An Amorous History of the Silver Screen: Shanghai Cinema, 1896-1937

532 Pages·2006·45.634 MB·English

by  Zhang Zhen

AN AMOROUS HISTORY OF THE SILVER SCREEN
1Rlif.~:t
CINEMA AND MODERNITY
A series edited by Tom Gunning
I
AN
A M O CO H 1 CO V
~ (UJ § ~ ·§ ~
OF THE SILVER SCREEN
SHANGHAI CINEMA, 1896-1937
ZHANG ZHEN
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS • Chicago &London
ZHANG ZHEN is associate professor of cinema studies at New York University.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago/ 0637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2005 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2005
Printed in the United States of America
14131211100908070605 12345
ISBN: 0-226-98237-8 (cloth)
ISBN: 0-226-98238-6 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zhang, Zhen, 1962 July 8-
An amorous history of the silver screen: Shanghai cinema, 1896-1937 I Zhang Zhen.
p. cm. - (Cinema and modernity)
Includes bibllographical references and index.
ISBN 0-226-98237-8 (doth: alk. paper) - ISBN 0-226-98238-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)
I. Motion pictures-China-Shanghai-Histury. 2. Motion pict\lre industry-China
Shanghai-History. l. Title. II. Series.
PNI 993.5.C4Z55 2005
791.43'0951 I '32-dc22
20050192.56
@) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Primed Library
Materials, ANSI 239.48-1992.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations • vi
Acknowledgments • ix
Introduction • xiii
PART ONE THE VERNACULAR SCENE
Chapter 1 Vernacular Modernism and Cinematic Embodiment • L
Chapter 2 Worldly Shanghai, Metropolitan Spectators • 42
Chapter 3 Teahouse, Shadowplay, and Laborer's Love • 89
Chapter 4 Building a Film World: Distraction versus Education • 118
PART TWO COMPETING MODERNS
Chapter 5 Screenwriting, Trick Photography, and Melodramatic
Retribution • 151
Chapter 6 The Anarchic Body Language of the Martial Arts
Film • 199
Chapter 7 Fighting over the Modern Girl: Hard and Soft
Films • 244
Chapter 8 Song at Midnight: Acoustic Horror and the Grotesque Face
of History • 298 ·
Envoi • 345
Abbreviations • 351
Notes • 353
Glossary • 413
Filmography • 423
Bibliography • 439
Index • 465
ILLUSTRATIONS
0.1 A constellation of Hbright stars" of the Mingxing Company • xx
0.2 Mingxing actress Xuan Jinglin • xx
0.3 Xuan Jinglin in An Amorous History of/he Silver Screen • xxi
1.1 The King of Comedy Tours Shanghai: at the harbor • 14
1.2 The King of Comedy Tours Shanghai: in a sedan chair • 14
l.3 "A Social Phenomenon in Shanghai: The Noisy Shadowplay on
Fourth Avenue" • 17
1.4 Wang Hanlun (center) with her "civilized feet" on screen • 38
1.5 Actress Yang Naimei • 40
2.1 Shanghai at the turn of the twentieth century • 46
2.2 The Yangjingbang Canal • 48
2.3 Edward Road • 48
2.4 Longtang: Shanghai-style vernacular housing • 51
2.5 Xiyangjing: a peep show of the kaleidoscopic world • 53
2.6 Tuhua ribao (Illustrated Daily): NA grocery store of new knowledge" • 56
2. 7 The New World entertainment center • 59
2.8 The Great World entertainment center (ca. 1917) • 59
2. 9 Roof Garden on top of Sincere Department Store • 62
2.10 The Tianqiao (Heavenly Bridge) inside the Great World • 64
2.11 Willies Theatre • 69
2.12-13 Film magazines of the 1920s: Dianying zazhi and Yingxi shijie • 73
2.14 Ads for the film True Love (1925) and walnut snacks in Yingxi
Chunqiu • 75
2.15 ·window shopping" Lux soap• 76
2.16 Xin yi12xin9 yu tiyu (Silver/and Sports World) • 79
2.17 QueenofSporls(l934)withLiLili • 80
2.18 Interior of the Paris Theater • 83
3.1 The Qingliange Teahouse • 97
3.2 Slide-show as shadowplay • 97
3.3 Han Wu Di meets his deceased wife through a shadowplay • 99
3.4 The Asia Shadowplay Company • 101
3.5 Victims of Opium ( 1910) • 104
3.6 AdforYanRuisheng(I92I) • 106
3. 7 Laborer's Love ( 1922): Interior of the Teahouse All-Night Club • 112
3.8 Laborer's Love • 114
4.1 Ad for the Peking Theater (from Xu Chiheng's Filmdom in China} • 124
4.2 Ad for the Shijie (World) Theater (from Xu Chiheng's Filmdom
in China) • 126
Illustrations
4.3 Orphan Rescues Grandfather (1923) • 128
4.4 Orchid in the Bmpty Valley (1925} • 128
4.5 The Great Wall Company, founded in Brooklyn, New York • 129
4.6 The Great Wall Company's sta[f and equipment • no
