A Study of Chinese Women Directors' Creative Practice — With a Focus on Shao Yihui's Films
Abstract
This paper contextualizes Shao Yihui's recent works within the evolving framework of feminist film theory, examining how her cinematic practice constitutes both a theoretical intervention and a formal revolution. Through close analysis of Love Myth (2021) and Her Story (2024), this study demonstrates how Shao's directorial efforts fashion complex female subjectivities while systematically challenging patriarchal narrative conventions. Her achievement lies not in merely applying feminist theory to cinematic content, but in generating what might be termed an "immanent critique"—working through innovation from within cinematic form itself, rather than external criticism that raises the problem of form. This paper explores in particular Shao's soundscape, narrative and spatial manipulation to emerge from the conception of space, structure and spatial dynamism. The "feminist formal language" that reconfigures the bond between characters within these films and their cinematic environment. More specifically, by comparing Shao's construction to the gender politics in box office hit animated film Ne Zha: The Demon Boy Churns the Sea , this discussion illustrates how the problems of patriarchal representation remain while highlighting Shao's unique role in the making of what can be interpreted as "feminine gaze" in the Chinese cinema of today. The paper examines how digital counterpublics are challenging what feminist discourse can look like in China's rapidly evolving media ecology.
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