An Analysis of the Changing Representation of the Female Ghost in Chinese Horror Cinema

本项目旨在探讨中国文化、社会历史背景与民族女性观和女权主义的建构之间的相互关系，分析电影业如何将这些观念转向中国恐怖电影中的女鬼形象。恐怖电影作为民族电影文化的一部分，揭示了一个国家的关注和问题。正如罗宾·伍德所指出的，恐怖电影提供了一个地方，让我们能够表达压抑的情感，反抗我们被告知要遵守的主导规范。2换句话说，恐怖电影使我们能够探索社会和文化的变革和颠覆，特别是与妇女解放运动有关的变革和颠覆。超自然的词汇是用在一个不协调的方式来表达不公正，鬼可以寓言和政治颠覆。在中国民族电影中，这种对鬼魂的刻画一直被认为是一个敏感的话题，因为它们似乎与马克思主义的历史唯物主义和社会主义现实主义教条背道而驰，政府认为这是一种难以控制的叙事，任何人都可以将其用作政治工具。今天，他们以模糊的鬼/人比喻，作为心理变态的幻觉，作为幻想，所有这些都仍然吸引着观众。中国民间传说和文学中有许多核心的鬼人物，这些人物已经成为银幕上出现的超自然人物的原型。鬼故事最早出现在“志怪小说”中，并在公元4世纪和5世纪得到发展，被翻译并传播到日本以及东亚和东南亚，与当地的民间传说、文化和宗教融合在一起。在中国，甚至大多数亚洲国家的万物有灵的背景下，鬼可以是任何形式的精神，怪物，恶魔，神，或其他生物与人类共存，以保持宇宙的平衡。除了被认为是恐怖的对象外，鬼魂也被视为崇拜的偶像，这导致了社会和媒体对鬼魂遭遇故事的痴迷。这些媒体叙事反过来影响了社会、文化和政治观点，并激发了关于超自然的故事。简单地说，鬼的再现是通过民俗、文化、社会和媒体之间的相互作用而不断塑造的，它们之间的相互作用是我们现实变化的一面镜子。中国鬼的概念呈现了生与死同样受到性别建构的影响。因此，在大多数亚洲电影中，女鬼经常被设定为受到爱的驱使，等待认可，转世，复仇，或为他们的亲人。根据中国信仰和文学中对女鬼的讨论，特别是对相思女鬼（处女）的研究，（被遗弃的）鬼妻，和一个受委屈的女人的痛苦的鬼，这个项目的目的是进行一个系统的分析，在屏幕上表现的女性鬼的数字，它是如何形成和发展的时间，以及时间段和国情的相关性。由于对这一主题的研究相当有限，我的工作旨在通过对1949年后中国大陆制作的中国恐怖电影中女鬼的变化表示进行回顾，并提供一个一瞥，了解中国社会的变化如何影响国家对妇女的看法，以及这些背景下的性别问题。目前，大多数关于中国恐怖电影中女性形象的文献都集中在中国恐怖电影短暂复兴时期（1980年代至2000年代）的电影中，或者提供零碎的案例研究，如黄玉田、陈琴和李曾的作品。

This project intends to investigate the interrelation between China's culture, social- historical context, and the construction of the national views of women and feminism, to present an analysis of how the film industry shifts these notions towards female ghost figures in Chinese horror cinema. Horror films, as part of a national film culture, reveal the concerns and issues of a nation.As Robin Wood addresses, horror films offer a place that allows us to express repressed emotions and rebel against the dominant norms we have been told to observe.2 In other words, horror films enable us to explore social and cultural change and subversion, especially in connection to the women's liberation movement. The supernatural lexicon is used in an incongruous way to express injustice, where ghosts can be allegorical and politically subversive. Such characterisations of ghosts have always been considered a sensitive topic in Chinese national cinema because they seem to counter Marxist historical materialism and socialist realist dogma, and the government believes this to be a hard narrative to control and which anyone could use as a political tool.3 Nonetheless, ghosts have remained a part of Chinese cinema. Today, they exist in ambiguous ghost/human tropes, as psychopathic illusions, and as fantasies, all of which still appeal to the audiences.Chinese folklore and literature feature a number of core ghost figures that have served as archetypes for supernatural characters that have emerged on screen. Having first emerged in 'accounts of the stranger' (Zhiguai xiaoshuo) and developed through the fourth and fifth centuries CE, ghost tales were translated and disseminated across Japan as well as East and Southeast Asia where they merged with local folklore, culture, and religion. In the animistic context of China, and even most Asian countries, ghosts can be any form of spirit, monster, demon, deity, or other creature that coexists with humankind to keep the balance of the universe. In addition to being considered objects of terror, ghosts have also been presented as idols of worship, which has resulted in social and media narratives that obsess over stories of ghost encounters. These media narratives have in turn influenced social, cultural, and political views and inspired stories about the supernatural. Put simply, the representation of ghosts is continuously shaped through the interactions between folklore, culture, society, and the media, and the interplay between these is a mirror of the changes in our reality. The concept of the Chinese ghost presents the living and the dead as equally affected by the construct of gender. As such, in most Asian cinema, the female ghost is frequently established as being motivated by love and waiting for recognition, reincarnation, revenge, or for their loved ones. Drawing from the discussion of female ghosts in Chinese beliefs and literature, particularly research on figures such as female lovesick (virgin) ghosts, the (abandoned) ghost-wife, and the vengeful ghost of a wronged woman, this project aims to carry out a systemic analysis of the on-screen representation of the female ghost figure, how it has been shaped and developed over time, and the relevance of time period and national context. As research on this topic is quite limited, my work seeks to contribute to the literature by creating a review of the changing representation of the female ghost in Chinese horror films produced in mainland China after 1949, and provide a glimpse into how changes in Chinese society have affected national views of women and what issues of gender in these contexts have been told. Currently, most literature on female figures in Chinese horror focuses on films produced during the brief revival period of Chinese horror cinema (1980s-2000s) or provides fragmentary case studies, such as the works of Erin Yu-Tien Huang, Qin Chen, and Li Zeng.