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

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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

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Lee stated that studies of modern Chinese cinema in American academia have been concerned due to the lack of exploration in the cultural context of Chinese films. It had led to the phenomenon where Chinese films were often shown in second-run houses of lesser grandeur. Although Hollywood movies inspired Chinese filmmakers at first, Chinese movies eventually emerged through consumerism and commodification in Shanghai. According to Lee, one significant difference between Hollywood and Shanghai at that time was “fashionable femininity”, which was conveyed in Chinese magazines, thus creating unique aesthetic of the feminine by comparing to the “rampant body fetishism” in

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Modern Chinese cinema always has been considered a window to the modern Chiense culture and mass media, yet the research on them are often discontinuous and limited. In The Urban Milieu of Shanghai Cinema, 1930-40: Some Explorations of Film Audience, Film Culture, and Narrative Conventions, Lee also points out that Western approach to Chineses cinema “have largely been concerned with textual readings of individual films,” rather than identifying the overlying consensus or similarities between the films. To compensate that, Lee explores the historical and cultural background of 1930s’ Shanghai, providing in-depth exploration into how the Chinese cinema was received to

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The development of modern Chinese films is closely related to the urban environment. As a new form of entertainment, film has quickly occupied the mainstream position in the market, so cinema has become a new element in many architectural landscapes. Most high-end theaters prefer to show Hollywood blockbusters while some second-rate theaters only show Chinese movies. The popularity of films is closely related to the publicity work. Many magazines have film columns, but they mainly promote non-domestic films, mostly Hollywood films. So Chinese films need to learn some lessons from Hollywood films to help promote the development of Chinese films.

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This piece from Leo Ou-fan Lee‘s Shanghai Modern illustrated and specified the term ‘aesthetic localization’ for me to understand by telling the story of how film, an imported medium of entertainment, was integrated into the lives of Shanghai people at that time and how the locals embraced and indigenized it. During the 1930s, Shanghai was highly modernizing and industrializing. People pursued high-density architecture as public event spaces, and most of them advocated cinema. Leo said, ‘More theatres were built up and amusement halls were deconstructed though the native film industry has not prospered’. It represented how crazy they were to chase after this

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In Lee’s description of the 1930s Shanghai cinema, the term “compromise” can summarize the audience behaviors, the evolution of film culture, and the native filmmakers’ methodologies. Film magazines of the time provided guidelines for movie tastes and listed appropriate behaviors when visiting the cinema, projecting a social background in which western lifestyles and etiquette were sought after. The upper-class ladies of Shanghai, especially, seem to have forsaken their individuality. The cultural authenticity of the early Chinese cinema stood fragile in the crevice between Hollywood’s grand productions and a puppetized audience. In contrast, adaptations of western film language also had to

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“In this new world of modern woman, clothes and fashion occupy a central place, and Chinese female film stars looked to be the very embodiment of modernity.” Lee Ou Fan writes. To realise that the rise of celebrity influence in China was ignited by the start of cinema was enlightening as it never crossed my mind to question where our current culture of celebrity idolisation came from. This initial obsession with female stars of course came hand in hand with the fetishisation of women. Actresses were portrayed in media to cater to the male gaze of different societies, in Hollywood

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