Red and Yellow: Gender Politics in Yellow Earth and Raise the Red Lantern

          After viewing a plethora of various Chinese films, two stuck out to me in particular.  Chen Kaige’s Yellow Earth and Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern both drew my attention to the status of women in marriage, and therefore in society.  These films gave me the impression that women were essentially powerless in a patriarchal society and had no say in factors such as marriage.  Women were used as a commodity and valued only for reproduction and social politics.  I also noticed a theme of desire among the women in the films.  When the female characters desire something, they end up being punished in some way, whether it is by the cosmos or by man.  This only reinforces the idea of the wishes and thoughts of women to be unimportant and unvalued.
          Yellow Earth takes place in 1937 when the socialist revolution began in China.  An Eighth Route Army soldier, Gu Qing, is sent to still not-liberated and rural Shaanbei to collect folk songs to re-write as army songs.  Gu arrives at a village where a traditional marriage between a very young bride and a middle-aged man is taking place.  In this marriage sequence, we see the parade of musicians and gifts as the bride is carried in a palanquin to the groom’s village.  Upon arrival, the bride is taken from the red palanquin and forced to kneel with the groom before some kind of altar and then is taken to their bedroom. As this is happening, the camera cuts back and forth between the marriage ritual and a young girl who we come to know as Cui Ciao.  She has a look on her face that at first reads expressionless but after a few more shots seems to capture both worry and empathy.  After seeing the movie, I believe this scene foreshadows Cui Ciao's similar fate later on in the film.

The new bride and groom reemerge from the bedroom after some time and we see the bride’s face as she and her new husband are introduced to Gu.  The bride looks to be no older than 14 years old while the groom could be as old as his 40s.  The bride’s expression looks to be one of anger and sadness.  While Gu looks at her and her husband, you can see the disapproval and sympathy in his face.  Obviously this young girl did not choose her marriage but was forced into it to fulfill the needs of the village and her family.

Young Bride

Gu Qing is hosted in the home of a widower peasant living with his young daughter, Cui Ciao and son, Han Han. Gu Qing works in the fields with them and tells about the social changes brought by the revolution, such as women joining the army who have the chance to become literate and to have more freedom in matters such as marriage. Cui Ciao is intrigued by Gu Qing's stories about life in the army.  Later in the film, Han Han sings the bed-wetting marriage song to Gu. The song is about a woman marrying a boy too young for marriage and he wets the bed so she wets the bed too.  For me, this certainly reflects how limited women were in their freedoms.

 Cuiciao finds out that her father has accepted an arrangement for her betrothal. She must get married so Han Han can use the money for a bride price.  That is just one example of how sons take precedence over daughters.  Soon after, Gu announces that he must leave. Before he goes, Cui Ciao pleads with him to take her away with him to join the army. Gu Qing says that he can’t take her along because of public officers' rules but he promises to apply for her and come back to get her once she is accepted.   The relationship between Cui Ciao and her father and Cui Ciao and Gu are similar for different reasons.  When comparing Cui Ciao’s father’s exchange of her for the survival of the family and the revolutionaries' liberation of women for the advancement of their cause, they are both using women as tools. 

Shortly after Gu leaves, Cui Ciao is married to the middle-aged man that she was betrothed to.  We see an almost identical wedding sequence to the one that took place at the beginning of the film, only this time, Cui Ciao is the bride and Han Han takes her place as the spectator.  After the wedding ceremony, the film moves on to a scene where Cui Ciao is sitting in a bedroom with her red veil over her head.  We see a dark hand pull it off her face and an expression of horror crosses it.  This was upsetting for me to watch because by the look on her face and her quickened breathing, Cui Ciao is obviously scared and being forced into something she does not want and is probably not ready for.  Cui Ciao decides to run away to join the army and so takes a boat to cross the Yellow River.  As she is crossing, we hear her singing until all of a sudden she disappears and is quieted in mid-song.  This gives the audience the impression that she may not have made it across the strong currents of the river.  The assumed drowning of Cui Ciao can be seen as her desires being punished.  She is punished by patriarchy for leaving her marriage, for ignoring the public officers' regulation and leaving to join the army without permission, and for challenging the cosmos by crossing the Yellow River when the currents are strong.

