The Chinese Mirror

Wu Suxin, Zhang Huimin, and the Huaju Studio Silents

        After relying in the earliest years of Chinese filmmaking on stage artists, by 1925 China's growing number of film schools, studio-operated as well as independents, were turning out a deep pool of acting talent trained specifically for the the screen.  One of these was a young actress named Wu Suxin, who became a leading martial arts film heroine during the late-1920s mania for that genre.
    Wu Suxin was born in 1905 or 1906, and while sources list her as a native of Xiangshan, Guangdong, it is unclear as to whether that was her actual birthplace or her family's ancestral home.  (Chinese biographical sources often list both, especially if the subject was born in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin or outside of the China mainland.)  We do know that her birth name was Wu Baodiao 吴宝蝉, and after graduating from Kai Xiu Senior Girls School in Shanghai, she enrolled in the (independent) Far East Film College to study acting.  After graduating in 1925 she joined the newly-founded Tianyi Film Company (forerunner of the Shaw Brothers) and had important supporting roles in such films as "Repentance," "Movie Actress," "Legend of the White Snake," "The Tragedy of Liang and Zhu" and "The Pearl Pagoda," all of which starred Hu Die (still several years away from becoming China's "Movie Empress") with Wu Xin holding second or third billing among the females in each film.     

[left, Wu Suxin in traditional bridal dress; click on any image to see full size]    

    One of her early supporting roles was in the Minxin studio's "Heroine Li Feifei."  This brought her to the attention of two brothers who were starting their own studio, and for the next several years the name of Wu Suxin was inseparable from that of another: Zhang Huimin 张惠民.  We earlier discussed the varied careers of Zhang Huichong, the eldest of seven sons of a wealthy Shanghai businessman, who left a sizable fortune when he died.  Zhang Huichong used his part of the legacy to start a film company with his actress wife Xu Sue, a studio that specialized in martial arts films.  Hoping to emulate their elder brother's success, the second and third eldest brothers, Zhang Huimin and Zhang Qingpu 晴浦 used their share to start another studio they called Huaju, also specializing in martial arts. They recruited Wu Suxin to be their principal leading lady.  Her first movie for Huaju was the two-part "White Lotus," and from that start she went on to make a total of 24 films for the studio between 1927 and 1931, the bulk of them martial arts adventures, although Huaju moved into other genres when the mania for action films declined at the end of the 1920s.  One of Wu Suxin's recurring characters was a swordswoman called the "White Rose," and Huaju began listing her in the English language credits as "White Rose Woo," even in her non-action roles.  In most of these movies, Zhang Huimin had the male lead, with he and brother Qingpu sharing the directing, writing and cinematography functions.

The Great Wall Studio: born from ethnic resentment

[left, Alla Nazimova, as a half-Chinese girl in Metro's 1919 production of 'The Red Lantern.' ]

  In January, 1921, a movie opened in New York City which provoked considerable outrage among the city's Overseas Chinese community.  The movie was "The First Born," which, while produced by and starring Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa, featured Caucasians in yellowface filling all other significant roles.  But it was not the casting the Chinese found most objectionable; rather, it was the movie's distorted stereotypes of what was purported to be everyday Chinese life and common practices:  female foot-binding, bizarre foods and drink, drug-dealing in the streets, opium smoking, frequenting brothels, etc. This was a second cinematic blow to Chinese ethnic pride:  less than two years earlier, another movie, "The Red Lantern," had opened in New York (ironically, on May 4, 1919), which gave similarly negative and warped images of the Chinese people and their culture.  Like "The First Born," it also had an A-list cast for the time, including Noah Berry, Reginald Denny, and Alla Nazimova in a key dual role as half-sisters, one of mixed race.  (The only authentic Asians were uncredited extras, including a teen-aged Anna May Wong.)

