Week one lecture notes history of chinese movies

Movies in China
Arrival in China
shortly after the world's first public showing of motion picture was held in Paris on December 28, 1895, and America's first public showing was held in NYC on April 23, 1896, Chinese audiences saw a Western film for the first time at the Youyicun Teahouse in Shanghai's Xu garden on August 11, 1896. This was an immediate success as the audiences were amazed and delighted to see real people and things reproduced on screen. These films as a new commercial entertainment based on modern technology was gradually introduced to China. James Ricalton of America was probably one of the earliest to see the lucrative market in China. In 1897 he began to import movies to China and show them at teahouses. More and more foreign film entrepreneurs followed suit, and they soon dominated the film markets in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Early imports came mainly from France, but beginning in the 1920s, Hollywood movies dominated the Chinese markets for almost thirty years. Foreign films, though aiming at enormous commercial values, not only entertained Chinese audience but also exerted a positive influence on Chinese film industry.

Production Chinese Movies
The first attempt to produce a Chinese film was aimde by Ren Jinfeng, a businessman from Shenyabng. He opened the Fentai Photo Studio in Beijing in 1892 and then set up a theater showing Western films. As there was a shortage of Western films in the market, he gradually lost audiences. Then the idea occurred to him to make a Chinese film. He bought a French camera and fourteen reels of film from a german merchant and began hsi experiement. in the fall of 1905, in the courtyard of the Fengtai Photo Studio, the first Chinese film, Ding jun shan (Dingjun Mountain), was produced with Ren Jingfeng as producer, Liu Zhonglun as cameraman, and Tan xinpei, the prominent actor of Beijing drama (Peking opera), as the main actor. It took three days to finish the three reel project. Based on an episode from the classicl novel sangguo yanyi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) by Luo guanzhong, Dingjun Mountain is a classic item int eh repertoire of Beijing drama. Obviously, China's first film is in fact a record of an old drama performed not on stage but in a photo studio. The nature of the dramatic original helped define the early cinema audience that in turn influenced the films made to attract it.

What were shot for Movies?
Theatrical traditions were so strong that the cinema spent its early years working with dramatic conventions, and even acting styles were transferred from state onto screen. the transition from the traditional form of old drama to the new art of cinema is significant because, on the one hand, chinese audiences could feel on familiar ground with mellow falsetto or violent swordplay, and on the other hand, old drama films could establish themselves as a unique type in Chinese cinema. For decades, Chinese filmmakers have continuously made use of traditional materials from theater repertory and historical tales. later, many more famous actors of Beijing drama put their art on camera int eh Gengtai Photo Studio, such as Yu jusheng, Zhu Wenying, Xu deyi, Yu Zhenting, and Mei Lanfang.

How did People think of the function of Movies used in modern China?
1) Entertainment
2) Reform Society and Educate the broad masses.
in 1913, the first Chinese feature film, Nanfu nanqi (the Suffering couple), was produced by the Asian film Company in Shanghai. The foreign businessman who owned the company invited Zhang Shichuan as the adviser in film making. Zhang accepted the invitation out of his curiosity about the new gadget, though he knew little about it. therefore, he in turn invited his literary friend Zheng Zhenqiu to work with him. As Zheng believed that film must help reform society.