The Influence Of Hollywood Movies On Chinese Cinema In The 1930s

This thesis takes as its research subjects the distribution of Hollywood's genre films and their influences on the development of Chinese cinema in the 1930s. It intends to, diachronically, interpret Hollywood movies in the particular Chinese context; and synchronically, it aims to analyze the attitude of Chinese cinema towards Hollywood genre films and the interplay of both parties.The 1930s, to Chinese cinema, witnesses a period in which the concept of film (as both an art form and a social form) and film technology grow into maturity. In this historical process, many Hollywood elements have found their way into the creation and production of Chinese national cinema: the complex relationship between form and content, the basic principle and creative methods of film art and cinematic forms and systems. Under the influence of multi-layered variation of concepts such as"similarity"and"difference", Chinese national cinema has cultivated its own artistic quality and basic conception, from which come its distinctive modality, style and features of Chinese national cinema.Hollywood has a direct influence on the commercial genre of Chinese cinema. Although the total number of production is comparatively less than their counterpart, Chinese blockbusters succeeds in terms of synchronous exhibition in the first-round cinema network, sharing no less significant role in terms of the time and total rounds of exhibition and their popularity. The awareness of national film as a commercial type and the practice of film genres have become precious treasure and historical experience of Chinese national cinema. At the same time, having Hollywood as resources of learning, Chinese national cinema has gradually developed its own prestigious genres: comedy, musical, love stories, detective and horror movies.The powerful voice of Hollywood movies will, inevitably, stimulate intellectual recognition and academic reflection in China. Those movies have exerted a positive influence on Chinese cinema culture through both the concrete and abstract space of cultural activities. Such an influence is made possible via the increasingly concrete film forms and complex operation of various institutions.In the 1930s, with the gradual maturity of state awareness, Chinese film authorities set down a series of rules and regulations concerning the import of movies from western countries and Hollywood. Facing this challenge, Chinese cinema begins to develop the consciousness of a political subject. State awareness, political awareness and national awareness are the basic necessities proposed to national cinema by the historical and political context of the 1930s China. Gradually, these aware nesses have evolved into the basic standpoint from which China examines and accepts Hollywood movies. With the maturity of the established institutions of the KMT's"state-owned cinema,"New Wave Movement motivated by Left-Wing school of thought has undergone a constant growth. In the national crisis of Chinese society, national cinema and Hollywood movies, an overwhelmingly dominating part in the market, have steadily experienced a profound and complex mutual influence.