The Chinese Mirror

《Variations》(1925)

    The Xin Shaonian [New Youth] Film Company was founded in 1925, and as its name would imply, had the objective of making films of particular interest to a growing -- and increasingly affluent - population of urban young people. The new studio's founders, unfortunately, started their studio with no outside funding, and after making just two movies in 1925, they went out of business.  At the time, they had a script in hand from Tian Han, but the studio's lack of money prevented it from from ever going before the camera (not the last time this would happen to the writer). This, the first of the two productions, dealt with two issues of social concern:  freedom of marital choice, and the uncertain fate of divorced women.

Qing Xian Bian Yin Ji (1925) 情弦变音记 (Variations)

    Xin Shaonian [New Youth].  10 reels.  Premiered January 16, 1925 at the Shenjiang (Shanghai River) Theater.  Direction:  Chen Zhizhen.  Principal cast:  Wang Huixian (Qin Henglan), Wang Hanhui.

    At a certain school, the girls are all in love with a handsome young classmate, Chen Zhiyuan. But he chooses Qin Henglan, and they agree to marry in one year.  But while she is spending a school break at the home of one of her girl friends, an older man named Xu Weixiang meets Henglan and is immediately taken with her beauty.  Xu is a wealthy aristocrat who divorced his first wife early and remarried, but now his second wife has died.  Childless, he wants a third wife to bear children, and determines that will be Henglan.  He gives the girl's father a large sum of money in exchange for her hand, which commits her to Xu.  Although the young couple quarrel over this destruction of their plans and future happiness, Zhiyuan will not abandon his efforts to break the engagement, even making a public protest at the wedding ceremony.  Outraged at this, Weixiang has the young man jailed for illegal alienation of affections.  Zhiyuan's mother operates a day-care business in another city, and when she learns what has happened, she hurries to him. At the trial, the mother meets her son's accuser, and recognizes him as the man who had divorced her years before.  She tells Xu Weixiang that he is Zhiyuan's biological father: soon after the divorce, she had learned she was pregnant, and gave the baby boy her own surname - Chen.  Since she could find no good man who wanted to marry a divorcée, she remained celibate and satisfied her love of children by raising other people's as well as her own. So Weixiang has not only had his own son put on trial, he has married his son's fiancée, who should be his daughter-in-law.  In shame at this turn of events, Xu Weixiang drops all charges and promises to divorce Henglan.

[below, a divorced young mother operates a successful day-care business]

Ethical Films: the Changcheng and Shenzhou Studios

    By the mid-1920s, China's domestic movie industry had taken on a clearly-defined pattern:  three large studios -- Mingxing, Da Zhonghua Baihe and Tianyi -- had formed a triad which dominated Chinese film production, while a varying number of smaller and less well-financed studios struggled to make what they could.  But two of these smaller studios are worthy of mention because of the idealism that went into their productions.  

[left, Wang Xuchang (sometimes Xiangchang), Shenzhou co-founder)

    We have already discussed the Changcheng (Great Wall) Motion Picture Company, and how it was founded and developed by young Chinese nationals who were students in the U.S., with financial backing from overseas Chinese businessmen.  Another studio, also with overseas roots, which began operations about the same time was the Shenzhou (Divine) Film Company.  In this instance, however, the young Chinese starting the company tended to be returnees from study in Europe.  Shenzhou's founder was Wang Xuchang (sometimes recorded as Wang Xiangchang) who had studied cinematography in France.  After returning to China, Wang became director of photography for Mingxing.  But after making three movies for them, Wang determined to start his own company, and with Xu Hu, a former classmate from France, they started a film school, and began raising funding for a studio.  By October, 1924, they had amassed enough capital to start the Shenzhou Film Co.

    Wang Xuchang was studio head, and the company's productions mirrored his views on what the primary purpose of motion pictures should be.  He believed that cinema had social and educational roles, and that film was a powerful weapon in "propagating culture, the best medicine for awakening people's intelligence," and that motion pictures could "influence society [and] cultivate their spirits."  Therefore, Shenzhou's basic strategy was to use film as a "distinctive educational method that would implant common sense into people's minds."  (Wang, Xuchang, "On the crisis in China's movie industry." Special Issue on《Moral Principles》. Shanghai:  Shenzhou Film Company, February, 1926.)

[On the new studio's first day at work in October, 1924, all employees - cast, crew and office staff - assembled for a group photo.]   