5.1 The Abandoned Wife (1924) starring Wang Hanlun • 161
5.2 Illustrations for trick cinematography in The Science of Shadowplay • 165
5.3 Xu Zhuodai (Xu Banmei), the author of The Science ofS hadowplay, in a
female role • 166
5.4 Actors playing with trick photography • 167
5.5 The two-self picture (er wo tu} • 167
5.6 Separate body photograph (fenshen xian9) • 168
5.7 Ad for A String of Pearls (1926) • 170
5.8 A String of Pearls: "Lantern Festival" in electric writing • 111
5. 9 A String of Pearls: at the party • 173
5.10 A String of Pearls: reunion after the husband is released from jail • 173
5.lla-b The company name is transformed into dancing dots (and then into
the "Great Wall") • 174
5.12a-d A String ofP earls: the animated reenactment of "Misfortune" • 176
5.13 The mise-en-scene of narrative •roundness" in Last Conscience
(1925) • 183
6.1 Actress Wu Lizhu • 201
6.2 Wu Lizhu (right), the "Oriental female Fairbanks" • 202
6.3 Actress Xu Qinfang • 202 vii
6.4 Burning of the Red Lotus Temple: Hu Die, second from left; Xia Peizhen, second
from right • 204
6.5 The Cave of the Spider Spirit (1927) • 211
6.6 Burning of the Red Lotus Temple: temple as harem • 212
6. 7 The Great Knight-Errant of Aviation ( 1928) • 215
6.8 Zhang Huimin and Wu Suxin, with the company's camera • 216
6.9 The winged flying machine • 218
6.1 O The special effect of the "light of swords competing in magic arts" • 224
6.11 The art of walking on air: ·female thief leaps onto the roof• • 226
6.12 The Red Heroine ( 1929): shooting on location • 228
6.13 The Red Heroine (1929): Yungu fighting against the bandits • 231
7.1 The modern look of Yinmu zhoubao (Screen l+l!ekly) • 253
7.2 Spring Dream on the Lakeside ( 1927) • 257
7.3 Pink Dream (1932) • 260
7.4 ThreeModemWomen(l933) • 263
7.5 NewWoman(l935) • 265
7.6 Inaugural issue of Modern Screen. featuring Ruan Lingyu • 268
7.7 Li Lili • 270
7.8 Huang Jiamo's essay, "Hard Film versus Soft Film" • 273
7. 9 A cinema built in the 1930s: the international style of the Metropol • 276
7.10 "The speed of flesh": Hu Shan • 278
7.ll Girl in Disguise (1936): the pleasure of cross-dressing• 285
Illustrations
7 .12 Girl in Disguise: the pressure of family values • 287
7.13 The Blood of Passion on the Volcano (1933): idyllic countryside • 293
7 .14 The Blood of Passion on the Volcano: the lovers reunite on the beach under
the moon • 294
7 .15 The Blood of Passion on the Volcano: revenge on the volcano • 295
8.1 Ad for Song at Midnight ( 1937) • 299
8.2 The abandoned theater • 301
8.3 Ad for Peace after Storm ( 1931 ), one of the early sound experiments • 306
8.4 Two Stars ( 193 l) • 309
8.5 The disfigured face in The Singing Beauty (1931) • 311
8.6 Wild Flowers ( 1930): ad for the albun:I • 316
8.7 The theater is to be demolished ... • 321
8.8 The shadow of the phantom singer • 321
8.9 Song at Midnighrs director Maxu Weibang • 322
8.10 The Stranger on the Love Scene ( 1926) • 323
8.11 Li Xiaoxia with the wet nurse • 325
8.12 Song Danping in the torture chamber • 326
8.13 Following the singing, Sun Xiaoou finds the phantom singer in the
attic • 327
8.14 Song Danping acting in the play Hot Blood • 337
8.15 Emergency expression: tilted framing • 341
viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SOME OF THE OLDEST and finest movie theaters in central ix
Shanghai were within a stone's throw of the neighborhood where I grew
up. Behind the "iron curtains" of the cold war in the I 960s and l 970s, I
enjoyed countless trips to these cinemas, especially Da Shanghai (Metro-
pol, see fig. 7.9) on Tibet Road, where I watched the Chinese, Indian,
North Korean, and Eastern European films offered in that era. Perhaps
I relished more the experience of moviegoing itself, and the seemingly
anachronistic modernist beauty of the theater architecture. It was at
some of these venues that my generation first encountered Shanghai cin-
ema, in particular the left-wing cinema, when it resurfaced in the early
1980s. It instantly captured my imagination, although little did I know
that I would return to write this book about this cinema's place in Shang-
hai's history and worldly modernity. I thank those who first opened my
eyes to this legacy.
