Hollywood and shanghai cinema in the 1930s

Abstract

In his article "Hollywood and Shanghai Cinema in the 1930s" Adrian Song Xiang argues that Hollywood films provided a repertoire of images of modernity Chinese filmmakers of the 1930s adapted to their films. Xiang analyses Yu Sun's 1932 film (Wild Rose), whose leading female character Xiaofeng was adapted from Hollywood actress Mary Pickford's iconic rambunctious teenager screen persona, particularly from the 1922 film Tess of the Storm Country. Owing to various factors including the difference between the conditions of production of the two films, the modernist potential of the film's teenage girl image was better realized in the Chinese film than in the US-American original and Xiang's analysis suggests an adjustment in the history of early Chinese cinema to account for Hollywood's impact. © Purdue University.