The Play of Morality in Feng Xiaogang's Films

Abstract

Among Chinese critics' frequent attacks on Feng Xiaogang's films, none is as unforgiving as the complaint of a general lack of morality in his narrative and characterization. Is Feng guilty as charged or has he been misread by some Chinese film critics? Does the obvious entertainment appeal of his films realty come at the expense of his artistic and social values as a filmmaker? Taking the motif of morality as an entry, the paper will place Feng Xiaogang in the tradition of New Chinese Cinema since the fifth-generation directors. While similarly showing a clear social concern, Feng distinguishes himself from his predecessors by setting that concern in a depoliticized and mundane context. The paper will argue that by using the techniques of parody and satire Feng successfully constructs many "saleable" situations of moral crisis whose "truth-in-detail" alerts the audiences to their own frailty in such situations. On the other hand, the often-unsatisfactory solutions to the moral crisis are a reflection of values-in-conflict in contemporary Chinese society undergoing rapid change.