Farewell My Concubine

Summary: Chen Kaige directed the 1993 Chinese film, Farewell My Concubine that explores the 1950s of China’s political turmoil. Among the lives of families and different groups, the film focuses on two male actors in a Peking opera troupe who rose with fame and fell with the cultural reformation. In a nutshell, a prostitute leaves her son, Douzi, in a Chinese opera training school who later falls in love with Shitou, who took pity on him. After years of extremely difficult training, both males become great actors that perform in front of many audiences. Douzi plays the female lead with the stage name of Cheng Dieyi, while Shitou plays the male lead as Duan Xiaolou. Meanwhile, courtesan Juxian of the brothel House of Blossom manipulates Shitou to marry her and he later falls in love with her. When the cultural reformation occurred, many traditions such as the Peking opera were banned. Douzi and Shitou have a fall-out as a result of Shitou’s relationship with Juxian. Once the reformation closed, there is a scene, which shows that Douzi and Shitou practicing their play, but Douzi choose to truly suicide instead of scripting it.

Background of play: The play that Dieyi and Xiaolou perform reveals the transition from the Qin Dynasty to the rule of the Han Dynasty, which parallels the transition from the Republic of China into the People’s Republic of China. Additionally, Dieyi plays the role of Consort Yu who is devoted to Qin King, Xiang Yu, and also parallels this devotion by focusing it toward Xiaolou. During this period, males played all the roles of the characters, both male and female.

Analysis: interestingly, men played all acting roles while women were relegated to the female domain as housewives and mothers. It is only later that females were able to obtain roles in the Peking Opera. As Douzi is first placed into female roles, he is trained to say, “I am by nature a girl, not a boy,” but subconsciously refuses to say this and instead states, “I am by nature a boy.” However, once he comes to terms with his role and is lusted by an old eunuch, he wholeheartedly becomes his character and at one point Shitou comments that he has become Consort Yu. Towards the end of the film, Douzi reverts back to “I am by nature a boy” when he completes his last practice of the play. The element of homosexual love and the intersectionality with the role of his character is intermingled with Douzi’s identity. Douzi becomes so immersed into his role that the division between the world of his acting and reality is indistinct. Whether he is performing to the role or truly feeling his sexual orientation is unknown if following the director’s technique with the aforementioned line. Therefore, there is ambivalence with Douzi’s identity. Did he identify as Consort Yu and her feminine feelings or did he truly fall in love with his best friend, Shitou.

Chen, Kaige. "Farewell My Concubine (1993) - Plot Summary." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 15 Nov. 2011.

Berardinelli, James. "Review: Farewell My Concubine." Reelviews Movie Reviews. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.

"The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema | 97. Farewell My Concubine | Empire | Www.empireonline.com." Empire Magazine | Film Reviews, Movie News and Interviews. Empire Online. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/rebel-mtv-staying-alive-ad-campaign-video

In relation to our presentation on Diderot's "The Indiscreet Jewels", describing a sultan using a magic ring to invoke speech in women's genitalia I found this article to be interesting. The article describes a somewhat recent ad campaign put forth by MTV for AIDS awareness. The content of the commercial involves a heterosexual couple about to engage in sexual intercourse, when the male hears a voice coming from his penis. The talking "jewel" goes on to say things like "Oh my god!" "I'm not going in there without protection!" and then the screen cuts to black explaining: "Because dicks have feelings too". I think that this ad can relate to our readings of "The Indiscreet Jewels" in that they both show peoples' genitalia speaking up and saying (largely) uncomfortable truths. The ad can also relate to the discussion we had last week about male genitalia having a mind of its own, however in this ad the penis instead of being disloyal it proves to be more responsible and sensible than the owner.

South Korea plastic surgery!

As we all know there is extremes of body modification. There is Cindy Jackson a woman who has had the most plastic surgery in the world. The 55 year old women spent 100,00 dollars on 52 different procedures.  In western society plastic surgery is a norm. Live science predicts that by 2015 about 17 percent of Americans will be getting plastic surgery procedures done. That is nearly one procedure for every 5 Americans. What many seem to believe that this is an epidemic that America is facing alone. But in recent years it has been seen that other countries are following the same American norms. Currently South Korea is experiencing and influx of plastic surgery procedures.

