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China Contemporary Performing Arts
Motion Pictures
Motion pictures were introduced to China in 1896, but the film
industry was not started until 1917. During the 1920s film
technicians from the United States trained Chinese technicians in
Shanghai, an early filmmaking center, and American influence
continued to be felt there for the next two decades. In the 1930s
and 1940s, several socially and politically important films were
produced.
The film industry continued to develop after 1949. In the 17
years between the founding of the People's Republic and the
Cultural Revolution, 603 feature films and 8,342 reels of
documentaries and newsreels were produced. The first wide-screen
film was produced in 1960. Animated films using a variety of folk
arts, such as papercuts, shadow plays, puppetry, and traditional
paintings, also were very popular for entertaining and educating
children.
During the Cultural Revolution, the film industry was severely
restricted. Most previous films were banned, and only a few new
ones were produced. In the years immediately following the Cultural
Revolution, the film industry again flourished as a medium of
popular entertainment. Domestically produced films played to large
audiences, and tickets for foreign film festivals sold quickly.
In the 1980s the film industry fell on hard times, faced with
the dual problems of competition from other forms of entertainment
and concern on the part of the authorities that many of the popular
thriller and martial arts films were socially unacceptable. In
January 1986 the film industry was transferred from the Ministry of
Culture to the newly formed Ministry of Radio, Cinema, and
Television to bring it under "stricter control and management" and
to "strengthen supervision over production."
Data as of July 1987
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