    Shenzhou was noted for its serious approach to its productions, and for recruiting talent which shared the basic philosophy of the studio's management.  So it is no surprise that the studio's first leading lady was the brooding and somber young tragedienne Ding Ziming, who starred in Shenzhou's first productions: 《Unbearable Memories》(1925), which condemned unfaithfulness in relationships;《There's a Full Moon Tonight》(1925), an impassioned paean to true and faithful love;《Moral Principles》, which sang the praises of thrift and self-reliance, and《Disaster for Younger Sister》, which exposed how an unforgiving and uncaring society can crush the innocent as well as the guilty.
    The production ideas and practices of both Great Wall and Shenzhou set them apart quite distinctly from other studios of the day, and were praised as being "new school."  As mentioned, each company's founders were Western-trained, which had given them an understanding of film as an art form, an understanding which was new to Chinese filmmakers at that time.  In addition, they were deeply influenced by the Western ideologies of democracy and humanitarianism.  Great Wall stressed the impact that external influences, such as society, could have on personal lives; Shenzhou's emphasis was on the inner feelings of the individual.  But both were dedicated to exposing and criticizing the forces and actions which suppress the individual and destroy human progress.
    Unfortunately, neither studio lasted beyond the decade of their founding, noble as their purpose may have been.  Since both adhered strictly to their policy of shooting "art films," and upholding high standards of ethical quality, their films in the end proved too lofty for popular tastes.  Who wanted to pay for a lecture on morality when there were weepy romances and, in a few short years, flying people with swords to distract the moviegoer seeking relaxing entertainment?  As one Chinese film history expressed it, "their highbrow songs just didn't find enough singers."  (Li, Suyuan and Hu Jubin.  Zhongguo wusheng dianying shi (Chinese silent film history).  Beijing:  China Film Press, 1996, p.92.)  Wang Xuchang left Shenzhou in 1926.  The remaining studio management soldiered on for a few more films, but finally called it quits and disbanded the company in April, 1927. 

1925: The Start of a Legendary Studio

[left, the founding brother:  the eldest, Shao Zuiweng.  Click on any image to show full size.] 
 
    In an earlier article discussing Chinese movie developments of 1925, we briefly mentioned the event of that year having the most far-reaching impact was the establishment of the Tianyi Film Company in Shanghai.  It was founded in June by four brothers named Shao 邵, from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province.  The studio head and prime motivating force behind the studio was eldest brother Shao Renjie 邵仁杰, who went by the alias of Shao Zuiweng 邵醉翁, (literally "old drunk").  Shao graduated from the Fuzhou University law school, after which he went into practice in Shanghai.  This first career didn't pan out, as he "couldn't bear the burden and soon ceased all activity in that field."  (1)  However, he had impressed the Chinese managers of the Sino-French Zhenye (振业) Bank, who appointed him the bank's chief director.  A good job with comfortable income, but he had decided his best future lay in owning and operating his own business, not just for himself, but also to support his widowed mother and provide careers for his several siblings.  So Renjie (as he was still known -- after the brothers moved their base of operations to Hong Kong, the spelling became Runjie) acquired the backing for several joint venture projects he ran in such areas as dyes, sugar, an old-style Chinese private bank, silk and paper, in various East China cities including Shanghai, Tianjin, Ningbo,

[the Shao/Shaw brothers, mother and other siblings]

Zhenjiang and Huzhou.  But none of these panned out as he wanted.  During this period Shao Zuiweng had become interested in amateur theatricals, especially what was called New Drama.  He threw himself into this new interest, founded a theatrical troupe called The Peace Society, and operated a theater (The Laughing Stage) with other future filmmakers Zhang Shichuan and Zheng Zhengqiu.  Shao became captivated by the stage as an instrument of change, believing it was "an important method of educating society, a most common and powerful means of affecting people's hearts, and altering their customary way of doing things." (2)  His primary role with the theater was as a playwright, and he contributed numerous scripts, "all of which were satires on society, yet encouraging to ordinary people and warmly received by audiences." (3)  

[left, brother Shao Cunren/Shaw Runde]

    This newfound personal interest, combined with the growing entrepreneurial interest Shanghai's infant film industry was attracting as a field for investment, led the hitherto failed young attorney/businessman to think he might at last have found the right industry for the family business he dreamed of creating.  But another aspect of cinema which appealed to him was this fledgling industry's potential as a means of expression:  as he later expressed it, "the stage is seriously inhibited by its lack of freedom to present time and space.  For instance, one cannot recreate the Great Wall or the Yangtze River on stage.  A story's time line, as presented on a stage, is restricted and can only represent one moment in time.  But film, on the other hand, can bring to life on screen everything presented on the stage." (4)  So Shao Zuiweng and his brothers Cunren and Shanke (later Rende/Runde and Renmei/Runmei, respectively) decided to establish the Tianyi Film Company in the Zhabei District in Shanghai.  Zhabei (then spelled Chabei) District lay just north of Shanghai's International Settlement, and for years had successfully fought off the International Municipal Council's attempts to incorporate it into the International Settlement, because, as one contemporary guidebook expressed it, "the Chinese prefer to be badly governed by themselves than well governed by others."  (5)  

