Commentary 1

among studios, which was fairly common at the time, brings us to other prominent
studios in the mid-1920s.

A crop of new studios
Unlike most other studios of the time, three brothers, Li Minwei (Lai
Man-wai), Li Haishan (Lai Hoi-san) and Li Beihai (Lai Pak-hoi), established
Minxin in Hong Kong in 1923. Born in Japan and educated in Hong Kong, Li
Minwei was active in the civilized play, organizing two theater troupes in 1911
and 1913. When Brodsky passed through Hong Kong on his way to the United
States in 1913, Li negotiated a deal with him and directed Zhuangzi Tests His
Wife (Zhuangzi shiqi; 2 reels) as a release of Huamei (literally, ‘Sino-
American’). Based on Cantonese opera, the film features Li’s brother Beihai as
Zhuangzi, Li himself as the wife, and Li’s wife Yan Shanshan (Yim Shan-shan) as
the wife’s maid (thus making her the first Chinese screen actress). The special
effects of moving ghosts created by Brodsky’s associate R.F. Van Velzer
impressed the Li brothers and strengthened their determination to pursue a film
career. The film was never shown in Hong Kong, but it was taken to the States
by Brodsky and was reportedly screened in Los Angeles in 1917 (
2000: 46).

With their own company Minxin, the Li brothers produced documentaries,
comprising of mostly sports and ethnographic spectacles. Notable among them
were several celebrated episodes of Beijing opera performed by the star Mei
Lanfang, shot in Beijing in 1924. Also noteworthy was the historical footage of
Sun Yat-sen (Sun Zhongshan), the leader of the Republican Revolution. Minxin
had purchased film equipment from overseas and appointed Moon Kwan (Guan
Wenqing) as an adviser, but it had no luck with feature production in Hong
Kong. Probably due to Li Minwei’s ties to the Nationalists, the colonial govern-
ment delayed processing Minxin’s proposal for building a studio in the territory,
forcing the Li brothers to set up shop across the border in Guangzhou and
spend HK$9,000 shooting Rouge (Yanzhi, dir. Li Beihai, 1925). Adapted from
Liaozhai Record of Wonders (Liaozhai zhiyi), a collection of classic fantasy
and ghost stories, the film starred Li Minwei’s other wife Lin Chuchu (Lam
Cho-cho) as the female lead and had a decent ten-day run in Hong Kong,
earning HK$10,000. Unfortunately, a prolonged labor strike from June 1925
to October 1926 paralyzed the entire region of Hong Kong and Guangdong
(Fonoroff 1997: xiii–xiv).

Li Minwei was forced to bring part of their equipment to Shanghai and formed
a new Minxin studio. Shanghai Minxin announced its enlightenment aims in a
manifesto written by Ouyang Yuqian, a noted dramatist, in 1926: to produce
high-quality films and to introduce to Europe and America the ‘excellent ideas,
pure morality and honest custom’ of the Chinese people (ZDZ 1996a: 49). To
these aims Minxin employed Ouyang Yuqian, Bu Wancang and Sun Yu, all rising
stars in film directing and screenwriting. Minxin’s seventeen features released in

N A T I O N A L T R A D I T I O N S , 1 8 9 6 – 1 9 2 9

31
: A 9C ADC / C ? ? 5 NCI F /C ?G QFI 2 =C 3 I & I ? N 1 IIE /? N F

NN ? IIE=? N F I ? N =IG FC = ?N CF =NCI – I=40,
/ ? N? IG = I & & & &

/
I

Q
CA

N
&

QF
I

2
=C

3
I

.
FF

CA
N

?
?

P?

Shanghai included some of the best films in the late 1920s, including Romance of
the West Chamber (Xixiang ji, dir. Hou Yao, 1927; 10 reels).

