On December 28th, 1895, movies came out in France, an important town of modern capitalist civilization. In the following year, this latest western technological achievement was introduced into China. According to Shenbao, on August 11th, 1986 (the 22nd year of Guangxu), a French tourist showed a short film in Youyi Village, a teahouse in Xuyuan, Shanghai. This was the first time that a film was shown in China. Like the situation shown abroad, this film is interspersed with entertainment programs such as "Tricks" and "Fireworks"; The screening location also bears some similarity to the world's first film screening-the latter was in a cafe in Paris. From 1897 to 1898, several businessmen from the United States, Russia, Italy and Portugal successively showed commercial films in Tianhua Tea Garden, Qiyuan Garden, Tongqing Tea Garden, Shengping Teahouse, Running Ice Rink and other places, which made films gradually become popular in this oriental metropolis.

A few years later, the film finally spread to the imperial city of Beijing. In 1902, a foreigner began to rent "Fu Shou Hall" in Qianmen Polishing Factory to show movies, which made people at the foot of Huangchenggen begin to appreciate the elegance of movies.

The film was originally known in China as ¡°activity film¡± or ¡°electronic film¡±. At the time the films were also shown in China from abroad, and the contents were some documentary short films and funny short films, such as ¡°Russian Empire Tour Paris¡±, ¡°Madrid Street¡±, ¡°Spanish dancing¡±, ¡°Win with the Sword Art¡±, ¡°Black Eating Cucumbers¡± and so on. At the time, the Shanghai ¡°Game Journal¡± a report described these early films as follows: ¡°...American electrofilms, symmetrical lights and wonderfully fanciful outsiders ... the guests gathered, the lights stopped; the two western ladies danced in the shade, the yellow hair, the blossom. and the two westerns played the role. and the two Russian princesses danced

The Chinese film itself was set in 1903 in Beijing. Chinese businessman Lin Sheng three returned home from Europe and America, carrying the screenshots and films, and screened the film at the grinding mill, which was the beginning of China's domestic screening of self-production films from abroad. Since then, there has been a movie show at the Grand Canyon Theatre outside the front door of Beijing, the Civilization Tea Garden within the Western Single Market, the Happy Theatre within the Dong An Market, and the Peace Theatre in the New Fong Market in the Western City.

Since then, movies have been introduced into the palace. According to reports, in 1904, on the 70th birthday of Empress Dowager Cixi, the British Minister to China presented a projector and several sets of films to show films for Cixi. However, after only three copies were released, the generator broke down, resulting in an explosion. Cixi thought this was an ominous omen, and it was forbidden to show movies in the palace from then on. In the second year, Minister Duanfang came back from abroad and sneaked back a projector, which was shown during a banquet for Zaize. As a result, the projector exploded again in the middle, and the translator and others at the scene were killed. This is the end of the "court movie".

After 1905, the film had become popular in Beijing. At the time, there were films displayed every night at the Grand Theatre, and there were no seats. So it can be said that the art and entertainment form of film finally landed in China.