Abstract:

 Abstract： As one of the third generation of the Chinese film, Xie Jin achieves remarkable results. His three phases of creation all have masterpieces, which represent the highest peak in the film creation of the Chinese ethic melodrama. This tradition of creation, by way of realistic film narratives, works out stories as the life itself, making dramatic and typified. From Zheng Zhengqiu' s A Obedient Orphan through Cai Chusheng' s Spring River Flows East to Xie Jin' s films, all embody this tradition loved by common people. The creation of his first phase has following characters: basically, the protagonist is female, often in the bottom of society, and run away from the family, without any help, finding no way out; and at this time, she meets a male, who is elder and more mature than her and symbolizes revolutionary ideals, helping her to overcome all kinds of difficulties; thus she frees herself from helplessness, going through the crisis and beyond herself, and, finally, enters into the big revolutionary family. And in the second phase, this pattern has a change. Very often, the hero is wrongly dealt with, either becoming a "rightist", or in a exile, excluded from social life; but, finally, the heroine who is both pretty and goodhearted, falls into love with him, and, by way of the family' s comfort as well as the female sentiment, gives solace to his psychological wound. The third phase witnesses his bewilderment and struggle, and, at the same time, brings to an end the golden age of the Chinese film. Although he tries best to change that, the film has not come back into the public life. During the time, almost all the films, including Xie Jin' s, haven' t won acclaim from the audience. Therefore, gradually, he drops out of the center of stage. Although he does not always stand on the highest peak, his films represent the artistic peak of the two ages. He is one of the most outstanding artists in the period from 1949 to 1976. Even if Xie Jin is not ahead of his time, he is a synthesizer who combines tradition with modern, as well as the Western, and keeps pace with the time in such a way that he becomes the hero of the 30year mainstream film in China. Xie Jin is not only the peak of Xie Jin' s age but also the great classic master in the golden age of the Chinese film.

Key words: Chinese tradition of film, ethic melodrama, realism