Did you know that the world’s largest free online collection of early Chinese films with English subtitles was created at UBC?
This month, celebrate Asian Heritage Month by exploring the history and artistry of early Chinese cinema.
I created the Chinese Film Classics Project, which features over 40 Chinese films from the 1920s to the 1950s with English subtitles. The films are available for viewing at both the project website (chinesefilmclassics.org) and on the YouTube channel @ModernChineseCulturalStudies.
A free public version of my UBC online course “Chinese Film Classics,” featuring eleven films, each complemented by two short video lectures, is also available on the project website.
Here are a few great films to get you started:
Laborer’s Love (1922): The earliest surviving full Chinese-made film is a silent slapstick comedy about a carpenter in love who uses the tricks of his trade to get the girl. Watch for gags inspired by Hollywood silent comedians Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.
surviving full Chinese-made film. (Photo: Supplied)
Goddess (1934): The most iconic film starring a tragic screen goddess at her most radiant. Ruan Lingyu’s charisma shines in this story of a single mother struggling to raise her child in a predatory and unsympathetic Shanghai. Local trivia: Child actor Henry Lai’s mother was born in British Columbia!
Street Angels (1937): This tragicomedy set in the slums of Shanghai features two hit songs sung by “golden voice” Zhou Xuan that remain nostalgic favorites today. Released the same month full-scale war broke out with Japan, Street Angels survives as China’s most beloved “talkie” (and singie!).
Long Live the Missus! (1947): What happens when you try too hard to please your mother-in-law or spouse? This sophisticated screwball comedy by celebrated screenwriter Eileen Chang is a Civil War-era battle of the sexes featuring a fashion parade and snappy dialogue.
Spring River Flows East (1947): China’s answer to Gone with the Wind is a two-part, three-hankie wartime melodrama that broke box office records. An all-star cast dramatizes the depravities and human costs of war through an epic story of one family torn apart.
Spring in a Small Town (1948): Widely regarded as the best Chinese film of all time, Fei Mu’s story of loss and renewal in the ruins of war is pure cinematic poetry. Passions rekindle when a doctor returns from the front to his hometown to discover that his best friend and the girl he loved are now married. Will she stay, or will she go?
Window to America (1952): If current conditions in the United States of America are making you want to jump out the window, don’t! Instead, watch this extraordinary film from the early years of the People’s Republic: a Cold War farce set in New York City featuring an all-Chinese cast in whiteface.
CHRISTOPHER REA IS A PROFESSOR OF CHINESE LITERATURE AND FILM AT UBC AND A RESIDENT OF HAWTHORN PLACE.