The aural/visual synchrony: Opera film, close-up, and cinematic literacy in Mao-era China (1949-1966)

Abstract

In the first two decades of the People’s Republic of China (PRC; 1949–present), the filmmakers were caught in a dilemma between a fast-growing film industry and Chinese moviegoers’ pervasive lack of cinematic literacy, that is, a proper understanding of cinematic techniques, such as the use of shots in films. To make motion pictures a mass culture by enhancing cinematic literacy among Chinese viewers, filmmakers produced over one hundred opera films—a filmic genre that resorts to cinematic techniques to represent Chinese theater on the silver screen. Considering Chinese audiences’ familiarity with China’s operatic arts, such as singing and music, filmmakers in post1949 China deftly synchronized close-up shots with operatic music/singing in opera films to highlight characters’ heightened emotions and thereby popularize a filmic mode of narration and presentation. This paper argues that close and close-up shots provided an avenue for a transition from stage to screen as a chief means of entertainment and a widely accepted mode of representation in the early years of the PRC.