2016 Theses Bachelor's

Rediscovering Collectivity Through Film: Women's Labor in Post-Socialist China

Katz, Meaghan A.

Using film as an analytical lens, this paper will discuss gendered labor issues specific to the post-socialist People’s Republic of China (PRC), including sexual exploitation, the dissection and consumption of women’s bodies, and the divisive effects of increasingly isolating working conditions on women’s relationships. After establishing the correlation between concurrent societal issues and trends in narrative or theoretical texts, two films will be closely analyzed as case studies on the contemporary relationship between content, content-producer, and societal labor conditions. More specifically, this paper will focus on films made collaboratively by Chinese women because they offer a direct connection between the labor depicted on film, and that of producing a film. These works are particularly revelatory of the current social, economic, and political reality of women’s labor due to the integration of their own life and labor experiences in the filmmaking process. Furthermore, the very act of collaborative women’s filmmaking defies recent economic trends and offers a potential solution for those seeking to revitalize women’s communities by reintroducing socialist values.