The last phase of the nineteenth-century China was in a state of dramatic political instability, caused both by foreign aggression and internal troubles. Scholars of Chinese film history, in both China and the West, have adopted the ideas of yingxi and its translated twin "shadow play" to frame the reception of cinema in late Qing and early Republican years. Cinema gradually aligns with the different currents of intellectual battles that struggle to find ways to reinforce an objectively weakened and feeble country and in the meantime try not to lose the link with its long history and its heritage. Although national cinema was not being ignored, it was sometimes difficult to differentiate between the "local" and the westernized cinematographic models. Herself a masterpiece, Ruan Lingyu is one of the most important and influential actresses of the silent era.