Chinese Lawyers on the Silver Screen

This article analyzes the depiction of lawyers in Chinese movies made during the pre-1949 period, either in Hong Kong or Shanghai. For Shanghai movies, it focuses on four of the most famous movies of that era: Goddess (Shennü, 1934), Street Angels (Malu Tianshi, 1937), Bright Day (Yanyang Tian, 1947) and Long Live the Missus (Taitai Wansui, 1947). Modern lawyers were a relatively new phenomenon in mainland China - yet they do appear in these early movies, and their portraits reflect the realities of the day as well as political and artistic viewpoints of their writers and directors