Race and the arrival of Cinema
Even as he doubted the ability of literature to change anything Lu Xun was still writing about how the world saw China, and how China saw the world and the power of the media to influence those views.
This is from his 1933 essay, ‘Lessons from the Movies’.
When I went to the movies in Shanghai I found that I had already become one of the ‘lowly Chinese’, in the galleries above were the white people and the rich people and downstairs sat rows of middle and lower class descendants of the Han. On the screen white soldiers fought battles, white gentlemen made fortunes, white maidens got married and white heroes had adventures. All to the admiration, envy and terror of the audience, who knew that they themselves could do none of those things.
When the white hero goes adventuring in Africa there is usually a loyal black servant who will clear the way for him, minister to his needs, fight fiercely for him and die in his place, so that the master may return safely home. And as he prepares to set out on his next adventure, the master recalls the dead man, a loyal servant is hard to find after all, and a shadow flits across his features. The black face in his memory flickering across the screen, and across the yellow faces of the audience, in the faint light of the theatre, a shadow will pass as well, they have been moved.
The Forum – Lu Xun: Writing the Story of New China
I think it was difficult, she was operating in a world were black men were very much focused on adopting a white aesthetic, if you like, about beauty. So she found herself conflicted, she had some relationships, once I think with an African Chief, so that must have given her a sense of assurance. At the same time she was conscious of black men turning their gaze, if you like, towards white women. In one of her poems she talked about the ‘cinema eyes’ that black girls were being encouraged to look at films and see those images of Hollywood actresses as much better than themselves.
- Dr Delia Jarrett-Macauley on the Poet and Activist, Una Marson (1905 - 1965). Una was also the first black programme-maker and broadcaster at the BBC.
