Girlhood, bride-kidnapping and the postsocialist moment in Mángshān (Blind Mountain) (Li, 2007) and Boz Salkyn (Pure Coolness) (Abdyjaparov, 2007)

Abstract

China and Kyrgyzstan are at the point of national development where the interplay between a national past and a globalised future are still hotly debated. Both nations are at the crux of the global questions related to the universal dilemmas posed by the collapse of the revolutionary socialist challenge to the hegemony of capitalism (Sakwa 1999). This article will examine the interplay between gender and the vision of postsocialist modernity that is found in two films. Blind Mountain (Li, 2007) and Pure Coolness (Abdyjaparov, 2007) both present the respective stories of teenagers forced into marriage as part of a "tradition" that is supported by the broader local community (as opposed to been the act of an individual male kidnapper). I will explore how the girl simultaneously represents a vision of a localised space while operating as an indicative sign of cultural difference. In short, she is the site of the transmission of ideals of gender and modernity between moments in national development. We, therefore, see the girl caught in the crosshair of modernity, sexuality, tradition, nostalgia and capitalism in communities that, as will be explored, are struggling to find a sense of self in the Asian post-socialist moment.