The Film Archive, Taipei, is pleased to announce the arrival in Taiwan of a unique and important collection of films belonging to one of the great figures of Chinese cinema. Ms Tung Yue-chuan. The collection, comprising some 1500 reels, had for two decades been stored at the Services des Archives du Film in Bois d'Arcy, but at the request of Ms Tung and with the full cooperation of the French archive, the collection has been shipped to the FA in Taipei.
About the Tung Yue-chuan Collection
The collection's twenty-year odyssey from Ms Tung's home in Hong Kong to Bois d'Arcy to Taipei is a testament to the international spirit of cooperation so vital for film preservation. In the early 70's, Ms Tung was faced with the prospect of dismantling, or even destroying her collection when new fire codes forbade storage of film materials in private residences. At this point, she was contacted by two noted French scholars of Chinese film, Dr Chan Hing-ho and Mr René Vienet. At Ms Tung's request, they arranged to have the entire collection shipped to France for storage and preservation at Bois d'Arcy. It is through their foresight and work that the collection has survived intact to this day. And their involvement continues. Mr Vienet, now residing in Taipei, was instrumental in assisting the FA make arrangements for the transfer of the collection.
While the collection resided in France, a small group of scholars specializing in Chinese cinema devoted themselves to its study and preservation. Their efforts in tandem with Bois d'Arcy's own work, have saved a number of films that would otherwise have been irrevocably lost. Mrs Marie-Claire Quiquemelle, a specialist in Chinese film, has played a leading role in this work. In addition, she is very active in keeping older Chinese cinema before the public eye, both in the West and in Taiwan and Hong Kong, through her research and writings, and by arranging screenings of neglected masterworks.
Throughout this time, no archives capable of caring for this collection existed in Chinese communities outside the P.R.O.C., and the governments of these communities showed little interest in preserving the film heritage of the Chinese people. However, the establishment and development of the FA, along with a renewal of interest in older Chinese films among filmgoers in Taiwan and Hong Kong, has begun to reverse this history of neglect. The arrival of Ms Tung's collection is a major step, both as recognition of the progress made to date and as a challenge for the future.
Tung Yue-chuan and the Hsin Wha Motion Picture Company
Tung Yue-chuan's career as a producer and studio chief began in the early 30's when she and her husband, Chang Shan-kun, founded the Hsin Wha Motion Picture Company. (Note: the studio's name has been variously romanized as "Hsinhua", "Xinhua" and even "Hsin Hwa". The spelling used herein is the company's own). They began making films in Shanghai, then the center of the Chinese film industry, and through adroit promotion quickly established their company as one of China's top five film studios. When Japanese forces occupied Shanghai in 1937, they were able to continue making films by moving their studio complex to the city's foreign concessions - neutral ground held by the major Western powers - until the attack on Pearl Harbour. The full Japanese occupation and the subsequent Civil War forced Tung Yue-chuan and her husband to move their company to Hong Kong in the late '40's.
Hsin Wha's troubles were by no means unique in the Chinese film industry during the forties, and the disruption in production and distribution ended up working to Hsin Wha's advantage. They were among the first to fill the vacuum for film entertainment, and consequently became, for a brief time, one of the most powerful and influencial forces in Chinese film. This period is often referred to as the "Golden Age of Chinese cinema" and Hsin Wha's contributions are among the period's finest. Not coincidentally, perhaps, this was also when Tung Yue-chuan formally took over Hsin Wha's film production. After Chang Shan-kun died in 1957 while filming a project, Tung Yue-chuan guided Hsin Wha on her own and managed to maintain it as a productive and profitable studio until she finally retired in 1987. It is a retirement in name only, however. She is a staunch proponent of the preservation of Chinese cinema and maintains an active schedule in pursuit of this goal.
Hsin Wha's Golden Age
The archetypal Hsin Wha film from the golden age of the fifties is a star vehicle (usually centered on a famous actress) featuring popular songs and a melodramatic plot. Conflicts between love and family, or more generically between love and duty, propel these films and many evoke an atmosphere of melancholy and loss. In simple and direct ways, they mourn the crumbling of traditional values under the weight of industrialization, cultural influence from the West, and decades of war and political chaos. At the same time, they comforted their audiences by reaffirming the spiritual power of these same traditional values. Tragic thoug these films often are, they are not pessimistic.
Prime examples of Hsin Wha's output from this period include Songs of the Peach Blossom River, Blood-Stained Begonia, What Price Beauty? and A Strange Woman. They are all to be found in Tung Yue-chuan's collection. Their stars, women such as Bai Guang, LiLi-hua, and Chung Ching, are fondly remembered to this day and their hit songs can still be heard on the radio. Much preservation and restoration work on these and other films in the collection has already been carried out in Bois d'Arcy and by our archive in Taipei, yet a tremendous amount of work remains to be done. We would like to thank the many FIAF archives that have generously offered their advice and support for this project. And especially, we wish to thank Dr Chan Hing-ho, René Vienet and Marie-Claire Quiquemelle for their continued involvement.
A Joyous Celebration
On Ms Tung's 80th birthday on August 3, she, Dr Chan, Mr Vienet, Mrs Quiquemelle, Michelle Aubert (representing the Service des Archives du Film in Bois d'Arcy) and the Institut Français in Taiwan were all individually honored for their work at a state ceremony and press conference hosted by the FA in Taipei. Besides the media and numerous well-wishers, attendees included high-ranking members of the R.O.C.'s Government Information Office and the Institut Français. The occasion met with a tremendous and higly-gratifying show of support, confirming Ms Tung's status as the grand-dame of Chinese cinema and affording an excellent opportunity to publicize the contributions made by all the honorees.
The backdrop for this ceremony was our film festival "Treasures of the World's Film Archives" held from July 31 through August 6, 1993. This was an ambitious program of screenings and other events marking the Film Archive, Taipei's admission to FIAF as a provisional member, and drawing attention in Taiwan to the vital work of film archives around the world. Along with the aformentioned honorees the FA was pleased to host Hoos Blotkamp, Mark Paul Meyer and Frank Mol from the Nederlands Filmmuseum, Anne Fleming from the British Film Institute's National Film and Television Archive, Dr Robert Rosen from the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and Brigitte van der Elst from FIAF. Much was accomplished through this festival, and we wish to thank all of them for their contributions to its success. Although space does not permit a complete rundown of the festival and related events, we encourage interested member archives to contact us for more information.
William E. Stephens