Discussion on the topic of Chinese cinema.

On January 18, 2011, the Film Project organized a thematic exchange on Chinese cinema between Associate Professor Zheng Zhang (Department of Film Studies, Tisch College of the Arts, New York University) and faculty members from the Literature Department, Art Studies Department, lecturers, and students.The discussions primarily focused on the study of Chinese cinema, particularly early Shanghai cinema. Associate Professor Zheng Zhang emphasized one of the defining characteristics of early Chinese cinema: the rise of narrative films. Through two films, "Poet from the Sea" (produced in 1927), written and directed by Hou Yao, and "A String of Pearls" (produced in 1926), also written by Hou Yao, Associate Professor Zheng Zhang presented important findings regarding Hou Yao's early filmmaking methods and the emergence of romantic films in Shanghai cinema during the 1920s. Prior to this, Associate Professor Zheng Zhang had also held several discussions with students of the film project on the history of Chinese cinema. Zheng Zhang is a researcher and lecturer specializing in film history and historiography, early cinema, popular culture and modernity, gender and media, film and urban culture, cosmopolitanism, Chinese-language films (including documentaries and video films), and Asian and East Asian film studies.