The History of Chinese Film February 4, 2013
Auguste and Louis Lumière
• First private screening of projected motion pictures in 1895 • First public screening for which admission was charged happens a few months later, in December • These films were around 50 feet long and handcranked through a projector for a run time about 50 seconds
A few months later…
August 11, 1896 • Some of the same Lumière brothers films are shown at Xu Gardens in Shanghai • These films are called “Western shadow plays” 西样影戏 xīyàngyǐngxì in an effort to connect them to the millennia-old tradition of the shadow play 皮影戏píyǐngxì
Western-Style Shadow Plays • Morphs into “electric shadow” 电影 diànyǐng • Integrated into tea-house style productions • First movie theater opens in Beijing in 1908 • By 1929, there are 233 movie theaters in China spread across 7 cities (53 in Shanghai alone) • Film in China before the 1920 s was basically film for film’s sake
What were they watching? • Before World War I – European imports, particularly French companies like Pathè and Goumont • After World War I – American Hollywood products
Beginnings of the Chinese Film Industry • 1905: Ren Jingfeng (1850 -1932)，who studied photography in Japan, bought film equipments from a German store in Beijing and set out for the first attempt of filmmaking • Dingjun Mountain 定军山 Dingjun shan featuring episodes from a popular Beijing Opera play
Asia Film Company • 亚细亚影戏公司 Yaxiya yingxi gongsi • Established in 1909 • American businessman Benjamin Polaski, Chinese comprador Zhang Shichuan (18891953), and Chinese theatrical talent Zhengqiu (1888 -1935), who later become the leading filmmakers in the Star Film Studio 明 星 Mingxing and honored as the "Father of Chinese Cinema. "
The difficult couple • • 難夫難妻 Nanfu nanqi 1913 China’s first narrative film parody of the ridiculous customs of arranged marriage • 45 minutes • All male characters
• Asia Film Company collapses when World War I cuts Shanghai off from their supply of German raw film • 1916: American suppliers fill the void • The Commercial Press emerges as the leading publishing house • Buy film equipment from an American merchant in 1917 and sent people to Europe and America to study print and film technologies
• 1918: Motion Picture Department is formed and starts making films • Developed five categories of films: "landscape, " "current event, " "educational films, " "new drama, " and "costume drama“ • Also helped other small film studios • By the end of the 1910 s, film had emerged as a primary communication form
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