Cinematic Experience

Quotes:

1. “A propaganda film like any other…. The audience would always weep at this moment regardless of whether they were watching the film or listening to our version of it” (Sijie, 39)
2. “Phoenix mountain was so remote from civilization that most of the inhabitants had never had the opportunity of seeing a film, let alone visit a cinema. There had been a few occasions when Luo and I entertained the headman with stories of films we had seen, and he was eager to see more.” (18-19)

Image:

Connection to Theme:

Sijie uses the symbol of movies to emphasize how narratives can influence and be formative in people’s lives, shaping their beliefs in the form of intellectual liberty. In the first quote, it talks about how movies were a form of propaganda. As a result, they intentionally had morals that were meant to be manipulative, making the audience feel a certain way. By making movies revolutionary, or by making them about Mao, the people would conform more to that narrative, until it became not just a movie, but a reality for them. The potency of the movie is such that, on a mass level, it can get people to follow whatever ideas are presented, often in the form of supporting the Cultural Revolution. People “would always weep” because the movie was engineered that way. Since many of the peasants were uneducated, and since they had never seen movies, they were not exposed to the narratives other people were. Consequently, they lived their own lives without the major influence of Mao. But through Luo and the narrator, they are exposed to new influences, more informative ones.

Connection to Book:

This idea of narratives influencing people's’ lives is shown through the clothes that the villagers wore. This occurred due to Ma telling the tailor about a story where the hero was a French sailor. The tailor was influenced by this story and began putting French designs similar to the story in the clothing he made. Thus, we can see how the story shaped the types of clothing that the tailor-made, and people began to wear new kinds of clothing. Considering the clothing had a lot of Western influence it limited Mao’s influence over the villagers.