Commercializing Ideologies Intellectuals and Cultural Production at the Mingxing (Star) Motion Picture Company 1922 - 1938 Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde an der Philosophischen Fakultät der Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg Institut für Sinologie vorgelegt von HUANG Xuelei July 2009 Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Barbara Mittler Dr. Anne Kerlan-Stephens For my parents, sister and 3-year-old niece CONTENTS Figures and Charts ii Conventions and Abbreviations ii Acknowledgements iv Introduction 1 Part I The Institution Chapter 1 The Institutional History 21 1.1 1922: A panorama 22 1.2 Chronicling the History of Mingxing 29 Part II The Producers Chapter 2 Yuanhu 鴛蝴/Zuoyi 左翼/GMD 國民黨: The Standard Story 56 2.1 "Yuanyang hudie pai 鴛鴦蝴蝶派" 56 2.2 "Zuoyi 左翼" 60 2.3 "GMD hack writers 國民黨御用文人" 69 Chapter 3 Cultural Professionals at Mingxing (I): Founding Members and Creative Staff in the 1920s 73 3.1 The Five "Tiger Generals" Hujiang 虎將 73 3.2 Bao Tianxiao and Hong Shen 88 3.3 Popular writers and journalists at Mingxing: A portrait 96 Chapter 4 Cultural Professionals at Mingxing (II): Creative Staff in the 1930s 103 4.1 A Changing Ecology of the Film World in the Early 1930s 103 4.2 The recruitment of Xia Yan, A Ying, and Zheng Boqi 112 4.3 Members of the Zuolian and Julian at Mingxing: A portrait 118 4.4 Yao Sufeng and Liu Na'ou 126 Part III The Products Chapter 5 Melodrama plus Isms 138 5.1 Why "Melodrama plus Isms": Zhang Xinsheng 张欣生 and Gu'er jiuzu ji 孤儿救祖记 (Orphan) 138 5.2 Test Case I: Yuli hun 玉梨魂 (Jade) 153 5.3 Test Case II: Kuangliu 狂流 (Torrent) 163 5.4 Test Case III: Yongyuan de weixiao 永遠的微笑 (Smiling) 168 Chapter 6 Addressing Current Issues: Isms (zhuyi) and Ideologies (yishi) 174 6.1 Family, Marriage, and Women 178 6.2 Labourer, Class, and the Ills of the Society 186 6.3 Martial Spirit, Revolution, and National Salvation 192 Chapter 7 Addressing the Modern Tension: Motifs 197 i 7.1 Dichotomizing Country and City 197 7.2 Juxtaposing Love and Revolution 208 Conclusion 217 Appendix I: Filmography 228 Appendix II: Tables 256 Bibliography 264 Lists of Primary Source Materials 282 Figures and Charts Fig. 1 Advertisement for Konggu lan 91 Fig. 2 Advertisements for Chuangshang renying and Tiexue qingnian 100 Fig. 3 Cartoon "Daoyan xiansheng guo wuguan" 135 Fig. 4 Huang Junfu (Fang Dayuan) and Yang Naimei (Cui Yunqian) 161 Fig. 5 Theatre Advertisements in XWB 175 Fig. 6 Distribution and sale agents of the Mingxing banyuekan 177 Fig. 7 Mingxing's distribution networks 225 Chart 1 Cinema Administrative Infrastructure of the Nanjing Government 42 Chart 2 Enterprise Architecture 50 Conventions and Abbreviations 1. Chinese characters are provided for all Chinese names, terms, and titles in the main text when they first appear. Afterwards, characters are given only when I deem necessary for ease of reference or other reasons. 2. Film titles are given in pinyin, Chinese characters and English translations, together with dates of production in parentheses, when they first appear. Afterwards, only pinyin and dates of production are given. A filmography which contains all the films Mingxing produced is provided in Appendix I. 3. For secondary source materials I cite in this study, only author, title and page numbers are given in notes (if in Chinese, only pinyin is given). For primary source materials – mainly journal articles in Chinese, I give full citations (both in pinyin and Chinese characters), because sources and dates of publication provide significant information for this historical study. English translations for Chinese sources are only given in "Bibliography" and "Lists of Primary Source Materials" appended. 4. The following abbreviations are used in the notes: DS Diansheng 電聲 MB Mingxing banyuekan 明星半月刊 MT Mingxing tekan 明星特刊 MY Mingxing yuebao 明星月報 MXNB Fan Yanqiao. "Mingxing yingpian gongsi nianbiao 明星影片公司年表" SB Shenbao 申報 SMA Shanghai Municipal Archive (Shanghai dang'an guan 上海檔案館) ii XWB Xinwenbao 新聞報 YHWZ Rui Heshi, et al., eds. Yuanyang hudie pai wenxue ziliao 鴛鴦蝴蝶派文學 資料 YHYZ Wei Shaochang, ed. Yuanyang hudie pai yanjiu ziliao 鴛鴦蝴蝶派研究資 料 ZDFZS Cheng Jihua, et al., eds. Zhongguo dianying fazhanshi 中國電影發展史 ZHWSJ Tian Han, et al., eds. Zhongguo huaju yundong wushinian shiliaoji 中國話 劇運動五十年史料集 ZWD Zhongguo dianying ziliaoguan, ed. Zhongguo wusheng dianying 中國無聲 電影 ZWDJB Zheng Peiwei, et al. ed. Zhongguo wusheng dianying juben 中國無聲電影 劇本 ZZDY Chen Bo, et al., eds. Zhongguo zuoyi dianying yundong 中国左翼电影运动 iii Acknowledgements Words are inadequate to express my gratitude to many individuals who have contributed to the making of this thesis over the past three years and ten months. My deepest appreciation goes to my advisor Barbara Mittler, an exceptionally committed mentor, for her never failing support and her instruction with unflagging zeal. She read every line