Gaze, Female Agency, and Gender Power Dynamics in Chinese Chick Flicks in the 2000s

Abstract

Chick flick is an emerging film genre in the 2000s, which usually involves elements of sentiment, fashion, and a female leading character. It centers on female characters and is situated in the themes of romance and the discovery of self-meaning, and therefore triggers the discussion in the field of cine-feminism about its connotations, as well as the presence of gaze and female agency in the film. With analytic lenses applied to the context of China in the modern age, this paper first reviews the theories of Beauvoir, Mulvey, and Bourdieu and then introduces major criticisms of chick flicks in China. From the angles of narrative techniques, cinematography, and staging, it examines the representations of gaze, female agency, and the gender power structure in two typical Chinese chick flicks: Go Lala Go! and Finding Mr. Right. The results of analysis indicate differences between the two films, lying in the image of female protagonist, the visibility of male gaze and female gaze, and the activeness of female agency, and reveal a bifurcation in the styles of current chick flicks in China, into two distinct forms, with one sticking to conventional themes and westernized paradigms, and the other beginning to indigenize and demonstrate thoughts on serious issues including gender inequality.