Popular culture in modern and

contemporary China
Class attendance not compulsory
Final written test, open questions
Classroom activity up to 0.5 added to the final grade

8.10.13
Modern China (period to be covered) end of the 19th century to the 21st
century

- Modernization period: cinema, calendar posters, popular press

- Maoist era cinema, revolutionary posters
- Reform period urban spaces, popular press, TV series, other forms
of TV entertainment, rock and pop music, the Internet

Mass culture NOT popular culture during Maoist period. Popular culture
came later in reform period.

The meaning of culture: culture as text and everyday practice: text and
contexts, images, values, etc., constructed in texts. How those things
reflect larger changes in the society. Image of women, patriotic content,
etc.

PRE-MODERN CHINA

Opening to the outside world Tang dynasty (618-907);

cosmopolitanism
- Xuanzang Buddhist monk who undertook a journey in 7th journey to
India to take sutras. Later he described his experiences. Literature
version: Journey to the West.
- Merchants, pilgrims coming from central Asia to China. They brought
things such as jewelry, they had influence on Chinese music,
instruments, fashion. Chinese people begin to sit on chairs and use
tables.
- Tang dynasty: opening to the outside world.
Development of the cities Song dynasty (Northern 960-1127,
capital at Kaifeng; Southern 1127-1279, capital at Hangzhou).
Popular culture (entertainment): literature, performing arts.
Flourishing of the cities, bigger food production, increase of
population.
: . - forma literatury , ktrej towarzyszy piew, muzyka.
(?)
MODERN CHINA GENERAL INFORMATION

Second half of the 19th century, first decades of the 20th century.
Western powers, opium wars (1839-42, 1856-60), the unequal
treaties, foreign concessions.
Need for modernization: the nation as imagined community
Emperor Guangxus Hundred Days Reform (1898), the self-
strengthening movement since the 1860s.
Education reform Western-style education, foreign languages,
studies abroad. New intellectual elite. The birthd of the idea of the
nation.
Zeng Guafan, Li Hongzhang they were trying to develop China and
its industrialization.
Womens emancipation. Women started to be active outside their
home.
The Xinhai Revolution (1911), the Chinese Republic, the Kuomintang
(1912) and the CCP (1921)
Conflict with Japan: first Sino-Japanese war 1894-95, the Twenty-One
Demands 1915, invasion of Manchuria 1931, Battle of Shanghai
1937, second Sin-Japanese war 1937-1945.

THE URBAN SPACE: SHANGHAI

Development of Chinese cities since the late Qing dynasty (2nd half
of the 19th century)
1928 Nationalist Government (Nanking)
1911 1937 significant changes in the cities
Chinas cultural center: Shanghai.
Opening of the port of Shanghai to foreign trade (1842, Treaty of
Nanking) county seat, 540.000 inhabitants.
Beginning of the 20th century largest Chinese city, 1.080.000
inhabitants.
1915 2.000.000, late 1920s 3.000.000, floating population
(obcokrajowy pracujcy w handlu, uchodcy rosyjscy czy chiscy).
Cosmopolitan city.
After the Xinhai Revolution change of status from to , wall
around Chinese city (S) taken down in 1912. Greater heterogeneity
in the city. Easier communication.
Petty urbanities xiao shimin , workers and the middle class
they really built the modern society in Shanghai. Clerks,
accountants, workers in factories.

TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE URBAN SPACE:

 Modernization: canals filled roads paved, bridges, street lighting,
mass transportation.
Longtang way of organising space, addressing , shikumen
form of housing in the alleys. Foreingers started building them.
First made of wood, ater the great fire destroyed many of them, later
made of brick. Mostly inhabited by several people.
Leisure space

15.10.13

19th century problems of China: Humiliations, the need to define identity,

threat from Japan, big differences between cities and countryside.

Bund in Shanghai. Hotels, companies, banks.

Cathay Hotel (1929) the tallest building in Shanghai.

Nanjing lu Nanjing Road.

Fascinations with the achievements of modern era. But also fear the city
is potentially destructive.

Mao Dun the author of a novel Midnight. Image of modern Shanghai.

An old man who came to Shanghai had a heart attack because of shock.

Race tracks, dancehalls. Image of femme fatale getting man at the races.
Qipao.

