Lost In Whirlpool Of Powers

Firm censorship is the invisible hand behind the fate of a film, because it decides whether or in what configuration can a film enter the market. This will have a significant impact on the film's potential profitability, i.e., the lifeline of a film company. And the trajectory of a nation's film industry is dependent on the form of the cinema and the operation of film business. It is fair to say that the history of film development before 1949 is also a history of film censorship. However, compared with researches on film development, film censorship has, for a long time, been ignored. This paper is trying to bring attention back to the film censorship for the entire period of Republic of China.As film censorship is a determining factor on the future of a film, it is therefore, by nature, a kind of power. Historically, film censorship emerged as a result of the widespread film distribution and government's response to its subsequent negative impacts. But the real reason behind the adoption of film censorship is that local elites in the late Qing Dynasty wanted to include film in their education reform initiatives so as to share power with the Feudal Government. Most of these elites were educated in the West or influenced by Western Civilization. And at that time, the US and the UK were countries with developed film industry. As a result, their theories, methodologies and practices were copied almost to the exact into the initial film censorship regime in China. There are evidences showing that film censorship was once in a position to transform from an external discipline into self-discipline of the industry. But this never happened, because the Nationalist Party (KMT) took power and practiced extreme nationalism.As a young and weak regime, KMT, in its twenty-year reign in China, was always challenged against its legitimacy by rivals and interest groups within the party, across the country and around the world. So, ever since KMT took office, it started a campaign to build a modern China, including the modern cultural industry. To ensure there is only one common understanding, KMP nationalized all kinds of power, film censorship included, to do away with any work of art or art theory that was not in line with the Three Principles of People. At that time, the extraordinary potential of cinema as a means of propaganda had been widely recognized. The art arena then grew into another battlefield in addition to the political and military ones for GMT to fight against its political rivals. And film censorship was used by KMT as a tool to eliminate dissents and control thoughts.Furthermore, after its nationalization, film censorship fell prey to all kinds of power struggles. It became target for interest groups inside the KMP government as well as for foreign concessions and other external forces. History shows that, the biggest rival of KMT– the Communist Party, had been spreading their political views through film and cinema despite of the film censorship. In the end, the wrestling of the two parties over film censorship is a contest for right of speech and even for the reins of government.The history of Republic of China was complicated and unique, with plenty of political upheavals and regime takeovers. Against this backdrop, film censorship system developed by KMT didn't have a chance to last long. Concessions set up by invaders had their internal rules and thus hindered the implementation of film censorship. All the wars occurred since 1930s, including the anti-Japanese and civil wars, undermined the state sovereignty and also the effectiveness of film censorship. The situation continued to deteriorate with the ambiguous censorship regulations and corrupted administration in KMT.As an instrument to regulate the industry, film censorship created an orderly social environment for the existence and development of art, restricted some unhealthy tendencies, and brought order to the chaotic art market. Therefore, film censorship did play some positive role in the social development of contemporary China. However, after the film censorship system lost itself amidst power struggles within the cultural and political fields, it had been turned from an ordinary administration relationship between the enforcers of censorship and those been censored into a tool of manipulation.Looking back at the history of film censorship in the Republic of China, although there are differences in the social, political and cultural background as well as situations of film development in each historical stage, there's always an overarching theme -- power-struggle. At the beginning, it was the local elites pursuing political powers. At the end, it was the people aspiring for democratic rights. Following"power"and"power struggle"as the main lead, this dissertation aims at examining who was in control of power, how the power was exercised and what were the consequences. It further explored reasons why film censorship failed to grow from external discipline into self-discipline. The paper is written in hopes of providing a clear picture of film censorship in Republic of China and making contributions to studies on Chinese cinema.