Country of antiquity and totalitarianism – story of Yang Fuxi (YF)

their parents’ wishes in most cases. Chinese parents love their children so much that they believe only they can make sufficiently wise decisions to ensure their children a brilliant future. Children are assumed to be too young to be decision-makers. In JY’s case, she wanted to quit once after the Chinese New Year break, but her father did not approve and persuaded her to go back to the gymnastic school. JY did what her father asked her to do and devoted herself again to training.

5.6 Country of antiquity and totalitarianism – story of Yang Fuxi (YF)

since Red China came into being.

5.6.2 Archery performance in the Forbidden City

YF’s sequence is composed of three primary montages, all of which were filmed in places aligned to Chinese antiquity: archery practice in the Forbidden City, an interview at an ancient house in Beijing which serves as his studio, and an interview in a pavilion in the Summer Palace.

Sequence protocol

(1) Wide shot of the front of the Forbidden City

(2) Two yellow roofs are in the foreground, with a pagoda in the middle and the mountains in the background.

(3) The camera pans from the red door of one palace across to a narrow lane (a Hutong inside the palace)

(4) The camera pulls forward and zooms in on the major palace of the Forbidden City. At the same time, two Chinese vessels enter into the frame.

(5) The camera pulls back to the outside of a huge door and provides a P.O.V shot - some men and women in the traditional costumes of the Qing dynasty are walking to and fro.

(6) A mid-shot of a body guard holding a traditional bow; two maids are passing him with handkerchiefs in their hands.

(7) The bodyguard is preparing to draw the bow. An arrow flies out to reach the target. A tracking shot of the flying arrow and in the end a close-up of the arrow reaching the target.

(8) Three arrows lie in the foreground, and the bodyguard walks in the background.

Sequence interpretation

From Greek and Roman Times, the royal palace has been equated to material wealth. Polo actually believed that the Palace was made of solid gold. For two thousand years, the palace has been a symbol of incredible wealth and royal

authority. Until the beginning of last century, the royal residence was prohibited to the public, and so retained its enigmatic appeal for most European and American travellers coming to visit China. Nowadays the Forbidden City is still one of the most frequently adopted Chinese icons in Western television representations, and still denotes totalitarian political power, royal authority and Chinese antiquity.

The introductory establishing shot of Yang Fuxi’s story is set within the Forbidden City, an ancient and historical environment. A static opening shot with the former royal residence standing in the middle is followed by a medium shot of the palace’s rooves covered by yellow tiles. A wide shot of the royal palace expresses the magnificence of the former imperial residence. This setting, against a dim sky to ensure a dark light hue, signifies the historical atmosphere of the imperial era, creating a strong sense of nostalgia for the old culture and traditions. In the context of the whole montage, the film setting and composition serve to emphasize the ancientness and value of political and cultural heritage, which China has always been famous for in the Western world.

In addition to the ancient royal palace, the filmed targets of the palace bodyguards and maids in the montage are all dressed in costumes from the Qing dynasty. They have all dressed in these Qing costumes for the royal residence, which brings the minds of the spectators back hundreds of years, to the last feudal rule in Chinese history. The mysterious and exotic ancientness of the country has been constructed through the juxtaposition of ancient architecture (the Forbidden City) and Qing costumes (Qi Pao, also known as banner quilt²⁵³). Also, the montage presents the traditional activity of archery practice: on the ground of the imperial palace, the body guards are practising their bow techniques, while the maids are walking through the palace or waiting to serve their masters.

253 Qi pao, a banner quilt, originated from the traditional costume of the Manchu ethnic group.

5.6.3 YF’s Sequence

Sequence protocol

1) Interview at his studio with bows as background 2) A wide shot of Tiananmen Square

3) The shadow of the national flag on the rain-drenched floor

4) A wide shot of Tiananmen Fortress at the Square with lion statue in the foreground

5) A full shot of Mao’s portrait on the wall 6) An ECU of a national flag

7) A long shot of a monument

8) The shadow of the national flags on the wet floor 9) A close shot in tilt of a stone statue

10) A pan shot of shabby houses 11) ECU of YF in interview Sequence interpretation

