Abstract
Dianying' is the Chinese translation for movies. It literally means 'Electric shadows'. To me, this term is particularly meaningful and suggests that movies are the shadows of real life and offer a clear reflection of a society or a culture. My topic here is Hong Kong cinema, the fourth biggest movie production unit in the world (some say the third, after the United States and India). Therefore a mention of motion pictures coming from Mainland China or Taiwan will not be made in this essay, except in the following history of Chinese movies.
