사라진 그녀들: 2020년대 항미원조(抗美援朝) 영화 속 여성전사의 부재와 전쟁 기억 재구성

Abstract

This study examines the disappearance of female soldiers in China’s 2020s Anti–U.S. Aid Korea films such as The Battle at Lake Changjin(2021), Water Gate Bridge(2022), Sacrifice(2020), and Snipers(2022). While 1950s–1980s war films positioned female figures as ethical and emotional mediators who transformed loss into patriotic affect, recent blockbusters reconstruct war memory solely through male heroism and the spectacle of sacrifice. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s theory of affective politics, Jan Assmann’s concept of cultural memory, and Astrid Erll’s notion of mediation, this paper argues that the absence of women is not accidental but a product of industrial efficiency, aesthetic spectacle, and nationalist affect. The so-called “political aesthetics” of the Xi Jinping era strategically organizes emotions around masculine camaraderie while silencing the ethics of care and internationalist compassion once embodied by female soldiers. Ultimately, the transition from “presence” to “absence” reveals a gendered reconfiguration of emotional and mnemonic regimes in contemporary Chinese war cinema.