Characteristics of Chinese film theory

The tradition and history of film theory in China

have the following three characteristics:

Practical aesthetics

China is a nation that pays attention to practice, and China people's way of thinking has a practical and rational spirit. Influenced by the spirit of practical rationality, China's film theory has not developed into a set of abstract speculative aesthetics, but a practical aesthetics combined with critical practice and skill summary theory.

Taking social function as the core

China people's ethical cultural spirit has formed the ideological tradition of "writing carries Tao" in literature and art. This makes Chinese film theory pay more attention to the study of film function, and it does not stay in the abstract function of carrying road, but combines with specific social-historical conditions to become a film ontology with social function as the core. It has evolved into a series of studies on the relationship between movies and times, movies and society, movies and people, movies and politics.

the nature of drama

China's traditional theoretical way of thinking focuses on the intuitive and holistic way of grasping, so Chinese film theory focuses on the study of the basic structure of movies, not the study of the level of images and shots. Drama is the basic starting point of Chinese film theory ontology. It is at this level that China's traditional film theory puts forward its core concept "shadow play", which emphasizes the dramatic nature of film and regards "shadow" as a means to complete "play".