Since 1984, Chinese cinema has been the most dramatic new entry on the international film scene. This text looks at contemporary Chinese cinema as a visual art and illustrates the many ways it has been shaped by centuries of Chinese visual and cultural traditions. Among its many concerns are the role of female gender in Chinese cinema, the use of allegory, the strategies of filmmakers in comping with state censorship, the translation of Chinese novels into film, the continuing attachment of filmmakers to melodramatic form, and the cinematic critiques of Maoism and post-Maoist Chinese culture. Illustrated with Chinese paintings as well as scenes from such internationally acclaimed films as "Yellow Earth", "Red Sorghum", "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Farewell My Concubine", Jerome Silbergeld reveals a cinematic form that is at once excitingly new and yet deeply embedded in traditional Chinese visual culture.