We kick off this year's CMS Works in Progress series with a talk by Ph.D. candidate Yumo Yan.
Date: Friday, October 25, 2025
Time: 3:30-5:00
Location: Allen Library Auditorium
Title: "20th Century Fox’s CinemaScope Lens-leasing Program and Hong Kong Anamorphic Cinema’s Deterred Beginnings in the 1950s"
What was Hong Kong’s first anamorphic film has long been subject to debate. In this talk, I present my archival findings around two films made by the Hong Kong Grandview Film Company that tried but ultimately failed to kickstart the colony’s anamorphic era in the early 1950s—the 1954 Xin Yutangchun (The Love of Susan, now lost), and the 1956 Xiao Taohong (Little Peach Blossom, never completed). I reveal how Grandview’s failure to produce the colony’s first anamorphic film as early as 1954 was a direct result of 20th Century Fox’s stringent CinemaScope lens-leasing program, which controlled the global distribution of CinemaScope taking lenses. Faced with Fox’s monopoly over anamorphic technology, I demonstrate how Hong Kong film companies like Grandview sought alternative and creative ways to combat American technological imperialism.