The history of Chinese cinema dates to late 1905, when the Beijing Fengtai Photo Studio adapted a Peking Opera called "The Battle of Dingjunshan." The film "Shadow Magic" (2000 ) trains its lens on this magical time and the nation's first crop of filmmakers.

The industry kicked into gear in 1913 in Shanghai with the nation's first feature film, "The Difficult Couple," introducing China's first heroine of the silver screen, Yan Shanshan. Over the past century, Chinese cinema has experienced distinct periods of development. The first "golden period" came in the 1930s and 40s, when progressive films focusing on people's lives were produced.

In 1931, "Sing-Song Red Peony" marked the first sound movie in China. The horror genre debuted in 1937 in the form of "Song at Midnight," and "Street Angel," released that same year, is considered a forerunner of the neorealism trend in filmmaking.

In the early 1950s, the Shanghai Film Studio produced a Shaoxing opera version of "Butterfly Lovers" called "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai." This was the first color film ever produced in the People's Republic of China.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, China enjoyed another golden age of cinema when all genres, including drama, satire and kungfu movies were being churned out. The rise of the so-called "Fifth Generation" of Chinese directors such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige won global acclaim at international film festivals.

In the year 2000, the multinational production "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" achieved huge success both in China and abroad. Two years later, Zhang Yimou's "Hero" was another phenomenal hit, topping the US box office for two weeks. 

In recent years, sci-fi blockbusters, such as "The Wandering Earth" series, have won global acclaim, accelerating the growth and prestige of China's film industry as it goes from strength to strength.