Reviews
Essential reading for anyone studying Chinese film history or early cinemas in general. . . . The richness of Zhang's archival discoveries is admirable: her success in piecing together once-lost cinema culture from traces she has unearthed is astonishing. . . . Scholars and critics can now finally begin to grapple with the breathtaking sweep of a freshly exposed cultural landscape that this book opens before us.-, Splendid. This is a rich and comprehensive review of the early Chinese movie industry, most eloquently written by a scholar whose amorous attachment to the silver screen is just as deep as her academic commitment. It will become a primary source for anyone in the English-speaking world interested in Chinese cinematic history., " An Amorous History of the Silver Screen will be an instant classic. This lively yet rigorous work of original scholarship reconfigures the field of Chinese silent cinema. It constitutes an exciting new work at the cutting edge of the emergent transnational field of Chinese cinema studies."-Chris Berry, editor of Chinese Films in Focus, "Essential reading for anyone studying Chinese film history or early cinemas in general. . . . The richness of Zhang's archival discoveries is admirable: her success in piecing together once-lost cinema culturefrom traces she has unearthed is astonishing. . . . Scholars and critics can now finally begin to grapple with the breathtaking sweep of a freshly exposed cultural landscape that this book opens before us.-"-- Cineaste, [Zhang] has written a history which will quickly become essential reading for those interested in Chinese cinema. . . . It is not so much an introductory survey, but rather a book whose value is its intensive analysis of key films, its detailed cultural geography of a city-based industry, and its use of previously untranslated material to open these films up to the cultural contexts and intellectual debates from which they sprang., Essential reading for anyone studying Chinese film history or early cinemas in general. . . . The richness of Zhang's archival discoveries is admirable: her success in piecing together once-lost cinema culture from traces she has unearthed is astonishing. . . . Scholars and critics can now finally begin to grapple with the breathtaking sweep of a freshly exposed cultural landscape that this book opens before us.-, "Essential reading for anyone studying Chinese film history or early cinemas in general. . . . The richness of Zhang's archival discoveries is admirable: her success in piecing together once-lost cinema culture from traces she has unearthed is astonishing. . . . Scholars and critics can now finally begin to grapple with the breathtaking sweep of a freshly exposed cultural landscape that this book opens before us.-"--Cineaste, An Amorous History of the Silver Screen will be an instant classic. This lively yet rigorous work of original scholarship reconfigures the field of Chinese silent cinema. It constitutes an exciting new work at the cutting edge of the emergent transnational field of Chinese cinema studies., ""An Amorous History of the Silver Screen" will be an instant classic. This lively yet rigorous work of original scholarship reconfigures the field of Chinese silent cinema. It constitutes an exciting new work at the cutting edge of the emergent transnational field of Chinese cinema studies."--Chris Berry, editor of "Chinese Films in Focus", Essential reading for anyone studying Chinese film history or early cinemas in general. . . . The richness of Zhang's archival discoveries is admirable: her success in piecing together once-lost cinema culture from traces she has unearthed is astonishing. . . . Scholars and critics can now finally begin to grapple with the breathtaking sweep of a freshly exposed cultural landscape that this book opens before us.-, "Essential reading for anyone studying Chinese film history or early cinemas in general. . . . The richness of Zhang's archival discoveries is admirable: her success in piecing together once-lost cinema culture from traces she has unearthed is astonishing. . . . Scholars and critics can now finally begin to grapple with the breathtaking sweep of a freshly exposed cultural landscape that this book opens before us.-"-- Cineaste, Yhis book is indispensable for anyone interested in Chinese cinema and will certainly stand as a definitive book in the field. . . . Without question the most eloquently written, tightly argued, thoroughly researched, and richly detailed book on early Chinese cinema. The book incorporates the insight of two fields, namely, Chinese literary and cultural studies and early film studies, and remains open methodologically to anthropology, urban studies, and social theories of modernity. . . . It is a tour de force in both fields and makes a cogent case of how non-Western cinema and modernity shall remain the centre, not periphery, in the question of modernity., Yhis book is indispensable for anyone interested in Chinese cinema and will certainly stand as a definitive book in the field. . . . Without question the most eloquently written, tightly argued, thoroughly researched, and richly detailed book on early Chinese cinema. The book incorporates the insight of two fields, namely, Chinese literary and cultural studies and early film studies, and remains open methodologically to anthropology, urban studies, and social theories of modernity. . . . It is atour de forcein both fields and makes a cogent case of how non-Western cinema and modernity shall remain the centre, not periphery, in the question of modernity., "Splendid. This is a rich and comprehensive review of the early Chinese movie industry, most eloquently written by a scholar whose amorous attachment to the silver screen is just as deep as her academic commitment. It will become a primary source for anyone in the English-speaking world interested in Chinese cinematic history."--David Wang, Harvard University
