Mingxing Film Company (Chinese: 明星影片公司; pinyin: Míngxīng yǐngpiàn gōngsī; lit. 'Bright Star Film Company') was one of the largest production companies during the 1920s, and 1930s in the Republic of China. Founded in Shanghai, the company lasted from 1922 until 1937 when it was closed permanently by the Second Sino-Japanese War.
The film company struggled in its first few years with comic shorts like 1922's Laborer's Love. In 1923, the company produced Orphan Rescues Grandfather which became a commercial success and with it Mingxing's fortunes were assured.[1]
By the early 1930s, Mingxing had become the leading film studio in China, and dominated the market with its upstart rival, the Lianhua Film Company (which had co-opted Dazhonghua Baihe) as a close second. In 1931, the first Chinese sound filmSing-Song Girl Red Peony was made, the product of a cooperation between the Mingxing Film Company's image production and Pathé's sound technology.[2] However, the sound was disc-recorded, and the first sound-on-film talkie made in China was by Tianyi Film Company. Tianyi also continued to produce films throughout the 1930s, though its output did not match the two leaders. By the mid-1930s, both Mingxing and Lianhua became major production houses for films in Shanghai. With the death of co-founder Zheng Zhengqiu in 1934, and the advent of full-scale war in 1937, Mingxing was forced to close its doors permanently.
