The way to the 1930s' Shanghai female stardom : from the pioneering actresses of the late Qing to the popular female film stars of the 1920s and 1930s

Shanghai’s film industry of the Republican era (1912-49) saw the emergence of female stardom, which reached its zenith in the 1930s. This thesis explores the dramatic transformations from the illegitimate use of women in female roles in the late-Qing theatre to the overwhelming star status some actresses achieved in the 1930s Shanghai cinema. Compared to the art of female impersonation that was treasured in the traditional theatre in both China and Japan, women’s capacity – rooted in their physical bodies – to present female roles more realistically and naturally significantly contributed to the legitimization of their acting in the realism-oriented modern theatre and cinema. When female stardom rose in the imported foreign medium, film, the content of star images, centred on figures of virtuous women, swordswomen of the 1920s, and genuine, innocent girls of the 1930s, was largely shaped and manipulated by prevailing ideologies embedded in films. Sexualized images of actresses, on one hand, were always a significant part of their appeal to the audience, but on the other hand, constantly invited various forms of sexual exploitation. The historical connection between performing and prostitution even brought certain legitimacy (in a psychological sense) to such exploitation, and brought more scepticism about women engaged in performing. A group of female film stars rising in the 1930s and recognized as genuine artists eventually could shake off such scepticism and won a positive public opinion