A less influential industry player, Great Wall was established in Shanghai in
1924 by a group of overseas Chinese. As early as May 1921, several Chinese
Americans were determined to learn film basics out of their irritation at
humiliating portrayals of the Chinese in American films. They organized a film
company named ‘Great Wall’ based in Brooklyn, New York, and produced two
documentaries introducing Chinese costumes and martial arts. After shipping
their equipment to Shanghai in 1924, these patriots were disappointed by the
dismal reality at home and wanted to intervene in social reform by means of
filmmaking (ZDZ 1996a: 85–6). Their rationale for producing ‘problem films’
was that, since China was fraught with various social problems in urgent need
of solution, only by addressing these problems in films could they achieve the
objectives of ‘changing morale and criticizing society’ (J. Zhang and Cheng
1995: 75). Each film was to focus on one social problem, and the problems taken
up include love, marriage and women’s careers, all reflected in the films Hou Yao
directed for them.

In addition to Hou, Great Wall had on its payroll Cheng Bugao and Sun Shiyi,
as well as Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan, the latter two producing the earliest
Chinese cartoon shorts for the company. Great Wall titles were critically
acclaimed for their forward-looking vision, and their combined artistic taste
and moral integrity earned the appellation a ‘Great Wall school’ (ZDZ 1996a:
1065–6). However, their reputation as a distinct ‘school’ (pai) was short-lived
as the company became involved in martial arts film production in 1927 against
its original commitment to contemporary problems. Great Wall reportedly
owned a distribution office in the US (ZDZ 1996a: 1362), but the company was
financially insecure and had to close in 1930.

Like Great Wall, Shenzhou (Cathay Film Corporation) was established on a
budget of 50,000 yuan in Shanghai in 1924 by Wang Xuchang (who studied at
the Ecole du Cinéma in France) and his friends, with a specific policy: ‘to subtly
influence and change the audience’ (qianyi mohua) (S. Li and Hu 1996: 91).
Shenzhou filmmakers emphasized humanism and opposed sensationalism. As a
result, their films paid special attention to the screenplay, acting, photography,
art design, intertitles, as well as characters’ psychology and a film’s overall
ambience. Although the company was shut down in 1927, the high standards
of its melancholy, tragic films had earned the appellation a ‘Shenzhou school’
(ZDZ 1996a: 87, 1062). Like Great Wall, Shenzhou’s operation was too short
to have an impact on the industry. These two early ‘schools’ of filmmaking,
therefore, existed more as collective aspirations than as viable industry forces.

Great China-Lily Pictures Company (Da Zhonghua baihe) was the result of a
merger of two film companies in 1925: Great China Pictures and Lily. Feng
Zhen’ou founded the former, and Wu Xingzai the latter, both in Shanghai in
1924. Financial difficulties compelled the two companies to merge after pro-
ducing, respectively, two and four films. In their combined operations, Great

N A T I O N A L T R A D I T I O N S , 1 8 9 6 – 1 9 2 9

32
: A 9C ADC / C ? ? 5 NCI F /C ?G QFI 2 =C 3 I & I ? N 1 IIE /? N F

NN ? IIE=? N F I ? N =IG FC = ?N CF =NCI – I=40,
/ ? N? IG = I & & & &

/
I

Q
CA

N
&

QF
I

2
=C

3
I

.
FF

CA
N

?
?

P?

China-Lily produced around fifty titles in five years and claimed such talents as
Lu Jie, Shi Dongshan and Wang Yuanlong. Initially, Great China-Lily exhibited a
tendency towards a European style, best exemplified in Shi Dongshan’s films of
high aestheticism. Shi believed that film was the most comprehensive and most
enchanting art form capable of expressing the beauty of sounds, colors, shapes
and movements – in brief, natural and man-made beauty of all kinds (ZDZ
1996a: 371). In spite of their ideological affinity with bourgeois lifestyle, Shi’s
films were praised for their elegant looks and artistic details, which brought hope
that Chinese film could finally become ‘art’ (ZDZ 1996a: 1145, 1268–72).

