Struggling for Identification: Female Identity and Queer Representation in Li Yu's Films

摘要

This article aims to provide a historical analysis of the cinematic representation of female identity and queer sexuality based on Li Yu films (Dam Street and Fish and Elephant) in comparison with Urban (Sixth) Generation film directors. This article provides a detailed clarification on the ambivalent national construction of female identity that took place during the urbanization after the 1980s. The term Chinese term "women's cinema" has a close connection with social construction and political implication of female collective identities. Among the number of Chinese female directors, Li Yu is the first one to make a Chinese lesbian film. Li adopts the tradition of urban Generation directors in her early works: using non-professional actors and shooting in the documentaries' style. Li focuses on the dilemmas of minor female figures in a chaotic era of urbanization in which Li expresses her own humanitarian concerns of pain and suffering through a pessimistic aesthetic sentiment.