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  • Chinese Film Classics Course
    • About the Course
    • Module 1: Laborer’s Love (1922)
    • Module 2: Sports Queen (1934)
    • Module 3: Goddess (1934)
    • Module 4: The Great Road (1934)
    • Module 5: New Women (1935)
    • Module 6: Song at Midnight (1937)
    • Module 7: Street Angels (1937)
    • Module 8: Long Live the Missus! (1947)
    • Module 9: Spring River Flows East (1947)
    • Module 10: Spring in a Small Town (1948)
    • Module 11: Crows and Sparrows (1949)
    • Module 12: Course Wrap-Up
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Song of China 天倫 (1935)

The film:


Fei Mu (Fey Mou) directed Song of China for Lianhua (UPS) Studio at age 29. The film extols Confucian values promoted during the Nationalist government’s New Life Movement, begun in 1934, especially filial piety, through the story of a wise father, his wayward son, and his virtuous grandson. Like Fei’s celebrated film Spring in a Small Town (1948), Song of China combines lyrical imagery and ethical drama. Lianhua regulars (appearing in films such as The Great Road) include Shang Guanwu, Zhang Yi, and Chen Yanyan. This silent film, which features original bilingual intertitles, had a limited release in the United States. English subtitles represent the various types of text onscreen, including Chinese text on the intertitles when it differs substantially from the English.

Tian lun
Alternative English titles: The Way of Heaven, Filial Piety
Director: Fei Mu
Producer: Luo Mingyou
Studio: United Photoplay Services (Lianhua)
Year of release: 1935
45 minutes
Cast: Lin Chuchu, Shang Guanwu, Li Shaoshao, Zhang Yi, Chen Yanyan, Mei Lin, Li Keng
English subtitles translated by Christopher Rea

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Love Everlasting 不了情 (1947)
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Love Everlasting 1947

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