The Urban Milieu of Shanghai Cinema described the development of Chinese cinema in Shanghai. As the film being imported from foreign, an interaction was created between the film and print culture. At the same time as Hollywood films imported from foreign countries created large impacts on Chinese audiences, viewing habits of Chinese audience, shaped by print cultures had also exerted an impact on filmmakers. Referring to the reading Teahouse, the first projection of film was located in the teahouse, where the teahouse has represented an early version of foreign cinema. However, comparing to the architecture design of teahouse, cinema provides

Continue readingReading Response: Lee, Leo Ou-fan &Zhang Zhen

As I read, I learned about the obstacles Chinese film has overcome to reach its current status. In the beginning, 90% of films were imported. As films thrive in teahouses, by twisting with shadow play，referring to and influenced by fiction, it becomes a media for entertainment, escape from reality, immersing in the exotic world of fantasy while enriching reading habits. Going through resembling foreign films, learning from failures, reflecting the masses’ problems; being helped by literati, aware of enlarging the market and making audiences interested in, the industry grows swiftly. What surprises me is that the film gives women the

Continue reading[Reading Response: Lee, Leo Ou-fan & Zhang Zhen]

Leo Ou-Fan Lee’s article depicts the development period of Shanghai Cinema, its unique characteristics and its corresponding influence on the general public.  The growth of Shanghai Cinema was inevitably intertwined with the Hollywood films. The penetrative influence by Hollywood movie stars was shown on movie magazines: Marlene Dietrich in Morocco, Claudette Colbert in It All Happened One Night and Katherine Hepburn in Morning Glory, were all classical representations. Regarding film production of Shanghai Cinema, mimicry on shot angle and ensemble management of Hollywood could be evidently seen.  The uniqueness of Shanghai Cinema was traceable to spectatorship, traditional literary narrative mode

Continue reading[Reading Response: Leo Ou-Fan Lee]

The development of Chinese film industry has been greatly influenced by the modernization of the urban city as well as the introduction of Hollywood movies. As theatres replacing the traditional amusement halls, the urban citizens started to accept this new entertainment which is widely spread within the city. Initially it was only Hollywood films being projected most of the time, because of the advanced technology and sufficient capital invested, and Chinese native filmmakers were catching up by imitating and learning from the Hollywood techniques and culture notions. As a result, Chinese movies started to present a ‘hybridity’ combining these ‘western

Continue readingReading Response: Lee, Leo Ou-fan AND Zhang Zhen

This article depicts the film business in 1930s Shanghai as the site of the first Chinese film production and movie theaters. It shows the vast contrast between film culture, audience, and narrative conventions of the early era of Chinese film production and modern times. The Hollywood film industry and the traditional Chinese cultures play a great role in forming the early culture of Chinese cinema. It serves as a reflection of the rapid speed of modernization of China during the 1930s and the balance between western and traditional cultural influences. The author describes how the imported medium of entertainment was crazed over, and the shadows of imitation of camera angles set designs as well as acting

Continue readingReading Response: Lee, Leo Ou-fan