Yin Guo

Eng 212W
Oct. 6 2014


Melodrama is not just a way of entertaining, but a mode to discuss
political discourse. As singer stresses the effectiveness of melodrama that starts
from and expresses the anxiety brought by a frightening new world( Singer, 5).
One of the main effects that come from melodrama is that the audiences follow
the plots and persuaded by them to a large extent. This method of thoughts
infiltration helps the government and officials to spread information, promote
public morals and light the fuse of social changes. In addition to those positive
influences, melodrama could be regarded as negative from certain aspects. One
key feature that melodrama has is that virtue by suffering is amplified by
heroism and roles are given to villains, which are the bad evils finally got
punished (Anker). The theme of good and evil, also mentioned by Pickowica and
Elsaesser, is an obvious purpose that melodrama possesses to educate and
encourage the public. As the social changing, media has become the main carrier
of melodramatic rhetoric that affects the public through news report,
documentary, and music. Realism and melodrama played a dual role in the
development of modern narrative cinema. According to Cooke, Nichols and
Williams, calling for sympathy plays a significant role in melodrama. As Williams
says in the Playing the Race Card, moving them to sympathy is a necessary part
of winning a case( Williams, 264). As a result, the audience would capture a
deeper understanding of the situation and pay more attention. Thomas Elsaesser
has argued that a basic characteristic of the melodramatic rhetoric is the way in
which mise-en-scene becomes a repository of meaning, to the extent that one
must give critical importance to the mise-en-scene over intellectual content or
story-value (Elasaesser, 125). To bring this idea into the media used nowadays,
take the news report on television as an example, the way that how we narrate
and what we quote could have different impact on the audience. The public
receive information mainly through daily news report, which usually takes less
than an hour. In such a short time, they synthesis the information and draw their
own conclusion. What they see and hear in the news are crucial, which effect
their attitudes towards the social issues. Just as the September 11th example
Anker explained, American people follow the media depiction and imagery to
make an emotional appeal.
From all above, we can easily come to a conclusion that melodrama
influence the publics thoughts through media and usually can make a difference
in social issues.
One topic that I am interested in is the homosexuality in China. It is a
common clich to say that China is changing. News of breakneck economic
growth, however, has often overshadowed the country's "soft" development. In
the social arena, gays and lesbians, a once shunned minority, have become
increasingly more assertive. After the two old men in Beijing posted a video on
Weibo, Chinese version twitter, announced their coming out and declared their
love for each, they have received numerous horrible taunt. What impressed me
the most was the interview with one of their son. He said that he has been so
disappointing and decided not to regard the old man as his father any more.
Towards this issue, news on television both in China and in America
reported this story. However, they narrated their coming out in totally different
ways. On Chinese newspaper, the focus is the negative response they have
received. Its disappointing that outsiders can bless us but not our own son.
This quote from the couples twit impressed a lot of readers. After knowing this
news, most reviews were regarding how upset the couple is. While the report on
CNN Chanel, posting a photo of their little wedding ceremony, reported their
impressive love even though they faced such struggle. Most of the comments
towards this CNN news were encouraging and blessing them.Same story,
different description. Both of the news repots were based on the real
information. But the different aspect of the story made the report sounds like
they were sending opposite message to the audience.
As the example of the two news reposts, we can see how much media like
TV news affects the audiences attitude. Again, it is obvious that melodramatic
rhetoric persuades the public and lead their attitude. Kyle Spencer and Huntly
Collins both writes about students asking for equal rights in America colleges.
Why are students making posters, writing articles and forming organizations
that were not usually welcomed in the past y others? Equal rights are what they
want. As a student at an open-minded college, I stand on the same side with
Collins and Spencer: everyone should have equal rights. It is unfair and
unreasonable to discriminate against someone just because of his or her sexual
orientation.
While both authors begin with the point that everyone should have the
same opportunities no matter what their sexual orientation are. They use
different methods to illustrate the increasing attention to gay rights. Collins
describes many students activities supporting gay rights, drawn from interviews
with students form different universities in the United States. He does not
mention much about his own opinion, but reading between the lines of the
quotations, we can easily understand that he is appealing to everyone to respect
and support peoples sexual orientation. The words form the students embody
Collinss support. The poster mentioned in the last paragraph: silence equals
death seems to reflect his viewpoint that opponents really have to take off their
tinted glasses and look with fresh eyes at homosexual people.
