Abstract: Early Chinese films were produced during the years of 19181930. The book A History of the Development of Chinese Films, which evaluates films in the perspective of revolution, thinks poorly of early Chinese films on the whole. However, taking the criterion of modernity or examining a film by judging whether it expresses certain modernity or pushes forward the modernity of Chinese society, we will find that early Chinese films dominated by Shanghai films have a great value that cannot be ignored. The early films brought Chinese people a brandnew visual and sound experience powered by electricity at that time. In addition, they constituted as the major battlefields supporting vernacular modernism, shaped a new lifestyle for Chinese people and formed national identification.   

Key words: Key words： early Shanghai films, modernity, vernacular modernism, state and national identification