------Program code: DO-080911-00950 (what's this?)
Source: CCTV.com
09-11-2008 09:08
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On December the 5th, 1925, the temperature in Shanghai fell to minus 5, making it one of the coldest days many people could remember. Several days later, a 27-year-old Chinese man arrived in Shanghai from France, after a sea voyage lasting 35 days.
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The young man was Tang Huaiqiu. Having studied at an aviation academy in Paris, he was due to start work for the Aviation Department being set up by the People’s Government of Guangdong Province.
That year, The Eastern Miscellany published Shentu Shi, the first film script in China written by Hong Shen, who was 21 at the time. At the time, film was considered inferior to drama. So a student at Fudan University named Liu Guangyan commented: “Mr Hong prostituted his art.” Meanwhile, in Shanghai, Ouyang Yuqian, an actor 5 years Hong Shen’s senior, was presenting the Peking Opera The Drunken Concubine at the Tianchan Theatre.
Tang Huaiqiu stayed at the Mengjin Hotel after arriving in Shanghai. That first night, he strolled to the Tianchan Theatre. His attention was drawn to the sign at the door, with Ouyang Yuqian’s name on it. Ouyang, like Tang, hailed from Hunan Province, and 14 years earlier, the two had met in Japan. Ouyang was a member of the Spring Willow Society at the time. Back in his hotel, Tang Huaiqiu sent Ouyang a note, inviting him to visit. The two old friends enjoyed a happy reunion after the show. The next day, Ouyang invited Tang to have dinner at his home on Pubo Road. Among the other guests was a fellow actor and writer, Tian Han, who had lost his wife less than a year before. After the dinner, Tang Huaiqiu, who had become interested in drama while studying in France, decided to give up politics and join Tian Han and Ouyang Yuqian.
Tang Huaiqiu, unable to find a suitable job, opened a ballroom dancing school, which attracted many fashionable young people. In December of that year, 28-year-old Tian Han set foot inside a ballroom for the first time in his life. He was curious and excited, and described the professional dancing girls as: “Some with powder on their faces; some with rouge on their lips; some turned around while they walked; they smiled at us, stretched out their plump hands, and snatched chocolate from our tables and happily went away.” (Tian Han, “My Life in Shanghai”)
It was while immersing himself in such frivolous entertainment every evening, that Tang Huaiqiu welcomed the first New Year Eve after his return. Tang and Tian Han went to Ouyang Yuqian’s house for the New Year eve family dinner. There they met a Japanese man named Junichirô Tanizaki. During that dinner, Tian Han and Tang Huaiqiu decided to set up a film and drama society together.
The society was formally established soon after Spring Festival in 1926. It later developed into the Southern China Society. In the society’s early days, Tian Han wrote and directed Go to the People, starring Tang Huaiqu. However, with a budget of just 300 silver dollars, the film could not be completed.
In the 1920s, the popular entertainment in China’s cities consisted mainly of Peking opera and films. Drama was still the preserve of intellectuals, so there were few commercial drama performances. Most theatre productions relied on sponsorship rather than box office receipts, and they could rarely make any money. By contrast, a film with backing to the tune of 4000-silver-dollars, could recoup half of that from box office receipts in Shanghai alone. With nationwide and overseas distribution taken into account, there could be a 100% profit. In view of this situation. big cities like Shanghai and Beijing started building extravagant cinemas.
