Designs for Filming: Deco Style and Chinese Cinema

Art Deco style permeated Shanghai cinema of the 1930s. Why did this modernist sensibility catch on, what did it come to mean for Chinese filmmakers and audiences? To answer these questions, my paper will analyze select instances of Deco design in Chinese cinema, probing its parallels with, and divergences from, Hollywood forms. I will also examine the intersection of cinema and trends in Shanghai architecture, advertising, and magazine culture, to help explain the significance of this aesthetic during the Republican era and its legacy for subsequent decades.