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Zheng Zhegu and Performances in Early Chinese Film

  • Binwu Jia

    Binwu Jia received his Ph.D. degree in film studies from Nanjing University in 2016. From 2019 to 2020, he was a visiting scholar at the department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Davis. He is now an associate professor in the Media Studies Department of the School of Media, Jiangsu Normal University. His main research interests focus on Chinese film history, Soviet-Russian film history, and classic film theory. He has published several film papers in academic journals in mainland China.

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Published/Copyright: October 24, 2022
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Abstract

The actor Zheng Zhegu is a long-forgotten pioneer in Chinese film. He is perhaps best known for playing the part of Carpenter Zheng in China’s earliest surviving film, Labourer’s Love. Both professionals in the film industry and audiences of the time recognized him as achieving new heights in acting. Starting with Zheng Zhegu’s personal story, this article explores the history of performances in early Chinese film. It emphasizes the transition from “new play-oriented” screen acting to interiors performances, placing this shift in the transformation of Chinese cinema from a “cinema of attractions” to narrative films.


Corresponding author: Binwu Jia, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, China, E-mail:

Funding source: Major projects of the National Social Science Fund

Award Identifier / Grant number: 18ZDA262

Funding source: Jiangsu Provincial Research Foundation

Award Identifier / Grant number: 19YSC003

About the author

Binwu Jia

Binwu Jia received his Ph.D. degree in film studies from Nanjing University in 2016. From 2019 to 2020, he was a visiting scholar at the department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Davis. He is now an associate professor in the Media Studies Department of the School of Media, Jiangsu Normal University. His main research interests focus on Chinese film history, Soviet-Russian film history, and classic film theory. He has published several film papers in academic journals in mainland China.

  1. Research funding: The research of this article is supported by the China National Social Science Major Research Projects (Grant number: 18ZDA262), Jiangsu Provincial Research Foundation (19YSC003).

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Published Online: 2022-10-24
Published in Print: 2022-11-25

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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