Female Subjectivity on and off the Screen: The Rare Case of Writer–Director Peng Xiaolian

Peng Xiaolian is a rare and prolific Chinese author who writes both fiction and non-fiction works and directs both dramatic and documentary films. To really understand Peng as a film auteur, however, it is necessary to look at her films and writings together. Given the quantity and complexity of her works and the space limitations of this article, this chapter examines Peng’s subversion of the conventional treatment of character, location, and time in three thematic sections reflecting the key narrative motifs in her work. This chapter first summarizes existing studies of Peng’s films, highlighting the rarely examined interaction between visuality and spatiality in her films. Then, after defining her sense of time in the narrative, this chapter demonstrates how family history and self-reflexivity are the major difference between her films and her nonfiction works. Last but not least, this chapter discusses how, through her use of multilayered narratives constructed by the female voice and subjectivity, her complete repertoire constitutes a unique history of modern Chinese women.