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Chapter 3. Research Method
3.1 Textual Analysis
Larsen (2002) pointed out that the text in media is not limited in a single meaning or ideology. Even though there is numerous information in the text, people can only understand these contents by analyzing and interpreting. According to Fairclough (1995), textual analysis is to deconstruct works and see how the parts fit together.
Besides, textual analysis helps people understand the meanings and representations within a specific text in relation to society and culture (Clink & Kramer, 2007). Thus, textual analysis becomes a critical index for censoring social change.
Textual analysis is further divided into two sub-concepts as intertextuality and contextual analysis by Fairclough. Despite analyzing the meaning of texts, intertextuality focused on the interaction of different texts which aims to understand the relation of society and texts (Fairclough, 1995). Contextual analysis is to interpret the social meaning of texts in its context and social background. In the study of cinema and culture, the contextual analysis mainly focused on cultural, political or systematic influences toward cinema which more strengthened its process of cultural production.
(Valdivia, 1995).
Matyas (2010) used textual analysis to discuss representations of race and gender of Disney princesses within its films. Through analyzing heroines in nine Disney princess films, it revealed the power relation in gender and conveyed the typical images of female. It found out that the influence of animated films of Disney gradually replaced
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the traditional fairytales, it forced Disney to adjust its text according to the current social development. Thus, from the series of Disney princess works, it reflects the attitudes, values, and beliefs of society at different times.
Pan (2007) took textual analysis as a methodology to analyze four Taiwanese teenager-campus films in 1980s such as KUO-HAO Crams For College (飛越補習班，1981), The Campus Incidents (校園檔案，1985), Lessons of the Playground (風雨操場，1989) and Winter Break (寒假有夠長，1989). It discussed the construction of masculinity and national identity among young-adults. Through the narration of films, it revealed that the teenagers in the films identified themselves with their fathers who served in the military and constructed their masculinity from the peer group. This condition also reflected the comradeship between male teenagers, which represent the images of Mainlander male as well as gang, and further, extend the loyalty to the agnate and the nation in 1980s Taiwan.38
Therefore, in my study, I apply the concept of textual analysis to analyze On the Happiness Road by firstly focusing on its narration structure and its themes such as gender, language, White Terror and global post-Cold War world situation on Taiwan.
I classify examples in the text by different themes, then further conclude what On the Happiness Road referred to in Taiwan.
38 潘素慧（2007）。＜解構八 0 年代校園學生電影：類型、性別、國族認同＞，1-112.
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3.2 Semiology
Textual analysis is often implemented together with semiology to interpret signs and symbols. Semiology in cinema is to study how the films signify and what is being signified (Giannetti, 1999). Saussure firstly contributed to semiology and considered the written text is the representation of language. He proposed that sign is composed by signified and signifier under the convention of society. On the other hand, Peirce proposed three concepts of signs as icon, index and symbol. Contrast to Saussure, Peirce focused more on the process of signs being understood by the readers. He emphasized on the relations of the sign itself and what the signs represented to discuss the process of people interpret signs (Barthes, 1977).
According to Understanding Movies, Metz employed the concept of semiology into film study to construct signs and codes in cinema. He considered that the filmic language is symbolic. Music, mise en scene, framing, camera shots, camera movement, lighting, editing and colors in the cinema are the filmic elements worthy to be interpreted. Cinema is composed of the complex signs, whereas the audience can instinctively interpret these signs by themselves (Giannetti, 1999, p.509).
The following are examples of applying semiology to analyze films.
Liu (2014) discussed the camera movement in Days of Being Wild (阿飛正傳，1990) as signs to interpret the relationship between the characters. For instance, in the fighting scene of two female characters, the different height of stairs they stood referred to their different attitudes in tense confrontation. He further indicated that stairs and corridor
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are commonly used as a symbol for showing characters’ emotion and relationship in films of director Wong Kar-Wai(王家衛).39
Tseng (2010) analyzed the dining scenes in Eat Drink Man Woman (飲食男女，1994) by director Ang Lee and Still Walking (橫山家之味，2008) by director Hirokazu Koreeda. It discussed that both directors used foods and dining tables to construct the family relationship. The memory toward particular foods became the symbol of the memory of the family members.40
Therefore, the idea of semiology played an important role to go into the deeper meaning of symbols and all kinds of signs in cinema. So, I apply this methodology to analyze On the Happiness Road by looking into its filmic language to understand how the director constructs the story style. By interpreting these signs further help this study to understand its hidden ideology, symbols, and metaphors inside On the Happiness Road.
39 劉永晧（2014）。＜分析王家衛的《花樣年華》 從第 275 個鏡頭到第 298 個鏡頭：上下樓梯的女人、走廊與迷 宮、電影與它的皺褶＞，《藝術學研究》，15： 31-75。
40 曾曉玲（2010）。＜飲食, 諒解的起點─以李安《 飲食男女》與是枝裕和《橫山家之味》為探討對象＞，《文化研 究月報》，110：43-61。