DOI: 10.31806/2542-1158-2026-10-2-130-146
УДК 7.096
Craveiro T.1
1 South Ural State University (National Research University), Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Abstract. Mao Zedong’s famous phrase “Women hold half the sky” (妇女能顶半边天, fùnǚ néng dǐng bànbiān tiān) marked a significant milestone in China’s gender equality policies. It gained popularity among other socialist movements in Third World countries during the Cold War and resonated with left-wing intellectuals in Western countries. Women’s liberation had been a crucial aspect of revolutionary struggles in China since the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which overthrew the Qing imperial dynasty. The study draws on Chinese films from the seventeen-year Maoist period (1949–1966), characterized by the establishment and development of socialism in China under significant Soviet influence. During this period, Chinese women emerged as important figures in both society and cinema. The female protagonists in these films reflected the new social status of Chinese women, while their images were inspired by Soviet socialist realist films, which became the foundation for the development of cinema in “New China” as a liberated, democratic, and socialist state. The article examines the representation of female characters in the films “Basketball Player No. 5” (1957), “Huang Baomei” (1958), “The Red Detachment of Women” (1961), and “Two Stage Sisters” (1965). These films were directed by Xie Jin, one of the most prominent directors of third-generation Chinese cinema, who devoted his work to portraying female strength and drew on both his personal experience and the heroines of Soviet cinema. It is important to emphasize that Xie Jin used the female figure as a representation, or even an allegory, of China itself in its process of liberation and revolution, linking cinema to the various stages of this major historical event in twentieth-century China.
Keywords: DIALOGUE OF CULTURES, POLITICAL CULTURE AND ART, HISTORY OF CINEMA, CHINESE AND SOVIET CINEMA OF THE MAOIST PERIOD, EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN IN CHINA
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