| When the film was introduced into China,it was firstly combined with traditional Chinese opera,resulting in a unique genre of Chinese opera film.With the spread of film media,Huangmei Opera,which was originally just a local drama,has become popular since the 1950s,triggering a boom of Huangmei tune movies in Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 1960s.Moreover,it became a part of foreign cultural exchanges at that time.The Huangmei Opera film has lost its former glory,but it is still a media text worth paying attention to.The female figures who were portrayed differently from traditional opera deserve researching.However,the academic circles pay less attention to the female characters in Huangmei Opera films,and this research situation is out of touch with the reality that women once occupied a central position in Huangmei Opera films.Opera films are not only for entertainment,but also a tool for politics,economy and culture.The analysis on Huangmei Opera films is helpful to understand the characteristics,the narrative mechanism and the context behind the representation of female group portraits.Meanwhile,the research tries to clarify the diachronic changes of female images in Huangmei Opera films and reflects the shaping path of female images.This paper takes the three peaks of Huangmei Opera film development since the founding of the People’s Republic of China as the research stage and adopts text analysis method.Intensive reading of film texts from the perspective of feminism and media studies,sorting out the types of female characters according to different historical periods,and summarizing the characteristics of female images are necessary processes.Based on film narratology,this paper studies the narrative mechanism of female images from three aspects:narrative point of view,narrative time and space,and narrative voice.By visiting the archives of Huangmei Opera Theater in Anhui Province,reading the writing and adaptation materials of opera scripts,the notes of directors,screenwriters and actors,collecting and watching Huangmei Opera films,it provides a reference for analyzing the creation and adaptation of female characters,and explores the generative context behind the female images.The study found that female characters in Huangmei Opera films often become the core of the film and promote the development of narrative.Females represented in Huangmei Opera films are mainly young and beautiful.Emotional relationship is the most frequently theme expressed in these films.In the 1950s and 1960s,women achieved transformation of their character by dual identities.They showed a clear attitude of resistance,opposing imperialism and feudalism,opposing the oppression of the landlord class,and pursuing freedom of love.In the 1980s,the image of mother and the relationship between mother and daughter were highlighted.The film subverts the images of the vicious step-mother,the gentle mother and the arbitrary mother,constructing the image of a kind step-mother,a fierce and inclusive mother,and an old-fashioned and open-minded mother.During this period,women’s struggle between compromise and resistance,except a few with happy ending,most of them ended in exile or tragic death.In the 1990s,the theme of Huangmei Opera films was further broadened.Women began to move from the private field to the public field.Local women were widely exposed in the films of this stage.However,female characters began to slip from the center.Many films featured men as protagonists and women as supporting roles.The female characters of this period showed a more patriarchal deference or else fought in a self-destructive manner.The father-daughter relationship and mother-son relationship are less represented in the film.From the narrative point of view,the female images in Huangmei Opera films flow between"seeing" and "being seen",which means that women have gained a certain degree of freedom and liberation in the new era,meanwhile,women as a landscape are difficult to escape visual consumption.About narrative voice,female group singing is presented mostly in Huangmei Opera films,and the voice-over is also played by female voices.Female solo is also used at the beginning of Huangmei Opera film in the new era.In addition,Huangmei Opera films are also good at using the symbolism of gongs,drums and natural sounds to divide the narrative rhythm,highlight the emotions of the characters,and imply the fate of the characters.The time and space of Huangmei Opera films are generally synchronized with the development of film technology,from virtual stage documentary clips and virtual reality type to the realistic style.These films most often use a causal structure to express the twists and turns experienced by female characters,and a few use a loop-type structure to strengthen the image of the characters and enhance the sense of suspense in the story.The relationship between the characters is emphasized in the way that the scene is divided into two parts or the two scenes are edited into one picture.The female images in Huangmei Opera films are also projections of ideal women.They are endowed with too many qualities and abilities.They are rescuers to men,selfless devotees to men,and even obedient servant since the 1990s.The idealized relationship with men masks the complex realities of heterosexuality,and the struggle against patriarchy falls back into the hands of husband.Although Huangmei Opera films are mainly choose old stories,they still imply the style of the contemporary era.Opera films were out of the guarantee of central planning,but they seem to be less competitive under the socialist market economy.With the crisis of opera has deepened,Huangmei-Opera films deeply rely on the support of the government.Local characteristics and local female images are represented frequently in the film. |
