The Evolving Family and the Lyrical Child

Abstract

In this chapter, the author compares two representations of the child from two famous films by the Fifth Generation’s top director in China, Chen Kaige, Yellow Earth (1984) and Together (2002). The girl’s story in the former and the boy’s story in the latter show respectively the dissolution of the Party/state as an extended family home, and it being replaced by the atomized, fluid, and flexible family home in the new state-led neo-liberal order. Compared with the girl, the boy in the new century tries to convey an equally lyrical articulation of the family/home, but differently, with a strong sense of his subjectivity. Thus, the boy’s voice in Together, self-reflective, artistically innovative, and affective, becomes a voice of resistance against authoritarian neoliberalism in post-socialist China.

Citation

Zhang, H. (2024), "The Evolving Family and the Lyrical Child", Shah, T.M. (Ed.) Children and Youth in Armed Conflict: Responses, Resistance, and Portrayal in Media (Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Vol. 35), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 157-171. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1537-466120240000035010