The Early Years. "declaration" (1896-1915), The Shanghai Film

In the history of Chinese film, Shanghai holds a vital position, which provided the most appropriate soil for the development of early film in China. Without Shanghai, China's film history must be rewritten. But researches about early Shanghai film are comparatively weak because of lack of firsthand historical materials.A large number of advertisements and news reports about films were published on Shenbao, the most influential mass medium in Shanghai in the early 20th century, which provided abundant materials for comprehensive and systematic research about early Shanghai film. There are many essays and articles about the analysis of movies based on the historical materials on Shenbao, mainly about the commercial films in the 20s and 30s of 20th century. The studies of the communication and producing for the films were fragmented and one-sided in the early time after film was introduced from overseas, without an over-all perspective.Therefore, this study chooses the reports on Shenbao newspapers between 1896 and 1915. The main purpose is to collect and sort out all of the film-related advertising and news coverage, laying a base for the future research. On this basis, the article will try to give a considerate picture about the spreading, fusion, showing and producing of the films at that time. Meanwhile, combing the realities of the social background, the essay will give a description about the interactions among the development of films, newspapers and the society at that time in Shanghai.