Abstract:

“Chineselanguage cinema” does not originate from Hong Kong/Taiwanese scholarship of the 1990s, but it can be tracked to Chinese books and periodicals in Singapore and Malaya in the 1950s. It was a concept produced   by Chinese people in Singapore and Malaya at around the time of independence in search of an autonomous cinema discourse for Chinese people. In the 1950s and 1960s, the term “Chineselanguage cinema” was already in wide use among local Singaporean and Malayan directors and in the media. A Singaporean Chinese director of the time, Yi Shui, was making “Chinese language films” containing Mandarin and Chinese dialects. Around this time, Yi Shui was also writing articles on Chineselanguage cinema in periodicals in Singapore and Malaya, which sparked much debate in and response from society. A short time later, he published a collection of these essays and debates. The context in which the term “Chineselanguage cinema” was used at the time in Singapore and Malaya was very similar to its usage today: as a plural concept, including films in Chinese from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other Chinese areas as well as films in all Chinese dialects. The term’s promotion of “multiple Chinese languages” in mid20th century Singapore and Malaya was the herald of Professor Sheldon H. Lu and Emilie Yeh’s promotion of “Chineselanguage cinema” in the 21st century. This not only deepens our understanding of the formation of the contemporary concept of “Chineselanguage cinema”, giving it a historical dimension, but also has great significance in the debate over the concept of “Chineselanguage cinema” by showing that it is neither “UScentrism” nor “Chinacentrism”.
Key words：

Key words: UScentrism, multiple Chinese languages, dialect, Chinacentrism, Chineselanguage cinema, Chineselanguage