Focusing more on the conflict between students sexual orientation and
their religion, Spencers article describes how active students from Georgetown
University push the needle forward (Spencer). At the countrys oldest Catholic
university, the process of fighting for equal rights seems to be more challenging.
However, a perfect rainbow is forming over the college day by day due to the
efforts by student groups, alumni and faculty.
This example of two journals on the same topic using different media
method also clearly shows how melodramatic interpretation can influence the
audience.
Therefore, I believe that using melodrama can help reducing the negative
effects of homosexuality issue in China. One consequence of homosexuality is the
HIV. Last month, the official medical report published by the Xian government
shows that more than two hundreds male students were diagnosed to get HIV.
This number shocked the public and called for attention. Xian is a big city in
China and is considered as one of the prosperous cities. So education in Xian has
high quality. But still, over 200 hundred students got HIV in the year of 2013.
This thought provoking news indicates that it is important to promote
knowledge of safety regardless of the debate on whether homosexuality is
treated equally. Health is the most important premise of ones life. Another
consequence of homosexuality in China is about women marrying gay men
without knowing their husbands sexual orientation. Though recent years have
reportedly brought Chinas LGBT community a bit more out of the shadows of
old, a new repot claims that as many as sixteen million Chinese women are
married to gay men. As Pink News pointed out, thats roughly three percent of
the nations entire population. Despite the debate of whether gay marriage
should be accepted, the social impact of this kind of innocence marriage should
be paid more attention.
Use melodrama could make some changes towards these two issues I
found since it is effective in generating sympathy. Making a tangible and lasting
impact on the epidemic among homosexuality in China relies on greater
involvement and collaboration. Same as the function of charity advertisement, an
educational advertisement or short film could be made to promote safe sexual
knowledge stressing how important it is to protect oneself. Using image would
be helpful. Gay people, especially those are students are under huge pressure.
Most of them find that there is little support that they could reach out for and
when have concerns and questions they have no idea where to find help. So they
can be depicted as the victims that are helpless. Victim is the key point that could
lead to public sympathy. Students are considered as the hope of the nation in
China. So close-ups of students innocent eyes and the voices full of vigour would
attract attention and understanding from the public. The villain under this case
can be either the HIV or the helplessness. What is more, LGBT organizations in
China often receive negative responses. This causes huge difficulties of their
works. Also many passionate volunteers find it hard to involve in a origination
which is much powerful than individuals. Using advertisements and films, not
only can attract more attention and understanding, but also can gather more
people and make the LGBT organization stronger. Using imagery is more
convincing and acceptable for the public than the insipid sermon.
Personally, the problem of women marrying gay men is easier to be
reduced than the health issue mentioned above. Most of the older Chinese think
that being gay is just a phase and that eventually it will work itself out. Freedom
is regarded as one of the most important things in the western world, but for
Chinese people, harmony is the most important. As a result, many people have no
choice but to keep it secret in order not to hurt people they care about. For gay
people, in most cases, accepted by their close peers and families is a big step.
Besides advertisements and films, the celebrities could also be effective in
reducing the problem.
During the past 20 years, many famous singers, actors and writers came
out to the public. At first, they received terrible responses. While after their fans
calm down, the public get to understand that it is not fair to judge them due to
their sexual orientation. It is their talent that makes them outstanding. As a
result, they have gained much support and worded on promoting gay rights.
They held various events to publicize equal rights and respect. Since they are
famous, it is easier for them to convince people who pay close attention to them
and being role models.
Though we all know that it takes time and effort to cope with the
homosexuality issues in China, we can use melodramatic rhetoric through media
to reduce the time. The future gay looks promising.
Works Cited
Cooke, Paul, and Marc Silberman. Screening War: Perspectives on German
Suffering. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010. Print.
Pickowicz, Paul G. Melodramatic Representation and the "May Fourth" Tradition
of Chinese Cinema. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Singer, Ben. Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and Its
Contexts. New York: Columbia UP, 2001. Print.
Thomas Elsaesser, Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family
Melodrama in Home Is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and the
Womans Film, ed. Christine Gledhill (London: British Film Institute,
1987), 52.
Williams, Linda. Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White from
Uncle Tom to O.J. Simpson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2001. Print.