Browsing by Author "Lehikoinen, Reetta"

The objective of this thesis is to explore how women are represented in the Chinese TV serial in 2020’s and do the chosen scenes of the serial contribute to construct a positive image of and support patriarchal ideology. The data used for this thesis is from the Chinese TV serial Find yourself (xiayizhan shi xingfu), and eight scenes of it have been chosen for detailed analysis. The serial is aired in 2020, and it is in Chinese. The serial is a romantic comedy addressed for women in Mango online streaming service. The duration of the scenes are from less than two minutes to approximately six minutes and they feature different characters. In the serial, the protagonist, a 33-year-old single and a ‘leftover’ woman, is desperately trying to find love in an urban setting in Shanghai. A leftover woman (Shengnü) is an urban, over 27 years old, highly educated unmarried woman, who according to Chinese media, is a social problem. While the female protagonist of the serial is pondering her choices regarding a partner; she is also pondering choices between traditional patriarchal values and modern individualism. I have chosen film analysis as a method as it seems to provide the clearest ways and means to analyze my research data so that it is possible to seek answers for my research questions. The analysis is made from a feminist perspective. As the theoretical background I am going to draw on semiotics and Third Wave feminist as well as post-feminist works about feminist film theory and representations of women. Patriarchal values in China still promote traditional patriarchal marriage patterns and values women as housewives. As Chinese TV serials reflect the society, these values can be seen also in the serial chosen for this thesis. In China, the media has never been completely free and the CCP has regulated it since the days of Mao Zedong. Because of this, the representations of women are carefully thought out. Based on my analysis I found out that the serial Find Yourself seems to contribute to patriarchal ideology and structures. The most prominent patriarchal structure in the scenes was the promotion of traditional hypergamy. Also, women characters of the serial were constantly portrayed in need of a husband. In the scenes the inferiority of women was created in different cinematic means, such as camera angles, feminine backgrounds and music choices, mise en scene and appearance of the characters. For further research it would be fruitful to study how has the CCP’s ideology and cultural leadership affected the contribution to patriarchal ideology in the serial. Also, a study about the CCP’s objectives of mass persuasion in entertainment addressed to women would be an interesting example of further research of this topic. Another interesting point for examination would be research about audience reception. An interview as a method would reveal what women are feeling about the promotion of patriarchal marriage patterns and about the ‘leftover’ representation of women in the serial.