Chinese Movie Magazines: From Charlie Chaplin to Chairman Mao 1921-1951 - Hardcover

Paul Fonoroff

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0500519889 ISBN 13: 9780500519882

Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 2018

Synopsis

A beautiful and unique guide to Chinese movie magazines and movies from a period of vast cultural change in China

Showcasing an exotic, eclectic array of covers from more than five hundred movie publications from a glamorous bygone age, Chinese Movie Magazines sheds fresh light on China’s film industry from its early years through the highs and lows of a period of incredible social, political and economic change.

With expertly curated covers, and authoritative and entertaining commentary, collector and Chinese cinema specialist Paul Fonoroff guides readers through the jewels of the genre, offering unique insights into the evolution of Chinese movies and the influence of Hollywood along the way. From a colourful Charlie Chaplin to earnest portraits of Chairman Mao, this extraordinary volume covers the oldest extant Chinese movie magazine – established in 1921 – and the last independently owned ‘fanzine’ of 1951.

Chinese Movie Magazines is a must have for film, design and pop culture aficionados.

Table of Contents

Introduction • 1. The Hollywood of the East: The Rise of the Chinese Film Industry, 1921–1932 • 2. Stars of the Page and Screen: A Golden Age for Movies and Magazines, 1932–1937 • 3. Celluloid Skirmishes: Creative Responses to Wartime Restrictions, 1937–1945 • 4. From Pillar to Post: Liberation and the Road to State Control, 1945–1951

About this title

About the Author

Paul Fonoroff served as film critic for the South China Morning Post for more than a quarter of a century. He also hosted over 1,000 movie-related TV shows in Cantonese, Mandarin and English, and had roles in twenty movies. He is a member of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society and the Performing Artists Guild of Hong Kong, and is an advisor to the Hong Kong Film Archives. His unique collection of Chinese movie memorabilia was acquired by the University of California, Berkeley, in 2015, and housed in the C. V. Starr East Asian Library.

From the Back Cover

Organized thematically within a chronological structure, this book includes more than 500 full-colour covers – many of them rare – from the Paul Kendel Fonoroff Collection in Berkeley’s C. V. Starr East Asian Library, the largest collection of Eastern movie memorabilia outside China. Fonoroff’s text relates the magazines to the times in which they were created, embracing everything from cinematic trends to politics and world events without neglecting gossip, fashion and pop culture. The result is a survey of the era’s movie publications, doubling as a journey through the urban cultural milieu of this transformative period that sheds light on a vast forgotten world. This book will appeal to Chinese film scholars, social historians and connoisseurs of the graphic arts in equal measure.

Edition details

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0500519889
• ISBN 13: 9780500519882
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288