The first steps

Though cinema was introduced in China in 1896, the first Chinese film, The Battle of Dingjunshan, was made in 1905. Most of the early Chinese films were produced in Shanghai.

The first sound film, Sing-Song Girl Red Peony, using the sound-on-disc technology, was made in 1931.

The Battle of Dingjunshan, directed by Ren Jingfeng and starring Tan Xinpei, was, however, produced by the Beijing-based Fengtai Photography Studio. It was based on an episode from Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

It is sometimes translated as Conquering the Jun Mountain and consists of a recording of a Beijing Opera performance. The only print of the film was destroyed in a fire in the late 1940s.

(China Daily European Weekly 05/30/2014 page7)