Dan Duyu, Yin Mingzhu and Shanghai Photoplay
An older studio that exhibited a similar tendency of Europeanization and
aestheticism was Shanghai Photoplay Company, founded by Dan Duyu with a
budget of 1,000 yuan in 1920. Dan was a well-known Shanghai painter who
specialized in female figures, especially nudes, and ran a brisk business producing
decorated commercial calendars that displayed fashionable beauties (S. Li and
Hu 1996: 33, 270). A graduate of the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Dan was
skilled in oil painting and watercolors as well, and his hobby of photography led
him to purchase a film camera from a foreigner. With no acquaintances around
with any knowledge of cinematography, Du decided to disassemble the camera
himself and reassemble the pieces. After a dozen times, he was able to handle the
machine with ease.

Shanghai Photoplay was a typical family company not only because many
employees lived with Dan’s family in the studio complex but also because the
studio employed several of his family members and relatives. The best known
among them was Yin Mingzhu, a socialite studying at the East–West Women’s
School. Yin’s fluent English, her Pearl White-type of clothing and her versatile
skills in modern activities (e.g., dancing, swimming, horse-riding, bicycling and
car-driving) had earned her the nickname ‘Foreign Fashion’, or ‘Miss FF’ for
short. With her performance in Dan’s debut Sea Oath, Yin became the first
Chinese female movie star (Du 1988: 56).

Unfortunately, Yin’s traditionally minded mother immediately forbade her
from acting, sending her instead to serve as a clerk in a Japanese clinic. The loss
of Yin prompted Dan Duyu to recruit Yin’s equally fashionable schoolmate,
Fu Wenhao, better known as ‘Miss AA’ (short for her English name, Anna) and
the first woman to drive a private car in Shanghai, as the female lead in The
Revival of an Old Well (Gujing chongbo ji, 1923; 6 reels). The film premiered
at the Embassy to popular acclaim and was rush-ordered by Southeast Asian
distributors. Miss AA became an instant star but her mother, like Yin’s, forbade
her to act. Fortunately for Dan, Yin had convinced her mother of the value of a
film career by this time. After her leading roles in Dan’s subsequent two films,
Yin and Dan were married in Hangzhou in 1926, the first among many screen
couples to come.

N A T I O N A L T R A D I T I O N S , 1 8 9 6 – 1 9 2 9

33
: A 9C ADC / C ? ? 5 NCI F /C ?G QFI 2 =C 3 I & I ? N 1 IIE /? N F

NN ? IIE=? N F I ? N =IG FC = ?N CF =NCI – I=40,
/ ? N? IG = I & & & &

/
I

Q
CA

N
&

QF
I

2
=C

3
I

.
FF

CA
N

?
?

P?

In addition to directing and screenwriting, Dan was also skillful with cinema-
tography, lighting, editing and laboratory work. Once, while watching a foreign
film in a theater, he detected from a flash on an actress’s eyes that a reflector had
been used to augment interior lighting. Back in the studio, he experimented with
a silver sheet reflection board and successfully directed sunlight to where it was
otherwise dark. In addition to experimenting with film techniques, Dan trained
numerous up-and-coming film artists. Shi Dongshan, for instance, began his
career as an art designer with Dan, played in a few films and then launched
his directorial debut with Shanghai Photoplay.

The press consistently praised Dan’s films for their distinctive aestheticism in
set design, lighting and frame composition (ZDZ 1996a: 1069). In 1926 Zheng
Zhengqiu acknowledged that the blooming Chinese film industry had owed
much to Dan, a pioneering, multi-skilled artist who regarded film as ‘an art of
motion’ and who ‘had no equals’ in China (ZDZ 1996a: vi, 1217–18).

Genre considerations: opera movies and comedies
Apart from the family drama, early Chinese cinema experimented with a number
of incipient genres. Among them, opera movie and comedy came first, romance
and family drama were popular in the early through to the mid-1920s, and
costume drama/historical films and martial arts films took over the market in the
late 1920s.

