Between Femininity and Animality – The Metamorphosis of the White Snake Legend in Sinophone Film and TV

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.220504.519How to use a DOI?

Keywords

female homoerotic feelings; theories of gender and sexuality; animal studies; the White Snake Legend; Sinophone film and TV

Abstract

This paper examines three different adaptations of the traditional Chinese White Snake legend in three Sinophone visual productions: the Taiwan TV Madam White Snake (Qingshe yu baishe) in 2001, the Hong Kong film Green Snake (Qingshe) in 1993, and Chinese animation Green Snake (Qingshe jieqi) in 2021. Specifically, this paper discusses the homoerotic romance between the White Snake and the Green Snake, two animal/female protagonists in the traditional legend which focuses on the heterosexual romance between the White Snake and a human scholar. By tracing the genealogy of the metamorphosis of the traditional White Snake Legend in contemporary China and across Sinophone regions, this paper investigates the following issues: first, the development of the female consciousness and new woman in contemporary China; second, the advances in gender theories and the homoerotic relationship in the adaptations of the White Snake tale; third, the contribution of animality in conveying homoerotic messages across Sinophone regions; fourth, the important role of Chinese animation in articulating (homo)sexuality across different locales and against different sets of social relationships. By combining methodologies of critical adaptation studies, female consciousness, new woman, theories of gender and sexuality, female same-sex love, animal studies, the repression theory, Sinophone articulation and digital media, this paper points out the intersection between animal studies and feminist and lesbian studies. Meanwhile, this paper demonstrates the persistence of the tale across Sinophone regions and highlights the role of Chinese animation in articulating (homo)sexuality across different locales and against different sets of social relationships.

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yuhan Chen
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/06/01
TI  - Between Femininity and Animality – The Metamorphosis of the White Snake Legend in Sinophone Film and TV
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 8th International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research (ICHSSR 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 2859
EP  - 2867
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220504.519
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220504.519
ID  - Chen2022
ER  -