Pioneer Of The Chinese Film Industry

In the early history of cinema in China(1905-1937), as an independent film company with the longest duration of operation and the largest number of film products of all films of the time, the Mingxing Film Company(1922-1937) was the important "presence" and "center" in many critical periods of the early history of cinema in China, with its deep influence on the development trend of the early cinema in China. Although early discussions by previous scholars about single screenwriters and directors and their creations of the Mingxing Film Company can be found, very little systematic research and exploration has been done with reference to the groups and characteristics of the company, and very little work has ever been done to define the Mingxing Film Company's position and significance of existence in the history of Chinese cinema on some higher theoretical level and to the certain social,economic and cultural extent and depth.Therefore, this paper works to explore the Mingxing Film Company on an overall basis, trying to trace and map out the entire development path of the company by microscopic research, trying to peruse and investigate the model of localized film creation and market survival established by the Mingxing Company's film workers by means of induction of the aesthetic patterns and from specific works, and to reveal the Mingxing Company's unremitting efforts in facilitating the development of cinema in China as well as the process of modernization of Chinese culture. This paper argues that the Mingxing Film Company is the pioneer of cinema in China, which has made pioneering contributions to the development of film industry in China as well as to the shaping of the styles of Chinese film aesthetics and cultural appearances.This paper is comprised of six chapters which form the body of this paper, the introduction and the conclusion.The introduction clarifies the significance of the topic raised, comprehensive status review of related researches home and abroad, and preparation of historical data as well as basic clues for constructing this paper. The body of this paper comprehensively examines the Mingxing Company in terms of three aspects orderly from industry, aesthetics to culture.The first chapter, captures and clarifies the development path of the Mingxing Company, and then summarizes the industrial operation model of its production, distribution and showing. The paper argues that the Mingxing Company first established its position as the top film-maker with the highest level of film-making technologies in then China owing to its good film making performances, and then the Mingxing Company began to further expand its particular system of promotion, distribution and showing. And this formed the very first relatively successful development model,and the success of the Mingxing Company indicates the true beginning of the building of the film industry in China.From chapterâ…¡to chapter V,the paper explores the four aesthetic patterns that can still be taken into current account, which were created in the process of constructing the national identity in Chinese films and exploring the localized survival by the Mingxing Company's film creations (also called "the Mingxing Films" in this paper).This paper summarizes those patterns as: commercial aesthetics, reformist aesthetics, realistic aesthetics and melodramatic aesthetics. These patterns became mainstream orientations in different social times and cultural contexts. They might have shared the harmonious co-existence or have come and gone by evolutions and replacements, constituting the heterogeneous aesthetic forms of "the Mingxing Films". Chapterâ…¡,on the strength of summarizing the traits of the commercial aesthetics of "the Mingxing Films",and taking Zhang Shichuan as an example, analyzes his commercial aesthetics routine which took shape in his 16 years of creation for the company and demonstrates his pioneering contribution to "the Mingxing Films" as well as commercial aesthetics of Chinese films, and this chapter also re-interprets his historical status as the "Father of the Chinese Cinema".Chapterâ…¢, exemplifying the creations by Zheng Zhengqiu and Bao Tianxiao in the 1920s, explains the pattern of reformist aesthetics of "the Mingxing Films".This chapter argues that Zheng Zhengqiu evoked the concerns of Chinese cinema to "functionality" for the first time through his artistic practice of the "long film and serious drama" and shaped the pattern of reformist aesthetics. Thus he became another "Father of Chinese Cinema" in another sense. On the other hand, Bao Tianxiao, as the literati of the "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly", gave the"reform" a more complex color with his creations of romantic melodrama. This chapter interprets as well the way "the Mingxing Films" participated in the nationalist writing from a kind of "feminine particularity"angle.Chapterâ…£,interprets the pattern of realistic aesthetics which gradually grew to its maturity after the change in the style of the Chinese cinema in the 1930s, and analyzes its aesthetic styles that prevailed in the different phases of the "New Cinema Movement".This paper also exemplifies the creations of Xia Yan,Hong Shen, Chen-Bugao and Shen Xiling and examines thoroughly their realistic creations with differential characters, which presents the abundance and complexity of the pattern of realistic aesthetics of "the Mingxing Films".Chapterâ…¤,on the basis of summarizing the straits of the melodramatic aesthetics, this chapter selects and peruses Konggu Ian, Zimei hua and Malu tianshi, three of which are milestone masterpieces in three different times, in order to take a close look at the melodrama's development path and pattern significance within the "the Mingxing Films".Chapterâ…¥,based on the two intersections of the Mingxing Company and the urban cultural space in Shanghai:"The Garret" and the "Pidgin",the chapter discusses the group cultural particularities and modernity which arose from the spatial interweaving. This paper argues that the Mingxing Company's reliance on its smart vision and enterprising spirit finally led to its breakup with the grassroots in China, which indicates the homogeneity with the fact that Chinese films of the same period were in the process of modernization from the "marginal" to the "center".The inclusiveness of various aesthetic styles, and the hybrid nature of cultural ecology between the new and the old as well as the Chinese and the West, both formed by the Mingxing Company, have very great case significance to the formation of the cultural appearances of Chinese films.The conclusion sums up the Mingxing Company's position in the Chinese film history and its pioneering contributions, compared to three other companies including "Greater China Lily", "Tianyi" and "Lianhua".Then this paper provides reflections on the "Mingxing Mode"'s potential significance and enlightenment for the current development of cinema and culture in China.