Opera movies (xiqu pian), based on existing stage plays, were among the
earliest Chinese attempts at filmmaking (Farquhar and Berry 2001). This
seemingly accidental choice was motivated by a kind of cultural unconscious. In
terms of narrative, opera movies tell stories already familiar to the audience, thus
posing little new challenge. In terms of visual style, the ‘electric shadows’ added
a more exotic dimension to the familiar operatic acts and therefore appeared all
the more attractive to the audience. In terms of price, the cheaper movie tickets
translated into higher attendance rates since viewers otherwise prevented from
seeing leading actors perform on stage were now able to watch them on screen.4

In short, opera movies created a win–win situation for producers, exhibitors and
audience alike.

This explains why opera movies came to be the first choice for several studios.
The Fengtai Photography Shop in Beijing filmed the leading actor Tan Xinpei in
Conquering the Jun Mountain (Ding Junshan, 1905; 3 reels), the first Chinese
short feature, which premiered at the Grand Shadowplay Theater to public
acclaim in 1905 and was shipped to southern provinces like Jiangsu and Fujian.
Delighted at his unexpected success, the shop owner Ren Jingfeng arranged to
have other popular operatic shorts filmed in the subsequent years. Similarly,
among the early releases of the Motion Picture Department of Commercial Press
were two opera movies directed and performed by Mei Lanfang in 1920. In
most cases, early opera movies depended more on celebrity attraction than on
cinematic means, although limited special effects were occasionally used, such

N A T I O N A L T R A D I T I O N S , 1 8 9 6 – 1 9 2 9

34
: A 9C ADC / C ? ? 5 NCI F /C ?G QFI 2 =C 3 I & I ? N 1 IIE /? N F

NN ? IIE=? N F I ? N =IG FC = ?N CF =NCI – I=40,
/ ? N? IG = I & & & &

/
I

Q
CA

N
&

QF
I

2
=C

3
I

.
FF

CA
N

?
?

P?

as adding shots of clouds to accompany Mei’s role as a fairy maiden flying in
the sky.

The comedy was a genre that accounts for numerous shorts in the early years.
The China Cinema Year Book 1927 lists twenty-eight domestic comedies (xiaoju)
– most in 2 to 3 reels – in a chapter separate from feature films (zhuangju, literally
‘serious plays’). Early comedies were largely slapsticks (da’nao xiju), marked by
a good deal of aggressive or violent action as the source of humor (ZDZ 1996a:
1390). Popular Western comedies featuring Max Linder, Charlie Chaplin and
Buster Keaton were a direct source of inspiration, but humorous acts before or
between Chinese stage plays also provided ready materials. In the silent era,
humor was situational rather than verbal, and to engage the audience the
filmmakers depended on exaggerated gestures and facial expressions.

Few studios took pride in the comedy, but in 1925 Xu Zhuodai and Wang
Youyou named their company ‘Kaixin’ (literally, ‘delighted’) and specialized
in comedies so as to achieve ‘the sole goal of delighting the audience’. Their
comedies (huaji ju or humorous plays) generated little interest in the press,
which attributed the insufficiency of Chinese comedies to the lack of worthy
screenplays and comic talents (ZDZ 1996a: 672–7).

Hong Shen defined the comedy (xiju) as a genre that pokes fun at a variety
of contradictions in everyday situations. For him, there is a distinction between
huaji ju, which provokes laughter through the absurd and the eccentric, and
xiju, which aims at mild criticism and must avoid both the hyperbolic and the
wearisome. He intended his Roses in April (Siyue lidi qiangwei chuchu kai, dir.
Zhang Shichuan, 1926; 10 reels) to be a light comedy that ridicules enamored
men and cunning women. To realize his vision of the comic, Hong employed
long takes – with 5 to 6 shots each over 150-feet long – to get the best out of his
cast (ZDZ 1996a: 309). A departure from the previous action-filled slapsticks,
Roses in April expanded the comedy’s critical functions and signaled the genre’s
maturity as a narrative form.

