ("Liu-tao hsiao-
yeh-ch'iu") was featured in the soundtrpck As the camera slowly and
cautiously pans to the left, it shows a vaudeville singer singing "The Little
Nocturne o f Green Island” at the outdoor stage. The song was written
around 1951 by a songwriter/director Chou Lan-p'ing who began his
songwriting career in mainland China during the second Sino-Japanese war
and later moved to Hong Kong after the communist take-over in the late
1940s. Chou worked closely with the film and record industry in Hong Kong.
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178
Along with other prolific songwriters who wrote songs for the singing
musicals in the 1950s, Chou participated in the creation and later the
domination o f Hong Kong Mandarin pop in Chinese communities in East and
Southeast AsiaJ^ As mentioned in the first chapter, before Taiwan began to
produce its local Mandarin pop around the early 1960s, Hong Kong Mandarin
pop was the mainstream o f pop music in Taiwan. 'T he Little Nocturne" was
one o f the many Hong Kong Mandarin songs that were tremendously popular
in Taiwan. Therefore, featuring this song in the intradiegetic soundtrack not
only pinpointed the specific time period, it also informed some aspect o f the
contemporary popular culture in Taiwan.
Since the focus o f the scene was the dating o f the couple, neither the
singer nor the actual performance was shown clearly. On the other hand, the
song also functioned to delay the couple's conversation, helping them ease
their embarrassment. This explained why the volume o f the singing was so
loud in the scene.
The second instance occurred in the banquet o f Kuei-mei and Hou's
wedding. An old song called ‘The Full Moon and Blooming Flowers"
("Yueh-yuan-hua-hao") was featured in the intradiegetic soundtrack to
provide a musical blessing to this matrimony, ft used metaphors o f full moon
and blooming flowers to symbolize an auspicious beginning o f a happy and
romantic marriage.'^ But in addition to its literary meaning that contributes to
1 ^The background information about this songwriter is cited from the
following sources: Chang Ch’un-lin’s master’s thesis: “T’ai-wan ch’eng-shih ke-
ch’iu chih t’an-t’ao yu yen-chiu” (1930-1980) [A study of Taiwanese urban
songs (1930-1980)] (Taipei: Taiwan Normal U, 1990) 54-57; Yiu lai ch’ ien
chungyi, hsu chi t’ao-hua-yuan (Taipei: Hai-yang, 1992), a memoir of a
famous Mandarin lyricist during the 1950s, Chen Tie-yi, and Mandarin Films
and Popular Songs: 4os-60s.
l^The lyrics are cited from Huai-nien chin-ch’ iu chiu-shih-ch’ ing I [Nostalgia,
old affection, and golden songs vol. 1] (Taipei: ch’ang-chieh, 1994) 44. This is
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179
celebrating the wedding, the song's very own presence evoked the
spectator's historical sense.
Again, this song belonged to the category o f Shanghai/Hong Kong
Mandarin pop. Comparing with "The Little Nocturne," “The Full M oon"
was an older song. It was written in Shanghai o f the 1940s and sung by the
most celebrated singer in the nascent period o f Chinese pop music, Chou
Hsuan. Chou's nation-w ide popularity stemmed from her natural,
spontaneous, and untrained voice that had a quality close to folk singing. The
famous "Song o f Four Seasons " (“ Ssu-chi ke") that she performed in Street
Alltel {Ma-lu t'ien-.shih, 1937; dir. Yuan Mu-chih) clearly demonstrated the
affinity o f her singing with folk. Even though she continued to work in the
film industry during the occupation period (Japan occupied Shanghai in 1938
only one year after the second Sino-Japanese war broke out), her performance
in the film was still considered a remarkable leftist cultural and artistic
achievement during the resistant period against the Nationalist Party. Part o f
the reason was that the song was written by the celebrated dramatist and
songwriter, T ien Han. But a more cinematic e.xplanation was that the songs
itself and her interpretation fitted well to the ideology o f the film . "Song of
Four Seasons" was an allegorical song that used a discourse o f a woman's
love sickness to portray Japanese imperialism. To have a young woman who
was constantly abused and exploited by her parents sing this song was coded
with political messages. It demonstrated the viability o f resistance against
suppression and exploitation by a lower class voice in a simple musical
expression.
a collection of old Mandarin pop from the 1930s to the 1960s, covering the
period from Shanghai, Hong Kong to Taipei.
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180
Even though Chou Hsuan went back to mainland China after being
based in Hong Kong for a short period o f time in the late 1940s. her songs
were still very popular among the mainland Chinese diaspora in Taiwan. As
one o f the most popular singers and star stars o f the 1930s and the 1940s. she
became the symbol o f cultural nostalgia among the diasporie communities in
the 1950s. This explained why the film particularly featured her recording of
the song in the wedding scene rather than a more recent recording by
younger singers. It was used to provide a referent reminding the regional and
cultural background of the newly weds.
This referent works at two levels o f meaning. W ith Chou's well-
known “ natural" singing style and a m inor key melody that was common in
Chinese folk music, the song evoked the memory o f Shanghai, the history o f
the 1940s that existed in the people who left China around 1949. But to the
audience o f the 1980s. the immediate association o f the music is its illustration
of the cultural and regional specificity o f the couple and their friends at the
banquet.
Just as history itself is a complex and polyvalent narrative, its
representation is not limited to one source and one form. Similarly, music that
is considered to be a useful historical document is not just represented by one
specific kind and for one specific situation. W hile the old Mandarin pop is
employed to represent the 1950s and the 1960s. it is also accurately made to
represent a specific social group— the mainland Chinese diaspora. The
insertion o f this old popular song in this scene shows music's potency in
m ultiplying the meaning of its representation.
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1 8 1
B. Representation o f the present society; contemporary Hokkien pop
Siegfried Kracauer in his comprehensive study o f film theor> . Film
Theory: The Redemption of Physical Reality, uses the term "incidental
music” to indicate the "actual music” in film . "Actual music" here means
music produced by the character himself/herself. Kracauer cites examples like
"fiddlin g beggar and "an errand-boy whistling a tune" to illustrate this point.
In current analytical terms, "actual music” and "incidental music” can both
be categorized as "diegetic music” in film narrative. And he also states that it
does not matter whether the "incidental music” is synchronized with the
action or not. for the music itself is able to convey a sense o f reality. The
reason for this is that incidental music itself "resembles natural sound in its
strong affiliations with the environment" (144).
Kracauer s point raises the importance o f context in music's
association with immediacy and presence. When music is placed within what
he calls an environment, it is transformed into a "natural” sign for it has
become a part of. or absorbed by. that environment. In this regard, it seems
safe to assume that pop is able to carry a sense o f immediacy and presence
when it is located properly. But what Kracauer fails to mention is music's
topicality. Music, especially pop music, is the very product o f the time; it
carried the trend, manner, thought, style, and personality o f a certain historical
period. This notion provides a conceptual framework fo r the influx o f
contemporary Hokkien pop in the New Cinema. In expanding the realist
depiction to the auditory dimension, Hokkien pop is used immensely in
ambient sound and diegetic sound space to provide a sense of a real historical
time and space. This unprecedented interest in Hokkien pop exemplifies the
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182
practice o f sonic realism. Again, one of Hou Hsiao-hsien's films is useful to
illustrate this point.
In a scene o f Hou's A Time to Live unci a Time to Die. the protagonist
Ah Hao sings an Hokkien song. "That Lover o f M ine" ("W o-suo ai te na ke
je n ") on one gloomy afternoon when the rain prevents him from going
outside to conduct his routine mischief in the hood. The song is a
conventional love song about love frustration; however, it functions beyond
the meaning of its lyrics in this narrative event. First, it speaks for the
character's restlessness for being cooped up by the rain. The song's distinct
dialect components connote a class and ethnic identity.
Ah Hao's fam ily moves to Taiwan from Kuang-tung province around
1949. But he spends his childhood with local Taiwanese children and when
he reaches his pubescence, his cultural identification has already been
assimilated by the Taiwanese. Ah Hao's affinity with the Taiwanese culture is
shown from his close friendship with local riffraffs and especially the language
he uses. He speaks Hokkien more than his native language. Hakka (a major
dialect in the Kuang-tung province), which he only uses when he has to
speak with his mother. The song illustrates his Hokkien fluency and his love
o f sentimental, masculine pop song, indicating his total assimilation by the
Hokkien culture.
Another important meaning is his pubescent impulse. The intradiegetic
singing facilitates the portrayal o f a young restless man who prefers to dealing
with his libido directly and aggressively. When Ah-Hao sings the follow ing
lines: "1 cannot, cannot, cannot continue to live for the life without you is
nothing but darkness. Where on earth are you right now? Please come back
to me. the love o f mine.. . his youthful sexual impulse is unmistakenly
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183
expressed through the soundtrack. If ue look at the context o f the scene, it is
not difficult to grasp this signification. Prior to this scene. Ah Hao is seen to
stand at one comer o f an office, receiving the announcement o f a penalty for
v iolating rules of conduct. Next, vvc see him with his naked upper body
sitting b) the window, watching the rain, and singing the song. The mise-en-
scene is trying to portray his pubescent passion, libido impulse, and
uncompromising youth rebellion.
His intradiegetic singing also facilitates a deft transition to the scene's
another narrative event— the conversation between the mother and the sister.
A fter he has sung the song once and is about to repeat, the camera moves to
another space o f the scene, focusing on the mother and sister sitting on straw
mats. We start to hear the mother talking about her marriage w ith an uptight
husband and unsympathetic mother-in-law. with the "interference" o f Ah
Hao's persistent singing. The off-screen sound and the on-screen female talk
form a plural textuality in this narrative event. It preserves the spatio-temporal
continuation from one shot to another in its presentation o f a compelling
female narration. This transition that is conducted by sound and visual
continuation remarkably realizes the Bazinian concept o f representing reality.
Despite his reputation for being the best stylist in the New Cinema. Hou
Hsiao-hsien should not be seen as a unique case in sound narrative. Rather,
his sound practice can be as a representative o f the general use o f music in
New Cinema. There are more instances that share similar narrative devices
with the example above. Let me begin with Edward Yang's films.
Edward Yang is known for his use o f American culture to signify
postwar neo-colonial conditions in Taiwan. Postwar American popular music,
especially rock 'n ' roll is incorporated in all o f his film s to represent an
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184
allemative youth subculture (sec chapter 5). But he also uses contemporary
Taiwanese pop substantiv ely in relation to the declining male supremacy
when Taiwan was rapidly transforming into a modern state in the early 1980s.
The story o f the male protagonist Long in his Taipei Story (1984) represents
this identity crisis.
Long comes from a merchant fam ily that first prospered in the
occupation period and made a profit by buying estates left by American
military councils after the end o f the Vietnam War. The fam ily wealth and the
traditional upbringing cultivate Long's idealistic belief in traditional values
such as family, community, and male bonding. However, this belief system
nourished by traditional patriarchal culture contradicts the new value system
generated from modernization, global capitalist economy, and international
consumer culture. Long finds the new social value intolerable and refuses to
accept them. His rejection o f modem values brings him a series of identity
crises. First, his traditional masculine identity is questioned by his girlfriend.
Chin, who is anxious to detach herself from the constraints o f patriarchal
traditions. His privileged status is then challenged by the newly emerging
professionals who manipulate the new economy and replace the old genteel
class. By personally experiencing the social transformation that relentlessly
rejects him and his cultural identity. Long is gradually drawn into the path o f
self-destruction.
In order to distinguish the values and cultural identifications o f
different social groups. Edward Yang designs three social arenas to be
associated w ith each individual group. Chin identifies with modem bourgeois
culture; an American-style pub is therefore used to represent this specific taste.
Ling, Chin's younger sister, belongs to the younger generation who has been
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185
assimilated into the international eonsumer culture; her social arena is an
underground diseo elub. W hile these two arenas are codified by American
pop culture. Long's karaoke bar called "G inza" is characterized by Japanese
pop culture to indicate his nostalgia o f the premodem life style.
"G inza" plays a part in chronicling Long's gradual withdrawal from
the changing society and the peculiarity o f his social identity. The music that
"G inza" plays is mostly sedated, sentimental, and dated Hokkien and
Japanese songs instead o f astounding and dy namic American rock. The first
shot that introduces this bar is a man singing an Hokkien song adapted from a
Japanese song. The man appears very serious in his singing: he holds his
microphone tightly in his hand and concentrates his attention at the tiny
screen in front o f him. A sense o f isolation and narcissus is suggested through
the design o f shots in w hich there is no indication o f an audience o f this
performance. It tries to show that the man basically is singing to and by
himself.
As an after-hours entertainment for working people, karaoke is used as
a manifold signifier in recent Taiwanese film s concerning urban culture.
Especially in the New Cinema, "karaoke" refers not just to the music but a
type o f culture that includes the music, the clientele and the environments.
Under the premise o f realism, karaoke culture is frequently represented to
construct an urban context. It is also used as a metaphor o f cultural identity.
^ "For those who are fam iliar with Tokyo, Ginza (meaning silver mint) is the
main business district in the largest city in Asia. As indicated by Paul Waley,
the name Ginza suggests “urban elegance, sartorial restraint, and a successful
Eastern raid on the Western storehouses of sophistication” (85-6). While in the
Taiwanese mimicking of its ex-colonizer’s metropolitan culture, it represents
something quite different. In each major city of Taiwan, “Ginza” has become a
standard name for night clubs that conduct illegal business such as
prostitution and gambling.
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In most films, both the activity and the music arc used to signify loneliness and
loss in the alienating urban life. Taipei Story uses karaoke culture to
metaphorize Long's regression to the old and almost forgotten past. But
Long's nostalgia o f the past eventually causes his self-destruction. In this
regard. Taipei Story appears to identify karaoke as a negative element o f the
entire urban consumer culture.
