ABSTRACT
This chapter covers a period that includes what some historians see as two ‘golden ages’ in Chinese cinema – the prewar 1930s (Teo 1997: x) and the postwar 1940s (Lee 1991: 6).1 The period started in 1930, a year in which Lianhua was launched with high expectations to ‘revive national cinema’. The period ended in 1949, a year in which the Kuomingtang relocated its Republic of China government to Taiwan and the Chinese Communist Party founded the People’s Republic of China in the mainland.
