THE first public film show in Paris, in December 1895, led to the fast spread of film throughout the world. Just one year later it was introduced to Shanghai.

An advertisement published in the Shen Bao (1872-1949, the longest running newspaper of old China) recorded that in the private garden of a wealthy Cantonese, various shows were held, such as magic performances and the guessing of lantern riddles, alternating with some "Western films". This was the first record of films being shown in Shanghai.

From then on, film shows gradually became increasingly popular in certain indoor places devoted to playing games, as well as tea houses and gardens.

At that time, projectionists were usually itinerant foreign merchants who amused themselves by assisting film presentation, while making a little money in the process. A Spanish merchant called Ramos was one such person.

Ramos rented space in a teahouse specially for use as a projection room and put up eye-catching posters outside. Then he hired several Indians, dressing them in red and green uniforms, to play pipes and drums to attract passersby.

The films shown by Ramos differed continually and he often supplied audience with new ones. Attracted by the new form of entertainment, lots of people started to visit his little movie theatre.

At first, the films on show were short silent documentaries focusing on overseas scenes, people and animal performances. Although full of wonderful pictures, films could only be projected in a dark room, with the light cast on a white screen to reveal "shadows".

Because of this, film as a unique art form was regarded as merely a new version of traditional Chinese shadow plays. Their original Chinese name "Ying Xi" (electric light shadow play) points to this early conception of the medium.

Shanghai was an open city willing to accept new things. The arrival of "Ying Xi" quickly won the favour of local people. However, the places available for film shows could not hold the expanding audiences, making the environment for enjoying films far from satisfactory. There was an evident need to construct special buildings for the showing of films.

In 1908, Ramos, who was an experienced businessman with plenty of financial resources, rented a skating rink and turned it into a movie theatre. Later, he established a second elaborately decorated movie theatre, this time equipped with a bar.

Expanding steadily, Ramos built five cinemas between 1908 to 1921. He therefore earned himself repute as the founder of Shanghai's cinema industry and "the king of film". During this period, other foreign merchants also began to enter into the film show business.

However, cinemas were still known as "Ying Xi Yuan"(Places to show shadow plays) rather than "Dian Ying Yuan" (the modern Chinese word for cinema). Actually, the Chinese names for "cinema" varied from one city to another. In Beijing and Tianjing, it was called "Dian Ying Yuan", but in Guangzhou, it was "Ying Hua Yuan". Differences in local culture and language resulted in this interesting phenomena.

After 1949, "Dian Ying Yuan" became generally used throughout the country as the special Chinese term for cinema.

(The author is from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences)