Shanghai Film Industry
2 min readShanghai was the birthplace of Chinese cinema.Motion pictures were introduced to China in 1896.The first Chinese film，a recording of the Beijing Opera，The Battle of Dingjunshan，was made in November 1905.In 1909，China’s first film company，Asia Film Company was established in Shanghai as a joint venture between American businessman Benjamin Polaski，Chinese comprador Zhang Shichuan，and Chinese theatrical talent Zheng Zhengqiu.Chinese film industry didn’t begin until 1913 when Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan shot the first movie The Difficult Couple in Shanghai.And the country’s first fictional feature film of MingXing Film company，An Orphan Rescues His Grandfather，was also produced in Shanghai.
These two films were very influential，and established Shanghai as the center of Chinese film-making.For the next decade the production companies were mainly foreign-owned，and the domestic film industry，centering around Shanghai，a thriving entrepot and the largest city in the Far East，did not start in earnest until 1916.During the 1920s，film technicians from the United States trained Chinese technicians in Shanghai，and American influence continued to be felt there for the next two decades.
During this period，some of the important production companies first came into being，notably Mingxing Film Company founded byZheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan and the Shaw Brothers’Tianyi Film Company.Shanghai’s film industry went on to blossom during the early 1930s，generating Marilyn Monroe-like stars such as Zhou Xuan.China’s first”talkie”was The Songstress Red Peony played by“film queen”Butterfly Hu（Hu Die in Chinese）and produced by the Ming Xing Film Company，Shanghai’s largest film production studio.
Shanghai film industry keeps developing as time goes by，and now is a bright star in the world film industry.
Shanghai Film Group，which includes Shanghai Film Studio，Shanghai AnimationFilm Studio，Shanghai FilmDubbing Studio，etc，is one of the most influential film groups in China and the Shanghai international film festival，the first A-level international film festival in China is catching great attention from all over the world.
