Working the System

In Workingthe System: Motion Picture, Filmmakers, and Subjectivities in Mao-Era China,1949-1966, Qiliang He inquires into the making of the new citizenry inMao-era China (1949–1976) by studying five preeminent Shanghai-basedfilmmakers. These case studies shed light on how individuals' subjectivitiestook shape in the cinematic arena under a new sociopolitical system after 1949.He suggests that a filmmaker’s subjectivity was not fixed or stable butconstantly in flux, requiring a host of "subjectivizing practices" to (re)shapeand consolidate it. These filmmakers endeavored to reap maximal benefits fromMao’s sociopolitical system and minimize the disadvantages that would make themvictims under the system. In short, Qiliang He argues that the filmmakers notonly worked under the socialist system imposed upon them but also worked thesystem in their best interests.