Beyond Empowerment Narratives: A Feminist Analysis of Three Representative Chinese Women-Centered Films

Abstract

In recent years, women-centered films have become increasingly visible in China amid wider public discussion of gender equality. Taking YOLO, Herstory, and Like a Rolling Stone as case studies, this paper uses three gender-evaluation tools, the Bechdel Test, the Sexy Lamp Test, and the Mako Mori Test, together with feminist film theory, to examine how mainstream Chinese cinema constructs female subjectivity. The analysis shows that these films have made clear progress in resisting the objectification of women and in presenting female desire, labor, anger, and self-recognition. They also make patriarchal oppression visible through domestic labor, spatial arrangement, and intergenerational conflict. However, their feminist critique remains limited because structural problems are often translated into narratives of personal growth, individual choice, and emotional healing. This strategy allows feminist themes to enter the commercial mainstream, but it also makes feminism more compatible with market consumption and weakens its critique of class, region, and institutional power. Future women-centered films should therefore move beyond the image of the successful independent woman and engage more seriously with intersectional experiences, especially those of working-class, rural, elderly, and less privileged women.