Based on meticulous archival research and a repetorary of rarefilms, most of which were believed lost, this book is a pioneering critical study of the Chinese cinemas in Hong Kong and Shanghai and their complex interconnections. The years 1935-50 were a period of ceaseless violence in China, of war, occupation, civil war, and colonialism, leading to mass displacements of millions of people and extreme poverty. Both the cinema and the broader popular culture of this period have been little studied, partly because access to research materials is so difficult, partly because of the political problems involved (most films produced during the war have been considered pro-Japanese and their makers traitors). This study brings to light the humanity of the filmmakers, writers, and business people; the many facets of the historical situation in which they worked; and the complex politics of the films they made.This is also an original and important study of the regional networks, diasporic connections, and border-crossing movement of goods, capital, and people that drew Hong Kong and Shanghai together in an intercity nexus that sustained the survival and even flourishing of popular cinema during this tumultuous period. (view table of contents)

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Product Description: A cutting-edge collection exploring identity-making in East AsiaThis is an interdisciplinary study of the cultural politics of nationalism and national identities in modern East Asia. Combining theoretical insights with empirical research, it explores the cultural dimensions of nationhood and identity-making in China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: Focusing on the responses of writers in Shanghai to the Japanese occupation, this book corrects the postwar conception of occupied China as a field of conflict between selfless resisters and shameless collaborators by showing a complexity and ambiguity of moral choices that defies such stereotyping...read more