In Lee’s article, she analysis how the Chinese film audience, film culture, and narrative conventions gradually form, using 1930s Shanghai movies as an example. In her opinion, Hollywood movies and traditional Chinese culture are the two main factors, followed by other film cultures around the world.
For example, the import of Hollywood movies brought a new trend of going to the cinema as an amusement. It also inspired many Chinese filmmakers at the beginning stage. The influence of Chinese traditional culture reflects more on the picture and content of the movies, like the wide use of long-take and deep-focus. Also, the plots are usually from Chinese historical stories and focus on the small men and women in the urban environment in the later stages.
She also thinks that the movies also reflect the modernization of Chinese society at some points. There is a connection between the ‘May Fourth films of the thirties and the popular melodramas of the twenties, and the way of story telling influenced by print culture.
In all, 1930s Shanghai movies represented the start of Chinese movies and are independent of other paths around the world.
Name: Zhu Jiarui
UID: 3035638791
You have extracted some of the key events and arguments that Lee included in her writing, such as how the Chinese film culture was formed in that period of time. But your response in general is lack of personal reflection. Please bear in mind it is important to include your own thoughts in these kinds of reading responses rather than just a summary of the reading material!