Beyond genres: allegory, feminization
and Europeanization

A closer look at a typical urban romance here may help us better comprehend
the multiple meanings that exceed a purely genre analysis as well as critical
issues debated in the press of the 1920s. In lieu of setting the battle of vices
and virtues in an ethical framework as in family drama, Back Home from the City
(Chongfan guxiang, dir. Dan Duyu, 1925; 9 reels) allegorizes the perils of
unbridled urban adventures. Time (Guangyin) sends her five daughters on a
one-month tour of the city, and they stay with Aunt Indulgence (Ni’ai) and
Uncle Coward (Queruo). Delighted at the arrival of pretty country maidens,
Indulgence’s prodigal son Money (Jinqian) frequents nightclubs and restaurants
with Simplicity (Sunü, played by Yin Mingzhu), the eldest and most beautiful
sister, while his playboy friends Flattery (Xianmei) and Seduction (Yinyou) date

N A T I O N A L T R A D I T I O N S , 1 8 9 6 – 1 9 2 9

35
: A 9C ADC / C ? ? 5 NCI F /C ?G QFI 2 =C 3 I & I ? N 1 IIE /? N F

NN ? IIE=? N F I ? N =IG FC = ?N CF =NCI – I=40,
/ ? N? IG = I & & & &

/
I

Q
CA

N
&

QF
I

2
=C

3
I

.
FF

CA
N

?
?

P?

with Youth (Qingnian) and Vanity (Xurong). Only Chastity (Zhenjie) resists
urban extravagances and finds it more interesting to visit the studio of Sincerity
(Chengken, played by Shi Dongshan), Coward’s nephew who is a Western-style
painter (a narcissistic reference to Dan himself).

Shortly afterward, Beauty (Meili), one of the sisters, dies from excessive
drinking, and Money has Chastity imprisoned in a secret room because he does
not want her to interfere with his plots. As is characteristic of such urban tales,
Money soon abandons Simplicity for Coquetry (Yaoye). After Coward’s business
goes bankrupt, Simplicity and Vanity stay with Scheme (Yinxian), who eventually
steals all their belongings. In the meantime, Vanity has eloped with Seduction,
and Youth has returned home. Coquetry now flirts with Flattery, who gets into
a fight with Money that kills them both. Alone, Simplicity wanders to the
mountains and realizes her mistakes in front of a Buddha statue. Finally, Chastity
escapes and joins Simplicity on a trip ‘back home from the city’ (ZDZ 1996b:
1: 143–56).

Arguably, Back Home from the City functions only marginally as an old-
fashioned cautionary tale. Conceptually as well as artistically, the film aligns itself
with what Miriam Hansen terms vernacular modernism in international cinema,
manifested at multiple levels ranging from its thematic concerns and narrative
strategies to mise-en-scene, visual style, modes of performance, spectatorial
identification and address to the film’s potential horizon of reception (Hansen
2000: 13). Indeed, Back Home from the City is as much a star vehicle as a screen
primer for everything modern (or Western) in cosmopolitan lifestyles: fashion,
make-up, architecture, interior design, furnishing, mode of transportation and
the like. Fundamental to the film’s attractions is its spectacular display of modern
images for mass consumption. As Money indulges in decadence and Coquetry
flaunts her sexuality on screen, the film works as much to furnish new objects
of desire as to generate new desires for the modern, not necessarily at the
ideological level but more at the material level of everyday life. However, the
1920s horizon of reception was such that the film finds it obligatory to invoke
conservatism by adding an anti-climatic closure where Simplicity and Chastity –
two paragon female virtues – must return to the safe haven of their rural home.

Back Home from the City opened at the Embassy and received positive reviews.
Bi Yihong praised the film for its ‘philosophical’ depth and its almost perfect
execution of lighting and set design. Although he faulted the film for its all too
obvious use of allegorical names and its obsessive close-ups of Yin Mingzhu,
Bi believed that the film deserved a mention in the history of Chinese cinema
(ZDZ 1996a: 1104).

