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Chapter 1·Anti-Imperialism and Film Censorship During the Nanjing Decade, 1927–1937
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35 Chapter 1· Anti-Imperialism and Film Censorship During the Nanjing Decade, 1927–1937· Zhiwei Xiao Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Chinese revolutionaries faced two tasks simultaneously: externally, they wanted to free China from the grips of the imperialist powers; internally, they sought to fundamentally reform Chinese society so that China could embark on the path to modernity. The anti-imperialism and antifeudalism slogans of the Nationalist revolution of 1924–1927 well captured these central themes of modern Chinese history. The Nationalist government during the Nanjing decade sought to recover China’s sovereignty and rights from the Western and Japanese imperialist powers. Meanwhile, the state tried to foster a new national consciousness among the people. In both endeavors, film censorship played an important role. In this study I will focus on the Nationalists’ efforts to control foreign film distribution and studio activities inside China, placing these issues in the context of the overall struggle to gain national sovereignty from the imperialist powers and promote nationalist consciousness.1 The Nationalist Party clearly demonstrated its nationalist stand during the Northern Expedition when its troops reclaimed the British concession in Hankou in 1926.2 After the Nanjing government was founded in 1927, the minister of foreign affairs, Wu Chaoshu, informed the foreign consuls in China that his government would not recognize the unequal treaties signed by previous governments. On December 28, 1929, the Nanjing government issued an edict stating that all foreigners residing in China would be subject to Chinese laws and regulations beginning January 1, 1930. By February 1930, more than a dozen foreign concessions in China had been taken back, and negotiations were under way with the major Western powers about returning all the concessions, including the British and French concessions in Shanghai.3 In accord with this nationalist spirit, the Nanjing government began to censor foreign films, curbed foreign studios’ activities in China, and in 1937 condoned and eventually spearheaded a popular campaign to abolish foreign censorship on Chinese soil. Confrontations with Western and Japanese imperialism on issues related 36 Zhiwei Xiao to film censorship during this period were an important part of China’s struggle for equality, freedom, and sovereignty in the international community . I will discuss three cases in the following pages. The first case demonstrates that the censoring of foreign films in China originated from the nationalistic resentment of their negative portrayal of China and the Chinese people. The initiative for censorship came from the Chinese public and the film industry, then was taken up by the government. The second case is an examination of the Film Censorship Committee’s endeavors over the years to deal with foreign films and foreign film studios’ activities in China. It was mainly through the censorial efforts of the National Film Censorship Committee (nfcc) and later the Central Film Censorship Committee (cfcc) that the showing of offensive foreign films in China was brought to an end.4 Equally important was the fact that the nfcc/cfcc provided the Chinese film industry some protection from foreign competition by curbing the expansionist maneuvers of foreign studios, particularly Hollywood’s plan to transplant an “Oriental Hollywood” to China. Finally I describe the Chinese cultural workers’ campaign to abolish film censorship by foreign powers within the concessions, a movement that enjoyed the Nanjing government ’s tacit approval. Although the endeavor was aborted due to the outbreak of war with Japan, it demonstrated some interesting aspects of nationalism in China.· Nationalist Protests and the Beginning of Film Censorship in China Although Chinese began to try their own hand at filmmaking as early as 1905,5 their efforts remained sporadic and of little mass significance until the mid-1920s. The rapid growth of an indigenous film industry in the mid1920s did not fundamentally alter the foreign domination of China’s film market. Until the late 1920s most of the movie houses in Shanghai were owned by foreigners, and the majority of films shown in them were of foreign origin. Most foreign films were Hollywood products and were generally very popular with Chinese audiences. Foreign movie stars such as Charlie Chaplin , Douglas Fairbanks, and Lillian Gish were familiar to many Chinese.6 Many movies infuriated Chinese audiences, however, because of their negative portrayals of China and Chinese people. In such films, Chinese invariably appeared as opium smokers, gamblers, servants, and thieves. In the words of Paul K. Whang, a frequent contributor to China Weekly Review, In American films, wherever a Chinese character is introduced, he must be...