Amusement halls usually round, high (the land in Shanghai was very
expensive), zoos with exotic animals, pagodas, coffee shops, etc.

BRAK Amusement parks (z komrki!)

Further reading:

Leo Ou-fan Lee Shanghai Modern. The flowering of a new urban culture in
China, 1930-1945.
Stella Dong Shanghai. The rise and fall of a decadent city, 1842-1949.

CHINESE CINEMA IN THE MODERN PERIOD

China was not backward at all when it comes to cinema.

CHINESE CINEMA A SHORT HISTORY

Very early arrival in China: August 1896 (one year after Lumier
brothers), screening at Xu Yuan teahouse, Shanghai.
Very short recordings from Beijing opera, not the whole story. First
locally produced film: Dingjunshan, 1905. Fengtai Photographic
Studio, Beijing. Dir. Ren Jingfeng; further development of cinema
Shanghai. In Shanghai: easier access to foreign capital, equipment,
roll films, more possibilities of cooperation with foreigners.
First film studio: Asia Film Company Yaxiaya yingxi gongsi. Joint
venture between one American businessman and two Chinese. They
were amateurs, but had had contact with the theatre. Using German
materials to produce the film.
First short feature: Nan fu nan qi The difficult couple (Difficult
husband, difficult wife literally), 1913. Producers: Zheng Zhenqiu,
Zhang Shichuan. This story depicts in a funny way some social
conventions.

First World War it put at end directly to film studios from the past.
No supplies. Later supplies not from Europe, but from USA.

The 1920s cinema craze; emergence of Chinese film industry.

First feature-length film: Yan Ruisheng, 1921, dir. By Ren Pengnian.
The story about the guy who murdered prostitute for money
(authentic). It is not the story important, but film as an attraction
that was said by Tom Gunning. Cinema of attraction.
Over 500 films produced during this decade.
Passage from cinema of attraction to narrative cinema.
Not many of those film survived till nowadays.

1910 5 Chinese studios, 1925 : 40-60 production companies based

in Shanghai, 1927- 181 studios (151 in Shanghai)

1920s:
Mingxing (The bright star) (1921-1937) - by the same two
Chinese who established Asia Film Company, they also opened
actors school: Laogong zhi aiqing (The love of worker) 1922, Guer
jiu zi ji 1923 (Orphan rescues grandfather).
Minxin ( peoples new) (1926 brought from Hongkong to
Shanghai): Xi xiang ji 1927 romance of a western chamber. This
 studio also promoted Sun Yat-sens ideas. 1930 this studio became
a part of another one.
Tianyi (One sky) (1925) established by Shaw brothers. 1937
outbreak of the war, studio transferred to Hong Kong, where it was
influential.

1930s

Promotion of local cinema (guochan dianying). Political involvement

(like literature) leftist cinema. Cooperation with May Fourth writers
(wenren dianying ruch czwartego maja).
Many Hollywood on the market. Film screening was a subject to
censorship from Kuomintang government. Many light movies
produced (no problems with censorship) focus on entertainment
and esthetic values.
Debate on ruaxing dianying and yingxing dianying, 1933-35.
Concerning two types (the first one light movies, the second hard
movies). The second type prevailed. Just like the literature.
Nowadays people in China also interested in this type of films from
1930s.
Sound films: screened in China since 1927: first Chinese sound
movie genv Hongmudan 1931, Mingxing. Films in Shanghai were
promoting mandarin language, so actors had problems! Second
problem: in silent movies facial expression is very important, it is no
longer needed later with the sound.
Film music PRC national anthem Yiyongjun jinxingqu March of the
volunteers, from Fengyun ernv (Children of trouble times) 1935
Lianhua (United China) Film Company 1930-1937 another,
together with Minxin, important studio: Nv shen (goddess) , Xin
nvxing (new women).

22.10.13

MOVIE THEATRES

First projections: teahouses, live performances

First cinemas Beijing, 1907; Shanghai 1908 Hongkew Cinema
(Hongkou da xiyuan), est. by Antonio Ramos
Most cinemas (Shanghai) est. during the 1920s, 1930s
The 19020s about a dozen western cinemas (Carlton, Odeon,
Empire, Palace, Victoria, Paris, etc.) first-run Hollywood movies,
since 1926 - several cinemas showing first-run Chinese films
 The 1930s 32-36 cinemas, largest Grand Theatre (Da Guangming)
1933, designed by Laszlo Hudec
The amusement halls were on decline, cinemas were on the rise

CINEMA IN THE PRESS

Special press on cinema and movies. Supplements or the whole

magazines.

