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Ang Lee Film and Politics of Representing 'Women'
Cross-Cultural Studies
2018,
51(), pp.193-212
DOI : 10.21049/ccs.2018.51..193
Publisher : Center for Cross Culture Studies
Research Area : Literature
DOI : 10.21049/ccs.2018.51..193
Publisher : Center for Cross Culture Studies
Research Area : Literature
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This paper attempts to explore how Ang Lee depicts Asian and Western women in his films. We focus on two parts of his consciousness First, Ang Lee does not consider himself a feminist, he understands the world in terms of women who play societal roles. Second, Ang Lee's films reflect his identity in a juxtaposition model, in which he is a member of mainstream American society and also holds an onlooker's viewpoint at the same time. He depicts women, who are often marginalized or considered the minority, and their feminist ideals, as means that break down the authority of the father and the man, the traditional ideology, and the male dominant nationalism. Chinese women in movies divide apart traditional Chinese patriarchal ideology and male-dominated anti-Japanese sentiments. Also, the Western women in his films reveal the non-stereotypical appearance of Western society in the 1970s and 1980s, with daily tension, anxiety, abdominal pain and anger, silence and anxiety about homosexual husbands, and excessive obsession. The director’s portrayal of women not only separates the male-centered and Western-centered discourse, but also reveals a self-division of internalized masculine patriarchal Asian thought consciousness.
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