The end of the 19th century to the 1920s was a period of enlightenment for Hong Kong cinema, and many traces of the history of film screening can be found on Hong Kong Island, from open-air cinemas to formal cinemas, marking the important development of Hong Kong’s film screening industry. With the summer holidays approaching, why not embark on a “pilgrimage”, using words, to explore the cinema sites amid the city?
From Xiaowu to Director, from Black and White to Colour—Wong Hok-sing’s Cinema Trajectory in Pre-war Times
Wong Hok-sing—A film director whose name appears on the credits of many Cantonese films—but before the war, he began his career performing on stage as a xiaowu (young military male role) in Cantonese opera.
The Gloom Behind the Joy of Singing and Dancing: The Origins and Development of Hong Kong Musical Films in the 1930s
Musical films first appeared in Hong Kong cinema in the 1930s and became one of the most popular film genres of the time. The genre was a mixture of singing and dancing with a joyful atmosphere, in which characters expressed their emotions through their voice and body movements, progressively developing into heart-touching stories.
The Conflict and Compatibility between Tradition and Modernity: The Images of the Ideal Woman in Hong Kong Cinema of the 1930s
The “ideal woman” is not a permanent and objective image. Throughout history, this concept has transformed according to the changes over time, culture and community, and thus can hardly be generalised. As the Chinese society of the 1930s began to modernise, there was a great variety of ideas about the ideal woman.
In Search of the Queen's Light and Shadow: Queen's Theatre and Early Hong Kong Film Screenings
A nostalgic collective memory—the Queen's Theatre, once standing tall in Central, has now faded into a wisp of smoke in Hong Kong's film history, but looking back to the underdeveloped Hong Kong of that time, the opening of the theater was indeed the talk of the town.
Traveling across oceans to live in another country is not a difficult task in today's era of advanced transportation. But at the beginning of the last century, without absolute courage and determination, it was very difficult to accomplish. Kwan Man-ching, harboring passion and ideals for film, traveled far across the ocean to Hollywood to pursue his "film dream."
The Centre for Film and Creative Industries (CFCI) presents a new Knowledge Transfer project, "Hong Kong Film History in Digital Media." Led by Emilie Yeh and Stephanie Ng, this digital humanities site (interlaced with writing, illustration, narration, animation, and social media) is designed to initiate young audiences into a lifelong interest in Hong Kong film and history.
