本土劇的顛覆性+思瑤小分析 - 同志

A Short Analysis on Taiwanese Local Melodrama Siyao+Xiaoting





The queer couple Siyao and Xiaoting currently featured in the Taiwanese Set
TV series provides us with an alternative conceptualization to perceive the
long dismissed genre of local melodrama that challenges the hegemony of the
Enlightenment realism, and a glimpse of the formation of the self-alienation
that results in a paradoxical narcissistic subject who cedes the object of
love to the other as a defense mechanism. This short analysis will lead
through the theoretical discourses with a psychoanalytical slant. The aim of
this analysis lies in the query of the tandem between the unreliability of
the narrative and the agency of such an unreliable narrative.




The subversive elements of local melodrama

Without much introduction to the Enlightenment project, its ideology, and
realism which follow its suits, I prefer to point out the pitfalls of
realism. 1) the omnipresent, omnipotent narrator presupposes a viewpoint that
is above all human beings and implies a moral high point that could be
assumed by the reader/viewer. 2) the plot which must be rational, or in other
words explainable, tends to ignore the antagonism of
individual/cultural/social/political dimensions in real life. 3) the
characterization of round vs. flat character with an overwhelming emphasis on
the round character, though in a sense does pay attention to the human depth,
more often than not stereotypes character and consequently compromises human
complexity such as weakness and darkness. 4) the linear temporality preferred
in realism ignores that human perception of time never coincides with the
scientifically flowing time. Rather human experience of time of encounters a
frozen or even regression of time that cannot be accounted of be the
linearity.

I would like to point out that the multiple narratives adopted by Taiwanese
local melodrama is extreme progressive in a sense because this fundamentally
challenged the omnipresence and the omnipotence of the narrator. With
multiple narratives which could testify or contradict each other, there no
longer exists a single point of view and a highest moral stand. The strategy
of Set, I would like to further point out, of simultaneously shooting and
casting, creates highly unreliable narratives and characterizations that
cannot be consistently rationalized. These, to some viewers, may appear
unacceptable and ridiculous, and many viewers may put many efforts to find a
consistency in the characters who weaver all the time. However, it is exactly
the subversive elements of local melodrama in terms of challenging the
western uni-centrism that the east learns to adore since the colonialism.




Narcissism, the object of love, and love for the other

Since Siyao lost her eyesight, I observe a narcissistic regression that leads
her unintentionally to paradoxically cede the object of love in order gain
love of the other. This is, as many has observed, she always does, but I
would like to put this in a psychoanalytic framework. The common usage of
narcissism often misleads. In psychoanalysis we call someone narcissistic
when the one in concerned refuses ceding the object of love or cedes just
merely in return of more. Ceding concerns the formation of a symbolic
subject. In the infantile stage, the infant has no distinction between the
maternal/caretaker body/voice and its own. Once the infant’s basic need such
as food is not fulfilled, however, there occurs alienation which makes the
mother/caretaker a formidable other, a maternal other that the infant both
loves and fears. In response to the unfulfilled need, but more as a response
to its own need of attachment to the maternal other, the infant cedes its
object of love to the maternal other. The ceding of object of love usually
involves the so-called growth or learning of the infant such as control of
feces or self-feeding. The ceding to a certain degree will pleases the
maternal other, but at this stage the symbolic father has entered and the
infant is now in the process of becoming the subject. It no longer relies
solely on the maternal other for identification; the symbolic father at this
plays a molding role.

In the case of Syiao, I defines her as narcissism because 1) she has no
scruple to give up everything for Xiaoting, which leads me to the assumption
that this is indeed a very attaching love. 2) she cedes Xiaoting not due to
lack of love but because she would rather Xiaoting loves her as she remaining
perfect, a gesture, in other words, begging for more love.

The above argument is founded on the assumption that Xiaoting can serve as
Siyao’s maternal other. I would say that although Siyao has tended to play
the strong, she is the one who is more unsecure internally, as we can find in
many of her solos and her social attitude.



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