Chinese Film History
中国电影史
The film of China underwent its hard and long pioneering period. In nearly thirty years (1905 ~ 1931) it suffered hard and bitter transformation from projecting foreign motion pictures to making its own films and from parasitizing on foreign resources to producing independently.
中国电影的拓荒期是漫长的。在将近30年（1905 ~ 1931 )的时间里，中国电影从放映外国影片起步到开始摄制自己的影片，从寄生于外国资本到开始自己独立自主地制片,经历了艰难而痛苦的蜕变。
On August 11, 1896, motion pictures arrived in China from the West and the first recorded screening of a foreign film in China was held in Shanghai. Since then, the French, the English, Italians and Russians exported their films to China in succession.
1896年8月11日，电影传人中国，当天,在中国的上海上映了第一部外国电 影。从此，法国人、英国人、意大利人、俄国人纷纷把自己国家的影片输人中国。
As the first Chinese film, The Battle of Mount Dingjun which started to shoot on July 9th, 1905 was made by Ren Qintai in November 1905. It was adapted from a Beijing opera of the same title by a notable performer of Beijing Opera Tan Xinpei and shot at the Feng Tai Photo Studio in Beijing, The shooting of the film marked the official birth of Chinese film. The producer of the film, Ren Qingtai, had studieyoung. He himself bought a manual camera and 14 sets of films from a German merchant and hired Liu Zhonglun who worked in his photo studio as his cameraman. The film was produced outdoors in the daylight for three days without any transcript or background. Although it seemed that The Battle of Dingjunshan was rough and ordinary，it was of great significance then—it inaugurated the pioneering beginning to make films for Chinese people. It was the infrequent and rare material not only for the history of Chinese film, but also for the history of Chinese Beijing opera.In 1913, as the first film company set up Chinese people, Xinmin Film Company was founded. And the first Chinese short feature film The Couple in Hard Times ( or Die for Marriage OT the Difficult Couple) ( Dong Fang Hua Zhu) came out then.
1905年7月9日，中国第一部电影《定军山》开拍。此部影片改编自京剧，由著名京剧艺术家谭鑫培在北京丰泰照相馆拍摄完成的，标志着中国电影的诞生。 由年轻时曾在日本学习摄影的任庆泰担任制作人。他从德国商人那里购买了一部手动摄像机和14盘胶卷，雇他照相馆里的照相师刘仲伦担任摄影师。本片在户外日光下拍摄了三天，没有任何脚本和布景。现在看起来，《定军山》的制作是粗糙而 普通的，但在当时其意义却非同小可:它开创了中国人拍电影的历史先河。不对于中国电影史还是中国京剧史，这部影片都是罕见而珍贵的资料。

In those days some styles of film had appeared, such as story film, martial art film, newsreel, scenery film and animation which were still at their exploring stage. Most of the films then were poor in art and contents. However, these films had positive meaning, for example, The Couple in Hard Times reflected the irrationality of the arranged marriage to some degree.
1913年，中国人自己组建的电影公司新民公司在上海成立，中国第一部短故事片《难夫难妻》（又名《洞房花烛》）问世。
In the following several years, the production companies were mainly owned by foreigners and the domestic film industry actually started in Shanghai since 1916. Film technicians from America began to train Chinese technicians in Shanghai in the 1920s, thus, American influence continued to be felt for the next two decades. This was the rudimentary times for the film of China. During this period some production companies were first set up in Shanghai, such as Star Film Company founded by Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan and the Shaw Brothers' Tianyi Film Company (“Unique”）. In 1917 China had its own first film corporation—the Film Section of the Commercial Press. Among these companies, Star Company produced Orphan Rescues Grandfather in 1923 and arounsed a stir then.
那时，一些影片的类型，如故事片、武打片、纪录片、风光片，动画片都出现了， 但基本上都还处于探索阶段。那时拍出的影片，无论内容上还是艺术上，大多很低 劣粗糖。不过也确有一些影片具有积极意义，如《难夫难妻》，在一定程度上反映了包办婚姻的合理性。
As a milestone of early Chinese film, Orphan Rescues Grandfather made by Zhang Shichuan and Zheng Zhengqiu with its successful box-office appealing to Chinese audiences of the time not only aid a foundation for the prosperity of Star Film Studio, it attracted more investment capital and talent into filmmaking, allowing a upsurge of founding film companies. According to the statistics, 175 film companies had been founded successively in every corner of the country, among which 145 were in Shanghai along. The emergence of numerous film companies led to the fact that the number of films increased and the domestic films were received a tremendous ovation on the market. Chinese film began to bottom out since then，entered its first unprecedentedly flourishing period.
随之而来的几年间，制片公司主要由外国人所拥有。1916年，中国的电影业才真正以上海为中心开始起步。20世纪20年代，美国电影专家开始在上海为中国培训技术人员。此后的二十年间依然能够感觉到美国对中国电影的影响。这个时 期是中国电影事业的萌芽时期。也是在此期间，中国首批电影制作公司，如张石川和郑正秋的明星影片公司，邵醉翁等兄弟四人的“天一”影片公司开始在上海创办。 1917年，中国有了第一家自己的电影企业——商务印书馆影片部。1923年由明星影片公司拍摄的《孤儿救祖记》引起了轰动。作为早期中国电影里程碑式的作品，张石川、郑正秋合作的《孤儿救祖记》票房上的成功不仅为“明星”公司的繁荣奠定了基础，而且吸引了众多资金和人才来投资影视制作，引发了创办电影公司的热潮。据统计，1922年到1926年间，全国 各地先后开办的电影公司有175家，单上海一地就有145家。众多电影公司的出现，导致了电影产量激增，国产电影受到市场的热烈欢迎。中国电影从此开始走出低谷，进人第一个空前繁荣期。
In 1931 the first Chinese wax disc dubbing film, Singing Girl was produced.Although it did not bring the expected sensational effect in its public performance, the fearless experiment and struggling practice of the producers opened the new page of the history of Chinese film after all.