However, karaoke is represented quite differently in other films. The
Loser, the Hero {Kuo ssu yini’-hsiuni’ chuan. 1984) uses karaoke as a sy mbol
o f liberation. The film attacks abusive and sadistic educational methods in
cram school. In one instance, the students who score high points in mock
exams are rewarded with the chance to sing karaoke. And the students who
fail are sent o ff to practice marching music to learn discipline and
perseverance. The director Jacky Mak particularly uses parallel editing to
emphasize the contrast between the two musical activities. The students in
the social room singing and dancing to a 1984 rock hit "R evolving"
("Huei"). Such scene is cross-cut with tiie scene where the failed students
are seen to stand in lines, squarely playing the monotonous marching music.
In Super Citizens {Ch'ao-chi shih-min, 1984). director Wan Jen adopts
a populist perspective in the use o f karaoke music to represent the working
class. Karaoke shortens the distance between people in a sequence that
depicts the good time that the characters are having during a taxi ride. The
taxi driver is a karaoke fan and he decorates his car with bright neon lights
and dashing tassels to reproduce the aura o f a karaoke lounge. The characters
are seen to hold their microphones, singing together with the cab driver,
happily enjoying the ride in a claustrophobic, dream like ecstasy . Karaoke
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here is represented as an relaxing and enchanting entertainment for it seems to
allow the working class people to express themselves spontaneously.
Besides being an entertainment, karaoke is often used to refer to a
certain social group in the films. In the sequence of Super Citizens, the
karaoke music played in the cab ride are all Hokkien songs. The identity o f
the songs suggest the identity o f its patrons. Similarly, in Taipei Story the
karaoke music are all Hokkien songs. This phenomenon explains that karaoke
is associated with an identity characterized by Taiwanese rather than the
mainland Chinese culture.
The Taiwanese identity as mentioned was institutionally discriminated
as having a lower class distinction. Since the Mandarin campaign
implemented in the 1960s for unifying the national language in order to
achieve cultural and political unity. Mandarin and mainland Chinese culture
had been treated as superior to the existing culture composed by Japanese,
Taiwanese, and Chinese influences (see chapter 1). This cultural-political
operation did not eease to operate until, again, the end o f martial law in 1987.
The result o f this was the stigmatization o f Taiwanese culture in the media as a
secondary and m inor culture. The representation o f the native culture was
subsequently characterized with low taste, prim itivity, and profanity.
These stigmas were later mythologized when they were transformed
into pop songs catering to working class, male consumers. The discriminatory
attributes under the operation o f commodity aesthetic were able to reproduce
themselves by the disguise o f certain discourses. Social discriminations were
sentimentalized as some transcendental experiences of "rites o f passage” and
"initiation.” The economic inequality o f the working class was displaced by
frustrated romantic relationships. Through these processes of displacement.
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these songs became very popular among the working class people for their
articulation o f suffering and powerlessness on the one hand, and the
glorification o f endurance on the other.
The New Cinema, despite its attempt to disassociate from commodity
culture, manipulates this pop genre in order to advance its realist approach.
The working class masculine culture is thus seen as a fruitful referent fo r it
seems to embody a sense o f a prim itive reality. Also, the focus on the "lo w "
shows the New Cinema's identification with the exploited workers and
subsequently, helps demonstrate its liberal attitudes.
Nevertheless, this "allegiance" with the working or the lower class is
problematic. It is in fact a reproduction o f the discriminatory terms against the
very class and its culture. The follow ing discussion suggests that the
representation o f the "lo w " culture is not initiated by a genuine concern with
the culture's affiliated social groups. Critical realism is the premise for such
representation to be constructed in the New Cinema.
IV. Pop and the W orking Class
Critical realism, as we know it, takes place in the existence o f
oppression in the society that urgently needs to be exposed and improved.
The underprivileged class and the "lo w " culture with which it is associated
are often considered useful referents to enable criticism. Unfortunately, in
constructing the critical, realist discourse, the subjects o f exploitation are
reduced to tropes, not the subject o f the critiques. It is then not surprising to
see the display o f their culture as the spectacle o f the susceptible "other" of
modem civilization.
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This strategy is seen in Super Citizens, a story o f urban adventure
initiated by a search for the missing sibling. This searching m otif derives from
the famous "captivity narrative” in the western classic The Searchers and
the American New Wave film Taxi Driver (Ray 358-9). And the subject
matter o f the film , Taipei, resembles somewhat like the unknown and
dangerous native American territory, representing the corrupt, alien, and
mysterious moral other. But the protagonist in Super Citizen is not as lucky
as Ethan Edwards (played by John Wayne) in The Searchers nor Travis in
Taxi Driver who eventually rescue their women. Not only does his search
come to a cul-de-sac but his moral and ethical values also begin to fall apart
after having been exposed to the powerful magnetism o f urban civilization.
Hokkien pop serves as the sonic constituent in picturing the city as a
dungeon o f moral "other" to reinforce the sense o f a lower class decadence.
It appears in the ambient sound in the locations o f prostitution, pornography,
and violence. It is played in a man's saloon whose real business is
pornographic massage; it is the dance music in a club where a male patron is
seen to pinch the hostess’ buttocks. Finally, it appears in the coffee shot
where Johns picks up their dates.
Old Mo's Second Sprinf' presents a variation o f this particular
utilization o f pop. In this film about a trade marriage between a veteran
mainland soldier. Old Mo. and his aboriginal wife. Y u-mei. pop causes Old
M o's misunderstanding o f his young aboriginal wife.
As the film beings. Old Mo is a veteran from the mainland who seems to
be happy with his bachelor's life. But after knowing the death o f his wife in
the mainland and a recent attending to his old colleague's wedding, he
decides to get married again. Financial situation, regional difference, social
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190
status, and age prevent him from getting married by love. Thus he seeks a
marriage by follow ing his old colleague's step. Through the arrangement o f a
matchmaker, he meets a young aboriginal woman Y u-mei w ho is w illing to
marry him for money. A fter the wedding. Old M o begins to feel guilty o f this
marriage. His worry gets worse when he witnesses a friendship is growing
between Y u-mei and a young man who delivers gas to his house. He then
believes that Y u-mei is having an affair with her new friend. In order to set
everybody free, he volunteers to divorce her.
Yet the result o f Old M o's self-directed pathos is a comforting reversal
o f fortune. His worry is relieved by her denial o f sexual infidelity and her
announcement o f her pregnancy. These good news bring them back together
and suggests the possibility to make a trade marriage o f an age, racial, and
cultural difference work.
In order to emphasize their differences, the film makes their attitude
towards pop culture incongruous. W hile Old M o knows nothing o f pop
music, Y u-mei likes pop songs and adores teeny bop idols. The couple's
opposite interests in pop is revealed right after their wedding. Old Mo wakes
up on the morning after their wedding only to find that his wife is gone. He
begins to search for her in the house but cannot find her. He then walks
around the house and finds her by hearing her cheerful singing. She is
working like a dutiful wife, drying the laundry while singing a song called
"Tonight " ("C hiu tsai chin-yeh"), a hit song written and performed by a rock
band called C h'iu-ch'iu that was very popular between 1982 to 1983. It was
a rock n' roll song with a particular feminist message. When the lead vocal
Wa-wa sang, "I am leaving you tonight ‘cause you don’t love me anymore, "
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in a husky screaming, it was considered an extraordinary expression o f a
woman's true feelings.
The boldness o f the lyrics reminds Old Mo o f her youthful innocence
and blooming sexuality. And the posters o f male pop stars on their bedroom
wall further enhances his sense o f insecurity. But in order to curry more sex
from her. Old M o tries to accommodate her interest in pop music. He buys a
cassette player and the band's most recent tape to please her. Righter after he
gives her the new presents later that night, he drags her to bed.
Since pop is used as the essential element to represent the couple's
difference, it then becomes the key to solve their contradictions. When Y u-
mei knows o f Old M o's plan to set her free, she furiously rejects the new tapes
to show her loyalty to their marriage. And since then, she is never seen to
hear pop again. However, the cancellation o f Y u-mei's love for pop does
does not help maintain a nuclear family. It has a deeper political and social
implication.
As the film s shows earlier, sex is the primary concern to the veteran in
his pursuit o f a marriage. When Old M o visits his friend Old Ch in in the
beginning o f the film , he finds out that Old Chin is about to marry an
aboriginal woman named Mana. Old M o then asks Chin how he finds Mana
to be his wife. Old Ch in shows him how it is done by money by arranging a
pile o f cash bundles into a human shape with four bundles representing four
limbs, one for the head, another one for the body, and lastly, one goes fo r the
genitalia. The fact o f financial transaction is also indicated in the banquet
sequence in which Mana's mother is busy icounting the eash rather than
enjoying herself in food and drinking.
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These instances show how aboriginal women are treated as
commodities in a marginal social condition. And it is precisely this commodity
nature that brings tragedy to Ch in's marriage. Old Ch in has to leave home
to work on a fishing boat to support his w ife's huge spending on drinking
and partying. Having indulged herself in all kinds o f excitements. Mana
becomes a drug addict w ith sexual disease. She finally kills herself and a baby
inside of her body. Old Ch in returns home from his boat after his eyes have
been severely damaged during an accident on the boat.
Such tragedy does not happen to Old M o and Yu-mei because o f their
innate goodness. The good nature o f Old M o especially moves Y u-mei and
makes her love him. They both work hard change the trade marriage into a
genuinely loving relationship. By portraying Old Mo as a good
husband/father, his possession o f a mueh younger woman is rationalized.
The film is thus able to suggest a reading that is related to the historical
and social context. It counteracts the usual suspect of the trade marriage
between mainland veterans and the subaltern female aborigines. The suspect
derives from the soeial discrimination against both groups. Aboriginal women
are usually projected as vain, bold, and oversexed by dominant Han race. On
the other hand, mainlanders, especially veterans, are often stigmatized as sub
human beings with excessive and perverse sexual needs. And when
individuals from these two discriminated groups are bond by marriage, the two
separate biases are put together to enhance each other. This underlies the
portrayal o f O ld M o's landlady who is always prying into this seemingly
unholy marriage. But the film endeavors to ehange this bias. It shows that
the marriage o f the two most debased social beings is possible to work out
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when individuals behave according to their proper role in the fam ily and a
good conscience.
In order to show that there is nothing wrong for such a marriage to be
initiated and consummated, the individual choice o f normative social behavior
is emphasized as the foundation o f a good family. Old M o and Y u-mei finally
succeed in organizing a good family because they play their social roles
properly. Conversely, the other couple fail to properly perform their roles
regulated by the patriarchal system. Not only does Mana refuse to accept the
traditional role o f a housewife, but the husband also fails to play his
patriarchal role sufficiently enough to prevent his fam ily from falling apart.
A pitfall inevitably appears in such a liberal perspective because o f its
identification with the overall evasive attitude to marginal groups. By arguing
against social biases, the film is actually speaking for the ruling regime that had
always avoided the issues o f social, ethnic, and regional difference in the
society. Therefore, by rewriting the subaltern history based on a humanist
approach, the film reinscribes the prevalent socio-political pacification before
the post-martial law period that states that all social contradictions are results
o f the lack o f individual responsibility. In the name o f individual
responsibility, social contradictions are no longer related to institutional, social,
political, and cultural problems.
In toppling prejudice and discrimination, the film inevitably reveals a
deep ideological contradiction in its use o f pop to represent the
underprivileged. The contradiction lies in the instrumental use o f pop music.
In order to set up the narrative mechanism fo r the final happy ending to come,
pop music is first used to expose the existing difference between the couple
and then totally discarded under the banal discourse o f "love conquers a ll."
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This case reveals the New Cinema's ambivalence with popular music in
incorporating it in the realization of sonic realism. It can also be seen as an
indication o f the New Cinema's ideological dilemma in its treatment of popular
music and art cinema as two mutually exclusive entities.
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"Elvis, A llow Me to Introduce M yself'; American Popular Music.
Edward Yang. Neocolonial Discourse
"1970— the fall that 1 was just promoted to the 10th grade. 1 got a
library card from the Institute o f American Information. The application was
very simple. I remembered that I filled up the form and gave it to the young
smiling American lady at the front desk. W ithin less than half minute, my
application is done. . . 1 checked out Henry James' The Ambassador. 1970.1
am not yet 16, but like the common reaction o f my generation, I was very
excited about it for almost the entire afternoon. Like a typical young literature
buff living in a small town, my desire for knowledge is anything but
provincial. But I remembered after I got home and opened the book. 1 fell into
asleep after having read half o f the first page. "
Yang Tse. "About the Chronicle and the Generation"'
"The environments o f the 1960s might probably strengthen your personality,
or discourage your w ill. Either way influences the 1990s. That era has many
clues to lead us to look at the present one clearly .
Edward Yang-
I. The New Cinema and American Popular Music
A digression from the narrative labyrinths o f The Terrorizers brings
our attention to the presence o f American popular music in the New Cinema.
A woman comes home, takes o ff her jewelry, and goes to another room to play
' This quote is cited from the preface to The Seventies: A Collection of
Confessions (Taipei: China Times, 1994) 5.
^“Ju-che te k’un-huo: Yang Te-ch’ang t’an tsung je-Ii-shih-nien tao Tu-li shih-
tai,” an interview with Edward Yang by Huang Ch’ien-veh, Film Appreciation
12.5 (1994): 23.
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a record. As the scene cuts to the shot o f the am plifier, the music begins to
sing: "They, asked me how I knew, my true love w ill through, ah... I o f
course replied, something here inside, cannot be denied." While these lines
are playing on in the soundtrack, we see the woman lighting a cigarette and
then putting her Winstons and the lighter on a coffee table in front o f her
knees. Then the woman concentrates on the music as it continues its second
verse: "Hey. some day you w ill find, all who love are blind, when your heart's
on fire, you must be alive, smoke gets in your eyes." As the song proceeds to
the bridge, she enters another room, watching a woman sleeping. A viewer
who follows the film from the beginning has no difficulty in identify ing the
two women in this sequence. The smoking and brooding woman is the
mother o f the sleeping woman, an Amerasian delinquent, who is locked up by
her mother for having been involved in a crime. She feigns sleep in order to
avoid facing her mother and most of all. her mother's nostalgia.
