Author Description

Postwar Hong Kong cinema played an active role in building the colony's community in the 1950s and 1960s. To Jing Jing Chang, the screening of movies in postwar Hong Kong was a process of showing the filmmakers' visions for Hong Kong society and simultaneously an attempt to conceal their anxieties and mask their political agenda. It was a time when the city was a site of intense ideological struggles among the colonial government, Chinese Nationalists, and Communist sympathisers. The medium of film was recognised as a powerful tool for public persuasion and various camps competed to win over the hearts and minds of the audience. 'Screening Communities' thus situates the history of postwar Hong Kong cinema at the intersection of Cold War politics, Chinese culture, and local society.