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Spiritual Wonderings: A Study of Phantasmagoria in Early Chinese Cinema

  • Chuanfa Wan

    Chuanfa Wan is a professor in the School of Cinema at Shanghai Theatre Academy.

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    and Yanqing Wu

    Yanqing Wu is a postgraduate student of Arts in Film Studies in the School of Cinema at Shanghai Theatre Academy.

Published/Copyright: November 23, 2023
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Abstract

Phantasmagoria (幻景 huanjing) is a term commonly seen in historical materials on early Chinese cinema. In this thesis, “Phantasmagoria” is taken as the localization of Western cinema tricks in early China. According to sources, “phantasmagoria” is valuable and rich in content, although it has no clear definition. This thesis seeks to define “phantasmagoria” and through a comparison of Chinese and Western cinema investigate which Western cinema tricks were appropriated and eventually labelled phantasmagoria. This article takes phantasmagoria to be a Chinese term, the meaning and application of which carry the traditional cultural ideas behind the localization of cinema tricks.


Corresponding author: Chuanfa Wan, School of Cinema, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Shanghai, China, E-mail:
Translated by Yufan Wu, Communication University of China, Beijing, China.

About the authors

Chuanfa Wan

Chuanfa Wan is a professor in the School of Cinema at Shanghai Theatre Academy.

Yanqing Wu

Yanqing Wu is a postgraduate student of Arts in Film Studies in the School of Cinema at Shanghai Theatre Academy.

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Postscript

The originally article entitled 精神的“幻游”:早期中国电影中的“幻景”研究 was published in Dangdai Dianying 当代电影(Contemporary Cinema) 2022(11):61-67.

Received: 2023-07-21
Accepted: 2023-11-02
Published Online: 2023-11-23
Published in Print: 2024-04-25

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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