A Chinese production with Hollywood taste: Love and Duty (Lian'ai yu Yiwu), by Bu Wancang, 1931

Résumé En

Love and Duty is the third movie produced by one of the most important film company of the 1930’s in China, the Lianhua (U.P.S.). When it was released in China, the critic was enthusiastic about a film that was considered to reach the standard of a western film, that is, a Hollywood production. The actors also were praised for being able to perform like their American counterpart. Based on a novel written by a Polish woman living in China (S. Horose, then published in French under the title La symphonie des ombres), the film, a silent production, is indeed an interesting blend of a Hollywood type’s silent feature and Chinese ethical and cultural values. The paper will reflect upon this successful syncretism, by studying the movie itself. It will also describe the way it was received both in China and in other part of the world, as it was one of the few Chinese films that were screened outside of China in the 1930’s.