1931，《歌女红牡丹》是中国第一部蜡盘配音有声片，虽然有声片在公演时，并未产生所期望的轰动效应，但是制作者们的大胆尝试和努力实践，毕竟揭开了中国电影历 史新的一页。
In 1932, Chinese Education Film Association was established in respond to the suggestion of enthusiastic people from Chinese educational and film field. Next year, Conscienceness by Bu Wancang and The Flower of Freedom, by Zheng Zhengqiu were selected as excellent films for the first time by the society. Hereafter, everal film selections were held. This was the earliest governmental film award for some leaders of the association acted as senior government officials.
1932年，中国教育界和电影界热心人士共同倡议，在南京建立中国教育电影 协会。次年，中国教育电影协会举行了第一次影片评选活动，卜万苍导演的《人道》 和郑正秋导演的《自由之花》被评为优秀影片。此后又举行了几次评选。由于当时 协会的领导者中有不少具有政府髙层官员身份，因此可以说这是中国电影史上最 早的具有政府色彩的电影奖。
At the beginning of 1930s, with the foundation of the progressive Chinese Leftist Writers' League, Japanese invasion of China and the Chinese people's awake-ness, the first truly important Chinese film was produced starting from the 1930s. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the progressive film workers made many good films bearing positive social effects at a quite high artistic level,like Cheng Bugao's Spring Silkworms (1933) , Wu Yonggang's The Goddess (1934), and Sun Yu's The Big Road (1935), etc. These progressive films were famous for their emphasis on social struggles and external threats (i.e.Japanese invasion),as well as on common people such as a family of silk farmers in Spring Silkworms and a prostitute in The Goddess. In 1933, the first Cantonese film, The White-golden Dragon aded by Xue Juexian and produced by Tianyi Film Company, aroused an unexpected stir. In 1934, Song of the fishermen produced by Cai Chusheng drew much attention of a large audience, and it became the firstChinese film awarded the international prize in the next year. In 193，the premiere of Children of TroubleTimes was held in Shanghai whose theme song, March of the Volunteer, was later confirmed to be the national anthem of the People's Republic of China.
20世纪30年代初，中国真正重要的电影随着进步的中国左翼作家联盟的成 立、日本帝国主义对中国的侵略和中国人民的觉醒而开始产生。在中国共产党的领导下，进步的电影作者拍出了许多具有积极社会意义又有相当艺术水准的影片，如程步高的《春蚕》（1933 )、吴永刚的《神女》（1934)和孙瑜的《大路》（1935) 等。这些进步影片因强调当时国内的阶级斗争、国外的威胁（即日本的侵略）以及 注重普通民众的生活而出名，像《春蚕》中的蚕农家庭和《神女》中的歌女。1933 年，由上海天一电影公司制作、薛觉先主演的首部粤语电影《白金龙》引起轰动。 1934年,蔡楚生执导的《渔光曲》，非常卖座，并于次年成为中国首部获国际奖项的影片。1935年,《风云儿女》在上海首映,影片的主题歌《义勇军进行曲》后来被定为中华人民共和国国歌。
In 1930s, Chinese film entered an unprecedented flourishing period and film style was gradually rich. In 1935, Diantong Film Company produced the first Chinese musical comedy City Scenery directed by Yuan Muzhi, whose artistic style was fresh and lively as well as bitter and harsh, occupying an important position in the film history. In 1937 the newly-established Xinhua Film Studio produced the first Chinese horror film The Phantom Lover directed by Maxu Weibang, starred Jin Shan and Hu Ping, etc. . The film not only made cinematic sensation then, its worth and charm could still be verified through half century.
20世纪30年代，中国电影进人了一个空前繁荣期，电影的样式也日渐丰富。 1935年，电通公司推出了袁牧之导演的中国第一部音乐喜剧故事片《都市风光》。 影片以清新活泼同时又辛辣尖锐的艺术风格在电影史上占据着重要地位。1937 年，新成立的新华影片公司推出了中国银幕第一部由马徐维邦导演、金山和胡萍等 主演的恐怖电影《夜半歌声》。影片不但在当时制造了轰动效应，历经半个多世纪 的岁月后，其价值和魅力依然能够得到验证。
After 1937, Chinese film workers produced many notable films which inspired Chinese people's fighting against Japanese invasion in the Anti-Japanese War, like Ding Shanxi's The Eight Hundred Heroes (1938) , Bu Wancang^S Mulan Joins the Army or Maiden in Armour (1939), with its story of a young Chinese peasant fighting against a foreign invasion, etc. In this stage Chinese film artists became more skillful in film language and their shooting methods reached the rather high level. In 1937, Street Angel produced by Yuan Muzhi made the main actress, Zhou Xuan, a great coup. Accordingly, this post-1930s is now often referred to as the first “golden period” of the Chinese film to some extent.
1937年以后，我国的电影艺术工作者在抗日战争中拍摄了不少鼓舞了中国人民斗志的抗战影片，例如丁善玺《八百壮士》（1938)、卜万苍的《木兰从军》（1939) 等。这一时期,我国电影艺术家对于电影语言的运用更加纯熟了，拍摄方法和手段 的运用，也都达到了比较高的水平。1937年，袁牧之导演的《马路天使》上映，女主 角周璇一鸣惊人。鉴于此，20世纪30年代后期，从某种程度上来说，常被认为是中国电影的第一个“黄金时期”。