History of Chinese Cinema | Chinese Movie Posters

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History of Chinese Cinema - Changes and Adaptations

Chinese cinema has gone through many changes and adaptations due to international influences, political unrest, and extreme censorship. Despite all the negative events impacting entertainment, Chinese cinema has battled through the hardships and survived against the odds of failure.

When the 19th century is mentioned, the Victorian era in England automatically comes to mind. However, it was during this century when movie making was introduced to China.

Farewell My Concubine
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But before Chinese movies became an option for entertainment, the Chinese had an important form of entertainment: the opera. These operas focused on many subjects from the fiction to the nonfiction. The tradition of operas started from a long, long time ago. In the past, Emperors of China used them as a primary source of entertainment.

If you could envision a Chinese opera, you would be able to see the painted faces of the players and see the brightly colored costumes. Instead of an orchestra (with violins and cellos) playing the background music, you would hear a hard knock of the wood which would set the rhythm of the entire opera. This would be played throughout the entire opera and maybe even a qin would appear at certain moments. There would be fight scenes or love scenes between the players (maybe even both). Either way, people would leave satisfied with the play running through their heads.

Before, people would gather at a restaurant or theater to view an opera. But soon, an opera could be brought to a screen. During the fall of 1905, The Battle of Dingjunshan was filmed in Beijing. This was an amazing feat because this was the first Chinese movie created.

However, there was no real interest in filming Chinese movies until the year 1916. Shanghai began earnestly to learn from other countries about movies. In 1920, the United States movie technicians taught the Shanghai film technicians about movies. Therefore, America had a big influence on Chinese films during that period.

The Chinese movie business soon had an internal struggle. The progressive party began to make movies in the 1930's. Some of these movies were The Big Road and The Goddess. Movies became a political statement and a political struggle. The Nationalists and the Communists tried to control the big filming studios and put out movies that portrayed themselves in a good light. Although there was a large quantity of films being made in this period, there was also good quality. Many directors (from the left side) became well known because of their talents.

With no Nationalist to stop them, the Communist government began to ban the Nationalist films from the previous golden age. The Communists believed they should control what the people watched because movies were an extension of propaganda and art. They began to focus the films toward movies about the "common people" such as the working people, the army, and the farmers. The Cultural Revolution had begun, making censorship a primary problem in Chinese cinema.

Although there were restricted topics in the movies, many people streamed to movie theaters to watch them. There was a huge influx of people coming and appreciating films. Because of this huge interest, the Chinese movie business soon began to seek out what else there was to learn about making movies.

Many Chinese filmmakers went to the Soviet Union (also a Communist ruled country) and learned from them. The Chinese did not just make films based on real people, they also made animated movies. They used the puppet forms from the past as a way to teach the younger children about certain things. It is amazing how quickly children soak up information with puppets!

In the mid 1980's, the censorship became more lenient. There were many good movies that appeared which took a more unorthodox approach to movie making. Many great movies appeared, such as King of Masks and Farewell My Concubine. These were dramatic movies which touched the human spirit. However, many movies began to take a more document approach because the underground filming industry felt the state censorship policies. These films were shot from hand held video cameras and were cheaply made.

he Chinese moviemaking business is making international headlines. With such movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero, these films are seeing worldwide success.

So, who knows what the future might bring? Anything is a possibility in Chinese cinema.