Spatialization of Confucian ethics in the Song of China

Abstract

This article analyses the understudied film Song of China, mainly directed by Fei Mu, and argues that Confucian morality is spatialized and encapsulated in various chronotopes through the construction and movement of three types of ethical space (the space of propriety, the space of misconduct and the liminal space between good and evil), which enhances the aesthetic effect of conveying moral and political messages. The three main characters in the movie – the FATHER, the SON and the GRANDSON – each open up one of the three ethical spaces, and the spatial constructions interact or conflict with each other in the larger polarized spaces of country and city. Eventually, the temporospatial transmission of Confucian ethical values is achieved when the space of propriety is expanded from the individual to the whole society, the space of misconduct is closed up and the liminal space is transformed into the space of propriety. This ideal moral state has the political implication of promoting fascist militarization in the social context of the time. This analysis of ethical space and chronotopes sheds new light on the artistic technique employed in this silent film.