Research On the ‘Southbound Filmmakers’ with Their National Images: Diaspora, Anxiety and Spiritual Identification

The ‘southbound filmmakers’ refers to a group of filmmakers who, during 1931--1966, went to the Southeast Asia from the cities like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing. They are one of the important parts of China’s filmmakers and their films is a significant attempt disseminating at abroad in the early days. To analyze the Southbound Filmmakers’ identity construction as well their activities such as living in the Southeast Asia, film-makings and dissemination, this paper adopts psychology, psychoanalysis, national identification, audience reception, etc., associated with theories like ‘culture, anxiety, identity and ideology’ under the overview of behavioral science. The ‘Southbound filmmakers’ is not only a group of filmmakers, but a historical concept and a special cinematic phenomenon. The diaspora complex and national identification were the important spiritual pillars for the filmmakers to carry on their film and social activities in the Southeast Asia. The Sounthbound films’ dissemination overseas is a helpful attempt for the Chinese films. Even though the filmmakers had different subjective activities and varied film contents, it objectively strengthened Chinese films’ connections with its foreign counterparts, promoted China’s films’ influences and increased Chinese culture’s dissemination in other countries, which is significant and has a long-time effect.