The Countryside as an Inhospitable Frontier in Australian and Chinese Films

Abstract

The Countryside as an inhospitable frontier, as a place where human beings live a harsh life, frequently appeared in both Australian film and Chinese leftist films in the period of nationalism, the 1920s and 1930s. In Australia, this construction manifests itself in the old idea of human beings in conflict with nature, working in an unfriendly environment to make the barest living. In China, it is a new construction, differing from the old motif of a “pastoral” countryside blessed by nature. In Australia, despite its challenges, the countryside was still regarded as a peaceful homeland for human beings to return to, but in Chinese leftist culture, the construction of a negative image of the countryside was so extreme that it was depicted as a totally wretched world.