The Chinese Mirror

Qian Huafo (1884-1964)

    Although his place in the history of Chinese motion pictures is a relatively minor one, an actor who specialized in comic roles for the silent comedy shorts made by the Asia Film and Theater Company before World War I, Qian Huafo's standing in the wider world of art was considerably higher.  In fact, he examplified what the Western world would call a "Renaissance man".
    Qian Huafo 钱化佛 was born Qian Suhan 钱苏汉 in Wujin (now Changzhou), Jiangsu in 1884.  In his early years he studied in Japan, where he joined the Tongmenghui, the secret society and underground resistance movement organized by Sun Yat-sen and Song Jiaoren in Tokyo, Japan, on 20 August 1905.  Qian returned to Shanghai in 1910, and was an active participant in the Wuhan uprising of 1911 which led to the overthrow of the Qing (Manchu) dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China.  Qian's service in the revolution led to an interview with Sun, who personally invited the young man to join the newly-formed government.  Qian gratefully but firmly declined this and subsequent offers of official posts, as his heart was in the arts, and that's where he wanted to return.  Back in Shanghai, he co-founded the New Drama Society, a theatrical company which performed modern plays, and in 1913 he was a co-founder of the Asia Film and Theater Company, the first entirely Chinese-invested and Chinese-staffed movie studio in China.  Until World War I put the company out of business by cutting off the supply of film from Europe, Qian participated in nearly all of Asia Film's productions, as a writer and/or actor.
    But his fame and reputation came from another art form:  painting.  He specialized in paintings of the Buddha or Buddha-like arhats, in various outdoor settings.  It was about this time that he adopted Huafo 化佛 ("becoming a buddha") as his given name and not long after renamed his art studio "10,000 Buddha Building".  This latter title accurately forecast the enormous popularity of these paintings, for by his own estimates Qian turned out more than 10,000 of them during his career.
    Qian also had a passion, almost an addiction to collecting.  Starting with samples of the calligraphy of the founding fathers of the Republic he had served with during the revolution, he soon expanded his collecting interests to other areas:  decorative fans, snuff bottles, ancient coins, antique public announcements and placards – over 10 categories of artifacts in all.  His collections were so well-chosen and attractively displayed that others with the collecting interest dubbed him the "Grand Master of Collecting".
     Qian Huafo died in Shanghai in 1964.  Some of his paintings and artifacts from his collections can be viewed at this Chinese site.  Clicking on an image will bring up its enlargement.  Page through the many illustrations by clicking on the numbers at the bottom of each page.

Cheng Peilin (? - ?)

    At the start of the 1920s, Cheng Peilin (程沛霖) was one of the Chinese students in the U.S. who were deeply offended at the distorted racial stereotypes presented in American film productions, resentment which ultimately led to the establishment of the Great Wall film company in New York in 1921.  To better help with the new studio, he enrolled at a New York film school to study photography, and when the young Chinese filmmakers moved their operations to Shanghai, Cheng became their principal cinematographer. In 1927, when the Nationalist government launched the Northern Expedition to suppress the warlords and unite the country under one government, he traveled to the frontlines to film several news documentaries on the military operations.

Filmography (all as cinematographer):

1924:
The Divorcee [aka Discarded Wife]

1925:
Between Love and Filial Duty
Cupid's Puppets
The Person in the Boudoir Dream

1926:
A String of Pearls
The Hypocrite
Unlucky Double

1927:
At the End of Her Rope      (with Li Wenguang)
The Arrow of Hatred

1928:
The Great Swordsman's Revenge
The True and False Monkey King
The Spider Gang

The Chinese Filmography, 1913: Comedy Shorts Predominant

    China's film industry was still in its initial stage in 1913, and while there were two full-length features made in that year (each the first for China and Hong Kong), there were no such attempts immediately after that; instead, the predominant genre remained comedy shorts of the slapstick variety.  Actually, the 1913 filmography could be called the Asia Film and Theater Company filmography, as it was the only mainland studio filming that year, with the Li brothers' Sino-American studio in Hong Kong the only other Chinese company in operation. 
    Exaggerated movements and (often) a wild chase scene were common characteristics of Asia Film's shorts, probably in emulation of the Mack Sennett comedies, so popular among Shanghai audiences.  Like their American model, a few common threads running through these early Chinese comedies were:  a reflection of the everyday concerns of ordinary people, not the elite; good deeds rewarded and bad ones punished; and plot development heavily dependent on misunderstanding and coincidence.
[above right, the Asia Film and Theater Company staff in 1913]

Lei Xiadian (? - ?)

    Lei Xiadian (雷夏电) was one of the early young leading men in Chinese films, and the principal male lead for the Great Wall studio during its relatively brief existence.  He was born in the U.S. to a Cantonese family which later moved back to China and settled in Guangzhou, where Lei attended Pearl River Middle School. He later studied at Hujiang University in Shanghai, and in 1925 joined Great Wall, acting the male lead in such early silents as《Cupid's Puppets》,《A String of Pearls》and《Between Love and Filial Duty 》, the last of which was shown in various U.S. Chinatown theaters and was well received.

 

 

 

Filmography (all as actor):

1925:
Between Love and Filial Duty
The Person in the Boudoir Dream
Cupid's Puppets
 
1926:
A String of Pearls
The Hypocrite
The Country Maid
Unlucky Double 

1927:
At the End of Her Rope
The Arrow of Hatred

1928:
The Date of Na Zhe's Birth

Liang Shaopo and《Stealing a Roast Duck》(1909)

    In our article about Li Minwei, "The Father of Hong Kong Film," we noted that his "Zhuangzi Tests his Wife" is often referred to as the first Chinese film shown outside of Asia.  This is true depending on, to paraphrase a recent U.S. president, what your definition of "Chinese" is.  "Zhuangzi," made in 1913, was the first motion picture wholly invested and made by Chinese people.  But the first Chinese film exhibited outside of Asia was an earlier production, 1909's "Tou Shaoya" 偷烧鸭 (Stealing a Roast Duck). 
    This comedy short was the first movie actually filmed in Hong Kong, and when it was later taken to the U.S. by Benjamin Brodsky and exhibited there, became the first Chinese film to be shown outside of Asia.   However, because the Asia Film and Theater Co. was an enterprise wholly owned by the Russian-American Brodsky, this and the other films made by his Asia Film studio in Shanghai and Hong Kong are considered to have been American productions, and the Li brothers' 1913 "Zhuangzi Tests his Wife" as the first Hong Kong movie.

The Chinese Filmography: 1924

    While some studios continued churning out comedy shorts, a growing number were producing full-length features.  Some of these followed the more established pattern of dramatizing current social problems, while others tried to capitalize on audiences' appetite for entertainments, especially of the mystery/adventure genre.  Five new studios made their debut in 1924:  Baihe (Lotus), Changcheng (Great Wall), Da Zhonghua (Great China), Dalu (Mainland) and Xin Zhonghua (New China), joining established studios Mingxing (Star) and the Commercial Press.  Altogether, these studios turned out 14 features in 1924, of which 12 are of particular note: