1944 Shanghai, China

Kuang Fan Lin

1936

Shanghai, China

Interviewed on February 10, 2021

by Brian Lin

I lived the majority of my childhood during the final years of Shanghai’s period of foreign territorial concessions (“上海公共租界”) along with Japan’s invasion of China right before the second world war. Watching movies was not as casual of an activity back then – even in Shanghai, a vastly metropolitan city. Even more, watching movies was considered a reward or privilege in my own household. I had to “earn” a trip to the movies, whether that came from achieving perfect scores in my classes or completing all of my weekly chores ahead of time. I would never go to the movies by myself or even with my friends – I would go only with my mother. She would take me to the Majestic Theater a couple blocks away from our house. To get there, my mother and I would ride on a pulled rickshaw. Once we got to the theater a couple minutes before the film began, my mother would always lead me right past the concessions stand – we were there to watch a movie, not to eat junk food. So, we would walk directly into the large theater room where an usher with a small flashlight would lead us to our seats.

There were no Hollywood movies in Shanghai in the late 30’s and early 40’s because of the Japanese occupation of China before the second world war. As a result, most of the movies my mother and I would watch were made by Chinese companies, who were still allowed to produce and show movies in Shanghai even during the Japanese occupation. Japanese movies had almost no consumer base in Shanghai, mostly due to the anti-Japanese sentiment among the Chinese people during this time. 

I do not remember many of the names of the movies I watched when I was a really young child, but I do remember watching Wan Shi Liu Fang when I was eight years old. I absolutely despise how they have translated the original title into its English version: Eternity. If it were up to me, I would have translated the original movie title into Ten Thousand Generations and Still with Flowing Glory. Translating the title into Eternity does not convey the content and purpose of the movie very well. 

Wan Shi Liu Fang is a movie about the governor of the Guangdong Province during the Qin Dynasty. During that time, Guangzhou was the hub of Chinese international trade, and opium was China’s biggest import. The movie revolves around Lin Zexu, the governor of Guangdong Province, and his opposition to the opium trade. He recognized the harm being done to the people of his country during the opium trade; therefore, he ordered a prohibition of its use and outwardly protested against its importation, which sparked the beginning of the First Opium War. While Wan Shi Liu Fang was a Chinese film, the movie was generally supported and promoted by the Japanese – I think their underlying motive was to encourage and perpetuate the anti-Western sentiment that was present throughout the film.

The most memorable scene in Wan Shi Liu Fang was one that included singer and actress, Li Xianglan, in an opium house where she served as a concessions lady for the opium house’s patrons. She had a tray of candy that hung around her waist, as she moved about the opium house, singing a song about how refreshing and pleasurable it is to smoke opium. However, she only sang this song because she was required to do so by the manager of the opium house. In reality, she also recognized how much harm opium was inflicting on her community. In fact, she loved a young fellow who was an opium addict and she earnestly tried to wake him up out of his addiction. While the movie was mainly about Lin Zexu, most everyone remembers the film because of Li Xianglan’s captivating singing and acting performance. 

While Wan Shi Liu Fang is the earliest movie I can remember watching, I also remember watching Tarzan movies at the Majestic Theater. This was after Japan’s surrender at the end of the second world war when Hollywood movies were allowed to be shown in Shanghai theaters. As a kid, I loved imitating Tarzan’s yell as he swung from vine to vine. I would make the same sound during my own personal triumphs, like at the schoolyard where my friends and I would play soccer after school. 

While Tarzan movies were my favorite movies as a kid, Errol Flynn was my favorite actor. He always played the hero and every kid loved him. Out of all the films he starred in, my favorite was The Adventures of Robin Hood. Of course, I was able to watch this film only after the end of the second world war when Hollywood films could be shown in Shanghai. Nevertheless, Errol Flynn touched our hearts and, even as a bunch of Chinese kids, we all wanted to be just like him.

After I came to the United States to attend graduate school, I remember being very surprised at how openly and audibly Americans react to movies they watched in theaters. It annoyed me, and still annoys me to a great degree, when people would yell, cheer, or gasp during movies – it’s just so inconsiderate. Of course, I’ve had to pull out my own handkerchief once in a while watching emotional movies, but I never felt the need to react as loudly as some of these Americans do. 

Now that I’ve told you about my earliest movie-going experiences, I also want to tell you about my happiest movie-going experiences. These always involved going to the theater with your grandmother while we were in college. It was hard to see each other often, for my college was in Tainan whereas hers was in Taipei. I would always take her to a movie when I was in town, but I could never focus on the movie we were watching, though, as my attention was always drawn to your grandmother. I would not go as far as to put my arm around her in the theater, but we would hold hands, and I was content with that. Occasionally, I would steal a glance in her direction and appreciate how lucky I was to be watching a movie with her. One time, she caught me looking and asked why I wasn’t focused on the movie in front of us, so I told her the truth – she was much more beautiful than the movie was.