The Myth of the Countryside as “Peach Blossom Spring†in Chinese Film

During the period of 1920s and 1930s, China was in a state of early urbanization, industrialization and modernity. Some filmmakers were obsessed with a nostalgia for the traditional way of life, and constructed the myth of the countryside as a “Peach Blossom Spring” in their films. This is a continuation of old myth of a countryside as a detached utopia blessed by nature with plentiful fruits. The traditional “return to the pastoral (country) life” used to be a way of indicating resistance to the fetters and humiliation of official life. During this period, however, it came to be seen as a response to the turbulence and corruption of the city. In the construction of the rural myth, the representations of “city-as-a-villain” and “country-as-a-utopia” in which human beings find refuge, in which the hard realities of country life were given little or no prominence, remained an important theme in Chinese non-leftist films.