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." a 1958 hit by The Platters, plays an
important part in this sequence by bringing our attention to the presence o f
American pop in Taiwanese cinema. Aside from being a song about the
primacy o f love, it is used to signify the identity o f the mother and a specific
history o f Taiwan. Who is the mother? and what kind o f a past is she is
associated with? Through her mixed and fatherless daughter, her smoking, in
tandem with her heavy make-up. multi-colored clothes, silk nightgown, and
her accent (which appears in the earlier seene when she bails her daughter out
at the police station), it is not difficult fo r the audience to figure her
occupation as a GI bar hostess. A fter the US government co-signed a treaty
o f mutual defense with the Nationalist government in 1954. American GIs
began to appear on the island to train the nationalist army. Bars that served
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Gis began to pop up in the mid 1950s and became the most exotic and
disturbing part o f the cityscape o f Taiwan till the end o f the Vietnam War in
1975.
The phenomenal influence o f American culture later became a useful
trope in documenting the history o f youth culture. In nativist literature of the
1970s. the bar culture and multinational enterprise was brought up as part of
the critique o f postwar neo colonialism.^ In film s prior to the New Cinema.
American music was an essential element in the depiction o f the affluent,
magical, and advanced Western world. Ch ung Yao movies o f the 1970s is
representative o f such film s, w ith many o f the heroes and heroines portrayed
as metropolitan youth with a slightly rebellious spirit. For example. The Wild
Goose on the {Yen erh tsai tin shao. 1978) depicts its male and female
protagonists as Westernized individuals. Their apartments (decorated with
posters o f Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison), their fashion code (blue jeans and
black leather jacket and boots), and their taste in music (dancing and listening
to rock ‘ n' roll) are designed to codify their characteristics. American music in
this context is seen as a'bricolage' for distinguishing young people who are
conscious o f Western culture, and hence, represent modernity and
progressiveness. It is not untypical for film s o f the 1970s to provide the
audience w ith a fantasy about the West. Thus the protagonist often
represents the practice o f Western culture, and as such, is a product o f neo-
^Huang Ch’un-ming, Ch’en Ying-chen, and Wang Cheng-ho are the best known
writers on the subject of neo-colonialism. Huang Ch’un-ming’s novella “Hsiao
Kua-fu” (The young widow, 1975) sarcastically depicts an Orientalist
appropriation by local bars in Taiwan for attracting American GIs during the
Vietnam War. Ch’en Ying-chen’s “Yeh hsing huo-ch’e” (Night truck, 1978) tells
a compelling story of Taiwanese staff in a transnational company constantly
being humihated and exploited by their American supervisors. Wang Cheng-
ho’s “Mei Jen tu” [Portraits of the beauties, 1979) is a satire about the
Westernized Taiwanese employees in an American company.
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colonialism, and exhibits its neocolonial mentality that considers Western
culture and civilization as the supreme achievements of mankind.
The use o f American pop to represent youth persists within the New
Cinema but with different implications. As tourism became rather popular in
Taiwan, the representation o f the enchanting West was no longer attractive.
However. American music still maintained its high profile and in fact, is
becoming more powerful precisely because o f the rapid growth o f consumer
power and the prevalence o f international mass media. In the ex-developing
countries American culture is no longer a limited resource to certain social
groups but has become a "democratic" commodity available to almost all
classes. It especially becomes an organic part o f urban space, in which youth
subculture seeks asy lum and inspiration.
Therefore, under the guise o f sonic realism. American music is
incorporated into the depiction of youth, not as codes o f "style" or the
"sophisticated" taste o f Western culture, but as the ambient sound o f youth
life style in general. For example, in Kendo Kids {Chu-chlen shao-nien, 1984;
dir. Chang Y i). American pop defines the environments o f youth, showing up
in the cafeteria and cafe; and increasing the romantic aura in a dance party
where teenagers are anxious to fall in love. In another film . The Hero, the
Loser, American pop serves as ambient music in a McDonald where the main
characters are discussing their American dreams.
.American pop does not just function as the "phenomenal" world o f
teenage culture. Some film s actually use it to depict the negative side o f
youth life. Edward Yang's works present such instances. The famous
motorbike scene in Taipei Story highlights the destopic potential o f music.
The scene begins w ith a gang o f young people cruising in the streets o f Taipei
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on their motorcycles. When they pass through in front o f the Presidential Hall,
the music o f Kenny Loggin's "Footloose" enters the scene. It continues to
the next scene where the gang is dancing at a disco bar. As "Footloose"
moves from the extradiegetic to intradiegetic music in this scene, everyone is
dancing wildly to the increasingly loud music. But there is an exception to
this Dionysiac delirium: the female protagonist Chin who sits in one comer o f
the room, setting her foot firm ly on the ground, rather than jum ping around
with the music. Being an outsider. Chin distances herself from the dancing
crowd. Her moods seem to get worse as the dancing and the music increases
its tempo. A ll o f a sudden, we see her burying her head in her arms, while the
party is reaching to its peak. Then the shot cuts to the next morning in Chin's
apartment where we see her entering the room. "Footloose" still lingers on
the soundtrack. But as she closes the door behind her. the music stops,
announcing the end o f her temporary w ild life and the coming o f her
punishment.
A more explicit depiction o f the decadent nature o f dance music occurs
in a sequence o f The Terrorizers. A dancing scene set in an underground
disco club provides a premonition o f a sexual trade and perverse sexual
violence. In this sequence, an Amerasian teenager named W hite Chick who
Just escaped from her mother's surveillance is trying to sell herself in
downtown Taipei. It does not take her long to pick up a customer. But
before they actually consummate the trade, they go to an underground disco
club. In a dancing hall lit up by laser beams, we see W hite Chick dancing with
her customer to loud but undistinguishable disco music.
The camera then moves from White Chick to a T V screen at another
comer o f the hall. Once when the camera stabilizes on the T V screen, it zooms
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200
in in order to show the action on the screen more clearly. The television is
playing a p>omographic video in which sexual masochism is taking place. As
the camera begins to introduce the content o f the video, it shows a man who
is about to rape a woman. The image is especially appealing because the rape
is taking place in a dark, rainy alley where the woman is thrown by the man
down the stairs. The pouring rain falls on to the two bodies as the man tears
o ff the woman’s clothes, ready to grab her breasts. Then the film cuts to a
hotel room where the actual sex trade is going to take place.
The sex trade does not actually happen because A^Tiite Chick’ s sexual
solicitation is only a decoy. Her real purpose is to steal money from the John
before the sex can be consummated. Unfortunately, when she is making her
move, she is caught by the John who just steps out from the bathroom. The
angry John takes out his belt and is gets ready to whip her. White Chick then
struggles her way out by stabbing the John in his abdomen. Although the
ending plays against the expectation from the set-up in the beginning o f the
sequence, it shows a much more explicit and intense sexual perversion than
the real sexual transaction as we first witnessed in the beginning o f the
sequence. Again, Edward Yang manipulates dance music and dance culture
to enhance the perverse and violent depiction o f the sex trade.
These two sequences exemplify how pop music is used to initiate or
predict the forthcom ing sexual debauchery and unexpected violence. Here
Yang expresses his objection to contemporary Western pop in leading youth
into a meaninglessly decadent life. But in his semi-autobiographical film A
Brighter Summer Day, this view apparently has been blended w ith some other
revisions. We shall see them later in this chapter.
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In addition to its role in depicting youth culture, American pop
constitutes a powerful sound narrative in engaging a neocolonial critique. For
the music evokes not just some pop songs o f the 1950s but the history o f a
Third-W orld country closely tied up with the rapid dissemination o f American
influence after the end o f W W ll. The sequence o f The Terrorizers that
features “ Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” points to a specific segment o f neo
colonialism. In The Spring Outside the Fence, Gang o f Four Forever {Tung
tang wan ssuei, 1989; dir. Yu Yiu), American pop o f the 1960s assists in
making two kinds o f significations: enticing young Taiwanese women to fall
from their innocence and at the same time, challenging conservative traditions
and parental control.
These two film s use American pop as crude historical references to
associate with the mainland youth who are caught between two cultural
conundrums. There is no doubt that American pop is an effective trope in
representing history in a truthful manner and a convenient target to critique
American cultural hegemony. Yet the film s fail to see the dialectics o f
Westernization by simply presenting its results as the answer to the history.
But what caused the affinity between Taiwanese youth and American music
begs fo r more explanation.
The discussion o f neo colonialism in Taiwan’s culture history has to
begin with some clarifications regarding Taiwan’s cultural politics in the cold
war era. The cold war era was the most devastating period o f p>olitical control
in Taiwan’s history. In the early period o f Nationalist rehabilitation, a plural
Taiwanese society was compressed into a homogeneous entity by anti
communist authoritarian politics. Because the massacre that took place in
1945 partially resulted from regional conflicts, the Nationalist government
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202
specifically separated Taiwanese from the mainland Chinese diasporic
communities to prevent any other regional confrontations from happening.
This segregation policy helped the government to maintain a social order and
stability fo r a long time; however, it postponed the assimilation o f regional
and cultural differences. Moreover, in order to label the Nationalist-governed
Taiwan as a culturally orthodox “‘China" as opposed to the communist China
that tried to root out all the cultural traditions, Confucianism was upheld as
the primary ethical principle. It is in this context o f total control over political,
social, and cultural life that the “ invasion" o f American pop music makes the
connection with youth rebellion, and begins the long occupation o f US
hegemony. Edward Yang’s film s addresses these interconnected issues
through their representations o f youth subculture and American music.
II. A Brighter Summer Day and Neocolonial Discourse
A. Neocolonial critique and the New Cinema
A major reason for the New Cinema to be considered a national cinema
is its preoccupation with seeking a pure, authentic self-identity. Many film s
have dealt w ith the loss o f authenticity as Taiwan merged into the modem
world. But the dichotomy o f the premodem “ us” vis a vis the modem
“ other” oversimplifies the concept o f culture and the geography o f history.
“ The pure products go crazy,” says James C liffo rd quoting W illiam Carlos
W illiam s in his The Predicament o f Culture in which he argues that
authenticity and identity must be looked at as relational, not essential. For the
very idea o f originality in the postcolonial imagination is always already
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involved in hybridity, invention, and mixing. Therefore, for authenticity to be
exalted in art, literature, and ethnography o f the postcolonial or neocolonial
contexts, it is a political or cultural invention (4-17).
For a legitimate national culture to emerge in the early stage o f
decolonization, it is necessary fo r it to structure itself according to the dialectic
o f modernity in order to create the illusion o f pure identity. This leads to the
representation o f a quest for the original self, inevitably involved w ith longing,
discontent, and criticism. Such sentiments when projected into a cinematic
space o f the nation are often liquidized into a critical discourse o f
modernization (read: Westernization) and neo colonialism that comes with it.
Yet this critical discourse is not solely aiming at “ the other.” As “ the other”
and the self has no clear boundary in the postcolonial ethnographic mapping,
the neocolonial critique seems to fire more sharply at the “ natives” than the
“ colonizers.”
The New Cinema begins precisely with a neocolonial ambivalence. It
depicts the loss o f innocence in a land o f deprivation as much o f a personal
choice as o f a historical force. The first part o f The Sandwich Man, “ His
Son’s Big D oll,” portrays a poor man who works for a movie theatre. His
daily work is to dress up like a clown and puts a billboard on his body,
walking around the town to advertise the current movie. When he is
promoted to a better jo b and stops painting his clown face fo r work, his baby
boy is scared by his clean yet unfam iliar face. The film ’s second part, “ Hsiao-
chi’s Hat, ” in its lyrical depiction o f rural life, poignantly discloses Taiwan’s
economic dépendance on transnational enterprises to provide jobs fo r young
workers in Taiwan. The third part, “ The Taste o f Apples” uses a black
comedy form to tease out the irony o f neocolonial conditions in Taiwan. The
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film opens up w ith a car accident: a street cleaner is hit by a car driven by an
American colonel. The cleaner loses his two legs in the accident, which
becomes a reversal o f fortune to him and his fam ily. In order to compensate
the worker and his fam ily with five children, including a deaf-mute daughter,
the colonel offers to be the patron fo r the deaf-mute girl to receive special
education in America in addition to the monthly allowance that he w ill pay to
the family. The fam ily happily accepts the offer and the film ends in the scene
where all the fam ily members jo in together in the ward, eating the apples sent
by the colonel and enjoying the taste o f apple fo r first time in their lives.
The Sandwich Man is based on three short stories by a famous
Taiwanese writer Huang Ch'un-ming. Best known fo r his works about the
ruin o f rural communities and the plight o f poor workers, Huang’s strength lies
in his astute historical consciousness in portraying ironic situations in neo
colonial contexts. He adopts comedy to portray the unpredictable reversal of
fortune for people hemmed in by neo-colonial conditions. He is sympathetic
with the underprivileged people and this gives his work a great sense o f
humanity. But he also refuses to sentimentalize victims implicated by politics
and neocolonial mentality. For Huang Ch’un-ming, since the natives have
been ruled by different colonialisms in consecutive historical periods, they
have become the oppressors to themselves fo r not knowing their own distinct
identities.
The question o f a confused self identity is dealt with more directly in
Spring Outside the Fence. The film depicts the life o f a young woman from
an innocent high school student to the hostess o f a GI bar. Premarital
pregnancy and poverty (two common elements imposed on female characters
in literature and film in the 1960s and the 1970s) force her to escape to the big
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c il) and work in GI bars to earn her independence. Here the film forms a
powerful accusation o f neo colonialism by depicting Taiwanese women
selling their bodies in GI bars. The bars are represented by dancing, rock n'
roll, liquor. Western style dress, and rowdy GIs to indicate a certain part of the
society as a US colony.
