Chinese people are great movie fans. In 1990, about 16.2 billion attended the cinema; the average Chinese saw 16 films that year. China is also one of the worlds major film producers. Form 1949 to 1966, it produced 630 feature films, or 30 to 40 each year. In the last 15 years, following a long suspension during the "cultural revolution, "production jumped by 1,5000, or about 100 films a year.

In this website, more than 150 titles have been selected, representing the best Chinese productions from all eras, starting with the first opera film in 1905 and including box office hits that premiered at the end of 1991 or early this year. The list includes all the major films that have won international or national awards in the past four decades as well as classics from the 1920s to 1940s.

Individual Chinese film artists are also winning acclaim. At the Fourth Tokyo International Film Festival in 1991, Chinese actress Zhao Lirong was named best actress for her performance in the film" Spring Festival," and in 1990, director Teng Wenji won for best direction at the 14th Montreal International Film Festival for his work on " Yellow River Ballad."

In the synopses in the Movies section, we have indicated those titles that have won national film awards in the past decade. China's major annual national awards include the" Golden Rooster Film Awards" sponsored by the China Film Association, the "Hundred Flowers Awards" of the magazine" Popular Cinema" and the" Outstanding Film Awards" given by the Ministry of Radio Film and Television.

The annual" Gone Rooster Film Awards," named for the Year of the Rooster, were initiated in 1981. With a jury of more than 20 prominent film artists, critics and film artists, critics and film historians, they cover a wide range of film categories and performances and are designed to promote creativity, film research and criticism. After a period of suspension during the" cultural revolution," the" Hundred Flowers Awards" were resumed in 1980, having begun in 1962. These awards are usually limited to seven categories; for three best films, best leading actor and actress and best supporting actor and actress. Winners are selected by a viewers' poll. To encourage and promote the film industry, the government makes its own awards in several categories. Issued by the Ministry of Culture before 1986 and by the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television since that time, the awards were resumed in 1980 after a suspension of more than 20 years. The awards were first instituted in 1957.

Besides all the prize-winning titles, entries in this book represent a wide variety of themes and genres. Historical epics have been particularly popular in recent years. Among the best are" Genghis Khan," Sun Yat-sen,""The Making of a New Era,""Clash of the Warlords,""Battle of Tai'serzhuang,""Decisive Campaigns," "The Birth of New China" and" Zhou Enlai."

Popular hits dealing with contemporary life are also included, such as" T Province in 1984 and 1985," "Black Cannon Incident,"" Hibiscus Town,"" Big Parade."

Kungfu features are box office smashes. In the past decade mainland filmmakers have produced or co-produced with Hong Kong sponsors dozens of these fast-action movies from " Shaolin Temple" and" Chivalrous 13th Sister" in the early 1980s to more recent ones like" The Magic Whip"," Golden Dart King" and" Grave Robbers." Thriller films are also becoming great favorites. Among the recent best are" The Last Frenzy" and" Bloodshed in Black Valley."

The biggest critical successes in recent years have been the so-called" experimental" --- and often controversial --- works produced by a group of graduates of the China Film Academy tagged" The Fifth Generation." Until mid-1980, most post-1949 Chinese films were works of" reserved realism'" --- in monotonous style and lacking personality. But the innovative" Fifth Generation" directors have developed their own artistic styles.

In China, the first generation of directors usually refers to Chinese opera directors like Zheng Zhengqiu and Cai Chusheng who turned to the screen in the 1920s at the dawn of the film making age. They produced silent films of Chinese operas. The opera films gave way to modern drama films in the '30s and '40s, made by second generation artists as Yuan Muzhi and Tang Xiaodan, all former stage directors. The third generation, which includes Ling Zifeng, Xie Tian and Xie Jin, refers to a group of directors who emerged in the 1950s after the founding of New China. The fourth generation includes graduates like Wu Yigong and Wu Tianming, of the China Film Academy and other film schools. These older directors are basically followers of traditional techniques of expression taught by Soviet experts in the 1950s. But the" Fifth Generation" has drawn much more on modern Western literature and Western schools of films since their horizons were broadened through film exchanges with foreign countries after the" Cultural Revolution." Their films, like Chen Kaige's " Yellow Earth" and" The King of Children", Zhang Junzhao's "One and Eight, Tian Zhuang zhuang's" The Horse Thief," Zhang Yimou's" Red Sorghum" and Woo Ziniu's" Evening Bell, " usually stress message rather than plot, and use fast -paced imagery rather than dialogue to convey their messages.