[right, a scene from 'The Red Lantern.'  Alla Nazimova is at left.  At the time, she was the studio's top money-making star]

   A delegation of Chinese community leaders went to the New York representative of Sun Yat-sen's Guangdong government, demanding he approach Mayor John Francis Hylan about the matter, which they did.  Hylan, a proud Irish-American familiar with ethnic slurs and stereotypes, agreed the films were unacceptably offensive, and took steps to ban them from further exhibition in NYC.  Unfortunately, this was the petitioners' only success at the urban level, as both movies continued to be shown in other American cities.  So the Overseas Chinese leaders took their grievance to the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, expressing to the board members how unacceptable they found these outrageous caricatures of the Chinese people and their culture.  The Board's response was not at all what the petitioners had wanted, in fact was insulting:  in effect, the Chinese were told that if they wanted accurate reflections of themselves, they should make movies that foreigners would want to see, not the silly and ephemeral comedy shorts that were the staple of Chinese moviemaking until that time.
    So the Chinese decided to do just that.  In May, 1921, with the financial support of Li Qidao (李期道), a wealthy New York Chinese, a group composed of New York Chinese residents and Chinese students pooled their talents and founded their own company to make movies which would accurately portray China and the Chinese.  At first, it was called the Changcheng [Great Wall] Motion Picture Manufacturing Company, and in 1922 they released two short films in New York:  these were "Zhongguo de Fuzhuang" 中国的服装  (Chinese Costume), and "Zhongguo de Guoshu" 中国的国术 (China's National Art) which were, respectively, introductions to China's traditional costume and its martial arts.  But the prospects for such a company in the US were dim, plus becoming a major US studio had never been the objective, so in 1924 the young students who had started Changcheng decided to return to China and move the company, renamed the Changcheng (Great Wall) Film Company, and bringing with it all its film equipment.  They set up operations in temporary quarters in Shanghai while a permanent studio was under construction, and moved into it in 1925.

1926: Continued Growth

[left, Tianyi studio entrance]

  Chinese studios completed 98 films in 1926, only a few of them shorts, reflecting the changing tastes of film audiences.  Mingxing again led the way in individual full-length releases with 11, but in another new trend, the Shao (later Shaw) Brothers Tianyi studio produced a few multi-part films which brought their actual total to 13 feature length releases in just their second year of operation.  The Da Zhongguo (Great China) studio, also in just its second year, came in a close second with 12, which also included several multi-part productions.  Six other studios had 3 or more productions in 1926, while the remainder were scattered among 26 other studios in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing.
    Another batch of new faces appeared on screen for the first time in 1926, including future matinee idol Gong Jianong, beginning a career that would last through the 1960s, as well as future male leads Sun Min, Yuan Congmei and Wang Cilong.  Future female stars debuting in 1926 were Chen Yumei, Li Dandan, Li Manli, Liang Menghua, Liang Saizhen and the woman now regarded as China's greatest actress of the silent era – Ruan Lingyu.
    Two notable directing careers began in 1926, writer/director Bu Wancang (who had earlier credits as a cinematographer) and writer/director Shen Fu.
    Most of the newcomers will be dealt with individually in future posts, either in full profiles or brief biographies.

Classic Era Interview: the Asia Film and Theater Company

[In October, 1956, the China Film Press 中国电影出版社 of Beijing launched a new periodical, Zhongguo Dianying 中国电影 (Chinese Cinema).    In addition to reviews and commentaries on current film, the new publication in each issue took a look back at China's motion picture history, including the first-person recollections of some pioneer filmmakers.  These were collected and republished in book form by the China Film Press in 1988.  While prowling one day through Beijing's many bookstalls, looking for materials on the early history of Chinese movies and the people who made them, the editor came across this out-of-print item that gives us some unique and valuable insights into China's early movie industry.  These oral histories will be translated and published here in the hope they may prove useful to film scholars and historians in the West.  Full bibliographic citation is given at the end of the article.  Items in brackets, like this one, are Chinese Mirror editorial notes, provided for clarification.  The subject of this first interview, Qian Huafo 钱化佛, while an accomplished actor who specialized in comic roles, achieved his greatest fame as an artist, one of China's foremost painters of the first half of the 20th century.]

[left, Qian Huafo in an undated newspaper photo]

     I guess I'm qualified to talk about the Asia Film and Theater Company, because I was involved in the making of nearly all of that studio's films, either as an actor or writer.  So here is what I know.
    The studio had been started by an American named Benjamin Brodsky, and another central figure in the business was an Englishman familiar with the Chinese language.   I never knew the Englishman's name:  everyone just called him "Blondie," (黄毛) so "Blondie" became his name at the studio.
    The company was set up with an investment of US$30,000, and was located in a large building at No.5 Hong Kong Road in Shanghai.  The empty space had advertising on all the walls up to about 3 meters from the ceiling, so we just covered one wall with a white sheet, and considered that to be our movie stage.

