Adaptation of literature has been an important genre in Chinese films from the 1920s till now. This dissertation seeks to trace the general history of Chinese filmic adaptations of literature, and examine important moments and figures within this history, to bring out strategies filmmakers use in their adaptations, in response to and in negotiations with different cultural, political and commercial needs. With the dissertation, I hope to contribute to this still largely uncharted field in Chinese film studies, to studies of comparative literature and cross-media cultural translation between China, the West and Japan, and to offer insights into the cultural and political history in the periods addressed. In the dissertation, I employ techniques of literary and film studies, draw on adaptation and translation theories, and also use a cultural history perspective. Chapter 1 situates my study in current scholarships and gives an overview of what Chinese filmmakers chose to adapt and how they approach their sources. The following chapters are organized around representative figures or topics. Chapter 2 is on the Republican adaptations of foreign literature, in which I will give an overview of this genre and examine some of its recurrent motifs. Chapter 3 focuses on adaptations by Xia Yan, an arbiter of socialist films, in which I analyze Xia Yan's choices as shown in his adaptations in the 1950s and 1960s. Chapter 4 explores adaptations by Xie Jin, the most important Chinese director in the early 1980s, to see how he uses the melodramatic mode in his films on the rightists and how that mode is specific to the period. Chapter 5 studies Zhang Yimou's adaptations in his early films to see his change from the 1980s to the 1990s, and his strategy of foregrounding visuality.
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