Film arrived in China only a few months after its world premiere by the Lumière Brothers in the Grand Café in Paris on December 28, 1895. It is recorded that a few Lumière films made their Chinese debut on August 11, 1896 in Xu Garden (Xu yuan), a popular entertainment quarter in Shanghai. In the next year, American showman James Ricalton showed several Edison films in Shanghai and other large cities in China. This new medium was introduced as "Xiyang yingxi," or "Western shadow play," which related it to China's millenary-old indigenous tradition of shadow play [Figure 1].
For many years (continued on into the 1930s), these "western shadow play" were often shown as part of a variety show, sharing the stage with traditional opera, vaudevilles, acrobatics, storytelling and other popular performances in teahouses, theater houses, and amusement parks, sometimes even on streets [Figure 2, Peep-show, from Leyda's Dianying]. Audiences would enjoy the shows with tea, snacks, and cold towels. The first theatre exclusively devoted to film appeared in Beijing in 1907. A Spaniard Antonio Ramos opened the first movie theater in Shanghai, the 250-seat Hongkew Cinema [Figure 3: Hongkew Cinema], in 1908. The following years saw the mushrooming of movie theaters in Shanghai and other major cities, which numbered 233 in seven cities by 1929. Shanghai alone housed 53 movie theaters, with a total seating capacity of 37,110 (see Cui 2003, 4). Before the First World War, European film products, especially those from French companies Pathè and Goumont, predominated Chinese cinema before being replaced by American Hollywood products after the WWI. As in most parts of the world, film in China before 1920s were basically a "cinema of attraction" (Tom Gunning), which provided a novel way of popular entertainment and opened a new space for a modern imaginary, through which modernity was negotiated.
As a response to the flooding of foreign films, Chinese started exploring film production of their own by drawing on the local theatrical traditions. In 1905, the owner of Fengtai Photography Studio, Ren Jingfeng (1850-1932), who studied photography in Japan, bought film equipments from a German store in Beijing and set out for the first attempt of filmmaking. With Ren's photographer Liu Zhonglun, the studio made their first production, a 3-reel film Dingjun Mountain (Dingjun shan 定军山) [Figure 4], featuring episodes from a popular Beijing Opera play starring the well-known Beijing Opera actor Tan Xinpei (1846-1917). Filmed in the yard of the studio to appropriate natural light, the actor performed some famous acrobatic actions and poses in front of a stationary camera operated by Liu Zhonglu. The screening of the film in Beijing was very successful which encouraged Ren to make several more films of Beijing opera. These films were also sent to some other places, including southern provinces Jiangsu and Fujian, for screening.
Although the first indigenous filmmaking practices were conducted in Beijing, the base of Chinese film production took its root in the treaty port Shanghai for its better access to foreign capital, imported materials and technical cooperation between Chinese and foreigners. Asia Film Company (Yaxiya yingxi gongsi ) was established in 1909 as a joint venture between American businessman Benjamin Polaski, Chinese comprador Zhang Shichuan (1889-1953), and Chinese theatrical talent Zheng Zhengqiu (1888-1935), who later become the leading filmmakers in the Star Film Studio (Mingxing) and honored as the "Father of Chinese Cinema." Zhang and Zheng made the first Chinese short feature, The difficult couple (Nanfu nanqi 難夫難妻, Shanghai, 1913), a parody of the ridiculous customs of arranged marriage. The four-reel, unedited film was the first narrative film (though only 45min) made by Chinese with an adapted script, not taking its story from the theatre but something of a documentary of social customs. Because the social convention against female performers sharing stage with male performers, all the characters were played by male wenmingxi ("civilized drama," early spoken drama which reached its heyday in 1910s-20s) actors. Although the terms like "daoyan" (director) and "bianju" (screenplay) hadn't been used, in making of this film, Zheng was in charge of writing the script and instructed actors to perform while Zhang was actually in charge of directing the position and movement of camera. About the same time in Hong Kong, Li Minwei also cooperated with Benjamin Polaski and produced the first narrative film in Hong Kong, Zhuangzi Tests His Wife (Zhuangzi shi qi 庄子试妻, Hong Kong, 1913) [Figure 5: film still: Li played Zhuangzi's wife]. Li played the role of Zhuangzi's wife, and Li's wife Yan Shanshan, who played the role of the maid in the film, became the first Chinese film actress [Figure 6]. The two-reel film was successful and was shown in the United States by Polaski.
The Asia Company made a dozen of short features functioning as interludes in the theater of wenmingxi until its production ended when the World War I cut off Shanghai's supply of German raw film. Film production in Shanghai resumed in 1916 when raw film from the United States filled the vacancy. The Commercial Press-the leading publishing house of the period-bought film equipments from an American merchant in 1917 and sent people to Europe and America to study print and film technologies. In 1918, the press formed the Motion Picture Department and started filmmaking activities. They developed five categories of films-"landscape," "current event," "educational films," "new drama," and "costume drama"-and were able to establish a whole system of production, distribution and exhibition. They also helped other small film studios to develop films. Along with the development of native industries, more native film companies were established by the end of the 1910s and film industry was incorporated into the national discourse.
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Figure 1: Ancient Chinese shadow play.[1]
Figure 2: A Chinese street peep-show.[2]
Figure 3: Fill still of Dingjun Mountain, 1905
Figure 4: Studio of the Asia Film Company
Figure 5: Fill still of The difficult couple, 1913
Figure 6: Advertisement of The Difficult Couple
Figure 7: Film still of Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, 1913. Li Minwei (Lai Man-Wai) plays Zhuangzi's wife.
Figure 8: Li's wife Yan Shanshan, the first Chinese film actress.
