Rethinking woman's place in Chinese society from 1919 to 1937: a brief study inspired by the film New woman

New woman, a new word and concept put forth during the New Culture Movement beginning from 1919, when China was in the process of political, economic and cultural transformation which strongly influenced almost every aspect of society, was loaded with nationalistic connotations from the beginning and soon became a public venue to venture various discourses. Much research has been done on this topic, from the historical perspective of women’s emancipation, by studying it in the context of China’s modernization, from the angle of gender norms and sexuality, and so on. What sets my research apart is that I use New Woman--a 1934 film made in Shanghai which is especially dedicated to the image of new woman-- as my primary text and single out major themes in the film, such as “new woman” and nationalism, new woman’s struggles. In my research, I combine fictionalized narratives about new woman in literary works and films with historical discourses on new woman, and real life experiences of new woman such as Qiu Jin and Ruan Lingyu. My particular interest is to grasp the major sentiments expressed in the film and to investigate of the social and cultural context that had given rise to these sentiments. With no intention to be complete or exhaustive, this paper would consider its goal fulfilled by being able to grasp the main sentiments surrounding new woman and her place in Chinese society in the 1920s and 30s.