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]

Dan Duyu and "The Sea Oath" (1922)

    As mentioned in the last post, China's first full-length feature film (and first docudrama), 1921's highly successful "Yan Ruisheng" was soon followed by two more full-length features, both also critically and financially successful, and each marking some Chinese cinematic "firsts" of its own.  This article discusses the second in this initial trio of full-length features, "Hai Shi" 海誓 (The Sea Oath).  In addition to being China's first screen romance, it also marked the appearance of the country's first filmmaking couple, director Dan Duyu 但杜宇and his leading lady (and later wife) Yin Mingzhu 殷明珠.
    No discussion of 1920s Chinese cinema would be complete without mention of Dan Duyu.   Although the term auteur filmmaking, referring to film as an expression of the director's personal creative vision, did not begin showing up in film theory literature until the 1950s, Dan Duyu was an early auteur practitioner, certainly China's first.  And while the term today most likely refers to a combination director-screenwriter, Dan Duyu went far beyond that, especially in his earliest movies.

[left, Dan Duyu in early career]

1922: The Mingxing Film Company

Although the first Chinese feature film was produced in 1913, it was not until the mid-1920s that the Chinese movie industry entered what became a tidal wave of studios and film production.  But on the eve of this surge, in March 1922, five Shanghai men got together to start a business venture in this new industry.  Their idea was a movie studio, one that would be wholly Chinese-owned and operated, unlike previous efforts which were controlled by foreigners.    They decided to call their studio "Mingxing" 明星 (Star) Film Company, and beginning with four short films the same year, and continuing until the Japanese occupiers shut it down in 1937, Mingxing turned out over 200 motion pictures, including many of China's most successful classics of 1920s and 30s, China's first Golden Age of film production.  In the process, the studio emerged early on as the dominant player in Shanghai's flourishing movie industry.

1918: A Big Step Toward a National Film Industry

The 1918 establishment of a department within the Commercial Press with the specific mission of producing movies marked a new stage for the Chinese movie industry. Unlike the earlier Asia Film Company, which was largely foreign invested and had the trappings of a speculative venture, the new motion picture department was funded with the Press's own capital, had a firmer technical foundation, a set management system, and more concrete ideas of what it wanted to produce. Its establishment was the actual beginning of Chinese motion pictures on an industrial model.

Chinese Cinema's American Roots

    Founded in 1897 with only two printing presses, the Commercial Press of Shanghai had by 1912 grown into the unmatched publishing giant of China, with separate editorial, printing and translating divisions, as well as a school and a library, all housed in two gleaming new buildings.

(left, the Commercial Press of Shanghai, circa 1920)

    We don't have his name, but in the autumn of 1917 an American entrepreneur arrived in China with many boxes filled with negatives and motion picture camera parts, along with a sizable amount of start-up money. He settled his family in the city of Nanjing, and set up a film company there. Unfortunately, he was unfamiliar with Chinese customs and business methods, and unlike Benjamin Brodsky a few years earlier, was unable to find anyone to help him. After two years, he had depleted his capital without completing even one film. He fell ill, and decided to sell all his equipment at a loss for money to return home. But after some time passed with no buyers coming forward, he contacted a Chinese friend who worked at the Commercial Press, and invited him to Nanjing to discuss a possible deal. After looking over the equipment, the Chinese friend cabled his supervisors with details of the proposed deal, and they granted him permission to work out a deal on behalf of the firm. At a deep discount, the Commercial Press took possession of an old Camel brand Pathe camera, a quantity of negatives, and all furniture and miscellaneous items from the failed studio. The Press turned this equipment over to its photographic processing and printing department, and began the process of establishing a new section of the company for the express purpose of motion picture production.

