Diantong Film Company () was a short-lived but important

film studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...

and

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, a ...

during the 1930s in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, China. Though it produced only four films during its existence between 1934-1935, all four films became important examples of the

left-leaning Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

Chinese cinema of the 1930s. Of all the film studios of the period, Diantong had the closest connection to the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

.Pang, p. 56.

History

Diantong's origins were originally in a sound-equipment company founded in 1933 by four American-educated engineers to take advantage of the gradual shift from

silent films A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

to "talkies." As a developer of sound-recorders, Diantong was pivotal in bringing to Chinese audiences some of the earliest sound-films, including the Lianhua Film Company-produced ''

Song of the Fishermen ''Song of the Fishermen'' is an early Chinese silent film directed by Cai Chusheng in 1934, and produced by the Lianhua Film Company. The film, like many of the period, details the struggle of the poorer classes, in this case a family of fisherm ...

'' (dir.

Cai Chusheng Cai Chusheng (January 12, 1906 – July 15, 1968) was a Chinese film director of the pre-Communist era, and was the first Chinese director to win an international film award at the Moscow International Film Festival. Best known for his progres ...

). With these successes and with the help of one of the founder's cousins,

Situ Huimin Situ Huimin (; 16 February 1910 – 4 April 1987), was a Chinese film director, screenwriter and actor, born in Kaiping, Guangdong. He joined the Communist Youth League in 1925 and the Communist Party of China in 1927. The next year, he we ...

, a major leftist filmmaker and intellectual, the equipment company was reformed as its own independent film studio in 1934.Pang, p. 55. From the beginning, Diantong was marked by youth, with its films directed by first-time filmmakers and starring novice actors and actresses (including

Yuan Muzhi Yuan Muzhi (; March 3, 1909 – January 30, 1978) was an actor and director from the Republic of China and later of the People's Republic of China. Career As an actor, Yuan became extremely popular and took on the nickname "man with a thousand ...

, Chen Bo'er,

Ying Yunwei Ying Yunwei (7 September 1904 – 17 January 1967) born in Shanghai, was a Chinese director and writer. Early life Ying Yunwei at the age of 16 was a poor student growing up. He would spend time with an apprenticeship in foreign trade. He was a ...

, and others. This was in part due to Diantong being forced to recruit from local theater organizations rather than from more-established film-makers and crew, who feared associating with such a progressive organization - a similar leftist studio, the Yihua Film Company had only recently had its offices and equipment vandalized and destroyed by government agents. Additionally, Diantong drew from Situ's ties to the Communist Party, bringing in screenwriters and party-members such as

Tian Han Tian Han ( zh, 田汉; 12 March 1898 – 10 December 1968), formerly romanized as T'ien Han, was a Chinese drama activist, playwright, a leader of revolutionary music and films, as well as a translator and poet. He emerged at the time of the ...

and

Xia Yan Xia Yan is the name of: * Xia Yan (Ming dynasty) (1482–1548), Ming dynasty politician * Xia Yan (playwright) (1900–1995), Chinese playwright, screenwriter and official {{hndis ...

. In a short period of time, the company produced four classics of the period: '' Plunder of Peach and Plum'' (dir. Ying Yunwei), ''

Children of Troubled Times ''Children of Troubled Times'', also known as ''Fēngyún Érnǚ'', ''Scenes of City Life'', ''Children of the Storm'', and several other translations, is a patriotic 1935 Chinese film most famous as the origin of " The March of the Volunteers", t ...

'' (dir. Xu Xingzhi), ''

Cityscape In the visual arts, a cityscape (urban landscape) is an artistic representation, such as a painting, drawing, print or photograph, of the physical aspects of a city or urban area. It is the urban equivalent of a landscape. ''Townscape'' i ...

'' (dir.

), and '' Spirit of Freedom'' (dir. Situ Huimin) (also known as ''The Goddess of Freedom''). Despite these successes, by 1935, Diantong was suffering not only from

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

pressure due to its political slant (so-called "White terrorism"), but also from financial woes. As a result, in the winter of 1935, Diantong closed its doors permanently. The remains of the company were soon incorporated into

Zhang Shankun Zhang may refer to: Chinese culture, etc. * Zhang (surname) (張/张), common Chinese surname ** Zhang (surname 章), a rarer Chinese surname * Zhang County (漳县), of Dingxi, Gansu * Zhang River (漳河), a river flowing mainly in Henan * ''Zh ...

's newly formed

Xinhua Film Company The Xinhua or New China Film Company (), was one of the film studios to capitalize on the popularity of the leftist film movement in 1930s Shanghai, that had begun with the Mingxing and Lianhua studios. It is not related to the modern-day Xinhua N ...

. Meanwhile, many of Diantong's top talent, including Ying Yunwei and Yuan Muzhi, were recruited in

Mingxing Film Company Mingxing Film Company (), also known as the Star Motion Picture Company, was one of the largest production companies during the 1920s, and 1930s in the Republican era. Founded in Shanghai, the company lasted from 1922 until 1937 when it was clos ...

's newly formed Studio 2, focused on left-wing cinema.Pang, p. 63. There, they made some of the more important films of the movement, notably Yuan's '' Street Angel''.

Productions

Notes

References

* Pang, Laikwan.
Building a New China in Cinema: The Chinese Left-Wing Cinema Movement, 1932-1937
'. Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. .

External links

Diantong Film Company
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

Diantong Film Company
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

{{Film production companies of China Film production companies of China Defunct film and television production companies of China Mass media in Shanghai Mass media companies established in 1934 Mass media companies disestablished in 1935 Chinese companies established in 1934 1935 disestablishments in China