The "Monstrous Feminine" in Asian Cinema: Mr. Vampire and Dumplings

The role of the woman in Asian society has recently become a hotly debated topic. Throughout the centuries, women in Asia were generally viewed as being meek and mild; their place was in the home. To a large extent, this is still the prevailing view of women; the industrialization and modernization of Asia has happened rather quickly, and cultural beliefs have not quite had a chance to catch up with modern (and predominantly Western) societal attitudes. In all three of the Asian cultures we studied in class (Thai, Chinese/Hong Kong, Japanese), femininity is seen as a source of anxiety. Asian culture has always been patriarchal and restrictive of women, so any power the female gains is portrayed in Asian cinema as dangerous or threatening. Women and men have defined “spheres”, the former being relegated to one of meekness and domesticity. Supernatural beings, particularly ghosts in Asian culture, are portrayed primarily as female; according to Adam Knee in Thailand Haunted, this idea of “the past and the feminine” is figured as a “source of anxiety” (Knee 142). However, the idea of a women empowering themselves and challenging their role in the domestic sphere is also a source of anxiety and horror. As a result, in two of the films we watched in class, we can clearly see that the Asian concept of the “monstrous feminine” is manifested cinematically not only in ghosts and supernatural beings but also in regular women.

In Ricky Lau’s Mr. Vampire, the monstrous feminine is quite literally demonstrated through the character of Jade. She is the textbook definition of an Asian ghost, according to both Wolfram Eberhard and Jay McRoy: she has long black hair (McRoy 7), she at first looks beautiful, but then becomes really ugly…with claws, she tries to seduce [Cho], then tries to draw his life essence out of him (Eberhard 69-70). Like many female ghosts, such as the famous Nang Nak of Thailand, Jade is motivated by love; yet she is still, as Richard J. Hand puts it in his essay Aesthetics of Cruelty, “inherently evil” (Hand 7) and is thus unable to help the negative affect she has on Cho. To a lesser extent, we also see evidence of the monstrous feminine with the character of Ting-Ting. In an earlier scene, Cho thinks she is a prostitute, and goes out of his way to convince her that her profession is immoral and wrong. This is supposed to be comedy, because we in the audience know she is actually a prim and proper girl from a wealthy family. In fact, once the two main male characters discover that Ting-Ting isn’t a prostitute at all, she suddenly becomes the object of both their affections and a sort of friendly contest to “win” her ensues. Ting-Ting only becomes desirable once she returns comfortably within the domestic sphere.

Fruit Chan’s Dumplings is rife with female characters, all of them exhibiting a different and more metaphorical view of the “monstrous feminine”. Neither Aunt Mei nor Mrs. Li are actually ghosts or supernatural creatures, yet they seek to empower themselves, they go out of their way to get what they want; this is seen as an abandonment of the domestic sphere and therefore a threat to patriarchal society. In Dumplings, we are repeatedly told that women are not worth as much as males. Mei says that “boys are never aborted” in China; Mr. Li’s mistress offers to charge less of a stipend if her unborn child turns out to be a girl rather than a boy. This of course sets the female mindset up so that she can never be as good or as important as a man, though she spends her life trying. Mei was a doctor in mainland China, a profession usually reserved for men; she was trying to better herself and had high hopes and dreams, which were promptly shattered when she moved to Hong Kong. Similarly, Mrs. Li was a prominent actress; her dreams are also shattered because she loses her career (and later her husband) due to her getting older and supposedly less desirable. These women become grotesques of themselves; they become “monstrous feminine” because they are driven to do so due to the pressures of societal constructs. Tony Williams puts it very eloquently: although they may seem like they come from different worlds, “these two contrasting characters are really products of the same system” (Williams 212).

The idea that female power is “threatening” or “monstrous” is visible in the women characters of both films, whether she is a regular human being (like Aunt Mei) or a supernatural menace (like Jade). Asian culture creates its own “monstrous feminine” due to cycles of oppression and repression of the woman. These cycles have occurred throughout history and continue into today. As we have seen from these films, concept is manifested in cinema in two different ways: first, ghosts in Asian culture have historically been female, and second, that patriarchal Asian culture is threatened by women who empower themselves. The “monstrous feminine” will always be employed in Asian cinema through the use of ghosts, but it remains to be seen whether Asian culture will ever accept women, and view femininity as a potential for advancement rather than a potential for chaos.

Works Cited

Eberhard, Wolfram. Studies in Chinese Folktales & Related Essays. In: Indiana University Research Center, 1970.

Hand, Richard J. "Aesthetics of Cruelty: Traditional Japanese Theatre and the Horror Film". Japanese Horror Cinema. Ed. by Jay McRoy. HA: University of Hawaii, 2005.

Knee, Adam. "Thailand Haunted: The Power of the Past in the Contemporary Thai Horror Film". Horror International. Ed. Steven Schneider, Tony Williams. MI: Wayne State University Press, 2005.

McRoy, Jay. Japanese Horror Cinema. Ed. Jay McRoy. HA: University of Hawaii Press, 2005.

Williams, Tony. "Hong Kong Social Horror: Tragedy and Farce in Category 3". Horror International. Ed. Steven Schneider, Tony Williams. MI: Wayne University Press, 2005.