YANG ± YIN: GENDER IN CHINESE CINEMA Stanley Kwan [VHS, 1996]

UK / Hong Kong [1996]. 80 mins approx. 

A documentary by Stanley Kwan exploring representations of queerness and LGBT identity in film from Greater China. The film was produced and partially funded by the British Film Institute to mark the centenary of cinema.

Using archival footage and specially shot interviews with major filmmakers and actors, Kwan constructs a visual essay that attempts to demonstrate that queerness has existed in Chinese cinema since its very earliest movies. He argues that China has provocatively dealt with questions of gender and sexuality in cinema, despite social conservatism and government censorship. 

Kwan draws attention to the coded or subtle queerness of Chinese cinema. For example, director Zhang Che describes "possible 'Freudian' readings" of his film The Slaughter In Xi'an (1990), thus, according to Fran Martin, "validating the power of the spectator's agency and never denying the erotic tensions bubbling beneath supposedly chaste canons of Confucian brotherhood."

The film is also notable for being Kwan publicly coming out as gay in it. In a scene towards the end of the film, he reveals his sexuality to his mother by asking her to reflect on her own ideas and experiences of gender norms and queerness.

Interviews in the documentary include Ang Lee, Kaige Chen, Leslie Cheung and John Woo.

Film extracts: Rouge (1988), Actress (1991), Full Moon in New York (1989), Red Rose, White Rose (1994), Way of the Dragon (1973), The Slaughter in Xian, A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989), Waves Wash the Sand (1936), The Highway (1936), Song at Midnight, Part II (1941), The Phantom lover (1995), Song at Midnight (1937), Autumn Begonia (1943), Farewell My Concubine (1992), The Big Stage, Two Stage Sisters (1964), TV version of Farewell My Concubine story), Legend of Garland Mountain (1985), Hibiscus Town (1987), Woman Basketball Player No. 5 Maiden Rose (1995), Fallen Angels (1995), The Time to Live and the Time to Die (1985), Rebels of the Neon God (1992), A Brighter Summer Day (1991) Father and Son (1981) Ah Ying (1982) The Wedding Banquet (1993), Pushing Hands (1985), Taipei Story (1985), A City of Sadness (1990), Vive l'amour (1984), The Square (1994), Beijing Bastards (1992), Peking Opera Blues (1987), The Lovers (1995), Swordsman II (1991), Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai (1953), Ashes of Time (1994) , Handsome Siblings (1994), The Purple Hairpin (1957), Tragedy of a Poet King (1968).