1930s Chinese Film And Cultural Context

Because of its artistic achievements and industry environment at the time, the first flourishing period of Chinese film started in the 1920s. Interesting enough, almost all the Chinese films at the time are produced in Shanghai. The article will concentrate on this regional production during that period. Based on the theory of Neo-historiography, culture analysis, social psychology and the results from the "Shanghai Study", this paper intends to build up the logical deduction on the description of this particular historical environment. By reviewing the popular culture at that time and the impact it has given to the film industry, we will prove that Shanghai provided the driving force and a surviving system for the early Chinese film industry. This will also give us some clues for the development of early Chinese film industry in its process of industrialization and text evolvements.