 In the article in south Korea plastic surgery comes out of the closet we see Ms. Chang a 25 year old make up artist. She is exited to finally be ending her procedure that will help reshape her eyelids. She states in the article ”you must endure pain to be beautiful” and “its not even considered surgery”. The problem as we have seen in the dove commercial shown in class beauty is computer generated. The beauty that is shown in billboards and advertisements are all computer generated and enhanced. Since when is getting face lift, breast augmentation, or eyelids procedures normal. The article is exemplifying how society has become more open about plastic surgery procedures. In south Korea eyelid and double jaw procedures are quiet common Celebrities have helped to drive the trend, as they scramble to keep ahead of digital technology that mercilessly exposes not only their physical imperfections, but any attempts to remedy them, said Rando Kim, a professor of consumer science at Seoul National University. It has got to the point where parents promise their daughters a eye job is she passes her college entrance exam. Korea has been using plastic surgery as a weapon to impress others.  In 2009 research done by trend monitor one out of every 5 women has undergone plastic surgery by 19-45. Doctors are stating that their main patients are young women entering the marriage and job market. 

Plastic surgery was becoming so common that the government tried to impose a tax but failed. It also has got to the point where the education of ministry issued booklet warning high school students of plastic surgery syndrome. There are extremes records of women hanging themselves because of procedures coming out wrong.  An art student decided to take a risk get double jaw surgery. Her mouth was swollen for weeks after the operation and she could not speak. When a reporter asked her if it was worth it she said yes. That day a man spoke to her on the bus ride that was younger than her.  Is the perception of societies perception of beauty worth the pain? You decide. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/world/asia/in-south-korea-plastic-surgery-comes-out-of-the-closet.html?pagewanted=1&ref=beauty

Queer Theory

http://abcnews.go.com/US/lesbian-couple-crowned-homecoming-king-queen/story?id=14844909#.TsAj1lY0JgE

After listening to Diego's lecture on Queer Theory of how heterosexuality needs homosexuality to make sense of itself, I found these two articles and videos on a lesbian couple being named Homecoming King and Queen and a gay couple being crowned Prom King and Queen. I thought these two related to Queer Theory as similar to this theory, these two couples recognize the permeability of any boundary. Such boundary include the preconceived notion that to be crowned Homecoming King and Queen or Prom King and Queen, the couple has to be heterosexual, with a male being named King and a female being named Queen. These two crownings also show how we see the femininity and masculinity as social constructions that we follow, even in the naming of which of the two would be either King or Queen.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/08/anna-grodzkatransgender-w_n_1081636.html

While online today I came across this article. Today, a transgender woman took her seat in Poland's parliament. Poland, a country in which there is profound Roman Catholic influence, newly elected Anna Grodzka to Parliament where she was welcomed by the other members. It showed how the country was taking a step forward and becoming more accepting of other people, regardless of their sex and sexual orientation. After reading this article I decided to do some research on the United States congress and saw that there were no transgender or even bi members of the US House of Representatives, I couldn't find anything about transgendered or transsexual people in the US Senate.
I began wondering why a country as tolerant as the United States does not have any transgender people in our congress. Does any one know of any transgender people in the US Congress? We're supposed to be a tolerant country, if a country with such roots in religion can accept transgender people into their Parliament why haven't we?

Talking Genitals: What are they really saying?

After today's discourse on speaking genitals, I could not help but wonder what would encourage producers to include talking vaginas in their work. What is this really saying about sex and gender? Who are we to determine what a vagina or penis would say if they could speak?

This all goes back to idea of performativity. We may have a designated sex, but how we act upon the given sex is up to the individual. Even though there is a gender hierarchical structure set in place even before we are born, there is still the possibility of acting upon our desires regardless of what has been destined. Who is to say that we must follow in others footsteps?

Perhaps having talking vaginas on prime-time television may not be the best way to perform gender and sex, but it's a start. Whether they are commenting on sexuality or race (i.e. Summer's Eve's commercial targeting women of color), the fact that these ideas are penetrating societal communications says a great deal. Awareness is key in order to understand one's sexuality. Maybe talking vagina's will one day lead to a gender-less vocabulary. Who knows?

However, with such awareness and commentary, audiences are certainly questioning what defines their sexuality. The Summer's Eve's commercial may not have been the most effective way to translate gender onto television but it definitely spurred some commotion among the media industry. As long as there is an outlet to transfer messages of sexuality, we continue to improve and move towards a more accepting culture.

USC is Burning - Drag Ball

Anna-Cat, Shangela, and Me

A Judge's Performance

I had the pleasure of attending USC is Burning's drag ball last Friday! I'll admit, at first I was a little nervous and didn't know what to expect, but it ended up being quite fun!

I just wanted to say that I was so proud that USC hosted an event like this. Just from watching the crowd, it was really moving to see how supportive everyone was, straight, gay, bi, transgender, it didn't matter what sexuality it was, we were just people having a good time watching performances.

Did you know that there were USC students that also performed in the drag ball? I was impressed by the amount of confidence they had and I was applauding them for having the guts to put themselves out there in the spotlight.

I also had the chance to meet the celebrity, Shangela. Her performance was amazing which had everyone in a standing ovation. She was a woman. She had such a fun, bubbly attitude and it was really eye-opening to just be around someone radiating so much energy.

Shangela's Performace