Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: This paper explores how the Lianhua Film Company, founded in 1930 and active until 1937 6, 1/8/1937, 14, “Lianhua shengwei.”[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], communicated its identity and project through its films. These drama films offered an idealized portrait of the movie world and the Chinese society, revealing how the company’s members defined their role in a society looking to build a national identity. The paper focuses on three films: Two Stars of the Milky Way (1931) was a cinematographic interpretation of the founding statement of the company and depicts the company’s utopia. Lianhua’s Symphony (1936), composed of eight shorts, was a patriotic call to resist the Japanese enemy. A Sea of Talents (1937 4, 1/1/1937 , 13 “1937 nian Lianhua zhi rongyu gongxian .” [Google Scholar]) was produced in the final days of Lianhua, just before the Japanese invasion. It offers a portrait of the artistic world disillusioned and far from patriotic anxieties. These films, analysed here alongside written sources, draw a portrait of the company both as it wanted to be seen and as it actually was. Studying them illuminates the hopes, battles and disillusions of a world of professionals who projected on the screen theirs visions, sometimes conflicting, of a stronger and unified Nation.
Source: Journal of Chinese Cinemas
Author: Anne Kerlan
Institution: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Language: English
Topic: Cinema History and Criticism
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3170199577