ABSTRACT
This chapter is a study of the American film industry’s contribution to Chinese cinema’s conversion to sound from 1931 to 1936. While Hollywood’s transition to sound in the late 1920s has drawn enormous attention, little is known about the history of cinema’s sound transition in other countries such as China. In addition, the scholarly literature dealing with the relations between the American and the Chinese film industries concentrates on the American film industry’s function as a model for the domestic film industry but fails to examine the American film industry’s other significant functions. Through an examination of the evolution of China’s transition to sound in the 1930s, this chapter argues that the American film industry serves as a constructive force in the formation of the domestic film industry. This chapter suggests that the existing literature advocating the concept of a “national cinema” fails to explain adequately the function of the American film industry in the making of the Chinese national film industry.