1921 Yingxi congbao, supplement of Shenbao first press title

dedicated to the cinema
First independent film magazine: Yingxi zazhi 1921
1921 49: 206 press titles on the cinema, published by book
companies or film companies
Interest in the movies movie going was the part of the image of the
modern woman constructed in the popular press . Liangyou
popular magazine in the 1930s. (Friendly companion). Providing
pictures from movies or movie stars. Not only about Chinese movies,
but also Hollywood ones.

(FEMALE) MOVIE STARS

Traditional theatre since the 17th century men was actors; women
end of the 19th century.
Cinema need for actresses (authenticity)
The 1920s - amateurs , prostitutes, negative discourse of movie
actresses as dangerous women. Even earlier the status of the actors
was very low. The lowest classes in society.
1920s, 1930s actresses upwardly mobile, publicly visible

Early stars: Wang Hanlun (Guer jiu zu ji, 1923), Yang Naimei (Yu li hun,
1924) they were not trained, but they were not prostitutes either. Their
families left them after they became actresses.

1920s face-to-face interaction with the public

1930s the movie press , promotion of stars by film companies;
positive discourse of female movie stars
No negative connotations any more. Positive discourse. Actresses
often depicted as intellectuals, with a book in a hand, etc.
New generation of actresses: Ruan Lingyu she didnt know
mandarin, that was a problem when sound came to movies (Nvshen,
1934, Xin nvxing 1935), Hu Die (Butterfly she was educated,
entered Film Academy) (Huoshao Hongliansi 1928, Genv Hongmudan
1931).
 Film producers recruited many actresses from singing and dancing
troops.
Women were supposed to act like themselves, so to have natural
virtues. Actresss private life came into discourse. Men didnt have to
be like this. Women had to be virtuous on the screen and off the
screen. Ruan Lingyu destroyed by the media she committed
suicide.

CHINESE CINEMA AND LOCAL TRADITIONS

Influence of traditional theatre, classical and contemporary literature
Xiyang yingxi oversees shadowplay (piyingxi, shadowplay)
Film and the teahouse culture teahouse an important part of
everyday life.
Film and traditional opera: stories, costumes, acrobatics, fighting,
poses liangxiang (takie zamieranie z wyrazem twarzy w kierunku
publicznoci); xieyi
Film and classical fiction (Xixiangji 1927, Baishezhuan 1926).
Two types: wen and wu (just like in the culture, art) Confucian and
martial (eg. Kongfu movies)
Film and contemporary fiction: mandarin duck and butterfly
literature (Yu li hun, 1924) adaptation of a novel by Xu Zhenya;
datuanyuan (happy ending). Not liked intellectuals, because they
showed old stories, not the real stories. These stories had happy
endings.
Martial arts fiction and film kung-fu movie craze 192801932 Huo
shao Hongliansi 1928.

29.10.13

Baihua also literature language, but used in speech as well.

Late 1920s. censorship in the movies (made by Kuomintang)

1930s the most important center for making movies, but also Kanton and
Hong Kong. Kanton under control of various fractions of the warlords. They
preferred Cantonese dialect.

1937 film studios moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong and Canton.

Craze of Kongfu movies came to an end (they were promoting

superstitions since there were lots of supernatural heros and powers, etc.).

Laogong zhi aiqing a laborers love. The earliest Chinese film that
survived (1922).
Narrative cinema or cinema of attractions? Cinema of attractions: more
important as a spectacle rather than for the story. Laogong zhi aiqing is
narrative cinema. But it also have features of cinema of attractions
(expressing emotions, movements).

In the movie: Differences of the classes (daughter of a doctor-scholar and

a worker with the lowest position in traditional China). Highest class and
the lowest. It is possible by earning money.

Woman doesnt say anything, she agrees with the father. But no arranged
marriage. A bit modern and a bit traditional at the same time. But first
those two people agree. She is extremely modest.

Young people are exchanging presents. Throwing things at each other is

from the Book of Songs!

They dont have ponytails. The doctor has traditional gown.

This movie: mixture of modernity and tradition, cinema of attractions and

narrative cinema. Social changes appearing in the movie.

