From Singularity to Diversity: On the Image of Mothers and Daughters and the Construction of Relationships in Chinese Mainland Women’s Films in Recent Years
Abstract
The myth of motherhood in movies often portrays mothers as great, loving, self-sacrificing figures. In recent years, with the continuous development of feminist theories, more and more women with awakened subjective consciousness and anti-patterned images have appeared in Chinese mainland women’s films, portraying more diversified and complex mother-daughter relationships. The reflection and scrutiny of the myth of motherhood have led to the construction of three distinct mother-daughter relationships, such as “antagonism”, “interdependence”, and “inversion”, in recent years’ domestic feminist films. Based on Beauvoir’s feminist theory and Lacan’s mirror theory, combined with Laura Mulvey’s feminist film theory, this paper analyzes the dissolution of the myth of motherhood and the reconstruction of mother-daughter relationship in domestic women’s films, and explores the individual female image of “self-awareness” awakened under the relationship between mothers and daughters in mainland women’s films in recent years, which is helpful for subverting the patriarchal-centered discourse and constructing a rich and unique mother-daughter relationship. This is significant to the subversion of patriarchal-centered discourse and the construction of rich and diverse images of women on screen.
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