Staging Shanghai in Love and Duty 戀愛與義務 (1923, 1931)

Abstract

Abstract This study explores the significance of the various urban locations for representations of gender in Love and Duty—the 1931 silent film from Lianhua Studios, as well as the 1923 illustrated serialized novel by “Luo Chen” (a.k.a. Madame S. Rosen Hoa/Horose). I show that both the novel and the film foregrounded the built environment to express the aspirations and frustrations of the female protagonist, played by Ruan Lingyu; and that the novel effectively served as a previsualization for the film as produced by Luo Mingyou and directed by Bu Wancang with cinematography by Huang Shaofen. Further, drawing on sources relating to the publication and film production, Shanghai and Beijing cultural history, and China’s changing geopolitical circumstances, I suggest that Lianhua strategically “staged,” even allegorized, Shanghai to signal its cosmopolitan ambitions while simultaneously alluding to Chinese filmmakers’ quest for a kind of “cinematic sovereignty” during the early Nanjing decade.