The Portrayal of Family in Early Chinese Melodrama Films

This article establishes melodrama as a contextually and culturally conditioned subject, by drawing attention to Chinese melodrama films produced during the 1920s and 1930s – a period in which moral, social and political issues seemed to be most urgent and problematic. It begins with a clarification of the term ‘melodrama’ and then focuses on cinematic constructions of the family within Chinese melodrama films. Derived from the notion of Chinese family that is firmly anchored in two relationships – the individual and the family, as well as the nation and the family – the article examines how melodrama films of this period engaged with issues related to China's modernisation, such as changing family relationships and the inevitable conflict between China and Western powers. The article concludes by suggesting that the popularity of melodrama films in the 1920s and 1930s marked the growing maturity of China's narrative cinema, and therefore challenges an assumption that early Chinese cinema completely conformed to the established pattern of Hollywood cinema.