The film is not only satisfied to reveal the dark side o f neo-colonialism.
In order to emphasize that such conditions are just part o f an inevitable
historical development, the film ends with the aw akening o f the female
protagonist, now an experienced bar hostess living in a comfortable
apartment. She declines a proposal from a decent Amerasian m ilitary advisor,
w ho wants to marry her and take her to America. After she sees him o ff at the
airport, she goes back to her village. End o f the film . The ending does not
specify whether homecoming is the end o f her journey but leaves the puzzle
for the audience. But her rejection o f the marriage proposal and the ticket to
America clearly symbolizes the beginning o f her "real" dependence as well as
o f the country.
These historical representations unanimously employ a critical view o f
the foreign aids and forms o f dependence that Taiwan had to undergo in the
process o f postwar development. Either by sarcasm or by nostalgia, they wish
to engage Taiwan's history with a critical perspective, contextualizing
memory within neo-colonialism. However, is this historical criticism consistent
in the New Cinema? Is neo colonialism regarded as something entirely
"other” ? Is the neo-coIonial discourse implicated in a critique o f one's own
culture and politics? By examining the presence o f American music in
Edward Yang’s films, this neocolonial critique seems problematic and
inconsistent. The rest o f the chapter deals with this issue firstly with a close
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analy sis o f his 1991 film . A Brii’hter Summer Day, followed by a general look
at his use o f rock. In the last section I shall discuss the Western critic's
reading of Yang as a quintessential Third W orld modernist as a problematic in
the context o f postcolonial hybridity.
B. M ixing historical incidents and fiction
Edward Yang's A Brighter Summer Day^ is based on a true event that
shocked society in 1961. Yang stated in an interview that he wanted to make
the film as part o f his memory o f growing up. It is a memory o f confusion,
forbidden pleasure, libido, guilt, and learning. It is also a collective memory of
teenagers growing up in severe educational system, political suppression, and
gang fights. The intention to emphasize youth counterculture is clearly stated
in the prologue o f the film :
M illions o f Chinese migrated with the Nationalist
government to Taiwan around 1949.
Most o f these people only wanted a secure jo b and a stable
environment for their next generation to grow up.
However, in the growing process o f the young generation,
their hard-working parents were living in uncertainty and
fear o f the future.
Under sueh insecure atmosphere, these young people often
organized gangs to expand their primal yet strong
surviving w ill.
The prologue unfolds the film 's subject matter— the w riting o f history
based on the disconcerting cultures o f the mainland adults and youth. The
^The text that is used in this chapter is the film's longer version, almost twice
the length of the theatrical version. My reason to choose to work on the longer
version is that its narrative structure is more complete.
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adults living in diasporic context were prim arily concerned with living,
stability, and security. The younger generation, on the contrary, were facing a
new stage o f life without proper guidance and help from their parents. Based
on this context, the film draws on a real incident o f a 15 year old teenager
murdering his girlfriend to mix true historical events into the fiction. This
historical reference becomes the film 's Chinese title. Kii-lirii'-chieh shao-nien
sha-jen shih-chien. which literally means "youth murder incident on Ku-ling
street."
The method of m ixing fiction and history is illustrated in the first shot of
the opening sequence where "Republican 48" (C. E. 1959) is particularly
mentioned. In the scene, the father o f the protagonist Chang Cheng is asking
a schoolteacher to recheck his son's score so that he can be reconsidered an
entrance to a better high school. The year is 1959. and the accent o f the
father and the teacher reveals the identity o f the father and the son— the
mainland Chinese diaspora which settled down in Taiwan after the
Communist party took over China in 1949.
Aside from going through the rites o f passages, romance, sexuality, and
violence, Cheng's new school life soon proves to be the beginning o f his
downfall. On top o f a series o f changes in his life, including his involvement
with gangs, restraining orders from school, political suppression o f his father,
his girl friend dumps him. Unable to deal with this, he kills her and ends by
spending his prime years in jail.
Cheng's use o f violence to solve his problem leads to the center o f the
film , the gang culture. There are four gangs in the narrative— three mainland
Chinese gangs: Little Park, 217, South Sea, and a Taiwanese gang, Wan-hua, a
name o f a city located in the vicinity o f the capital Taipei. Except fo r Wan-
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hua, which is like a regular Taiwanese gang comprised of local riffraffs
conducting illegal gambling and smuggling, the three mainland Chinese gangs
are organized by teenagers who do not subscribe to dominant social norms.
They are portrayed as young rebels who are unw illing to sacrifice their
autonomy under the threat o f authority. But Yang does not intend to glorify
gang culture based on such countercultural ideas. Despite the rebellion
against school authority, the depiction o f each individual gang emphasizes
their individual difference in regard to identity and practices o f the
counterculture. South Sea and 217 are portrayed as worthless hoodlums who
know nothing o f counterculture, while Little Park has a stronger collective
identity as a youth gang.
The 217 organization is depicted as a stereotypically hoodlum gang
whose main job is to cheat and exploit. They are dressed in w hite underwear
shirts, baggy pants, and Japanese slippers. The gang lives like an extended
fam ily because most of its members have lost their fam ily in the war or during
the immigration to Taiwan. Its leader Shan-tung (the name o f a major province
located in the northeast part of China) runs a pool house which is the home of
most members.
The film 's depiction o f the 217 gang members goes beyond a
superficial representation in order to show their diasporic context. Their
attachment to their original cultural and ethnic roots is shown as sympathetic
and yet destructive. Their mainland provinciality (represented through the
gang members' heavy accent and lower class bearings) prevents them from
seeking a new identity that w ill help them survive in a new society. The
gang's quasi-family structure illustrates its diasporic situation, which to a large
extent, refers to the nature o f mainland Chinese communities during the first
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two decades after they began their exile in Taiwan. The gang's refusal to
integrate w ith the local Taiwanese culture and social norms, along with the
lack of parental care make the gang become an isolated social group. In a
night raid mobilized by Little Park and the Taiwanese Wan-hua gang, 217 is
almost entirely exterminated in their headquarter.
Compared with the critical attitude toward 217, Edward Yang seems to
have more sympathy with Little Park. One aspect that makes the gang more
likable is its identification with the honor codes o f the classical “ gangster” o f
Chinese culture, the narrative o f knight-errants who commit themselves to
justice, loyalty, and reciprocity. The respect fo r classical assassins allows
Honey, the leader o f Little Park win the support o f the Wan-hua gang, a
supposedly rival gang for their linguistic and socio cultural differences.^ But
both leaders form an alliance based on sim ilar beliefs in a specific type o f
gangster culture.
However, the real uniqueness about this gang is its interest in and
devotion to Western culture, especially, its own rock 'n* roll band. As
mentioned, Yang likes to use American pop o f the 1950s and the 1960s to
express his nostalgia. In A Brighter Summer Day, he elaborates pop's
historical meaning into a collective identity. American pop is represented as
the source for pleasure and a substitution fo r cultural identity fo r the mainland
youth. The replacement o f traditional Chinese culture by American consumer
culture is a common subcultural phenomenon among youth groups. The love
of American culture and music then takes Little Park into a historical context.
5Wan-hua is a Taiwanese gang which speaks Hokkien while Little Park is a
mainland gang which speaks Mandarin and sometimes uses English slangs.
Little Park comprises of teenagers while Wan-hua gang members are mostly
adults.
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Before this issue is elaborated, it is well to eonsider the relationship between
music and Little Park.
C. Rock, romance, crime
The treatment o f rock 'n ' roll in this film is both similar to and different
from all o f Yang's other films. In his previous film s such as That Day. on the
Beach, Taipei Story. The Terrorizers. rock is associated with romance and
crime. This point is repeated in A Brighter Summer Day.^ where rock's
explosive energy and romantic ideal has made itself a viable component in
constructing youth image and depicting youth culture. Nevertheless, a
soundtrack album entitled Ku-lin^ Street Youth Band was released fo r the
film , w hich is unprecedented for any o f Yang's films. More significantly, this
soundtrack album is dedicated entirely to American pop o f the 1950s and the
early 1960s.
The insertion o f rock n' roll in the narrative is all intradiegetic, either
being played through records or live performances. Rock music's first
appearance is in a mini concert organizedby Little Park in a neighborhood
cafe. The scene begins with the lead vocalist Copster (T'iao-tzu) singing
Frankie Avalon's 1959 hit “ W hy." As Copster sings, a group o f people led
by his rival Slippery Head (Hua-t'ou) steps in the cafe, passing the dancing
couples and heading straight to the kitchen. Copster then taps his partner
“ Little E lvis" to pick up the female vocal part. As “ Little E lvis" sings in his
feminine voice: “ 1 think you're awfully sweet. Why? Because 1 love you. You
^In Yang’s most recent film, Confudan’s Confusion, rock is used again as the
major sonic component in depicting a morally degenerate environment.
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say I'm your special treat. Why? Because you love me," Copster jumps on
Slippery Head. The shot then euls to the kitchen where Copster confronts
Slippery Head, accusing him o f collaborating w ith 217 and other rival gangs in
sponsoring their own rock concert.
The second time that rock appears in the diegetic soundtrack also
involves confrontations. It begins with a meeting o f Chang Cheng and his
girl friend Hsiao M ing in the same eafe. When Hsiao M ing arrives and sits
down at the other side o f the table, Chang Cheng gets up to play a record. As
the record begins to play, the song "M r. Blue" slips into the aural space:
"O ur guardian star lost all his glow the day that 1 lost you. He lost all his
glitter the day you said no. And his silver turned to blue." Listening to the
song, the young eouple look at each other without a word, trying to stay in
the wonderful world o f music. But this romantic quietude created by the
blues harmony is short-circuited by malicious intruders. Several Little Park
members rush into the cafe, breaking the entire atmosphere. The music stops;
the couples are panicking. The gang is there for the return o f its leader Honey
who is at large.
The third instance that features rock intradiegetically is the concert
held in a music hall at downtown Taipei. It is juxtaposed with one o f the
film 's most tense events: the murder of Little Park's leader. Honey. Inside o f
the concert hall, Copster is singing "Poor Little Baby " and sending his charm
to the female audience, who is cheering and applauding Copster's
performance. Outside o f the concert hall, Copster s brother. Honey is having
a talk with the leader Shan-tung o f the rival gang 217. During the talk. Honey
challenges Shan-tung. The latter, feeling insulted, pushes the form er toward
the middle o f the road in front o f approaching bus. When Honey's body is
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being smashed by the big bus, the eoncert is just reaching another climax— a
famous band called Electric Star is performing "D o n 't be Cruel."
Beside these three scenes that clearly show the intradiegetic use of
rock n' roll in depicting violence, romance, and death respectively, the
soundtrack album Ku-lin^ Streel Youth is another resourceful text to look at.
Released in July o f 1991, almost the same time when the film was released
theatrically, the album signifies at two levels. One is obviously for the
marketing because the album contains all the songs that are played in the
soundtrack o f the film . And all the songs are sung by a temporary band called
"The Youth Band o f Ku-ling Street" (Ku-ling-chieh shao-nien he-ch'ang-
t'uan) which consists of almost the same members from the Little Park band in
the film .
Besides a marketing purpose, the very textuality o f the album itself
reveals a deep sense o f nostalgia. The nostalgic text shows in the album's first
three songs, "This Magic Mountain," "O nly the Lonely, " and "Peggy Sue. "
They are listed in a separate category as "the pop hits o f the 1950s" as a
distinction from the songs that actually appear in the film . Here the purpose to
anthologize the goodies o f the past is clearly revealed. And the literature
printed in the back o f the cover illustrates the deeper ideological sense o f this
album: seeking the accuracy of covering. The literature says that Edward
Yang personally supervised the recording so that the performance can be as
close as to the original recordings. The search for authenticity even goes to
the design o f the band's outer look. The hair style, dress, and performance are
reminiscent o f rock bands o f the 1950s, a protocol that originated from Buddy
H olly and the Crickets.
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The album does not stand alone as part o f a nostalgic text, though.
The appearance of a retired band Electric Star (Tien-hsing) in the concert
scene shows Edward Yang paying tribune to the covering bands o f the
1960s. Electric Star was a well-known band that performed American pop
during the 1960s. It was comprised of four members, a vocalist and guitarist, a
bassist, a pianist, and a drummer. This composition resembled the typical rock
n' roll band o f the 1950s. Electric Star was very popular among young fans
o f American pop because o f their copy ing skill.
They are invited to appear in the concert scene to refresh the memory
as well to contribute to a true representation of history. But as the film shows
us. the meaning o f recalling history puts more emphasis on music than visual
accuracy. Even though Electric Star itself appears to be a simulacrum o f an
American pop band, its historical meaning to Taiwanese youth is essential and
needs to re presented. This explains why they appear in the film as who they
are now rather than who they have been. Despite their apparent senility, the
director seems to suggest that image can fade, but music still remains good and
true to the old fans.
D. Neocolonial textuality and American music
The soundtrack album illuminates the film 's postcolonial nostalgia.
This invites a series o f questions: why would Edward Yang make a film whose
essence resides in the embrace o f Western culture? Isn't it ironic or a bit
reactionary to make a film like this in the post-cold war and the post-martial
law politics? Does this im ply a compliance with neo-colonialism and American
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214
hegemony? To answer these questions, we have to analyze the
representation o f the Little Park band.
As mentioned, the reason that the Little Park is apparently a more
likable gang lies in its celebratory quality. One o f the vocalists o f the band.
Wang Mao. with a nickname o f “ Little Elvis.” appears to be the most
charming character in the film . As the nickname indicates. Wang Mao has a
talent for imitating the real Elvis. However, his m im icking is not innate and
spontaneous but a result o f hard work.