Raise the Red Lantern begins the film with a powerful monologue by the main character, Songlian.  This first scene depicts Songlian talking to her off-screen step-mother, telling her that she shouldn’t worry anymore because she has decided to get married.  Her step mother asks her what type of man she will marry to which Songlian replies, “What sort of man? Is it up to me? You always speak of money. Why not marry a rich man?”  Her step-mother says that if she marries a rich man she will only be a concubine.  Songlian replies, “Let me be a concubine. Isn’t that a woman’s fate?”  Such a commanding opening monologue was definitely meant to set the tone for the movie.  As Songlian admits her decision to marry, you can see the tears build on her eye-lids and her stony face shows no trace of hope as she looks past the camera into nothingness.  With her father dead and left only with her step-mother, she can no longer afford to go to school and is now forced to get married.  In this time and place, it is acceptable in society for a man to have more than one wife.  I feel like the fact that this was allowed to happen only promotes the objectification of women.  Their only job is to please the master and produce a son.  Just as in Yellow Earth, sons are a preference.

Songlian marries a rich man and becomes the fourth mistress.  The compound is enclosed and isolated, almost like a prison.  This enhances the idea that the women are property and cut off from the outside world.  When Songlian first encounters the master, we do not see his face but rather we are looking at Songlian in the master’s point on view.  This camera angle choice seems to also adhere to the idea that women are an object. He orders her to stand up, to lift the lantern so he can admire her face, and then orders her into the bed.  She follows his orders without objection because she has to.  The way she has to obey him sickens me as a modern day woman but at the time, this was traditional behavior.  Throughout the film we never see the master’s face.  He represents the faceless patriarchal society.  It wouldn't have mattered if Songlian had married any other man because they are all the same and she is just an object to be had to all of them.  Everything is bound by tradition: the master as the head of the house, the multiple wives at his beck and call, the servants, the meals served in a certain way, and even the infamous red lanterns.

In the film, the red lanterns signify which wife the master will sleep with for the evening.  It is a sought after position by the wives because the wife chosen receives a foot rub.  Competition among the wives is inevitable, even more so for the younger wives as they have the opportunity to produce a son.  The rivalry isn’t limited to just the wives however.  Songlian’s maid, Yan’er, has had affairs with the master and is upset that she was not chosen to be the fourth wife.  All of the fighting that happens between the wives has a common root: the master.  He definitely influences their relationships because they are all fighting for his attentions, for his gifts.  This creates the image of a man being the center of their world.

            Towards the end of the film, Meishan, wife number three, is caught having an affair and so is hung by the master’s staff, which drives Songlian mad.  How is this behavior morally acceptable?  The master has four wives.  As if that isn’t enough, he also has affairs with the maids.  Yet, Meishan, limited to one husband, find happiness with another man and is murdered.  I’m not condoning adultery but I think in perspective, the master’s offenses clearly outweigh Meishan’s. And yet, the master’s offenses are not offenses at all, because his actions were traditionally conventional.  Also, Meishan and Songlian have desires in the film and they are both punished.  Meishan desires love and is hung for it.  Songlian desires to be the favorite and receive foot-rubs.  When she lies to achieve this, she is punished, also demonstrating a similar message from Yellow Earth that going against the current of institution only leads to their own demise.

Yellow Earth and Raise the Red Lantern both portray women as oppressed in a patriarchal society.  In both films, the female leads have no say in the matter of marriage.  Songlian and Cui Ciao are forced into marriage because of their financial situations, family situations, and tradition.  There is also an underlying taboo on desire.  When each of the women desires something for themselves, they are punished in some way.  One loses her mind, the other her life.  Though the circumstances seem appalling compared to the position of women today, these films show how powerful tradition and pressures of cultural and societal norms are.