Eulogies of aestheticism aside, several critics had enumerated problems in films
of the contemporary life by the mid-1920s. In a 1926 article, Hu Zhifan divides
current films into three types: the romantic, the social and the anecdotal (tanci
pai). First, the ‘romantic film’ is the formulaic story of a scholar meeting a beauty
drawn from traditional Chinese narratives, but filmmakers have modernized the
formula by making the poor scholar a talented writer or artist, and the demure

N A T I O N A L T R A D I T I O N S , 1 8 9 6 – 1 9 2 9

36
: A 9C ADC / C ? ? 5 NCI F /C ?G QFI 2 =C 3 I & I ? N 1 IIE /? N F

NN ? IIE=? N F I ? N =IG FC = ?N CF =NCI – I=40,
/ ? N? IG = I & & & &

/
I

Q
CA

N
&

QF
I

2
=C

3
I

.
FF

CA
N

?
?

P?

beauty a coquettish socialite. Second, the ‘social film’ is the exposé of social evils,
dwelling excessively on playboys and prostitutes’ ‘modern’ activities equally
tempting to Shanghai residents. Third, the ‘anecdotal film’ is the adaptation of
tanci narratives, and since tanci (or pingtan), a style of storytelling performed in
lyrics and songs, was immensely popular in the Yangtze Delta region, tanci films
are especially ‘welcome by ladies and misses’. While mentioning moral tales
(e.g., family dramas) and comedies as other types in passing, Hu opines that
fragile beauties and bookish gentlemen will lend no assistance to a weak nation
(Da Zhonghua Baihe 1926).

Implicit in Hu’s article is a criticism of two tendencies – feminization and
Europeanization – that dominated Chinese filmmaking in the mid-1920s. Hu’s
article was published as an endorsement of The Migration Act (Zhibian waishi,
dir. Wang Yuanlong, 1926; 8 reels), a film that depicts the heroic act of southern
farm workers migrating to the northern frontier. As Wang Yuanlong asserted
in 1926, The Migration Act sought ‘Easternization’ by way of promoting
‘indigenous Chinese culture’ and thus represented a departure from his previous
espousal of wholesale ‘Westernization’ (ZDZ 1996a: 303). In a film review,
Zhou Shoujuan praised The Migration Act as a ‘ground-breaking’ film that
delighted the audience with rural, natural beauty and exemplified a distinctive
‘national characteristic’ (ZDZ 1996a: 1160–1).

CINEMA AND SPECULATIONS, 1927–9

In a sense, what happened in the late 1920s was the return of ‘Chineseness’ with
a vengeance – a kind of legendary, magical ‘Chineseness’ that spun out of con-
trol. As Bao Tianxiao predicted in 1926, ‘the development of Chinese cinema
would not materialize through the film romance where the so-called stars faked
their feelings; it could only materialize through the historical film’ (ZDZ 1996a:
629). He asserted that screen images of Chinese sages and heroes could benefit
mass education on the one hand and correct the Western misconception of and
contempt for the Chinese on the other. Albeit affiliated with Mingxing, Bao
actually shared a conviction with the founders of a rising studio, Tianyi.

Tianyi and costume drama
The Shaw (Shao) brothers – Zuiweng (Renjie), Runde (Cunren), Runme
(Renmei) and Run Run (Yifu) – founded Tianyi (Unique Film Production
Company) in Shanghai in 1925 and intended their pictures to ‘promote Chinese
civilization and eschew Europeanization by emphasizing ancient morality
and ethics’ (Tan 1995: 18–19). A lawyer and businessman, Shao Zuiweng had
collaborated with Zhang Shichuan and Zheng Zhengqiu in 1922 in managing
the Laughter Stage (Xiao wutai) which specialized in the civilized play (ZDZ
1996a: 53). But contrary to Mingxing’s focus on contemporary issues, Tianyi

N A T I O N A L T R A D I T I O N S , 1 8 9 6 – 1 9 2 9

37
: A 9C ADC / C ? ? 5 NCI F /C ?G QFI 2 =C 3 I & I ? N 1 IIE /? N F

NN ? IIE=? N F I ? N =IG FC = ?N CF =NCI – I=40,
/ ? N? IG = I & & & &

/
I

Q
CA

N
&

QF
I

2
=C

3
I

.
FF

CA
N

?
?

