Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

China
1934), both depicting the plight of suffering women, and
those that resulted when the Left-wing Writers’ League
took an interest in film in 1931, such as Cheng Bugao’s
Kuang liu (Torrent, 1933), and Chun can (Spring
Silkworms, 1933), and Cai Chusheng’s Yu guang qü
(The Life of Fishermen, 1934). The latter three films dealt
with the bitter lives of peasants.
SECOND GENERATION
With the advent of the 1930s, film changed from functioning
solely as entertainment to reflecting social life realistically.
Chinese filmmakers also began to grasp the basic law
of film, to move beyond the limits of the stage, and began
producing modern dramatic films with suspenseful plots
and performances that favored realism over stylization.
This progressive period lasted until the late 1940s,
nourishing important directors such as Cai Chusheng,
Wu Yonggang, Fei Mu, Sun Yu, and Zheng Junli, and
actors and actresses such as Ruan Lingyu, Hu Die, Jin
Yan, and Zhao Dan. Responsible for the biggest boxoffice
draws of both the 1930s (The Life of Fishermen)
and the 1940s Yi jiang chun shui xiang dong liu (The
Spring River Flows East, 1947), Cai Chusheng made films
that were well knit, rich in connotation, and broad in
social background. Among Wu Yonggang’s (1910–1935)
twenty-seven films was The Goddess, a classic that starred
Ruan Lingyu, the first film actress to win extensive public
praise, who performed in twenty-nine movies in her short
twenty-five-year lifetime. Hu Die was known for her
leading role in the first sound movie and for playing dual
roles in Twin Sisters, while Jin Yan, called the emperor of
Chinese cinema in the 1930s, usually portrayed
intellectuals.
The Second Generation came into prominence when
the Japanese invaded China in 1937, and many of their
films were associated with resistance and the fight against
imperialism. From 1931 to 1937 films often reflected
disasters brought about by the Japanese invasion, such as
Sun Yu’s Da lu (The Great Road, 1934) and Xu Xingzhi’s
Feng yun er nü (Sons and Daughters in Stormy Years,
1935); a second stage (July 1937–August 1945) portrayed
the heroism of the Chinese against Japanese
aggression, as in Shi Dongshan’s Bao wei wo men de tu
di (Defend Our Nation, 1938), Ying Yunwei’s Ba bai
zhuang shi (Eight hundred heroes, 1938), and films of
the Yan’an Cinema Troupe under the Chinese
Communist Party leadership.
Postwar movies until Mao’s coming to power in
1949 both analyzed and reviewed the war and the reasons
for victory and focused on the strife in ordinary people’s
lives as the Communist Party and Kuomintang battled
for control of the government. The Spring River Flows
East depicted wartime struggles of the people and the
humiliations they faced in the postwar period, while
other films such as Tang Xiaodan’s Tian tang chun meng
(Transient Joy in Heaven, 1947), Shen Fu’s Wan jia deng
huo (Lights of Myriad Families, 1948), and Zheng Junli’s
Wuya yu ma que (Crows and Sparrows, 1949) exposed
other dark sides of society at the time.
THIRD GENERATION
Third Generation filmmakers shaped the aesthetics of
Communist cinema, creating works that showed the tortuousness
of the Chinese revolutionary wars leading up to
1949 and the sacrifices made by the people; life and
reality in old China, denouncing its social darkness and
praising laborers who rose up in resistance; and changes
made after 1949, reflected in new persons and phenomena
that appeared in the socialist revolution. This filmmaking
period lasted until 1966, after which, during the
decade of the dreaded Cultural Revolution, the industry
almost came to a standstill, save for a few praiseworthy
films such as Shan shan de hong xing (Sparkling Red Star,
1974), Chuang ye (Pioneers, 1974), and Haixia (1975).
Among the films about revolutionary forerunners,
Cheng Yin’s Gang tie zhan shi (Iron-Willed Fighter,
1950) and, with codirector Tang Xiaodan, Nan zheng
bei zhan (From Victory to Victory, 1952), stood out; Su
Li’s Ping yuan you ji dui (Guerrillas on the Plain, 1955)
and Guo Wei’s Dong cunrui (1955) were also warmly
received. The latter, along with Xiao bing zhang ga
(Zhang Ga a Little Soldier, 1963) and Sparkling Red
Star, led in the children-as-revolutionary category, and
Xie Jin’s Hong se niang zi juan (Red Detachment of
Women, 1961) topped the list of women’s films. The
most successful films of the modern Chinese antiinvasion
wars were Zheng Junli’s Lin Zexu (1959), about
the Opium War of 1838 to 1841, and Lin Nong’s Jia wu
feng yun (Battle of 1894, 1962).
Films that denounced pre-1949 China often possessed
a moving ideological and artistic spirit and were
adapted from literary works of masters such as Lu Xun,
Mao Dun, and Rou Shi. Perhaps the best were Shui Hua
and Wang Bin’s Bai mao nü (The White-haired Girl,
1950) and Sang Hu’s Zhu fu (New Year Sacrifice,
1956), which was adapted from Lu Xun’s novel of the
same name. Others were Shui Hua’s Lin jia pu zi (Lin
family shop, 1959), from Mao Dun’s novel; Shi Hui’s
Wo zhe yi bei zi (This Life of Mine, 1950), Xie Jin’s Wutai
jiemei (Stage Sisters, 1965), and Li Jun’s Nong nu
(Serfdom, 1963). The oppression suffered by intellectuals
in old China was featured in works such as Xie Tieli’s
Zao chun er yue (On the Threshold of Spring, 1963), based
on a Rou Shi novel.
Many Third Generation directors focused on life in
the new China, showing it as a time of new persons and
272 SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM