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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2024
Abstract: Lulu Wang’s The Farewell (2019), a semi-autobiographical feature, tells the tale of a complicated transnational ruse to disguise a family gathering designed to bid farewell to a terminally ill matriarch in Changchun, China. Despite the granddaughter’s misgivings, the extended family keeps the old woman ignorant of her diagnosis in order not to burden her with news of her illness. As the story unfolds, The Farewell presents the perspectives of three generations of women living within the Chinese diaspora. A visual politics of gender and generation emerges that highlights the ways in which diasporic Chinese women see themselves and are seen on transnational screens in the wake of #MeToo and the growth of the mainland Chinese film industry.
Keywords: Film festivals; New York City; Changchun; filial piety; qigong; accented cinema
Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, a film set among RV drifters in the American West, won the prestigious Golden Lion for best film at the 77th Venice Film Festival in 2020. As noted in chapter 1, Venice honored Ann Hui and Tilda Swinton with life achievement awards the same year. The shift from Weinstein’s 1998 attempted rape of Rowena Chiu to women taking top honors marks a dramatic transformation of the climate for female film professionals at Venice in the wake of #MeToo. As the consummate “networker” at festivals such as Venice and Cannes and behind-the-scenes mover and shaker at major awards such as the Oscars, Weinstein’s navigation of these film networks likely enabled his sexual predation. Women in film stood up not only as individual victims but as a group. Through the digital presence of #MeToo and #TimesUp, women’s voices became amplified throughout the entertainment industry and beyond. In 2018, women took their dissatisfaction to the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival reaped the benefits in 2020 (Smith 2018).
Cate Blanchett, the head of the jury in Venice in 2020, was a vocal leader criticizing the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. Overseeing the award of Venice’s Golden Lion to Chloe Zhao at the same festival in which Ann Hui and Tilda Swinton were duly honored likely gave Blanchett and other women in the industry some reason for optimism.
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