New Woman 新女性

I have always been interested in silent film, especially Chinese silent film. The genre has given me glimpses of women's roles, social values and cultural influences of that time. During the Chinese silent film era (1896-1936), women were often presented as either a victim or a sexual object. The female characters in the films were usually naive maidens, abandoned wives, dancing girls, prostitutes or widows exploited by the patriarchal order of society although the directors, who were all male, claimed that by showing the stories of the Chinese women to the public, they were showing their sympathy for them, giving a voice to them and saving them from the unbearable situations. There were marketing concerns as well. The films served to sexually objectify women as a passive and negative model. The women’s appearances described from the male perspective in the Chinese silent cinema were generally accepted by society. The intelligence and the acting abilities of these new women have been overlooked since the silent era.
In the silent cinema, the acting without spoken dialogue is challenging and impressive. The facial expressions, gestures and body language of these new women were remarkable and became their only voices on screen. Their professional performances were a significant contribution to the Chinese silent film era.
Having inspired by different found footage films, such as Matthias Müller’s "Home Stories" (1990) and Bill Morrison’s "Decasia: The State of Decay" (2002), I decided to use the archival silent film footage, derived from twenty-one Chinese silent films, and manipulate the footage with hand processing skills and artisanal practices for this film. Beginning with an original silent scene taken from a film also called "New Woman" (1935), the film examines the patriarchal view of Chinese women’s roles so as to disclose the significant and understudied image of the New Woman of the Chinese silent cinema.