Like most Westem-style bands o f the 1960s, the Little Park band is
only interested in covering popular American songs rather creating its ow n
music. This may seem “ unauthentic” by the standard definition o f Western
rock *n' roll bands. Yet this precisely reflects a neocolonial type o f im ita tio n -
superficial. o f limited quality , and lacking innovation. After the Korean War in
1952. Taiwan became the anti-communist "bulwark'Tor America in exchange
for m ilitary and financial aid to assist the Nationalist government in
maintaining its power and developing Taiwan. So the mim icking o f American
pop music was not something unusual.
The incomplete decolonization and/or dependence upon the old
colonial power is known as “ neo-colonial” or “ post-colonial” in the parlance
o f political science. The post-eolonial term has recently become a popular
academic discourse and theory o f eultural analysis despite its problematic
definitions.^ But as the concept o f ‘"postcolonial” has been quickly adopted
in académie studies as a new model to indicate the residue o f colonialism.
'See Ann McClintock. “The Angel of Progress: Pitfalls of the Term ‘Post-
Colonialism’,” Ella Shohat, “ Notes on the ‘Post-Colonial’,” Bruce Robbins,
“Comparative Cosmopolitanism,” and George Yudice, “We Are Not the World”
in the double issue on postcolonialism and the Third World published by
Social Text 31/32 ( 1992).
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215
specific accounts for colonial and neo-colonial historical developments are
bypassed. The diversity and difference among Third-W orld countries are
homogenized and simplified as an innovative theoretical concept rather than a
concrete national and cultural struggle.
In Taiwan's case. I choose neo-colonial to rehistoricize the period from
the 1950s to the 1970s. Taiwan's colonial history has its own uniqueness,
different from the situation of China in the first half o f this century . It is also
quite different from Hong Kong, a late British colony that has become the
most modemizedAVestemized Chinese community, but which still maintains
some distinct Chinese traditions. The history o f Taiwan prior to the 1980s is
more or less a colonial one. Inhabited by aborigines. Taiwan was first
colonized by the mainland Chinese in the 15th century, then the Dutch in the
16th century, followed by the Chinese again in the 17th and the 18th
centuries until the Japanese came along in 1895. Fifty years later, the control
of the island went back to the hands o f the mainland Chinese headed by a
corrupt, right-wing, m ilitary government.
From the late 1940s. Taiwan seemed to represent an independent
Republic o f China, but in reality, its politics and culture were dominated by
two outside forces. The Nationalist government took it as a temporary refuge
camp for recovery and preparation fo r the future invasion o f communist
China; the US took it as a eonvenient m ilitary satellite for continuing its
surveillance o f communist China. This situation. I would like to emphasize
once again, was not identical to the classical colonial model, but a state o f
semi-autonomy and semi-dependence more like neo-colonialism.
Neo colonialism in Taiwan registered in a variety of social, cultural,
literary, art, academic, political, and discursive practices. Nativist literature o f
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216
the 1970s dedicated itself to a self-representation o f Taiwan's subjection to
neo colonialism. Similarly, nativist cultural and literary critics devoted
themselves in disclosing modernist writers who failed to realize the pitfall of
promoting modernism in a Third W orld eontext. In cinema, neo-colonialism
only began to became an issue in the 1980s. In many New Cinema film s, the
victimization o f women in socio-cultural change was used to allegorize
Taiwan's dependence on the First W orld. A Brighter Summer Day presents a
different text that uses music to address this issue.
How is this neo-colonial dependence manifested in the film through
music? The songs that Little Park covers in the film include 'W hy, " "Poor
Little Fool," "Angel Baby” and "Never Anyone Else But Y o u." These
songs represent a specific type o f rock n' roll w ith a slight variation. First,
the songs represent the most important components o f rock— youth, sexuality,
and romance in addition to their distinct representation o f the 1950s and the
early 1960s. Second, the songs also differ slightly from each other given their
shared historical and generic backgrounds.
"W h y" was originally sung by Frankie Avalon in 1959. It was a
typical teenybop song characterized by a m ild sexual expression. "Angel
Baby" was a song by Rosie and the Originals in I960. As one o f the most
famous "G irl Groups," Rosie and the Originals sang o f teenage girls'
emotional concerns and craving for love. Tw o rockabilly songs "Poor Little
Fool" and "Never Be Anyone Else But Y ou" by Ricky Nelson, represented
the prototypical California suburban rock that featured youthful cheer and
energy. Although these songs were characterized by a distinct youth
sensibility, they all seemed too trivial and sentimental to be seriously
destructive and threatening.
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217
As the most important rock figure at the time, Elvis cannot be
excluded. “ Are You Lonesome Tonight" (1961) is one o f the best o f Elvis'
recordings that he did after he left the army. It blends a soft blues flavor with
a slow ballad chanting; and through Elvis' interpretation, the song cries out a
deep craving for romance without restraint.
Covering American songs is one thing; however, singing like their
original performers is another. This is especially true for Little Elvis, who
endeavors to sing like Elvis the King. He works hard to imitate Elvis in
pronunciation and singing style even though he cannot speak English. For
someone who cannot speak English, the m im icking seems to fit quite well with
the term “ grotesque m im icry " introduced by Homi Bhabha in his famous
article entitled “ The Other Question. . . . "
“ M im icry" usually means an act o f imitation which is less creative
than mime. In other words, it resembles the original object but is not
completely identical to it. This definition, however, does not exactly tell us the
nature o f mimicry aside from being "less creative " as compared to a
mechanical imitation such as mime. An original but often overlooked
definition that derives from biology provides a more accurate and pointed
definition in terms o f situating it in the colonial context.
According to the definition given by Webster's Third International
Dictionary, “ m im icry" also means “ a superficial resemblance that some
organisms exhibit to other organism or to the natural objects among which
they live and thereby secure concealment, protection, or some other
advantage" (14,36). For the meaning o f “ m im ic," the dictionary defines: “ a
usually edible and harmless animal that escapes predation by being mistaken
by potential predators for a distasteful or venomous animal" (1436). These
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218
definitions clarify the attributes o f a mimicry in terms of its motivation. It does
not merely mean an act o f mimicking for im itation's sake. It also means a
matter o f survival for certain animals like insects or reptiles that live by
imitating other animals that are more capable o f surviving. For example, the
Arsenura moth of Panama imitates dead leaves to avoid the attention of its
predators. The king snake often scares away most animals because its red-
and-black bands resemble those o f a poisonous coral snake. By m im icking
the coral snake, the harmless king snake enjoys a carefree life.*
This conception illuminates Bhabha's explanation o f the root of
"grotesque m im icry." According to Bhabha. it comes from the colonial
subject's "desire for an originality" and the wish to become the copy o f the
original. Like the insects and animals mentioned above, a colonial subject has
to depend upon imitating the colonizer in order to survive or gain advantage.
But this discursive m im icking, no matter how closely it comes to resemble the
original one. is doomed to be a superficial imitation. For the difference o f race,
gender, and culture that defines and differentiates the colonizer and the
colonized is unlikely to be erased (1983, 27). It is therefore a recognition o f
the irreducible difference between the copy and the original that causes the
m im icking to become grotesque.
Because of his height. Little Elvis has to stand on a stool to reaeh the
microphone when he performs on stage. When he stands on a stool, using his
prepubescent voice in singing "A re You Lonesome Tonight." (which
resembles anything but Elvis), such peculiarity o f his mimicking fully
demonstrates the 'm isfit" quality o f "grotesque m im icry."
^There are many more examples of mimicry in the wild. See The How and
Why Wonder Book of Butterflies and Moths, Camouflage in the Wild: Hiding
Out, and Mimicking in Plants and Animals.
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219
There is a paradoxical aspect attached to the obv ious discrepancy
between the "original" and the "copy.” As the text tries to show, both Little
Elvis and his band seem to be unaware o f the grotesqueness that stems from
the off-hand emulation o f Elvis. They appear to be happy with their covering
so long as the music is generically American and the singing is quasi-Elvis.
This awkward eo-existence o f musical proximity and visual peculiarity
poignantly reveals the presence o f neo colonialism during a specific historical
time.
E. Redirecting neocolonial criticism
A Brighter Summer Day can definitely be seen as a representation o f
cultural colonization by American hegemony . However, a reading based on
external factors without making references to internal polities is not sufficient
to explain the nature o f neoeoloniality in postwar Taiwan. For it is true that
neo colonialism has to do with the unequal distribution o f resources between
the First and the Third W orld after the end o f the second war. But what
makes a neo-colonial culture as a side-effect o f economic and political
dependence is a question that needs to be scrutinized. We have to look at
Taiwan’s soeio-eultural context during the cold war period to answer this
question.
Taiwan's cultural field o f the 1950s appeared stagnant in the confines
o f martial law and anti-communist dogmatism. Guided by the monumental
slogan o f "anti-communism, resisting the Soviet U nion" k'ang-
erir), the entire nation had placed its entire resources fo r future action against
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220
the socialist bloc. Every aspect of social, political, and cultural life was
consequently subsumed to the authoritarian control.
Historically, the fam ily is the basic unit for practicing authoritarian
politics. But in this case, the fam ily recedes to the background, because the
real source o f suppression comes from other ideological state apparatuses such
as schools and political censorship. The over-production of political control
diminishes the role o f family and sometimes also destroys the fam ily structure.
The core of City o f Sadness is precisely about the destruction o f family under
political suppression. The immediate damage to the family is often the
disappearance or absence o f the father. A Brighter Summer is no e.xception.
Through the narrative, we see the overall lack o f father figures in the film . The
only father in the film , Mr. Chang, is a victim o f a suppressive political
campaign called "w hite terrorism" in the 1960s.
Mr. Chang represents a benevolent father figure who has a strong
identification w ith traditional concepts o f intellectual integrity. But even such
an innocent man without political involvement cannot escape the influence o f
political terrorism. For the rest o f the young people in the film , they do not
even seem to have a complete family. For example, the fam ily o f "little Elvis"
only exists by his mother's clothing shop and the audio presence o f his
mother. We only sense her existence by her off-screen voice. The only fam ily
o f Chang Cheng’s girl friend, Hsiao-ming, is her sickly mother who suffers
from asthma. But we never really see her because she is constantly placed in
dim light; we only "hear” her existence by her constant coughing. The fam ily
o f Hsiao-hu, Chang Cheng's best friend and a son o f a powerful army general,
is represented in sim ilar ways. Although his powerful General father is
constantly mentioned to indicate his affluent life style and sometimes, to
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221
protect him. the father never appears in the film . Only the mother is present
when the scene are set in Hsiao-hu's big mansion. But her presence is as
inconspicuous as the other mothers. The aural form again replaces the visual
form to depict the presence o f the mother. We only sense her presence
through her grceiiug of the guests and her singing o f opera. As a person that
exists by concrete shapes and features, the mother is always absent from the
scenes.
Fear, sickness, death, and obscurity can be thus summarized as the
states o f the parents' existence. As the prologue has already informed us. the
diasporic pathos is the reason why they recede to this obscure state of
existence. This appears most obviously in the lack o f musical sources to
which they can relate.
Chang's father complains about the lack o f music that he can listen to
after hav ing tried several times to fiddle w ith radio waves. And the mother
once complains at dinner about the loud Japanese music that is played next
door: "we fought the Japanese for eight years in China. Now here in Taiwan
we have to live in a Japanese house and listen to Japanese music" when the
neighbor is playing a Japanese pop song. This seemingly "casual" complaint
indicate at least two points. It indicates a lack o f the music that she likes and
also her discontent o f living under the "legacy" o f the form er despicable
enemy. W hile loeal Taiwanese might not see Japanese music as intrinsically
colonial and exploitative, the mainland Chinese holds a definite antagonism
against it due to the vivid memory o f the war. Through diverse attitudes
toward a "foreign" musie, a distinction between a "Taiwanese" identity and
a "Chinese” identity is being made.
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Mr. and Mrs. Chang represent middle-aged, urban, educated, middle-
class Chinese, whose crav ing for "authentic” Chinese pop also indicates a
crisis o f their cultural identity. For upper-class parents like Hsiao-hu's mother,
the music that they identify is a hit different. As mentioned, in two scenes set
in Hsiao-hu's house, the hostess' presence is referred to only by her opera
singing. The mother seems to be busy with her opera singing party in the two
instances. Peking Opera here represents the privileged, upper class, which is
perhaps more moribund and obscure than the lower and the middle class. For
the music evokes a sense o f the past that allows the nostalgia to go beyond
the real spatio-temporal boundaries. It is illustrated effectively through, once
again, the visual absence o f the singing.
The profound morbidity registers most significantly in the political
officer who interrogates Mr. Chang. When this officer is taking a break from
his intense interrogation, he goes into another room to listen to a Chinese art
song "Song o f Red Love-Beans” (“ Hung-tou tzu"). The way that he listens
to the song shows an incredible concentration that goes beyond the usual
reception o f music as a leisure act. What is so specific about this song that
requires the cold-blooded interrogator to pay such attention? It was
composed in Shanghai during the 1930s by a songwriter Liu Hueh-an. Liu
was one important figure o f the second generation o f Chinese Western
classical musicians and he wrote several famous art songs during the
occupation period o f Shanghai (Fan H. H. 23).
Chinese art songs (chim/^-kuo yi-shu-ke-ch'iu) arose in the 1930s'
Shanghai when young musicians who had been trained in the West return to
China to create modem Chinese classical music. Composers like Huang Tzu,
Lin Sheng-yi, and Liu Hueh-an tried to synthesize traditional ballads and
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223
classical poetry with Western classical form. Through their efforts, it did not
take long for art songs to flourish in the center o f China's cultural production.
