The Unfinished Modernisation: Women’s Cinema in China’s Reform Era

In the reform period of China’s 1980s, more women directors emerged and created images at odds with the stereotypical representation of ‘Chinese women’. As Lidan Hu contends, these women directors provide alternative visions of the modernisation of Chinese cinema and call attention to the fundamental issues concerning modern female subjectivity. Lu Xiaoya (陆小雅, b. 1941), a former actress who transitioned to directing in the late 1970s, has consistently foregrounded social issues in her work, with a particular emphasis on women's experiences. Through an analysis of Lu’s films The Girl in Red (红衣少女, Hongyi shaonü, 1985) and Unrequited Love (热恋, Relian, 1989), Lidan Hu explores the trajectories of female protagonists in their pursuit of both spiritual and material independence, highlighting shifting conceptions of womanhood amidst the rise of individual consciousness, the persistence of traditional cultural influences, and the expanding marketisation of China’s reform era.

Lidan Hu is an Associate Professor in the College of Foreign Languages and Cultures at Sichuan University, China. She received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh and is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford. Her research explores the intersections of film, literature, and gender studies. Her work has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, including Feminist Media Studies, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies, and Asian Journal of Women’s Studies.