A Kaleidoscope of China in Films

China in Motion Pictures: Chinese Film Authors: Zhong Dafeng, Li Ershi Paperback, 210 pages Published by New Star Press

FILM is likened by some to a window on multi-faceted human conditions; by others to a mirror which reflects people’s souls. Chinese films are such windows and mirrors through which one can know the status of Chinese people and feel their yearnings and dreams.

China in Motion Pictures: Chinese Film consists of 15 chapters covering a range of topics on Chinese society and people’s lifestyle. They include the Chinese Dream, Chinese family, rural China and its new look, urban life, children’s education, development of youth, love, female voices, male images, the elderly, and Chinese film stars.

Co-author Zhong Dafeng was brought up in the staff residential compound of the Beijing Film Academy. As a young boy, Zhong and his little pals often peeped through the window of the screening room at the academy whenever films were shown. “That was the happiest time of my childhood,” Zhong said, for each film is a reflection of its time and the thinking of its producers.

Since his graduation from Beijing Normal University’s School of History, Zhong has worked at the Beijing Film Academy. His book chronicles the history of Chinese films, from its birth to representative works at different times, and the values of life shown in the films.

A nation with a civilization of over 5,000 years, China has its own unique traditions in drama and arts. At least 800 years ago, plays featuring lights and shadow existed in China. In August 1896, the earliest movie shows are believed to have been staged for Shanghai audiences at Xuyuan, a classical garden built in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It was in 1905 that for the first time in history Chinese artists adapted their traditional opera show Dingjun Mountain for the big screen.

Zhong explains how in the 1920s, the movie industry developed and churned out some 100 feature films per year. And some of the genres were well received by local audiences, for instance, Chinese martial arts films. Another popular film genre in the 1920s was family ethics.

In the 1930s, confronted with the aggression of Japanese forces, more and more Chinese cast their eyes on the issues of national and social confrontations. With their critical views of social malaises, the younger generations of Chinese filmmakers gained tremendous support from local audiences. Meanwhile, Shanghai, a stronghold of China’s filmmaking sector, became a cosmopolis. And Chinese films during that period fully reflected events in the country that mirrored the modernization of the country.

Films of the period included Crossroads , which dealt with the woes and dreams of jobless Chinese youth. Street Angels tells the love story of street artists. Both used humor to convey criticism of social problems.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Chinese films enthusiastically portray the changes in people’s life, society, and ideology. Social issues such as the social status of woman, the improvement of the livelihood of Chinese people, the industrialization of Chinese cities, as well as the changes in rural areas all found their way onto the big screens of the time. The

Girl from Shanghai portrayed a female engineer who excelled in a male-dominated construction site, while Li Shuangshuang depicted rural women who showed their courage and wisdom during integration into society.

Films like Five Golden Flowers revealed the enthusiasm and creative potential of ethnic minorities keen on building a new life.

China in Motion Pictures: Chinese Film lavishes space explaining how the ensuing reform and opening-up policy first introduced in the late 1970s brought about new opportunities of development for the Chinese film industry. From then on, Chinese films expanded and developed in both artistic styles and the life and cultural scopes depicted, opening up a prospect of unprecedented prosperity. Some films depicting Chinese history and culture were well received around the world.

Chinese film directors whose names are recently seen frequently on screen credits are mainly the sixth generation. Familiar names like Jia Zhangke, Wang Quan’an, Jiang Wen, Wang Xiaoshuai, and Lu Chuan are most notable for their distinguishing feature of “rebellion and reflection.” They, the authors say, usually focus on the grassroots and pursue a documentary-style of motion picture, using a full-length shot with a highlight of real light, color and sound in a real world. Films are a medium for them to observe and reflect the life of ordinary people and even those who are marginalized in contemporary metropolises. Their emptiness, confusion, and depression in the process of social transition have been authentically recorded via the camera.

In the book Zhong hopes that, through these films, the readers can get, from different angles, a relatively complete picture of an evolving China and gain a deeper insight into the development of Chinese people. “The truth of art is a heart-to-heart communication between the artist and audience. Only if the work strikes the right chord with you, can you be inspired, uplifted, and enlightened,” says Zhong. C