.1920 Age: National Identity And The Establishment Of China's Early Films

This thesis is a study of how Chinese film started and developed in Shanghai in the 1920s.Taking "national identity" as its guideline, the thesis describes how Chinese film established itself under the powerful influence of European and American movies. The description includes both chronological development and some case studies that compare Chinese and western films. The author thinks that the development of Chinese film in the 1920s can be divided into the following three periods. (1) In the early days of the 1920s, the stereotyped Chinese in the American movies caused identity anxiety among Chinese audience and to depict real Chinese on screen became the driving force for the booming of film studios in Shanghai. (2) Along with the start of Chinese national film industry, Chinese film constantly pursued the national identity of Chinese film, that is the film satisfying the requests of national identification , while learning much from European and American movies. Therefore two different ways of representation were created: "Chinese style" and "Western way", which are also two cultural orientation for Chinese filmmaking. (3) Since the middle of the 1920s, Chinese film began to turn to traditional and folk narratives, which led to a peak development of ancient-costume movie and wuxia movie that expressed the national identity in the disguise of commercial competition. And this is the way the author understands and tries to reconstruct the Chinese film in the 1920s.The thesis is composed of five sections. In the first section, the author describes and discusses how and what European and American movies introduced in Shanghai, the stereotyped Chinese in those films causing deep national identity anxiety and the Chinese early filmmakers' responses to that anxiety. The second section mainly focuses on the initial stage of Chinese film, its imitation of foreign movies while showing distinctive inclination towards Chinese and Western styles. The early films by Commercial Press Film Studio, Shanghai Photoplay Company and Star Film Company will be discussed in this section. The third section will make a case study of Star Film Company as its main screenwriters and directors, such as Zheng Zhengqiu, Bao Tianxiao and Hong Shen, express clear national consciousness in their movies. Their films will be examined to see how western narratives were adopted into Chinese movies. The author thinks that their work set an example for the localization of film in China. In the fourth section, the lack of national identity as a problem of early Chinese film produced by some of the studios is discussed. The author gives special attention to some intellectual films made by the Great Wall Film Company, Shenzhou Film Company and Minxin Film Company. The Great China and Lily Film Company is discussed here as it was often criticized for its "western way" of filmmaking. The Section 5 will examine the historical, psychological, aesthetic and national causes for the coming of ancient-costume movie and wuxia movie. The influence of western history films, the films by Douglas Fairbanks and others is also put into the consideration.The author thinks that the 1920s is the first important decade for Chinese film, during which different genres of films were shot in Shanghai by Chinese film companies and the traditional Chinese forms of entertainments were transformed into movies and found their way in the new representation system. In the construction of Chinese film, national identity played a very important role.