Benjamin Brodsky and the Asia Film Company

    As with China's first movie theater, China's earliest film company was established by a Western entrepreneur. China at that time had a population of about 400 million, less than one-third of what it is now. Then as now it was regarded as potentially the world's largest movie market. This market lured a succession of adventurers to China, to exhibit and/or make motion pictures. After a series of individual filmmaking efforts, China's first film company was officially established in Shanghai in 1909 by a Russian-American businessman named Benjamin Brodsky.
    While this effort failed, it supplied the equipment and funding that eased the way for the most representative of China's first generation of filmmakers, Zhang Shichuan and Zheng Zhengqiu, to join the film community.
    If we want to fix the parameters for the earliest phase of Chinese motion pictures, then 1909 is undoubtedly the key beginning. Two major events occurred in that year: one, the Fengtai Photo Studio was destroyed in a fire, effectively putting its owner out of the movie business; second, the aforementioned Benjamin Bradsky established the Asia Film Company. While it would seem these two events are unconnected, later scholarship has noted a cause-and-effect relationship: the removal of the sole Beijing studio eased the transition to Shanghai as China's film capital.
    They may be no more than historical speculations, but there have been a variety of theories and explanations regarding the fire that destroyed the Feng Tai facility. Regardless of its causes, the calamity did result in shifting China's filmmaking from the relatively colorless environment of Beijing to the vibrant and pulsating environment of Shanghai. It is also certain that the removal of their sole rival left a clear field for Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs to set up shop in Shanghai and create the competitive environment that nurtured and developed China's movie industry for the next three decades. In the first two years of the Asia Film Company's existence, its growth even drew the notice of the Qing government: in the summer of 1911, Shanghai's local authorities made public its "Regulations on Control of Shadow Plays," a set of regulations concerning the exhibition and viewing of motion pictures, China's first, fledgling attempt at movie censorship.
    As did many other foreign fortune-seekers, Brodsky hoped that the risk for an outsider in China would be lessened by exploiting things which were new and unfamiliar to the country, and some of these people became key figures in changing the course of China's motion picture development. In fact, the Asia Film Company could not be regarded as particularly successful in its operations, nor was Brodsky as financially successful as those foreign entrepreneurs who, by opening and operating movie theaters, amassed considerable fortunes, ticket by ticket. Viewed from another angle, the filming activities of Brodsky and Asia Film were the spark that initiated China's early motion picture era. Some examples: when he shot his documentary "China" in Beijing, Brodsky became the first Caucasian permitted to film in the Forbidden City; his short film "Stealing the Roast Duck," made with Hong Kong investment, has always been considered the film that initiated Hong Kong filmmaking; and when Brodsky later returned home, he took with him the film "Zhuangzi Tests His Wife," making it the first exported Chinese movie.
     The year 1912 marked the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the founding of the Republic of China. The significance of these events throughout the country was far from clear. Brodsky, concerned that the turbulent situation in China might have a negative impact on cinema, took the opportunity to transfer ownership of the Asia Film Co. to two other foreign businessmen, managers of the Shanghai offices of an American insurance company. Their actual names are lost to history: Chinese sources transliterate their names as "Yi-shi-er" (Isher?) and "Sa-fei." After closing on the sale, Brodsky departed for Hong Kong, and later to the U.S, spending some time in Los Angeles and eventually settling in San Francisco. A year later, the political situation had basically stabilized, and after having shut the studio down for a year, Isher re-opened Asia Film's operations. He also hired two Chinese, Zhang Shichuan and Zheng Zhengqiu, to run a newly-established studio, the Xinmin (New People) Company, while the parent Asia Film Company assumed responsibility for investment, distribution and supplying filmmaking equipment.
    The Asia Film Company's management style offered a new operational pattern for Chinese movies: foreign investors, Chinese operators. Even today one has to conclude this was a good collaborative model: it created among domestic audiences a sense of identification with the movie; it minimized investors' economic risk. At the same time, it allowed Chinese filmmakers to amass a great deal of valuable experience and avoided a great many particular problems that might be created by the foreigners making the movies themselves. This model, in which investment and distribution are separate from filmmaking operations, is still widely used today, a notable example being the long, pre-merger collaboration of Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios.
    In addition, the Xinmin company set a precedent by signing its actors to contracts, which laid out very clear-cut stipulations for what was required of actors while working on a film, and this also provided some worthwhile examples for Chinese movie mechanisms to draw upon in the days to come. Under these mechanisms, the Asia Film Company and its Minxin studio filmed more than 10 movies, right up to the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

[Filming at the Asia Film Co. at its studio on Shanghai's Hong Kong Road.  Click on picture to enlarge]