“ Song o f Red-Love Beans" was one o f the many art songs that were written
during this period. Red love-beans in classical Chinese literature represent a
love token. Classical poetry uses it to e.xpress nostalgia and romantic
sentiments. The song's ly rics are based on a famous poem from the most
celebrated novel in Chinese literature. Dream o f Red Chamber!^
In the original context, the poem is used by the young protagonist Chia Pao-
yu to express his deep love for his cousin Tai-yu. The melody, accordingly, is
written in a Chinese minor tune to simulate a melancholic mood.
When the musicians were working hard to establish modern Chinese
musie, China was facing a threat o f annexation by imperialist powers. The fear
o f diaspora was manifest in many art songs about orphanage and glorifieation
o f historical heroes. Being one o f the best known art songs, "Song o f Red
Love-Beans" meant more than just a lyrical song for most people. By
eouehing a sentimental lament o f romantic frustration in a sublime tune, the
song was an patriotie allegory. It articulates a persistent Chinese identity
under the threat o f imperialist invasions.
"S till oh still I can't forget those old hopes and fears.
Still can't swallow food and drinks, ‘cos I'm choked with tears.
M irror, m irror on the wall, tell me it's not true:
Do I look so thin and pale, do I look so blue?
M irror, mirror, this long night how shall I get through?"'*’
^Also known as The Story of the Stone {Shi-t'ou chi), this novel is written by
Ts’ao Hsueh-chin in CE 1760. It is known as the great novel of manners in
Chinese literature.
'Ojhis translation is cited from David Hawkes’ translation of The Story of the
Stone , vol. 2 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977) 55.
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224
The interrogator's unusual concentration on the music shows that he
deeply feels for the song. He even lip-syncs with it on the part where his
voice could reach the piteh. And while he is listening to the song, his gaze
eonveys a peculiar dislocation. His attentiveness and his eestatic facial
expression seems to suggest that his thought has transcended the real time
and space o f his location. The song, w ith its sublim ity and a nationalist
sentiment, poses a timeless and perpetual China, a China that most Chinese
diasporas have tried hard to inseribe in their memory and fantasy.
From the youthful viewpoint o f Summer Day's protagonists, the adult's
culture appears vacuous and pathetic. It is exactly this vacuity and
dislocation w ithin the present spatio-temporal context that makes room for
Western culture. The young generation cannot and w ill not identity with
their parents. They refuse to live in the memory o f old times characterized by
humiliation, hunger, war. and migration, and instead, they long fo r a free and
affluent life. Historically, the seeking fo r new inspiration and excitement was
especially prevalent in the young generation o f the mainland diaspora.
Imported Western culture that came as a package o f pleasure and knowledge
was immediately accepted by the young people caught between the old
generation's nostalgia and unfam iliar local customs and language.
The learning o f Western culture is thus an m ultiple rebellion rather than
a singular neo-colonial submission, according to the film text. Rather, the
alliance with neo-colonial culture enriches the adolescents. Rock is not just a
way that they show their admiration o f American culture. It empowers them
and provides them a distinct identity, even if it is a problematic one. This point
is illustrated in the way that rock is incorporated into the narrative. A ll of the
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225
songs arc presented in diegetic space and they appear either through the
band’s live performance or the diegetic sound.
Live performance is an essential component o f Hollywood musicals,
what Rick Altman calls the synchronic constituent.’ In The Hollywood
Musical, Jane Feuer suggests that the importance o f live performance lies in its
■■first person’ quality that tends to address the audience directly (23). Indeed,
live performance occupied an essential place in the rock n’ roll musical when
it arose along w ith the popularity o f rock in the 1950s. In the early rock 'n'
roll musicals like Jailhouse Rock. Rock Around the Clock, and The Girl Can't
Help It, rock performance occupied a great portion o f the narrative. In these
film s, it was the ■ spectacle, ” providing pleasure for both rock fans and the
film spectator.
The immediate effect o f these live entertainments on the audience is
viewing and listening pleasure. The primacy o f music and the appearance o f
the stars dominates the way that performance is structured in rock film s ." Yet
what is more important is to re present rock ‘ n’ roll and their creators in
truthful and even "authentic” ways. In A Hard Day's Night, the film about
the Beatles and Beatlemania, the director frequently employs shots that
depicts the physicality o f Beatles’ singing in the spectacles. Close-ups o f the
Beatles’ lips, eyes and other facial features are frequently used to construct
the authenticity and the authentic representation o f the Beatles.
This idea o f authentic spectacle that emphasizes the real production
(instead o f lip synching or recording) is useful in furthering the analysis of
^ iThe famous examples are: Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock, the Beatles in A
Hard Day’s Night, the Who in Tommy, Jimmy Cliff in The Harder They Come,
and Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues. But the most “authentic”
representation of rock stars comes from rocumentary, for example. Bob Dylan
in Don’t Look Back and Madonna in Truth or Dare.
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rock performance in A Brighter Summer Day. Basically, performances in the
film function as spectacles. They provide both hearing and viewing pleasure
for the film spectator and the audienee in the narrative. Most rock n' roll
musicals show the audience and their reaction to the life performance.
According to Jane Feuer, “ the use o f theatrical audiences in the film s provide
a point o f identifieation for the audience o f the film " (338). By doing so, an
immediate and flu id ' relationship between the performance and its audience
can easily be transformed into one between the film audience and the
performance w ithin the film . But A Brighter Summer Day does not quite
follow this model.
There is only one instance in the eoneert scene that shows the
enthusiastic reaction o f the young audience toward Little Park's performance.
There is no indication o f the audience otherwise in the rest o f the
performances. The lack o f an mediation between the performance and the film
spectator seems to suggest the film 's emphasis on the primacy o f the
performance. Performance in this context can be read as a representation of
self-empowerment. It can thus be interpreted as the presentation o f their
ability to sing and perform. Moreover, it signifies who they are.
For the teenagers in Summer Day, the politics o f singing rock is
obviously not just one o f their many ways o f looking fo r fun {chao-le-tzu). It
is also a way o f expressing themselves and inventing a utopia for themselves
in the midst o f boredom, gang fights, alienation, and stress. Even though
Edward Yang never gives up chance to expose the eontradictory nature of
rock by always juxtaposing violence, sexuality , and rock together, roek
performance exists in its own space as a pure, transeendental, and timeless
experience. When “ Little Elvis " sings, he is no longer the little guy who is
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227
being ridiculed by the boring and incompetent Chinese teacher. Rather, he
becomes a singer who is capable o f attracting attention and admiration.
Similarly. Copster turns from a unknown gang member into a charismatic rock
singer when he sings "Never Be Anyone Else But Y o u" on stage.
Their performative 'parole' when placed in the cultural politics o f the
nation indicates an alternative cultural identity. Rock enables them escape
from the pressures and boredom o f everyday life. Yet more importantly , it
provides a new source o f cultural identity free from historical and political
baggages. Andrew Jones in his analysis o f mainland Chinese rock musician
Cui Jian affirms this kind o f reading. Jones argues that the meaning o f Chinese
rock n' roll must be located in the context o f authoritarian politics, especially
the official suppression o f individual expression (115-28). The constraints o f
political censorship and cultural conservatism render Cui Jian's love songs an
allegory o f youth resistance against official indoctrination. But Cui Jian's
meaning does not just exist in his own personal war against the society. He
also represents a rise o f a new, collective, youth identity that is unsatisfied
with the direction in which the country is going. Sim ilar to the Chinese youth
culture o f the 1980s, the subcultural identity in Edward Yang's epic comes
from a reaction against internal politics and an unattractive national identity.
As Lawrence Grossberg says, a rock identity is defined not Just by
what the fans listen to but "what they do not listen to " (1990, 115). The
identity based on negation as well as affirmation explains the non-
inclusiveness of youth culture. It suggests that youth culture is defined by its
relations to other social, cultural, economic, and sexual practices. The
"negative identity" o f the teenagers in Edward Yang’ s nostalgia is shown in
their rejection o f listening to patriotic art songs that are 20 years older than
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they arc. They cannot either identify w ith Hokkien pop characterized by
Japanese enka that has nothing to do w ith young people.
A t the end o f the film . “ Little Elvis" finally receives a letter from the
real Elvis after he has sent out his recording o f "A re You Lonesome Tonight."
In the letter Elvis expresses his appreciation and surprise at his popularity on
the "tiny island." Enclosed in the letter is a ring from Elvis for his faithful fan.
In order to share this great news with his best friend, Chang Cheng. "Little
Elvis" delivers the tape containing his recording and a letter to the
penitentiary w here Chang is being kept for rehabilitation. His package is
received with hypocritical courtesy but is discarded to a trash can immediately
after he leaves the reception desk.
This disclosure o f authoritarian control is even more poignantly
accurate in that it is through the off-screen voice-over of "L ittle Elvis"
addressing the letter to his friend that the letter is revealed. The absence o f
the friend's voice in unfolding the letter clearly shows that the tape never
arrives at its destination, a poignant denial o f youthful expression.
Recent postcolonial critiques m ight be accurate in pointing out the
colonial "residue" in Yang's celebration o f a youth subculture based on a
problematic imitation o f the imp>erialist Western popular culture. But for
mainland Chinese youth who were cut o ff from the mainland China and
indoctrinated into discrimination against the host culture (the Taiwanese).
American culture is an available and desirable source, not only fo r dealing
with boredom but also fo r constructing an identity.
This brings us to a scene in which the film 's English title is first
indicated in the diegesis. The scene depicts Chang Cheng’s elder sister, a
college student who is preparing to go to Am erica after her graduation. She is
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229
one who helps Little Elvis transcribe the lyrics o f "A re You Lonesome
Tonight." As she repeatedly listens to the song, she cannot help but question
what she has been hearing on the record. Here is her conversation with her
older brother about the doubts that she has in transcribing the song into
written words.
Sound: “ Does your memory stray to a bright summer d a y .. ."
Elder Sister: "This is so strange. He obv iously sings "a brighter
summer day."
Elder Brother: but a brighter summer day is not
grammatical!" "B righter." "bright summer day."
Despite its grammatical awkwardness, perhaps "a brighter summer
day" delineates a situation closer to the perception o f American pop music
among the young adolescents. For what American music provides is not just a
bright day in a typically boring, hot summer in this tropical island, but a
brighter day that dazes and confuses the hot-blooded teenagers who seek
ways to handle their frustration and express their desires.
III. Is This Really the End o f Neo-colonial History? Elvis. Fredric Jameson.
Edward Vang
"L ittle Elvis: I sent my audio tape to Elvis and he wrote me back! Your sister
translated the letter for me. Elvis said: I am surprised to know that my songs
are so welcome on a remote, unknown, tiny island.' He said that he was very
happy, and he even gave me a memento. Guess what it is?"
Edward Y ang. A Brighter Summer Day
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. . it docs seem to be the ease that Terrorizer |sie| (a peculiar and pointed
translation o f Kon^ hu Jen zi. 1986) assimilates modernization, and the toll it
takes on psychic subjects, more generally to urbanization than to
Westernization as such. This lends its ‘diagnosis' a kind o f globality."
Fredric Jameson. "Remapping T aipei"’-
Negation. ambivalence, embrace, and celebration constitute the most
interesting picture o f American pop in Taiwanese cinema. Music in Edward
Yang's oeuvre shows a spectrum o f difference. To his colleagues, Yang is a
unique director because o f his interest in city landscape and city people. For
his Westernized fans, his attitudes toward American pop is ambivalent. Just as
he likes to give different titles to his film s released in English s u b title s .h e
migrates between his local/Chinese upbringing and global/cosmopolitan
sensibilUy. His locality registers in the fact that he has never made films
outside o f the Taipei basin, and what he is always concerned with is Taipei
and its residents. Yang has succeeded making Taipei a memorable Third
W orld city through his Taipei Story, The Terrorizers, A Brighter Summer Day,
and Confucian's Confusion. His globality resides precisely in the
internationality within the geography o f Taipei. The story o f Taipei Story
takes place in Taipei. Tokyo. Los Angeles, and Williamsburg. Pennsylvania.
The Chinese title o f The Terrorizers, ''k'ung-pu-fen-tzu' suggests that the
film is inspired by international terrorists' challenge to the world. Literally
meaning "the terrorists. " the title indicates an attempt to recontexualizes a
^ ^Fredric Jameson. “Remapping Taipei,” The Geopolitical Aesthetic: Cinema
and Space in the World System (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992) 117.
^ ^Edward Yang tends to discriminate between his Chinese and English titles of
his films. Taipei Story, for example, has a quite different Chinese title called
Ch'ing-mei-chu-ma, meaning “childhood romance.” The Chinese title for A
Brighter Summer Day, as already mentioned in the text, is The youth murder
incident in Ku-ling street. Confucian’s Confusion has a different Chinese title
called The bra of independence.
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231
post cold war global paranoia in the new ly developed and yet confusing
urban space o f Taipei. A Brii^hter Summer Day links Shanghai. Guangzhou,
Taipei, and Memphis into a geography o f mainland Chinese diaspora. In
Confucian's Confusion, a new relationship has developed in the municipal
connections o f Taipei. Hong Kong. Guangzhou. Xian. Shanghai, and Beijing
through the traffic o f capital, raw materials, bodies, and commodities. Social
relations are becoming more reified and identity stability is constantly on the
edge o f breakdown in the increasingly complex transnational network o f
capitalism.
These film s reveal the fact that Edward Yang is perhaps more
concerned w ith the'interfacc' between the local and foreign culture than the
integrity and purity o f an authentic Chinese identity. He is interested in
exploring the influence o f foreign cultures on Taiwan's society and its
ideological implications. This vision apparently enriches his film s and provides
us a clue to further investigate the issues o f neo colonialism.
