An Analysis of the Social Issues Revealed by Mo Yan's Novella Shifu, You’ll Do Anything for a Laugh and Its Adaptation of the Film Happy Times

Abstract

This study aims to analyze Chinese social issues reflected in Mo Yan’s novella Shifu, You’ll Do Anything for a Laugh and the film adaptation based on the novella called Happy Times. The study is also to find explanations of how the novella and the film reflect different social problems. The research methods of this study are text analysis and comparative analysis, combined with the theory of film adaptation. The study concludes that three social problems are reflected in the novella: laid-off workers lacking access to social security, government officials not being able to solve societal problems, and inadequate health insurance coverage for laid-off workers, which does not cover hospitalization. The film adaptation reflects two social problems. Firstly, some parents neglect their children by not taking good care of them; in some cases, stepmothers abuse children. Secondly, there is a lack of social security for the disabled. The social problems reflected in the novella and film are different. The reason is that the film adaptation is affected by four factors, including the influence of different social backgrounds, the influence of the adaptor's attitude, the influence of the strict film censorship system, and the influence of public aesthetics. As a result, the film could not reflect the acute social problems shown in the novella.