P?

was interested primarily in adapting Chinese folk tales, myths and legends already
popular among audiences, an interest in line with its conservative ideology
(ZDZ 1996a: vii).

Under its pretext to advance national traditions, Tianyi released two note-
worthy costume dramas in 1926, both directed by Shao Zuiweng. The Lovers
(Liang Zhu tongshi; 12 reels), adopted from the tanci version of a popular folk
tale about Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, fated lovers who were reunited only
in death as two butterflies, took the nation by storm. A longer feature, White
Snake, I–II (Yiyao baishe zhuan; 18 reels), broke all records of Chinese films
in Southeast Asian markets, where tickets were sold as high as 6 yuan a piece
(ZDZ 1996a: 89).

Admittedly an umbrella term, the costume drama might be extended to
subsume genres such as the opera movie, the historical film and
romances set in ancient times – all these also designated as ‘ancient plays’ by
Commercial Press. But in a strict sense, the costume drama refers to a kind of
historical film adapted from the tanci repertoires and a wealth of unofficial histor-
ies, traditional novels, vernacular stories and folk tales. Initially a reaction to
Europeanization in domestic productions, costume dramas might have been
triggered by imported epics like The Ten Commandments (dir. Cecile B. DeMille,
1923) (S. Hong 1995: 6). Most costume dramas dwelled on the narrative for-
mula of either ‘scholar meets beauty’ (caizi jiaren), as in The Lovers, or ‘hero
loves beauty’ (yingxiong meiren), as in Sex Trap, I–II (Meiren ji, dir. Lu Jie et al.,
1927; 24 reels). Since location shooting could be minimized and stage props,
sets and costumes were readily available, the majority of costume dramas tended
to be imitative in nature and, worse still, cheaply made. Historical accuracy was
rarely an issue, and some producers rushed films to the market in a matter of a
week or so. The Tianyi costume drama trend crested in 1927, bringing into its
whirlpool other major studios.

There were, however, a few outstanding titles in this genre. Sex Trap, I–II, an
adaptation of an episode from the classical novel Romance of Three Kingdoms
(Sanguo yanyi), was a big-budget production. At a time when the average
investment per film was 5,000 yuan, Great Wall-Lily poured 150,000 yuan into
this two-part film that involved its four leading directors for an entire year in
addition to thousands of extras (S. Hong 1995: 7). This attempt at producing
‘well-made films’ was aimed at driving low-priced imitations out of the market
(ZDZ 1996a: 1418), but it could also backfire, as illustrated later.

Romance of the West Chamber: negotiating wen and wu
Before proceeding with the next commercial trend, we should pause now to
consider another ‘well-made’ costume drama that anticipated the rise of martial
arts films. Indebted to a long genealogy of literati writing and traditional theater
(Harris 1999), Romance of the West Chamber is a Minxin release rich in literary
quality, dramatic effect and cinematic artistry.

N A T I O N A L T R A D I T I O N S , 1 8 9 6 – 1 9 2 9

38
: A 9C ADC / C ? ? 5 NCI F /C ?G QFI 2 =C 3 I & I ? N 1 IIE /? N F

NN ? IIE=? N F I ? N =IG FC = ?N CF =NCI – I=40,
/ ? N? IG = I & & & &

/
I

Q
CA

N
&

QF
I

2
=C

3
I

.
FF

CA
N

?
?

P?