Given the lack of English writing on Taiwanese cinema, it is a privilege
to have Fredric Jameson endorse Yang's film . Jameson gives an astute
observation o f The Terrorizers in the sense that the totality o f late capitalism
saturates the Third W orld as much as the First World. Since Jameson’s
concern with the Third W orld prim arily registers as an affirmation o f his
cultural theory o f late capitalism, his interest in The Terrorizers lies in the
“globality’ entailed by the film ’s style and its configuration o f a changing
urban space. Jameson’s reading discloses the synchronical dimension o f
global modernist aesthetics. Yet I propose that a di.ichronical reading is
equally important. The neglect o f contexualizing Yang’ s works in Taiwanese
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232
cinema and history fails to do justice to Yang's film as well as Taiwanese
cinema and Third World Cinema.
The relationship between modernism, neo colonialism, and Taiwanese
cinema are considered irrelevant in Jameson's essay. However, they are the
causes that have generated the end product o f globality." As noted by
Jameson, Edward Yang's film s are attuned to European high modernism.
Yang's film s have always been known fo r their entangling connections with
the First W orld, manifested in modernist techniques a la Michaelangelo
Antonioni, Jean Luc Godard and cultural expressions like his love of
incorporating rock n' roll into film music, the derogatory delineation o f the
urban space, the critique o f industrial civilization etc. Yang's practice o f high
European modernism therefore reveals a poignant post-colonial condition in
Taiwan. This post-coloniality is two-fold. On the one hand, Yang's
attachment to modernist form represents a cultural phenomenon o f the 1960s
and the 1970s when modernism was worshipped in Taiwan's intellectual
circles. During that time, the opportunity to practice modernism in industrial
film was hardly available. The incorporation o f modernism into Taiwan cinema
was only possible in the early 1980s when the film industry urgently needed
reinvigoration, and Yang deliberately chose modernist techniques as an
effective way to articulate a post-colonial, self-reflexive hybridity. The choice
o f modernism shows the complexity and irony in the cinematic reflection o f a
nation.
Thus after having listened to Bob Dylan, the Taiwanese college youth
learned to compose their own folk; by copying Elvis Presley, the Taiwanese
teenagers are able to articulate their desire, and finally, it is through Elvis'
letter that the island's fans are identified, galvanized, and "come alive."
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233
Perhaps Jameson is right about the global quality in Taiwan's cultural
production, but his assessment o f its beginning is definitely 30 years late.
The reason is, globality' has occupied Taiwan's cultural field for more
than four decades. It is a form that most modernizing countries have
produced in their learning o f and mi.xing with Western cultures. The midnight
breakdance parties in Tienanmen Square and in other major cities announce
the Chinese youth's embrace of modernity. Therefore, “ Is this really the end
o f neocolonial history? " Perhaps not. Edward Yang's nostalgia for the
1950s reveals an obsession with the neo-eolonial past, which paradoxically
constitutes the essence o f a collective memory . It tries to explain that
Taiwanese identity has become mixed, relational, and fluid. Any attempt to
define it in terms o f authenticity is doomed to fail. As copies o f Elvis are
everywhere from a Taiwanese film to the Thai food court in Hollywood. Los
Angeles, hybridity always returns to subvert the pure products. ' W hile the
postwar first generation sings "Smoke Gets into Your Eyes " in karaoke bars,
the young generation o f “ New New People" {"hsin hsin jen-lei"), an
equivalent o f America's Generation X, is creating its identity by sampling
American, Japanese, aboriginal, and Taiwanese musie. The use o f musie to
represent identity is the same across different historical periods. But the
meaning that music articulates in different historical times is definitely not the
same.
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234
CONCLUSION
There A in 't no Chinese in the Taiwan Sink: the Commodification of Identity
Politics
“ First you gotta start o ff with the ABCs,
Then you gotta learn it like the Taiwanese.
Bo po mo fo sure sounds easy to me.
But then you gotta spell it L.A. Boyz."
‘W e’re like role models.' said 20-year-old Jeffrey Huang. ‘We go to school,
we're good kids that know how to dance and rap. and we speak
Taiwanese. . . We don't rap to rebel, we just want you to dance.''
This study has examined the evolution o f popular music and film in
relation to national identity. It has incorporated m ultiple approaches to
contextualize the formation o f national identity in different historical periods.
Chapter one introduces Taiwanese pop and its relationship with film genres.
Chapter two deals with the folk movement and its representation in youth
film s that are concerned with youth identity in a changing social context.
Chapter three discusses the utility o f college folk in assisting the
reconstruction o f a nationhood during a national crisis. Chapter four
introduces and analyzes the ideological implications o f sound practice in the
New Cinema. Chapter five discusses various issues among neo-colonialism,
representations o f American pop. and identity politics. It argues for a
perspective o f cultural hybridity in order to examine representations of neo
colonialism and modernity in the New Cinema.
' Ashiey Dunn, “Rapping to a Bicultural Beat,” Los Angeles Times, 5 Apr. 1993:
F9.
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The orchestration o f music and image in the film s o f the 1990s has had
a different mode o f operation. W ith the lifting o f martial law, cultural
production reached a new stage o f openness and diversity. The increasing
debates on the identity issue in public forums have caused the collapse o f
Chinese nationalism, and the once unified discourse on the national identity
no longer functions. Historical representations based on the myth o f Chinese
nationalism have been severely attacked and require rev ision or replacement
w ith a nativist perspective. The deconstruction and construction o f national
identity and historical memory have become major concerns in cultural fields.
Cinema's representation o f the nation and music's reflection o f the
post-martial law society are also influenced by this changing social
consciousness and pluralized social discourse. City of Sadness, Banana
Paradise, and Ganf> o f Four Forever address political suppression— a subject
that was once taboo. Representations o f the failed fam ily system, distrust o f
social institutions, and ambiguous social relations appear in Dust o f Anikeis
{Shao-nien ei, an la, 1991), Rebels o f the Neon God {Ch'ini>-shao-nien na-
cha, \992),Treasure Island {Chi yao wei ni huo yi-t'ien, 1992), and Shiha
( 1993). These films have been called post-New Cinema for its formal affinity
with the New Cinema. Their political consciousness is, however, more explicit
than the New Cinema.
The way that popular music responds to the vibrant and diversifying
national culture is much more radical than film . Radical musicians incorporate
rap, rock, and indigenous folk into the making o f political protest songs in the
late 1980s. Rap and rock become effective forms in the new Taiwanese pop
that address politics and socio cultural change. Lim Giong emerges as the first
star o f Taiwanese pop. The English spelling o f his name corresponds to its
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236
Hokkien pronunciation. Lim Giong, instead o f Mandarin. Lin Ch'iang.
Apparently a Taiwanese identity is being emphasized in this English spelling.
It also echoes deeply in his music. His first album Moving Forward (Hsiang
ch'ien tsoii) and second album The Brothers of Spring Breeze (Ch'nng-feng
shao-nien hsung) achieved critical acclaim and popularity. Critics praised his
skillful use o f rock 'n ' roll and Taiwanese in his reflection o f youth anxiety
(Wang S. F. 79; Ch en C. H.). His listeners liked the energy and the
expression in his music.
More recently, a rap artist named Chu Yueh-hsing has shaken the pop
scene fo r his audacious experiments in various languages and musical sources.
His first tw o albums. Funny Rap I: I Am Nuts and Funny Rap II: Happy New
Year m ix postmodern features such as pastiche and fragmentation with
political comments on neo-colonialism and cultural syncretism.
On the other hand, commodification becomes the prevailing form in all
kinds o f eultural productions. Music and film production is unthinkable
without it. The market that craves musical consumption has produced groups
such as L.A. Boyz and figures such as an ABC (American bom Chinese)
singer-songwriter named Luo Pai-chi. who has cashed in on the heat of
nativism and international postmodern culture.
The disconnected relationship between pop music and film begins to
revive in the late 1980s. Pop music returns to film after a decade o f
attenuation. But the reunion appears entirely different from the previous
modes. The fact that the New Cinema could not commercially compete with
Hong Kong film s has become a major issue. To rectify this, a more
commercially-oriented aesthetic was embraced by the filmmakers o f the late
1980s. Instead o f insisting upon the high modernist concept o f art, the
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237
directors o f the post-New Cinema now aeknowledgc the hegemony of
commodity culture and begin to collaborate with it.
Politics appears to be the major eomponent of commodity aesthetics'
in the post-martial law Taiwan. Politics, thanks to a new openness, is brought
into the domain o f social and cultural life. Thus the incorporation o f politics
and commerce into film m aking becomes a new mode of production. The first
example eomes from the internationally acclaimed City of Sadness. This is the
first Hou Hsiao-hsien film that systematically uses marketing strategies (Chu 5-
1 1 ). Before its release, the production company repeatedly talked about the
controversy o f its taboo subject: the February 28 Incident, a political massacre
in 1947 that killed over 20,000 Taiwanese. This high profile, along with its
victory in the 1991 Venice Film Festival, made the film the second box office
hit o f the year next to Jacky Chan's annual production Mr. Canton and Lady
Rose (Ch'i-chl).- It is also the only Hou Hsiao-hsien film that made money in
its theatrical release.^
The manipulation (or assimilation into) o f commodity aesthetics' paves
the way for pop to regain its place in cinema. In the first film that Hou
produced. Du.st ofAnf^els, a soundtrack album was produced and released. As
the flagship film o f the post-New Cinema, Dust o f Angels tried to accomplish a
modem epic o f young misfits and loners. The songs o f the soundtrack album,
accordingly, were written to address the unrestrained youth libido o f the
‘ unfamiliar Taiwan.' The promotional literature suggests that the album is a
^Wei Ti, “Tang-ch’ien t’ai-wan tien-ying kung-yeh te cheng-chih-ching-chi”
[The political economy of contemporary film industry in Taiwan], a master
thesis, (Taipei: Cheng-chih U, 1994) 155.
3 It has to note here that before City of Sadness, except for His Son’s Big Doil,
almost all of Hou Hsiao-hsierTs films did not profit from domestic release. A
Time to Die and a Time to Live only broke even. See Wei Ti, ibid., 50.
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238
historic attempt in Taiwan's film and music industry. It claims to be the first
album that tries to be self-sufficient rather than supplementary music to the
film , as if to suggest that film music can be an independent entity .
The intention to exalt music's role suggests that the production team as
a whole still wants to maintain artistic quality. But the "contam ination" o f
commercialism immediately shows up in the list o f its singers. Listing the name
o f the pop idol Lim Giong and the most celebrated film m aker Hou Hsiao-hsien,
the album apparently wishes to address both its art quality and popular
appeal. Hou performs two songs for the album. One is his solo song called
“ The Woman in M y Dream" ("M eng chung jen"), and another is "The Place
o f Silence" ("W u sheng te suo-tsai ") that he co-sings with Lim Giong.
An album was also released to promote Hou's second production.
Treasure Island, a film about the vagaries o f human relations in an estranged
urban space. The album particularly labels itself a “ film concept" {"tien-ying
kai-nien^) anthology in order to explain its loose relation with the film . For it
is not a film soundtrack album but a compilation o f different songs sung by
different singers and groups. The singers include the main actors Lim Giong
and Li M ing-yi, who is also a pop idol, and a blues singer Wu Jung-lin. The
groups include L.A. Boyz and an alternative band Baboo. The production o f
this album is unprecedented in terms o f the diversity o f the people involved
and the scope o f the music. It tries to accommodate politics, commerce, pop,
alternative music, serious musicians and pop idols at the same time.
Unfortunately, this loose universal attitude faiis to contextualize the music.
The compilation proves to be, after all, a kitchen-sink product.
The concept' film music reaches a high point in Hou’s 1993 film The
Puppet Master {Hsi-meng-jen-sheng). This film combines drama and
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239
documentary to depict the art and life of a puppet master Li T'ien-lu. Again,
like the two albums earlier, A Puppet Master tries to stand as a self-sufficient
musical offering. Thus, instead o f using music to construct Li's biography , it
chooses to focus on his love affairs. A subtitle on its CD cover that says: "the
story o f a man and four women” addresses this theme. Four folk melodies are
presented to chronicle and introduce the puppet master's affairs with four
different women. They are performed by four female singers from different
musical fields. The singers include: two mainstream folk singers Feng Fei-fei
(who was once the top pop singer in the 1970s and the early 1980s) and
Grace Li, an actress-singer in the 1970s; two opera/folk singers P an L i-li and
Liu Y u-yen. in order to present a different interpretation that embodies
modern views on sexual relationships, the songwriters and singers were asked
to give a statement about the woman that the song represents. This
arrangement gives the album's answer to the gender inequality in Li's
relationship with the four women. It tries to raise a feminist consciousness to
balance the patriarchal ideology implied by the celebration of a male-
chauvinist puppet master.
Music is also an essential part in Hou's most recent production. Good
Men, Good Women {Hao nan fiao nu, 1995). As the last part of his Taiwan
trilogy, this film tries to link the past w ith the present by migrating between a
dissident couple o f the 1940s and a gang couple o f the 1990s. As compared
to The Piippetmaster, the film 's soundtrack album contains virtually all o f the
music in the film . Moreover, important spoken moments in the narrative are
collected to qualify the album as a genuinely original soundtrack. The
structure o f the album reminds one o f the soundtrack album of two
internationally acclaimed film s: Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blue (1993) and Chen
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240
Kaige's Farewell My Concubine (1993). A large portion o f both soundtrack
albums consists o f segments o f sound and music o f highly dramatic moments,
trying to let the listeners relive the dramatic intensity through the
reproduction o f sound.
Politics and commodity culture appear as the essential components in
conditioning the reunion o f music and film . Taiwanese pop and folk
apparently become the dominant genres while Mandarin pop. which is easily
taken as representative o f a hard-core Chinese identity, is largely neglected.
