Coexistence And Inheritance

Hong Kong films with Shanghai as background theme stands out as a unique view in the Chinese movie circle: Center Stage, Everlasting Regret, My American Grandson, The Postmodern Life of My Aunt, etc. Through such apparent image association, can we see any specific connection between Shanghai and Hong Kong movies?A city could only be understood when it is compared to another. Leo Ou-fan Lee proposed the concept of "Twin Cities" of Shanghai and Hong Kong in the field of urban landscape, which was adopted and developed in comparative literature study about Shanghai and Hong Kong. However, if we set our eyes on the movie kingdom, we may find an outstanding phenomenon that Shanghai and Hong Kong mirror images of themselves from each other. The thesis describes the "reciprocal image" of twin cities in the history of Chinese movies with regard to association of time, space, people and system of the film industry, etc. by studying historical materials about Shanghai and Hong Kong films. Based on such a phenomenon, an in-depth analysis is made on the underlying cause for these associations.The thesis also analyzes the similarity and inheritance of movies between the twin cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong, in terms of social economics, politics, culture and psychology, and reveals the accidental and inevitable reasons why Shanghai and Hong Kong became "Oriental Hollywood" one after another. In particular, the indivisible connection of films between Shanghai and Hong Kong is highlighted from the viewpoint of psychological reflections. Hong Kong, which was once separated from the Motherland of China, locates its search for spiritual home to old times of Shanghai, which leaves an imaginary mother space to Hong Kong natives. And the making of such imaginary mother space is neither casual, nor replaceable by Beijing, Guangzhou or any other cities.