Chinese Film in the 1930s: Potential Energy and “Left-Wing” Influence
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Ji Yu
Ji Yu is a Level-2 Professor (Professors in China fall into 4 levels) at Southwest University, doctoral supervisor as well as the director of School of Journalism and Communication. As the leader of academic technology for Film Studies in Chongqing, he participated in the “Five Fields Development Project”. He is a member of the Third Steering Committee of Drama, Film, and Television Teaching of the Ministry of Education, the vice chairman of the National Culture and Art Education Center of the China Association of Higher Education, and the executive director of the Chinese Collegial Association for Visual Art. He is a member of the editorial board of
Replicated Journals of Renmin University of China—Movie and Television Art andJournal of Film Study . He has authored more than ten monographs and textbooks, includingHistory of Chinese Cinema, History of Films on the Home Front, History of Foreign Film, andIntroduction to Cinema . He has published more than one hundred articles in journals such asLiterature and Art Studies , and has also conducted and completed more than ten projects including provincial-level and ministry-level projects and those supported by National Social Science Foundation.
Abstract
The history of Chinese films in the 1920s and the 1930s refers to two periods that are at once continuous yet distinctive. Created and formed in the “Concept—Aesthetic” system of “Benevolence—Legend-Influenced Image Narration” of 1920s native film, Chinese film underwent an evolution from the literary film of the Domestic Film Movement to genre film in the tide of commercial films. Then upon entering the 1930s it faced double upheavals: within from the film industry and without, from the socio-historical context. This made Chinese films in the 1930s more complex than before. From the perspective of historical dynamics, potential energy and strong left-wing influence hidden within Chinese film itself were the main causes of this complex historical phenomenon.
About the author
Ji Yu is a Level-2 Professor (Professors in China fall into 4 levels) at Southwest University, doctoral supervisor as well as the director of School of Journalism and Communication. As the leader of academic technology for Film Studies in Chongqing, he participated in the “Five Fields Development Project”. He is a member of the Third Steering Committee of Drama, Film, and Television Teaching of the Ministry of Education, the vice chairman of the National Culture and Art Education Center of the China Association of Higher Education, and the executive director of the Chinese Collegial Association for Visual Art. He is a member of the editorial board of Replicated Journals of Renmin University of China—Movie and Television Art and Journal of Film Study. He has authored more than ten monographs and textbooks, including History of Chinese Cinema, History of Films on the Home Front, History of Foreign Film, and Introduction to Cinema. He has published more than one hundred articles in journals such as Literature and Art Studies, and has also conducted and completed more than ten projects including provincial-level and ministry-level projects and those supported by National Social Science Foundation.
Acknowledgments
The research of this article is supported by the “Research on Cultural Memory Constructed by Pictures and Images” project of the Central Basic Research Innovation Team (Grant number: SWU1909102).
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Articles in the same Issue
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Special Section: The Centenary of Labourer’s Love; Guest Editor: Huang Xuelei
- Editorial
- Editor’s Introduction
- Research Articles
- Alternative Readings of Labourer’s Love: The Shakespearean, Pan-Laborist, and Technological Uncanny
- Laborer’s Love: An Anthropotechnogenetic Mediation Between Cinematism and Animetism
- Zheng Zhegu and Performances in Early Chinese Film
- Beyond Labourer’s Love: Rethinking Early Chinese Film Comedy
- Articles outside Special Section
- Interview
- Detective Chinatown Pursues the “Tao” First: An Interview with Director Chen Sicheng
- Research Articles
- The Development and Challenges in Chinese Film Research over the Past Seventy Years and Future Trends
- Chinese Film in the 1930s: Potential Energy and “Left-Wing” Influence
- Study on the Phenomenon of Film Rereleasing in China in the Post-Pandemic Era: Cultural Significance and Industrial Mechanisms
- The “Collapsing Ending” as a Turning Point in Contemporary Cinematic Narrative
- “The age of Camille Is Gone!”: Youth Culture in Qiong Yao Films of the 1970s
- Heroes and Other Men: Masculinity and Nationalism in The Eight Hundred
