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.25 Elizabeth Wilson, however, sees prostitution in a broader social background asthe result of the onset of modernity when she examines cases in the West.She states, Prostitutes and prostitution recur continually in the discussion of urban life, until italmost seems as though to be a woman an individual, not part of family or kin groupin the city, is to become a prostitute a public woman. 26 What is intriguing is that eventhe scholarly remarks here bear the gender differences.The question then becomes: Isprostitution physiology related or social-economy related? The Chinese left-wingfilmmakers of the 1930s definitely saw prostitution as social-economy related.They oftenportrayed prostitutes as victims of Chinese modernity.In this book, two films are selectedthat directly bear this view: The Sainted Woman and The New Woman.These films wereintended to bring a realistic perspective to bear on women s concerns.However, when itcame to a workable solution, the filmmakers offered women nothing more thanmelodramatic sentiment.The Sainted Woman (Shennü), masterfully played by Ruan Lingyu, depicts a youngand nameless woman s struggle to cope with her dual roles as mother and prostitute inthe 1930s Shanghai.It was written and directed by Wu Yonggang (1907 ), a left-wingerin 1934.The Sainted Woman is Wu s first film.The silent film was produced by LianhuaFilm Company.The fact that this prostitute is nameless suggests that she is just one of themany who sold their bodies to men in Shanghai.There is no background informationregarding her and why she is in Shanghai alone as a single woman.She has a young son,but the father of the child is missing from the picture.Where is the father, why does henot support the child and the mother of his child? These unanswered questions suggestproblems among her, men, Shanghai and the 1930s.Perhaps she was abandoned by herlover after she eloped with him to Shanghai? Perhaps she is one of those new womenThe origins of left-wing cinema in China, 1932 37 66who followed the path of women s liberation all the way to Shanghai but ended up as aprostitute in this big urban center when she found no other ways of making a living? Wedo not know.When the movie begins, all of these questions fade into the darkness ofShanghai s nightlife.Her case becomes an abstract one, a concept that Wu Yonggangelaborates to expose the darkness of the society.All we know is that she is in Shanghaialone with her baby son and she works as a low-class streetwalker with very limitedincome to support herself and her child.27There is an older woman helper who comes over to look after the boy when themother has to work at night.But other women in the film are not so sympathetic, andtheir brutal gossiping makes it even harder for her and her son.Why? Because thedominant patriarchal ideology has been accepted by these women and the society at large.There are, overall, three male characters who relate to this woman: her son, his schoolprincipal and a local hoodlum whom she met by accident.One night, in her attempt toavoid a patrolling policeman, she takes shelter inside a house.Although she has escapedfrom the police, the owner of the house, the bully (played by Zhang Zhizhi) forces her tostay the night.She has to trade sex with him for  having saved her. Unfortunately, this isonly the beginning of their relationship.She is eventually compelled to live with himafter he forces his way into her apartment one day, accompanied by his gangster friends.This kind of forced male entrance suggests the rape of this helpless woman at both thephysical and social levels.The money she makes by selling herself is often taken by thebully for gambling.She tries to look for a factory job but there are no openings; she triesto find work as a housemaid, but has no family or friends who might recommend her orserve as her references.She is reduced to pawning all her clothing and jewelry.She triesmany times to move away, but the bully always finds her, and threatens that if she triesthis again, he will sell her child.The gender relationship between this woman and the bully she lives with, is that ofdirect and straightforward exploitation.She is a victim of the male bully who  representsthe link, even the equation, between male sexuality and sheer power, the rule of the fist 28in this male-dominated society [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]