[right, brother Shao Yifu, later Sir Runrun Shaw, and still with us]

     The brothers' management structure had Shao Zuiweng as film director and general manager.  He made it explicit that he was totally opposed to the trendy European style that was being adopted by some other studios, such as the Dazhonghua Baihua Film Company and publicly announced that Tianyi's films would "stress traditional moral and ethical values, promote Chinese civilization and avoid becoming Europeanized." (6)   It is somewhat ironic to note that while this doctrine was dominant in the studio's early productions, in a few decades its Hong Kong successor would become for many people symbolic of sex and violence.  (I don't know, maybe those are traditional values in any civilization, not just Chinese.)

    We have already discussed Tianyi's first production,《Repentance》which stressed the inspiration awakened by Buddhism and traditional ethical doctrines and fully embodied Shao Zuiweng's artistic views.  Their second film, finished later that year, was《Swordswoman Li Feifei》and in early 1926 they made《Four Commandments》and《A Couple's Secrets》.   A studio spokesperson later said of these films that they "encouraged peace, mutual understanding and help among mankind."  (7)  The success of these first efforts enabled Tianyi to expand its facilities and staff.

[above left, brother Shao Shanke/Shaw Runmei]

[below left, the Tianyi studio on Huade Road in Shanghai]

    In 1926, the company moved into more spacious quarters in another part of Zhabei, and expanded further by purchasing new lighting facilities and enhancing its talent pool.  Among the newcomers added to the circle of directors were Gao Lihen, Gu Kenfu and Li Pingqian.  The studio's growing pool of acting talent added Chen Yumei, Hu Die, Ding Ziming and Wu Suxin.  Another important change occurred in Tianyi's productions as they began shooting unofficial historical films.  A literary trend of the times was promotion of folk literature, a trend Shao Zuiweng agree with, believing that the "articles collected in the official histories were written by hack writers who just sang the praises of their emperors.  But the folk stories that were created and enjoyed widespread popularity throughout society truly reflected the common people, and the characters in these stories lived out the pain buried in the people's hearts."  (8)

    Tianyi's distinctive style was awarded with great financial success.  The traditional ancient costume film was the genre sweeping the studios, and Tianyi caught the crest of the wave.  Starting with《The Tragedy of Liang and Zhu》(1926), the company turned out six of these "unofficial histories,"  and with story lines based on familiar and accepted folk stories they drew enormous attention fron audiences.  Tianyi began a major sales campaign to enhance the company's finances and expand its distribution market in both domestic Chinese cities and throughout Southeast Asia, making it the first Shanghai studio to recognize the vast potential of that region.  In less than a year of development and growth, Tianyi had become competitive with the Mingxing and the Dazhonghua Baihe studios, and had laid a firm foundation for its becoming a cinematic empire after World War II.

[below, some Tianyi personnel gather for a group photo.  From left:  Hu Die, Shao Zuiweng (3rd left), Shao Cunren (5th left), Gao Lihen (6th left), Wu Xuxin (7th left).  Others unidentified.]

References:

(1) (3)  Xu, Zhihen 徐耻痕, Zhongguo Yingxi Daguan 中国影戏大观 (An Overview of Chinese Shadow Plays).  Shanghai Joint Publishing House, 1927.

(2) (4) "The ten-year history of the Tianyi Company."  in:  China Cinema Yearbook.  Shanghai, 1927. 

(5)  Darwint, Rev. C. E.  Shanghai:  a handbook for travellers and residents to the chief objects of interest in and around the foreign settlements and native city.  2nd edition, rev. and enl.  Shanghai:  Kelly & Walsh, Ltd., 1920.

(6)《Repentance》Special Issue.  Shanghai:  Tianyi Film Company, October, 1925.

(7) (8) "History of the Tianyi Film Company," in:  China Cinema Yearbook.  Shanghai, 1934.

(Complete Tianyi filmography follows after the break)

1935: Fei Mu, Lianhua, and《Song of China》

    Although regarded by modern Chinese film scholars as one of the great filmmakers of China's classical movie era, in his short life and career Fei Mu 费穆 (1906-1951) wrote and/or directed only 8 narrative films, of which only three still exist.  But one of these three, 1948's "Spring in a Small Town," is the consensus choice of Chinese film scholars and critics as the greatest Chinese motion picture ever.  It is fortunate we have this classic as proof of Fei Mu's talents, for the earliest example of his work that we have today is 《Song of China》,a pale and distorted reflection of the man's work, a victim of something that has plagued generations of Hollywood film artists:  indiscriminate and excessive editing.

