Localizing the Hollywood Star System in 1930s China: Linglong Magazine and New Moral Spaces

Louise Edwards

《Asian Studies》 1卷1期 (2015/09) Pp. 13-37

https://doi.org/10.6551/AS.0101.02

並列摘要

The Hollywood star system became a significant part of film production and consumption around the world from the 1920s- including in China during the Golden Age of Shanghai cinema. This American technology was localised and expanded to suit Chinese contexts and achieved far more than increasing sales of cinema tickets. In this article I argue that the ＂Shanghai star system＂ created a new social and ideological space within which Chinese people, particularly women, were able to assume new, public personae that accorded with their desires for cosmopolitan modernity. The process also created new moral worlds in which feminine visibility, self-adornment and leisure consumption were desirable attributes and came to be recognised for their signification of modernity and global connections. I draw my evidence from the highly successful Linglong magazine, which was devoted to promoting 'noble entertainment' for its target female readership and dedicated about half of each issue to films and commentary about stars. The article explores typologies of patriotic stars, chaste and vulnerable stars as well as Do-It-Yourself stars that included readers' photos and stories that borrowed the grammar of Hollywood stardom.

並列關鍵字

China ； localisation ； star system ； cinema ； Linglong