Implicit Sexuality

Abstract

In classical Hollywood noir, the figure of the femme fatale arouses the self-awareness and self-identification among modern female audiences, and reflects the profound impacts of the postwar feminist movement. However, the Chinese femme fatale’s sexuality in Black Coal, Thin Ice is implicit and differs from the iconography of the Hollywood femme fatale, such as big curls, red lips, high heels, provocative clothing, and cigarettes. Simultaneously, in Chinese neo-noirs, the male erotic gaze also disappears with the absence of the female character’s sexy image. In other words, the male protagonist’s libido is rendered invisible and concealed. I argue that the conservative iconography of the Chinese femme fatale and the male anti-hero in Chinese neo-noirs emphasize the powerlessness of these figures, since both are spiritually oppressed by the alliance of a patriarchal society and a political system. I finally argue that the absence of romantic love and normative family relations in contemporary Chinese neo-noir relates to the destruction of the dominant ideology in post-socialist China.