In this sequence, much attention has been paid to images which evoke the memory of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which is now portrayed in Western historical accounts as a dark time in Chinese history. When YF tells us the story about what happened to his family in his childhood during the Cultural Revolution, the montage flips through Tian’anmen Square, the Chinese national flag, and Mao’s portrait, which are all closely connected with China’s political image. The Forbidden City is used to symbolize royal political rule as a form of cultural heritage, whilst the modern political symbols are used very differently. In Western perception, Tian’anmen Square was considered as a symbol of the brutal totalitarian rule of Chinese authority, and this impression was reinforced by the massacre in 1989. Therefore, the signifiers of Tian’anmen and Mao’s portrait have been infused with political symbolism, of a government which damaged culture and tradition, and more seriously, human rights. The red flag, appearing in this montage three times, implies a stereotyped signification defined by the West: innocent people losing their lives

during the Cultural Revolution. Therefore, in this short interview sequence with YF, images of Tiananmen Square and the national flag are repeatedly applied to invoke a political commentary on a totalitarian government destroying the nation’s culture and tradition, as was communicated in the West in the 1980s.

The atmosphere of sympathy for a tragedy is further reinforced by the gloomy rain in the footage. All the places and buildings in this segment were filmed when it was raining in Beijing and the musical score accompanying this montage emphasizes a tone of tragedy. The narration recounts YF’s individual story during the Cultural Revolution. His family broke their bows in half and wrapped them in oil papers to hide in the roof tiles. By this action, they risked being executed for protecting one single bow from the red guards. The narrating voice adds, “The Cultural Revolution was destruction to learning, art and tradition”, which on the contrary should have been respected and preserved. Audiences watching this montage learn that intellectuals were politically affected and persecuted, and traditional artistic skills - like bow making – were destroyed. Thus, in the montage, the contrast between the nostalgic preservation of the past e.g. bow-making, and the realities of the present – the destruction of tradition, in this case by Mao's Cultural Revolution - are revealed.

Sequence protocol

(1) A crane shot of a willow in the foreground of the frame; a white stone bridge lies in the background.

(2) A wide shot of the bridge with YF walking with his back to the sunshine towards the camera in the sunset.

(3) CU and medium shot of him making a bow at his studio (4) A crane shot of a big pavilion in the park

(5) The camera zooms in to a side shot of Yang Fuxi sitting inside (6) CU of YF in interview

Sequence interpretation

By contrast with the dim and critical montage on the Cultural Revolution, the

sequence that follows it pictures a typical Chinese world. The setting switches to a pavilion in the Summer Palace. During the interview with YF, he is surrounded by typical Chinese elements which fit right into the Western imagination of Chinese gardens, usually full of arched stone bridges, pavilions and willows.

Owing to Chinoiserie, the mania for all things Chinese in the eighteenth century, the art of Chinese gardening has been prevalent and fashionable across Europe, in particular in France. A Chinese garden should at least include willows, arched bridges and pavilions. Willows activate a romantic memory of the Middle Kingdom in the Age of Enlightenment. The summarized concept of China as a “willow-patterned world” was first put forth by the Oxford University Professor Raymond Dawson in Chinese Chameleon.²⁵⁴ In this part of the montage, the willow world is brought back to life again in the image of the Summer Palace, a summer garden for the royal family in a suburban area of Peking. In this mise-en-scene, the conceptual map of Western ideas of China has been reproduced in a picture of the soft willow bending over the lake, with a white stone arched bridge across the lake. A huge red pavilion is located in the park, and YF is sitting in a pavillion. YF appears in a Chinese costume which dates from the Republican era of about a hundred years ago. Both the character himself and the external setting he has been given convey a message of Chinese traditional antiquity. When YF is interviewed in his studio, an ancient house built in Qing Times in Peking, in the background of his ECU shot a calligraphic board on the wall indicates his identity as a traditional artist, as calligraphy has been seen as a symbol of Chinese learning since it was established as such by the Chinoiserie of the eighteenth century.

The use of light in this sequence is significant. YF is filmed against the sunshine during the sunset. The silhouette effect of his image adds a more artistic and romantic atmosphere to the sequence. The accompanying soundtrack consists of slow but melodic Chinese instrumental music. YF’s explanation of why he preserves the manual bow-making technique in the modern world is dubbed as narration. He claims that bow-making is no longer merely bow-making, but a way to preserve the

254 Dawson, Raymond 1967:106

continuity of traditional culture. Thus the signifiers of the willow, bridge and pavilion are used to create an atmosphere of nostalgia and romance, which is also in line with YF’s identity, as a representative of traditional culture and art.