1934: Xin nvxing New woman (new women)

Cai Chusheng master of hard cinema, left-wing cinema

New women:

New kind of social class xiao shimin petty urbanites.

Main character: Wei Ming (played by Ruan Lingyu) she is a teacher at the
girls school. She is teaching music. She ran away from her family, she
rejected traditional, arranged marriage. She is choosing her partner
herself.

Her friend works at the publishing house. His name is Yu Haichou. He helps
her to publish some of her essays.

Li Aying she is working in the factory.

Wang wealthy guy, married, but interested in Wei Ming. She refuses to go
out with him, then Wang talks to the principle of the school and makes her
fired.
5.11.13

Xin nvxing, New woman/women 1934 Lianhua Film Company, director:

Cai Chusheng, starring: Ruan Lingyu. Depicts difficult situation of a
woman.

TIME

Leo Ou-fan Lee says:

- Chinese modernity and linear time/history (earlier, time was like
cycles)
- Opposition present/past discourse of Xin (new)
- Western calendar. Shenbao Shanghai newspaper the first to
use western calendar. And by intellectuals, such as Liang Qichao.
Clock is shown in the movie as a sign of modernity.
Clifford Geertz (Modernity and Self-Identity):
- Modernity and the uncoupling the time and space
- empty , mechanically measured, universal time its not connected
to locality. Universal time is something given. Modernity Is already
there in Shanghai in 1930s.
John Thompson (The Media and Modernity):
- Modern media and despatialized simultaneity.

The point is: how to control time, how to cope with this. Two different
spaces and social classes: colonial modernity and local, working-class
modernity. The main character doesnt belong to any, she cannot find her
place and control it.

Xin nuxing:

Standardized time
Tie as flow
Simultaneity: two modernities: colonial (upper-class) and local
(working-class)
Regulation of time, organization of daily life.
Leisure time of upper class: dancing, drinking,
Time: organized; time as commodity
Time also at work. At school, at factory, schedules (plan for the week
Li Aying has her time at work and lessons written in a schedule).
Time connected to institutions factory or lessons.
MODERNITY IS ABOUT COPYING WITH TIME, CONTROLLING TIME !
Our heroine cannot cope with it. Her time is dictated by others.
Colonial modernity: patriarchal order. A show in one ball room
woman portrait as a slave, man is beating her. Wang enjoyed the
show, Wei Ming is terrified, silent and she identifies with that
woman. She sees herself as that woman.
 He stops at the hotel, she is angry, she smashes his watch! She is
trying to get control over her life.

IMAGE

John Thompson: mediated worldliness

Siegfried Kracauer (Photography): eternalizing spatial continuum,
annihilating the person. (person in the context) . Photography Is
separating image from the person.

Calendar posters: enforcing positioning of women as erotic objects.

Wei Ming has lots of her own pictures around . Li Aying has no mirrors or
images of her. Some guys are stealing Wei Mings pictures.

She commits suicide after becoming prostitute and rejecting first client,
Wang. But she is still alive after taking pills, but newspapers have written
false stories about her death.

Emancipation was a slow process. They already escaped from tradition,

but met tragedies. There were not that many jobs for women. The movie is
convincing in the depicting situation of women.

The solution in the movie collective, no place for individual. Li Aying has
no problems with men, but she is like a shadow. She has no contact with
men, so she doesnt have problems.

JSTOR or ebrary- good place to search for articles and books.

CALENDAR POSTERS

(Yuefenpai)

Women did not draw posters.

After end if empire: lots of literati with lowest degree but no job
they started painting.

Missionaries established schools or orphans.

Zheng Mantuo he was learning by himself.

There were no concerns about copyright.

Most famous autors:

 Zheng Mantuo
Xie Zhoguang
Hu Boxiang
Hang Zhiying

Posters commissioned by:

Advertising departments of large companies: British American

Tobacco, Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company, Huacheng Tobacco
Company
Printing companies, publishing houses: The Commercial Press
Advertising agencies

Calendars cheap way of decorating houses. They could be sold just like
magazines in the streets. And people did not note those advertisements.

Elements of tradition and modernity.

Imperial China: print advertising. Example: shop which sold acupuncture

needles. But not many survived to our days, so we dont really know.

New Year poster ads in 19th century China.