[left, Chinese dvd of 'Tianlun.'  Click on any image to enlarge.]

    《Song of China》was the first Chinese movie to have general release in the U.S., and not be limited to a handful of Chinatown theaters.  Its Chinese title was "Tianlun" 天伦, and it was an "ethics film," an important genre of early Chinese cinema which reached its zenith in 1935 with this production from the Lianhua studio (aka United Photoplay Service).  (The term "tianlun" means the natural bonds and ethical relationships among the members of a family and between generations.)  Making "Tianlun" was almost an act of desperation on the studio's part.  China was suffering a serious economic recession which mandated production and staffing cutbacks that spring, then in March Lianhua's top actress Ruan Lingyu 阮玲玉 committed suicide, depriving the studio of one of its biggest box office attractions.  These pressures exacerbated some existing conflicts within Lianhua's management.  On one side was the "north" faction led by studio founder and general manager Luo Mingyou 罗明佑; on the other was the "south" faction led by the studio's business manager Wu Bangfan 吴邦藩.  By midsummer these conflicts were intensifying daily.  The Wu group was already making efforts to force out Luo, and the latter's being six months behind in paying his staff didn't gain him much support from that quarter.  Hoping for a big score that would recoup his and the studio's financial recovery, the embattled general manager began production of "Tianlun," to feature some of the Lianhua's most reliable onscreen performers and directed by himself and one of the studio's most promising young talents, 29-year-old Fei Mu.

Two Foreign Pioneers of Chinese Cinema

    A seller on eBay recently was offering a bit of China's early movie history for auction, a 1913 postcard which documented the existence of a relationship, and apparently the friendship, between two early European movie pioneers in Shanghai, Antonio Ramos and A.E. Lauro.  It brought to mind the contributions of these two men, both in popularizing motion pictures among the Chinese, as well as providing some stimulus to China's own embryonic film industry.

[below, the entrance to Antonio Ramos's Hongkew Cinema.  The photo is undated, but the picture billed as the current offering, "Victory" provides a clue:  there was a 1913 American production with that title, made in the same year the Hongkew opened.  There was a later, 1919 production titled "Victory," but by the time it could have been exhibited in China, the theater had been renamed to be the Hongkew Grand Theater, so this was probably the earlier film]

       Antonio Ramos, a Spaniard, had arrived in China early in the last century to set up a mercantile enterprise.  That business prospered, so in 1908 he decided to grow it by diversifiying into the motion picture exhibition business.  He bought a roller rink at a busy Shanghai intersection and converted it into a movie house with a seating capacity of 250.  Called the Hongkew Motion Picture Theater, it opened for business on December 22, 1908.  The first picture shown was a foreign film that Chinese sources list as "Long Chao" (龙巢) which means "Dragon's Nest" (or lair, or den).  The only title in the IMDB that comes remotely close to that for 1908 or earlier is "Rescued from an Eagle's Nest" (1908), but we don't know for certain.  Ramos operated the Hongkew until 1913, when he sold it to a Japanese businessman.  The following year Ramos opened a large movie house called Emlassg Theater, which opened for business on September 8, with a French feature, exact title also unknown.  He opened two more Shanghai theaters in 1917, and by 1921 had become the central figure in foreign film exhibiting across China:  in addition to owning six Shanghai-area theaters himself, he organized the Ramos Entertainment Company, a large exhibition network based in Shanghai.  By this time, the Chinese movie market was wholly controlled by foreigners.  Foreigners continued their efforts to make movies in Shanghai, but with the exception of Benjamin Brodsky's Asia Film & Theater Company, none of these enjoyed any degree of success.    

    On the other hand, the Italian A.E. Lauro had also come to China in 1907, originally to get into the film exhibition business, but soon became intrigued with the idea of shooting films.  He acquired a camera with a wooden case and made several newsreel documentaries.  We have records of four of his productions, made between 1908 and 1911, but the actual number he made of these is unknown.

     Foreign control of the Chinese exhibition market actually contributed greatly to the development of China's domestic filmmaking industry:  while the country's earliest movie theaters were buildings adapted or converted from other functions, starting in the 1920s Shanghai began seeing the construction of theaters specifically designed for movies.  Most of these were funded largely or wholly by Hollywood studios, as venues for showing their own movies.  This duplicated the U.S. pattern of that time, where the major studios owned theater chains.  So Warner Bros. films would be shown at one theater, Columbia's at another, Universal's at a third, etc.  In China these theaters were also free to show domestically-produced films between the Hollywood productions, and that's where most of the major Chinese movies premiered.  In this way, Shanghai's fledgling and cash-strapped studios were free to concentrate on making movies and building their own market.

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 Suxin 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]