The Golden Age of Chinese Cinema

In 1930s Hollywood, cultural icon Humphrey Bogart was only rising while Shanghainese actress Zhou Xuan had already become an internationally acclaimed performer. She and the world of Chinese cinema she lived in, with its emphasis on class struggle and ordinary people’s lives, has made a lasting contribution not only on Chinese culture, but on generations of film directors throughout the world.

Almost every venue at Yu Garden, Shanghai’s famed tourist attraction, has a vintage poster of a young, beautiful Chinese woman wearing a qipao. She smiles with seductive eyes and curly, pinned-back hair. This image is familiar to anyone who has visited the place at least once, equally as iconic as the site’s famed Bridge of Nine Turns. But not everyone knows who this is a picture of, that this is a picture of the famed Chinese actress and singer Zhou Xuan, one of the seven muses of Chinese cinema in the 1930s. 

Born around 1920 with the given name Su Pu, Zhou never knew her biological parents, something that haunted her throughout her life. Still, she came to be adopted by a family surnamed Zhou, taking this surname as her own. In the early 30s Zhou acted, sang and danced in a Shanghai dance troupe called the Bright Moonlight Song and Dance Troupe which made her a local celebrity. But it was her role as a singing street girl in Street Angel (1937) that made Zhou a star and an admired singer in China and throughout the world. 

And while Zhou’s star profile continued to shine brightly throughout the 1940s and 50s, her private life was shrouded in darkness. Plagued by mental illness and broken relationships, Zhou found herself in and out of mental asylums until her untimely death in 1957. It’s an archetype all too familiar in the world of film today – the troubled actress with the uncanny ability to appeal to our deepest humanity; for better or for worse, Zhou was a pioneer, one of the first of her kind. Indeed, one could make the comparison that in the pantheon of world class film stars, Zhou Xuan is to China what Marilyn Monroe is to the US.

Liu Debao loves history and film; his warehouse and studio Shanghai Old Newspaper and Film Private Library in Putuo District full of rusty metal boxes overflowing with films is testament enough. “My parents loved culture, art and films, especially my mother. They were very bookish and their influence on me was really great. I still remember the first time we went to the cinema. One of the first films I saw with them was Sun Wukong. Gradually, [films] became my passion. I started collecting them.” 

When speaking about China’s golden age of film, Zhou Xuan is one of the first names on his lips. “Zhou Xuan and Zhao Dan [Zhou Xuan's partner in Street Angel] are definitely my favourite actors from the 1930s. The characters they created are so remarkable and vivid.” Further, Liu says that he is particularly fond of these old movies because they are “outstanding”, and watching a few with him, it’s easy to understand why. These black and white films have an incredible magnetism, displaying the lives of ordinary people with comedy and wit, as well as genuine pathos, something absent in many of today’s Hollywood-style blockbusters.

The Old Film Café, an old three-storey building located on Duolun Lu in Hongkou District, offers a wide range of films from the 1930s and 1940s. At the entrance there's a statue, reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin, but you can't quite be sure it's him. It appears more like a shadow from the past. 

Inside the café, this previous world begins to take shape more fully. Typewriters with missing keys, old-fashioned phones, books and antique lamps fill the surroundings. Black and white photos of Chinese and Western film stars decorate every wall. Foreigners and locals alike find themselves sipping coffee or tea in front of the screens on which old films are projected. Here, you’re apt to see the enchanting figure of Zhou Xuan moving before you.  

Of course, Zhou Xuan is just one of many stars from China’s golden age of film that continue to delight and inspire. Zhao, manager at the Old Film Café is an aficionado of Chinese cinema, but she prefers Hu Die to Zhou Xuan. Hu Die, ‘The Butterfly’, was another outstanding performer of the time, achieving stardom after the release of Twin Sisters (1934), directed by Zheng Zhengqiu, one of the founding fathers of Chinese cinema. 

And while the golden days of Chinese cinema and Zhou Xuan are long gone, its influence continues to be felt in contemporary Chinese cinema. The same approaches to filmmaking that appeared in 1930s China resonate with modern directors like Jia Zhangke (The World, Still Life, 24 City) and Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine). And as winners of numerous accolades internationally, it’s clear that the spirit of Zhou Xuan has been embraced by the rest of the world in the 21st century as well.

Liu Debao welcomes visitors to see his collection at his studio. 8am – 8pm daily. Shanghai Old Newspaper and Film Private Library. 285 Caoyang Lu, near Ningxia Lu, 6244 3700 (Mandarin only)

Old Film Café. 10am – 1am. 123 Duolun Lu, by Sichuan Bei Lu, 5696 4763