''Spring Silkworms'' () is a

1933 Events January * January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...

silent film 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) ...

from China. It was directed by

Cheng Bugao Cheng Bugao (1898–20 June 1966) () was a prominent Chinese film director during the 1930s. Employed by the Mingxing Film Company, Cheng was responsible for several important "leftist" films in the period, including the '' Wild Torrents'' (1933) ...

and was adapted by Cai Chusheng 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 ...

from the novella of the same name by Chinese author

Mao Dun Shen Dehong (Shen Yanbing; 4 July 1896 – 27 March 1981), known by the pen name of Mao Dun, was a Chinese essayist, journalist, novelist, and playwright. Mao Dun, as a 20th-century Chinese novelist, literary and cultural critic, and Minist ...

. The film stars Xiao Ying, Yan Yuexian, Gong Jianong, Gao Qianping and Ai Xia and was produced by the

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 ...

. Today the film is considered one of the earliest films of the leftist movement in 1930s

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 ...

Plot

The film tells the story of a family of poor silk farmers in

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by ...

province, who suffer hardship and deprivation when their crop of silkworm cocoons die off. The film criticizes not only the harsh market conditions that have forced the family into poverty, but the family's own superstitions and selfishness. Old Tong Bao is the patriarch of a silkworm-rearing family in Zhejiang. He refuses to buy foreign breeds of silkworms for his coming crop. The market conditions are harsh and despite the efforts his family put in rearing the silkworms, the ensuing cocoons are unable to fetch a price in the market. The film also features a subplot where a married woman, Lotus, is ostracized by Tong Bao's family for being a supposed jinx.

External links

''Spring Silkworms'' (1933) with English subtitles
on th
Chinese Film Classics
website *
''Spring Silkworms''
at the Chinese Movie Database

at the

UCSD The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is th ...

Chinese Cinema Web-based Learning Center Films based on short fiction Chinese silent films 1933 films 1933 drama films Films set in Zhejiang Films based on Chinese novels Chinese drama films Chinese black-and-white films Silent drama films Chinese-language films {{China-film-stub