An Exploration of Mother-daughter Painful Relationship in Feminist Cinema with Patriarchal Structures: A Case Study of Spring Tide

This article focuses on the mother-daughter painful relationship in Chinese feminist cinema, taking Spring Tide as an example, to explore the formation, manifestation and impact of this relationship in the context of the patriarchal structure. The film focuses on a three-generation story of mother-daughter relationships between an unmarried mother, Guo Jianbo, with her illegitimate daughter, Guo Wanting, and her single mother, Ji Minglan. As a female-centred film, the stereotypical image of mother and daughter is transformed in Spring Tide. In the ambivalence of the mother's love and hatred for her daughter, and the daughter's affection and rivalry for her mother, this film reveals the unique psychological structure and mode of relationship between females. Based on Lacan's "mirror stage" theory, this article highlights the function and plight of the mirroring between mother and daughter in the process of self-identification. In the patriarchal regime, the lack of female discourse leads the daughter to construct her ideal-ego in the mirror image of her mother but the alienated image in the mirror constrains the daughter's self-consciousness, which forms a complex relationship. It not only reflects the female-dominated diversified female relationship, but also implies the subjectivity plight of females in the patriarchal society. With the analysis of Spring Tide, this article discloses the profound significance of the mother-daughter painful relationship in feminist cinema which provides a new perspective for understanding the subjectivity of female discourse and suggests considerations for addressing the mother-daughter tension in future research.