M ultiplicity is also an important innovation. The use o f a variety o f music,
including rap, rock, blues, folk, and classical, becomes the mode o f producing
an album with diverse musical qualities. Questions about identity and sexual
politics are frequently raised in the music itself. Lastl}, an intertextual,
interdependent rather than supplementary and textual relationship develops
between film and music. Film music is now an equal text to film . It assists the
film in narration, but once it separates from its visual counterpart, it becomes its
own master. According to a recent report, the advanced commodity system
now penetrates the music and film industry. Soundtrack albums have become
a fashionable mode o f production in the 1990s (Fang 1994b, 47). Many Hong
Kong and Taiwanese film s all have released soundtrack albums to benefit both
media.4 The most ambitious record company. Rock Records, have released
numerous film soundtracks fo r film s such as such Once upon A Time in China
//, The East Is Red, The Heroic Trio, Stage Actress, Red Rose and White Rose,
and Farewell. My Concubine. The press also promotes soundtrack albums by
saying music has now gained a place o f its own in film production. Thus there
‘ ^Chung-hua-min-kuo pa-shih-san nien is'u-paii-iiien-cli'ien [1994 yearbook of
publications of the Republic of China], (Taipei: GIO, 1994) 746.
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241
is hardly any serious discussion on the intertextual relationship between the
two media in the rev iews o f film soundtrack albums. Nor is there any article or
report on the cross-fertilization o f musie and film . The proliferation of
soundtrack music proves, after all. a new marketing mechanism in the
advanced commodity system.
The integration o f identity politics and a pop form is best demonstrated
in the comments made by the L.A. Boyz during an interview. L.A. Boyz is a
hip hop dance band utilizing Hokkien slang and cross-cultural references.
Unlike ghetto rap. their appeal is a wholesome, fun-loving, and slightly
mischievous persona representing a Chinese-American pop culture syncretism.
The manipulation o f nativist consciousness and utilization o f rap qualify the
group as a hot commodity in the Asian pop market (see the quote at the
beginning o f this chapter). But the political meaning o f the dialect is entirely
lost in the astounding hip hop rhythm and the acrobatic dancing o f the Boyz.
The case o f L.A. Boyz is an indication o f the overall commodification
phenomenon in Taiwan's cultural production. Does this show that the reform
has been absorbed by capitalism? Or, is the intrinsic quality o f Taiwanese
identity itself either too vulnerable or too problematic to resist any
adulteration?
The South Korean film Sopyonje (Im Kwon-Taek, 1993) provides a
compelling case for comparison. It presents a rich text fo r making the pursuit
o f musical authenticity into a national allegory by telling the story o f a group
of travelling pansori singers. Pansori is a Korean folk opera characterized by
exquisite expression and a strenuous singing style. More importantly, the
music embodies fian, a deep buried pain which is a marker o f cultural identity
for Koreans. The film broke all box office records and so did its soundtrack
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242
music featuring pansori. The orchestration o f music and image in the context
o f neo-nationalism reflects a deep yearning for an authentic national spirit and
culture. Sopyonje exemplifies the search for a pure and original nationality in
recent Korean cinema.
Recent cultural developments in Taiwan are built precisely on such a
search. But compared with its South Korean counterpart, its yearning for a
national purity is very different. While the Korean film tries to articulate a
critique o f capitalist expansion. Taiwanese film celebrates it. W hile the
reunification o f Korea appears to be the common interest among the two
Koreas. the reunification between Taiwan and China is still very much a
contested issue. Most Taiwanese believe that they have a de facto
independent country based on the concept o f Taiwanese nationalism.
However, due to the constant m ilitary threat from the PRC, an internationally
recognized country named ROT (Republic o f Taiwan) remains pretty much an
ideal and a mission at the present time. And it is this missionary zeal that has
kept many supporters o f the independent movement believing in an
independent Taiwan devoid o f Chinese political interference. "There ain't no
Chinese in the Taiwan sink" does not necessarily mean building a new
country based on Taiwanese supremacy. In a post-colonial society where
modernity and postmodemity overlap with each other, authenticity is a myth.
Instead, national identity continues to be constructed in light of hybridity,
capitalist expansion, and decolonization.
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243
FILMOGRAPHY
Chinese-language film (listed chronologically by the production year)
Tini'-chiin-shan, 1905; dir. Jen Ch'ing-feng, Beijing Feng-t'ai Photo Studio, a
documentary o f Peking Opera
Orphan Rescues Grandfather {Ku-er chin tsii chi). 1923; dir. Cheng Chcn-
chiu, Ming-hsing Film Studio.
Confession (Ch’ an-huei). 1929; dir. Chang Shih-chuan. Ming-hsing.
A Good Mother from a Brothel {Ch'an^ men hsien mu). 1930; dir. C heng
Pu-kao, Ming-hsing.
The Sofii’stress Red Peony (Ke-nu lunii’ mu-tan). 1931 ; dir. Chang Shih-
chuan. Ming-hsing.
The Bloody Weeping Peach Blossoms {T’ao-hua chi hsueh chi). 1932; dir. Pu
Wan-ch'ang. Lien-hua Film Studio.
Midnight Chanting (Yeh pan ke-sheng). 1937; dir. Ma-hsu Wei-pang. Hsing-
hua Film Studio.
Street Angel {Ma-lu I'ien-shi), 1937; dir. Yuan Mu-shih. Ming-hsing.
The Oyster Girl {K’ e nu), 1963; dir. Li Chia and Lee Hsing. Central Motion
Picture Company (CMPC).
Beautiful Ducklings {Yang ya jen-chia). 1964; dir. Lee Hsing, CMPC.
My Daughter Ruo-lan {Wo nu Ju-lan). 1966; dir. Li Chia. CMPC.
Road {Lu), 1967; dir. Lee Hsing. CMPC.
Home Sweet Home {Chia tsai 1'ai-pei), 1969; dir. Pai Ching-juei. CMPC.
Stardust {Ch'un-hsing-huei), 1971; dir. Lee Hsing, CMPC.
Flying Colorful Clouds {Tsai yunfei). 1976; dir. Lee Hsing. Hsing-fa Film Co.
Fantasies Behind the Pearly Curtain {Yi lien yiu meng), 1975; dir. Pei Ching-
juei, Kuo-ching Film Co.
Victory {Mei-hua), 1975; dir. Liu Chia-ch'ang, CMPC.
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244
Cloud o f Romance {Wo shih yi p ’ien yun), 1976; dir. C hen Hung lei. Ch-
hsing Film Co.
Good Morning. Taipei {Tsao-an t'ai-pei). 1979; dir. Lee Hsing. Ta-chung Film
Co.
The Wild Goose on the W ini> (Yen erh tsai lin shao), 1979; dir. Liu L i-li. Chu-
hsing.
Your Smilini> Face {Huan xen), 1979; dir. Tu Chung-hsung. Fei-t'eng Film
Co.
Cute Girl {Chiu shih Hu Hu te t ’ a)~ 1980; dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien. Ching-shih-chi
Film Co.
Cheerful Wind {Feni> erh t'i t'a ts'ai). 1981 ; dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien. Ching-
shih-chi Film Co.
Classmates {T'uni’ pan t'un^-hsueh). 1981; dir. Lin Ch'ing-chieh, Lung-chieh
Film Co.
Student Love {Flsueh-sheng shih t?/). 1981 ; dir. Lin Ch'ing-chieh. Lung-chieh
Film Co.
Land o f the Brave {Lunt’ te ch'uni’-jen), 1981 ; dir. Lee Hsing. CMPC.
Green, Green Grass o f Home {Tsai tta he pan ching ts'ao ching), 1982; dir.
Hou Hsiao-hsien. Tung-ta Film Co.
Growing tip {Hsiao-pi te ku-shili). 1982; dir. Chen Kun-hou. CMPC & Wan-
nien-ch'ing Film Co.
In Our Titties {Kuang-ying te ku-shih), 1982; dir. Jim Tao, Edward Yang, K'e
Yi-cheng, and Chang Yi. CMPC.
Boys from Feng-kuei {Feng-kuei lei tejen). 1983; dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien. Wan-
nien-ch'ing.
Can You Hear Me Sing. Father"? {Ta t'suo die), 1983; dir. Y u Kan-p'ing,
New Cinema City.
One Day, at the Beach {Hai-t’ an shang te xi-t’ien), 1983; dir. Edward Yang.
CMPC.
The Sandwich Man {Erh-tzu te ta wan-ou), 1983; dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tseng
Chuang-hsiang, Wan Ren, CMPC.
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245
Kendo Kids {Chu-chien shao-nien), 1984; dir. Chang Y i, CMPC/Kao-ta Film
Co.
Old M o’ s Second Sprir.i' {Lao-mo te ti er ke ch'un-t'ien), 1984; dir. Li Y iu-
ning. Kao-shih Film Co.
Rapeseed Girl {Yiii-ma-ts’ ai-tzii), 1984; dir. Wan Jen. Wan-nien-ch'ing.
Summer al Grandpa's {Tuni’-tunf’ te chia-chi), 1984; dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien.
Wan-pao-lu Film Co.
Wrath o f a Woman {Ska fu), 1984; dir. Tzeng Chuang-hsiang. Tomson Film
Co.
A Time to Live and a Time to Die {Timf>-nien wan^-shih), 1985; dir. Hou
Hsiao- hsien. CMPC.
Kiii-mei, a Woman {Wo clie-xans^ kuo le xi-sheng), 1985; dir. Chang Y i.
CMPC.
The Loser, the Hero {Kuo ssu xing-hsiun^ ch'uan), 1985; dir. Mai Ta-chieh.
Lung-hsiang Film Co.
My Favorite Season {Ts’uei hsiani>-nien te chi-chieli), 1985; dir. Chen Kun-
hou. CMPC.
Super Citizens {Ch’ ao-chi shih-min), 1985; dir. Wan Ren. New Cinema City.
Taipei Story {Ch’ing-mei-chu-ma), 1985; dir. Edward Yang. CMPC.
The Spring Outside the Fence {Chu-li-pa wai te ch ’un-t'ien), 1986; dir. Li
Yiu-ning. Tomson.
The Terrorizers {K’ ung-pu-fen-tzu). 1986; dir. Edward Yang, CMPC/Golden
Harvest.
Daughter o f the Nile {Ni-lno-he te nu-erh), 1987; dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien.
Hsueh-p'u Film Co.
Osmanthus Alley {Kuei-hua hsiang), 1987; dir. C h’en Kun-hou, CMPC.
Banana Paradise {Hsiang-chiao t ’ien-t'ang), 1989; dir. Wang T ung, CMPC.
Cits' o f Sadness {Pei ch’ing ch'eng-shih), 1989; dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien, Era Film
Co.
Gang o f Four Forever {Tung tang wan ssuei), 1989; dir. Y u Yiu, Wang-li
Film Co.
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246
A Brighter Summer Day {Ku-linii-chieh shao-nien sha-jen shUi-chien). 1991 ;
dir. Edward Yang, Yang Te-ch‘ang Film Workshop.
Dusi o/Aiu’eles {Shao-nien ei. an la). 1992; dir. Hsu Hsiao-ming, City Film
Co.
Farewell. My Concubine {Pao-wanj’-pei-clii), 1993; dir. Chen Kaigc.
Tomson.
Rebels ojthe Neon God {Ch'in^-shao-nien na-cha). 1992; dir. Tsai M ing-
liang. CMPC.
Treasure Island {Chi yao wei ni huo yi t'ien). 1993; dir. Chen Kuo-fu. City
Film.
The Puppet Master {Hsi men^ jen shen^). 1993; dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien. Era.
Confucian's Confiision {Tu-li shih-tai). 1994; dir. Edward Yang. Yang T'e-
ch'ang Film Workshop and Asia Warner Bros.
Good Men. Good Women {Hao nan hao nu). 1995; dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien.
Lien-teng Film Co.
Non-Chinese F ilm (listed chronologically by production year, most are
American films unless specified otherwise)
The Jazz Sint’er. 1927; dir. Alan Crosland.
Sinf>in' in the Rain. 1952; dir. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen.
The Wild One. 1954; dir. Laslo Benedek.
The Blackboard Juni>le. 1955; dir. Richard Brooks.
Rebel Without A Cause. 1955; dir. Nicholas Ray.
The Girl Can't Help It. 1956; dir. Frank Tashlin.
Rock Around the Clock. 1956; dir. Sam Katzman.
The Searchers. 1956; dir. John Ford.
Jailhou.se Rock. 1957; dir. Richard Thorpe.
A Hard Day's Night. 1964. UK; dir. Richard Lester.
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247
Don't Look Back. 1967; dir. D. A. Pcnnebakcr.
Shaft. 1970; dir. Gordon Parks.
Lady Sin^s the Blues. 1972; dir; Sidney Furie.
The Harder They Come. 1972. Jamaica; dir. Perrv Henzell.
Tommy. 1975. UK; dir. Ken Russell.
Taxi Driver. 1976; dir. Martin Scorsese.
Who Killed Vincent Chin. 1986; dir. Christine Choy and Renee Tajima.
I'm Gotta Git You Sucka. 1988; dir. Kennan Ivory Way nans.
Truth or Dare. 1991; dir. Alek Kashishian.
Blue. 1993. Franee; dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski.
Sopyonje. 1993. S. Korea; dir. Im Kwan-Taek.
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248
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IV. Historv. Literature. Politics (Taiwan and the PRC)
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Lin. Huai-min. "W u-tao piao-ycn te huei-ku yu chan-wang" |A look at the
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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Yeh, Yueh-yu (author)

Core Title A national score: Popular music and Taiwanese cinema

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Cinema-Television (Cinema Critical Studies)

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag cinema,music,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor James, David E. (committee chair), [illegible] (committee member), Kinder, Marsha (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c17-495633

Unique identifier UC11352045

Identifier 9625282.pdf (filename),usctheses-c17-495633 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 9625282-0.pdf

Dmrecord 495633

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Yeh, Yueh-yu

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA