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Abstract:

Overseas scholars of Chinese cinema often interpret Farewell My Concubine through the lens of cultural studies, resulting in a mismatch between the theoretical concerns of the contemporary context and the textual reality of the film. Theoretical perspectives based on gender confusion and historical crisis, or male homosexuality and identity politics, have inadvertently exposed textual phenomena that are difficult to explain. The most representative examples include Xiao Douzi’s persistent mis-singing of the lyrics, Cheng Dieyi’s feminized traits, and the omission of Hong Kong references in the ending. Although cultural studies perspectives on this text have been widely reiterated, they are often specious, thereby compromising the canonical significance of Farewell My Concubine. In essence, the film has become an invaluable classic in the history of Chinese cinema not because it addresses theoretical issues of contemporary social concern, such as gender consciousness, identity crisis, and cultural politics. Rather, a classic film is, first and foremost, canonized at the artistic level; therefore, returning to the art itself is the rightful path to understanding classic cinema.

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