The Reception Of Montage Theory In Modern China

The Montage Theory remained the most influential foreign film theory in China within the period from the late 1920s to the founding of the PRC in 1949,The evolution of Chinese cinematic language and transformation of film concept in this period were,to some extent,closely tied to the impact of the Montage Theory.For a long time,however,the Chinese academia had paid scant attention to the reception of the Montage Theory in modern China.The lack of attention had been clearly reflected in current writing of Chinese film art and theory history.That's why this dissertation is devoted to the investigation of how Chinese film and Chinese culture digested and reformed this foreign film theory when Chinese filmmakers first came into contact with it,or in other words,the Chinese film artists' subjective selection and innovative transformation of the Montage Theory.In this dissertation,we view the reception of the Montage Theory in modern China as a cross-cultural practice with dual significance.First,it is the course of gradually assimilating the Montage Theory into the aesthetic tradition of Chinese film art,during which the heterogeneous elements of the Montage Theory were gradually reduced or even eliminated,and the Chinese filmmakers gradually formed their own unique understanding of the Montage Theory based on absorbing and transforming foreign theories and integrating them into Chinese traditional aesthetics.Second,it is the course in which Chinese filmmakers gradually deepened their cognition of film art under the influence of the Montage Theory.In the modern era,the dissemination of the Montage Theory conduced to the awakening of Chinese film consciousness.Due to the enlightenment of the Montage Theory,the Chinese filmmakers gradually got rid of overemphasis on theatric components and became aware that movie is actually made by Montage.Hence a new concept of film art was established.Taking the reception of the Montage Theory in modern China as the research subject,we focus on the following four aspects.First,we reexamine the historical course of the reception of the Montage Theory in modern China.Despite the fact that the course was not parallel to that of theoretical exploration of the Soviet Montage school,it can also be roughly divided into three stages.The first stage is from 1926 to 1931,during which the Montage Theory was first introduced into China from the Western film circle.The second stage is from 1932 to the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan in 1937.During this period,the Chinese filmmakers actively learned and explored the Montage Theory.The third stage is from July 1937 when the War of Resistance against Japan broke out to 1949 when the PRC was founded,which witnessed the extension and transformation of the theory.In this dissertation,we consider the reception of the Montage Theory in modern China as the course of gradually changing the original concept and logic and incorporating the new theory into the aesthetic tradition of Chinese film art.Second,we elaborate on the selection of the Montage Theory by modern Chinese filmmakers.During the period of more than twenty years,Chinese filmmakers preferred Vsevolod Pudovkin's narrative montage and Timoschenko's technical montage rather than Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov's more innovative intellectual montage and Kino-Eye.The reasons behind this preference include the environment of commercialization in which early films were produced,the value orientation of Chinese traditional culture,and the social reality of China in the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century.Third,we study the Chinese filmmakers' diverse interpretations of the Montage Theory.We point out that there are actually certain common interpreting strategy and logic behind those varied interpretations.They have two basic features.One feature is that the Chinese filmmakers generally defined Montage from the perspective of practical techniques rather than theoretical reasoning.The other is that most of the Chinese filmmakers interpreted Montage from the perspective of Pudovkin's narrative montage instead of Eisenstein's intellectual montage or dialectical montage.Finally,we discuss the reflection and reformation of the Montage Theory in modern China.During the course of reception,the Montage Theory was not absorbed without any modification,but received based on subjective selection and innovative transformation.The Chinese filmmakers resolutely rejected the prevalent belief that Montage is universal and conducted a series of localization of the Montage Theory.We argue that the reformation of the Montage Theory mainly includes creatively combining the Montage Theory with the American theory of Continuity and characterizing the interpretation of the Montage Theory with the intension of national culture.We believe that it is in the reconsideration and renovation of the Montage Theory that the Chinese filmmakers gradually formed their own cognition and understanding of the Montage Theory.