Overview Of Chinese Cinema During The Maoist And Post-Maoist Periods

Most early Communist film were poorly produced and edited stories smothered with sentimentality and propaganda. Later films were of better technical quality but still were propaganda pieces about happy workers and great Communist victories. Under Mao, China's most talented film directors directed propaganda films; famous actresses earned as little as $6 a month, barely enough to eat on; an many films featured long shots of wheat fields and industrial smoke stacks(Semsel 1990).

Many popular films were stories that dealt with the Communist struggle in the Chinese Civil War and World War II. The ...