ABSTRACT
Nation is both real and imagined. As an imagined political community, in Benedict Anderson's familiar phrase, nation is projected as a unified, undifferentiated collectivity. But it is in fact a site of disparate and contesting discourses of national identity. Known as the period of gudao, the foreign areas of Shanghai-the International Settlement and the French Concession-maintained their neutrality. It was like a privileged island remaining outside Japanese rule, which was established in the surrounding environs. Zhang decided to fulfil his dream of building a movie empire, which began the story of Chinese cinema in semi-occupied Shanghai. It is indeed difficult to overestimate the impact of Zhang on the cinema industry of semi-occupied Shanghai: they have in fact become synonymous in historical memory. The profits enabled Zhang to increase his investment in Xinhua. Zhang found in historical drama a medium which could project loyalty on the Shanghai screen.