of each chapter of my three drafts with admirable patience. I have benefitted tremendously from her insightful comments, inspirational thoughts, as well as numerous helpful suggestions about the skills and technical details of writing an academic thesis. I also owe a great debt to my co-supervisor Anne Kerlan. With her specialist expertise in early Chinese film history, she raised many thought-provoking questions and offered valuable advice, both of which have been crucial to this study. The chair of my examining committee Joachim Kurtz read through my thesis and provided constructive feedback, which I have highly appreciated. My heartfelt thanks also go to Nanny Kim and Xiao Zhiwei. I have always enjoyed the conversations with Nanny who shared with empathy my joys of unearthing intriguing materials as well as my confusions and anxieties in the course of writing. It is extremely kind of her to have carefully read my drafts and provided invaluable help with language correction and many comments. As a historian of Chinese early cinema, Zhiwei generously gave me special permission to his "private library" built up through his arduous archival research over two decades. Besides, for his warm support and sympathetic understanding, I owe profound gratitude to him. As this historical study has relied largely upon primary source materials scattered in a wide range of newspapers, periodicals and archival documents at various libraries and archives, I am deeply indebted to the following teachers and friends who drew my attention to particular materials, shared with me their own collections or researches, or helped me locate certain missing pieces: Li Daoxin, Rudolf Wagner, Xu Qinzhen, Chen Jianhua, Sun Liying, Shi Yun and Xu Meimei. In addition, I would like to especially thank the library of the Institute of Chinese Studies at Heidelberg University as well as its iv librarian Anne Labitzky-Wagner who is very accommodating and patient. The library is such a home-like place which not only houses a wealth of "treasure," offers free use of many facilities (e.g. the extremely useful microfilm scanner), but also opens 24 hours to bookworms. My thesis owns an intellectual debt to this wonderful place. My work on this project at the last stage was supported by a Completion Scholarship (Abschlussstipendium) awarded by the Graduate Academy of Heidelberg University and a Research Scholarship by the Heidelberg Cluster of Excellence. I am indebted to the two institutions' generous support which allowed me to concentrate on my work at this crucial stage. I am also grateful to the Graduate Academy for a Travel Grant which enabled me to take a research trip to Shanghai and attend a conference in the summer of 2008. Last but not least, I would like to thank the members (and visiting members) of the Popular Culture Research Group: Jennifer Altehenger, Cheng Chun-chieh, Joscha Chung, Nora Frisch, Sebastian Gehrig, Lena Henningsen, Annika Jöst, Cora Jungbluth, Jennifer May, Sun Liying, Petra Thiel, Wu I-wai, Xiong Jingjing, and others. Stimulating discussions and other forms of interactions with them frequently drew me to useful theories, approaches and materials and made the process of writing this thesis more interesting. Finally, many thanks to my friends Huang Yunfeng, Jin Tao, Wang Jialin, Wang Yan, Xu Ke, Zhang Zhi'an, Zhu Yanhua, as well as my parents, sister and niece, for their company, support, and love in different ways. v INTRODUCTION Introduction The conclusion of Edison's film forced the recognition of the motion picture […] as the greatest educational agency since the discovery of the printing machine. Moving Picture World 10, 18 Nov. 1911 Can shadowplay(film)-making make money? (攝製影戲還能賺錢否？) Hong Shen 洪深, XWB 1 Jan. 1926 In the early spring of 1922, Bao Tianxiao 包天笑 (1876 - 1973) was about to take the editorship of the Xingqi 星期 (it own English title: The Sunday; literally, Week), a popular fiction weekly published in Shanghai by the Dadong Publishing House (大東書局). 1 Fiction lovers of the day were able to read his works on quite many occasions. For example, a comic short story by him ran in the February 1922 issue of a fiction journal by the same publisher.2 In the summer of the same year, Zheng Boqi 鄭伯奇 (1895 - 1979), who was studying literature in Japan, spent his summer holidays in Shanghai. During the few months, he co-edited two journals by the Creation Society (Chuangzao she 創造社), a literary group founded by his friends Guo Moruo 郭沫若, Yu Dafu 郁達夫, and others in 1921 in Tokyo with their stated objective to "create a new Chinese literature."3 In 1922, Liu Na'ou 劉吶鷗 (1905 - 1940), a prominent writer of the Japanese-inspired literary school "new sensationism" (xin ganjue pai 新感覺派) in 1930s Shanghai, was a student of the Japanese Christian school Aoyama Gakuin. In the following year, he graduated from 1 See advertisement in SB 28 Feb.