Theme of Gender/Sex: Women, Gender, and Sexuality in China and Farewell My Concubine

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Chinese Women
Raise the Red Lantern is a 1991 film by Zhang Yimou that is loosely based on Su Tong’s 1990 novella by the same title. The film revolves around the experience of a young woman who becomes the fourth concubine of a wealthy man during the Warlord Era and must vie for the affections of her husband with several other women of the household. Some of the themes covered in the film are patriarchy, gender relations, and social class. The women of the household are turned into objects of patriarchal reign and must perform a series of rituals to attain their master’s affection (Raise the Red Lantern 25:37-30:53). The film explores themes of female oppression and exposes social inequality, male oppression, corrupt social hierarchies, and restrictive gender roles in the Warlord Era.
Farewell My Concubine is a 1993 film by Chen Kaige that is loosely based on Lilian Lee’s novel by the same title. The film revolves around the gender identity confusion of a Peking opera actor, Dieyi, who is born effeminate and is forced to perform in a child troupe after being disowned by his mother (Farewell My Concubine 18:35-43:23). Dieyi’s unrequited love for his stage partner ends tragically when he commits suicide in his last play. Some of the film’s themes include betrayal, unrequited love, social stigma, and identity. The film covers the conventional of sexuality and gender roles in China throughout the 20th century. Dieyi grows up training for a female opera role but has to contend with the stigma associated with his profession and sexual orientation. His unrequited love for Xialou pushes him to give his all to the opera but ends tragically when he falls on a sword, he had given his stage partner as a gift.
Chapter 3 of the book, Women, Gender, and Sexuality in China, addresses the themes of sex, body, and medicine in Chinese history. More specifically, the chapter addresses the significant facets of gender pr...