The research and writing of this book has incurred many debts to nu
merous individuals and institutions. Miriam Hansen and Tom Gunning
inspired me to enter the enchanting world of early cinema when I re
turned to cinema studies at the University of Chicago. Their wisdom and
friendship has continuously nourished this project since I graduated and
became a teacher myself. I am also grateful to the instruction and support
from Harry Harootunian and Judith Zeitlin (both members of my original
dissertation committee), as well as Norma Field, James Lastra, Gregory
Acknowledgments
Lee, Katie Trumptner, Yuri Tzivian, Eugene Wang, and Wu Hung during
my years at the University of Chicago. Among those who contributed to
my work or cheered me along a long journey, I want to particularly thank
James St. Andre, Weihong Bao, Jennifer Bean, Tom Bender, Chris Berry,
Ryan Boynton, Scott Bukatman, Yomi Braester, Xiangyang Chen, Juliette
Yuecheng Cheung, John Crespi, Jonathan Hay, Lucas Hilderbrand, Anna
Holian, Binghui Huangfu, Sergei Kapterev, Paize Keulemans, Eugenia
Lean, Charles Leary, Judith Leeb, Cecilia Li, Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu,
Elizabeth Mcsweeney, Hajime Nakatani, Jackie Stewart, Jennifer Peter
son, Haun Saussy, Shuang Shen, Mit~1yo Wada-Marciano, Richard Gang
Wang, Paul Young, Liang Zhang, Yingjin Zhang, Xueping Zhong, Tao Zhu,
Angela Zito, and, finally, my colleagues at the department of cinema
studies at New York University.
My project involved extensive research in China, and I have benefited
from the kind assistance of many people and institutions there. I thank
above all Mr. Shu Yan, a former film critic, and Mr. Wu Weiyun, a for
mer cinematographer, for granting me long interviews despite their
health conditions. Mr. Lu Hongshi has shared with me valuable research
material as well as insights on Chinese film history. Professor Li Shaobai
of the Research Institute of Chinese Art, Mr. Li Suyuan and Hu Jubin of
x I the Research Center of Chinese Film Art, and Professors Zhong Dafeng,
Ma Junxiang, and Chen Shan of the Beijing Film Academy have all
helped me in various ways. I thank Cui Weiping, Imma Gonzales, Tang
Di, Tang Xiaodu, Wen Hui, and Wu Wenguang for their hospitality and
for their friendship during my stays in Beijing. The institutions that facil
itated my research include the China Film Archive. the Shanghai Mu
nicipal Archive, the Shanghai Library, the Beijing Library, the Beijing
City Library, the Library at the Shanghai Theater Academy, the Library at
Fu Dan University, and the Hongkou District Library in Shanghai.
A Chicago Humanities Institute Dissertation Fellowship for 1997-98
allowed me to complete the work for this book in a stimulating environ
ment. An Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford Univer
sity and a J. P. Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship made it possible for me to
do further research and expand the project's scope and depth. A faculty
fellowship at the International Center for Advanced Studies, and a Paul
ette Goddard junior grant, both from New York University, gave me ad
ditional time to think and write. As the book moved from my desktop to
the University of Chicago Press, I have been very fortunate to work with
Susan Bielstein and Anthony Burton, manuscript editor Mara Naselli,
and series edit<>r Tom Gunning. Their enthusiasm and professionalism
made the process truly enjoyable. l gratefully acknowledge the comments
and .interest of the anonymous readers.