The abortive revolution: The South China Film Company in early Cold War Hong Kong (1949–1952)

Abstract

Although existing scholarship is paying increasing attention to leftist cinema in Cold War Hong Kong, few works fully examine the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) revolutionary filmmaking practices during the early Cold War. Centering on the short-lived leftist studio South China Film Company (1949–1952), this paper argues that the studio’s development epitomized the CCP’s efforts to transform cinematic representation for multiple revolutionary purposes and strengthen the Party’s mobilization of filmmaking communities, which were eventually crushed by escalating conflicts between colonial authorities and the CCP. The films produced by South China Film Company exemplified the CCP’s ambitions to appeal to a Cantonese-speaking local audience and later, to carry out more radical ideological campaigns, influence overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, and conduct thought reform of intellectuals. Film production was accompanied by mobilization of leftist filmmakers. The ideological message and mobilization led to a crackdown by colonial authorities and further drove the CCP to adopt a more implicit approach to launching ideological campaigns. This paper revises the history of South China Film Company and unsettles the existing historiography of Hong Kong leftist cinema that centers mainly on moderation and balance.