트랜스 동아시아적 맥락에서 본 1920-30년대 상하이 영화 — 전통 서사, 공연예술, 그리고 무성영화 변사의 존재 방식

Abstract

This paper investigates the concept of “Yingxi (影戱)” in early Chinese cinema, focusing on how the sensory structure and performative logic of traditional theatrical arts were appropriated and reconfigured within the cinematic medium. Rather than a mere synthesis of “film” (影) and “drama” (戱), Yingxi is conceived as an embodied experiential mode encompassing voice, gesture, stage apparatus, and audience response. By examining two major cultural practices—“Chuan-ke (串客)” spectator intervention in the silent film era and the theatrical “play-within-a-play(劇中劇)” framing in early sound cinema—this study argues that early Chinese films functioned not only as narrative mediums but also as cultural sites for the transmission and transformation of theatrical sensory modalities. A comparative analysis with Japan’s benshi performance underscores the distinctiveness of Shanghai’s cinema culture, where non-institutional audience participation shaped unique reception patterns. Further, by comparing China’s first full-dialogue sound film Sing-Song Girl Red Peony (1931) with Japan’s Madame and Wife (1931), this paper reveals divergent strategies of mediating traditional performance aesthetics, inverting attraction-based cinema structures, and cultivating affective viewer engagement. Ultimately, the study situates early Chinese cinema within a genealogy of sensory practice and proposes a revised framework for East Asian film historiography.