The Research On Popular Cinema Covers

This paper concentrates on the covers of Popular Cinema magazine, which published form 1950 to 2009. Popular Cinema which published nearly 60 years ago changes form political propaganda tools to cultural enlightenment books and then to mass culture journals, successfully completed the three characters, the key factor to the success is the Popular Cinema how to deal with the relationship with the mainstream ideology. Through the analysis of more than 700 covers, according to the characteristics of the cover people, besides "introduction" and "afterword", this paper divides into three chapters:The first chapter: the pictures of "heroes" in 1950-1966. This period is called the 17 years of"new"china movies by historians; the movie was regarded as propaganda tools of the national ideology. In this period, the images of workers, farmers, and revolutionary heroes, classical heroes are the main parts of Popular Cinema covers. the farmers'image is symbol of standards and norms in peace and construction period, and fits the value of mainstream ideology requirements; the significance of revolutionary subject is to confirm the legitimacy of ideology—regime form history, and repeat logical imagination for the contemporary social individual. Heroes'image--models of social life--models of authoritative ideology, national ideology disciplines individual, through the symbol; The second chapter: the pictures of "beauties" in 1979-1995. Chinese movies are transforming from planned economy to market economy system in this period. After the high-pressure of politics, Popular Cinema no longer bears responsibilities to propaganda ideology, the enlightenment about humanism start play on the stage of history. The cover people on Popular Cinema change form political symbols into individual perceptual display symbols. Women use body symbol to mark spiritual transformation, achieving individual liberation, called the liberation of subjectivity liberation. Popular Cinema use one by one images of beauty to establish a mirror world in the audience eyes, to attract them accept all kinds of information through the interaction form identity to imagine, intentionally or unintentionally leading thousands of audience into a new era of diversification; The third chapter: the pictures of "stars" in 1996-2009. Chinese movies'industrialization process is matured, gradually entering into the global culture system. After the diversified enlightenment, the Chinese regime began searching for stability, and combining the commercialized trend and the mainstream ideology. In this period, the mainstream ideology is expressed by political, economic, cultural to attract the audience to accept, this also is the criteria Popular Cinema to select cover people. As Chinese movies'industrialization process accelerates, stars become an important element, compared with other magazines, Popular Cinema don't focus on using stars'visual image to appeal to the public, but using the stories behind an star actor or an star director, to provide a comfort or defect of unreal, more secretly summoning individual into the subject of moral and industriousness.