{ "id": "epn4zpgh4t", "slug": "myriad-of-lights", "title": "Myriad of Lights (万家灯火)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1940s", "label": "Drama films 1940s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1940s" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "China · 1946 to 2000: Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946", "label": "China · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Myriad of Lights (万家灯火) is a 1948 Chinese black-and-white drama directed by Shen Fu about a small Shanghai family strained by inflation and an influx of relatives.", "snippet": "Myriad of Lights (万家灯火) is a 1948 Chinese black-and-white drama directed by Shen Fu about a small Shanghai family strained by inflation and an influx of relatives.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1940s", "markdown": "# Myriad of Lights (万家灯火)\n\n**Myriad of Lights** (万家灯火, also translated *Myriads of Lights* or *Lights of Ten Thousand Homes*) is a 1948 Chinese black-and-white drama film produced by Kunlun Film Company (昆仑影业公司) in Shanghai, directed by [Shen Fu](https://www.edgepedia.org/shen-fu) (沈浮, 1905–1994) and written by Yang Hansheng (阳翰笙) together with Shen Fu[1](https://www.hfgcxx.com/upload/files/%E6%96%B0%E7%89%88%E6%95%B0%E9%98%85%E8%B5%84%E6%BA%90%E7%9B%98/%E8%89%BA%E6%9C%AF/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1%E5%90%8D%E7%89%87%E9%89%B4%E8%B5%8F%E8%BE%9E%E5%85%B8%28%E4%BA%8C%29.pdf) • [2](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002019900). Set in Shanghai after the victory over Japan, it follows a small white-collar family squeezed by inflation and an unexpected influx of relatives, and it is regarded as a central work of the realist current in late-1940s Chinese cinema[1](https://www.hfgcxx.com/upload/files/%E6%96%B0%E7%89%88%E6%95%B0%E9%98%85%E8%B5%84%E6%BA%90%E7%9B%98/%E8%89%BA%E6%9C%AF/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1%E5%90%8D%E7%89%87%E9%89%B4%E8%B5%8F%E8%BE%9E%E5%85%B8%28%E4%BA%8C%29.pdf) • [3](https://www.bnasie.eu/Asset/Source/bnBook_ID-60_No-1.pdf).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Production | Kunlun Film Company, 1948; black-and-white feature, Mandarin dialogue, aspect ratio 1.33:1[1](https://www.hfgcxx.com/upload/files/%E6%96%B0%E7%89%88%E6%95%B0%E9%98%85%E8%B5%84%E6%BA%90%E7%9B%98/%E8%89%BA%E6%9C%AF/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1%E5%90%8D%E7%89%87%E9%89%B4%E8%B5%8F%E8%BE%9E%E5%85%B8%28%E4%BA%8C%29.pdf) • [4](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfa/gz/dymlcx/dy/2023060216092688268/index.html) |\n| Director and writers | Directed by Shen Fu; screenplay by Yang Hansheng and Shen Fu; cinematography by Zhu Jinming[1](https://www.hfgcxx.com/upload/files/%E6%96%B0%E7%89%88%E6%95%B0%E9%98%85%E8%B5%84%E6%BA%90%E7%9B%98/%E8%89%BA%E6%9C%AF/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1%E5%90%8D%E7%89%87%E9%89%B4%E8%B5%8F%E8%BE%9E%E5%85%B8%28%E4%BA%8C%29.pdf) |\n| Principal cast | Lan Ma (蓝马) as Hu Zhiqing, Shangguan Yunzhu (上官云珠) as his wife Youlan, Wu Yin (吴茵) as the mother, Qi Heng (齐衡) as Qian Jianru, Shen Yang (沈扬) as Chunsheng[1](https://www.hfgcxx.com/upload/files/%E6%96%B0%E7%89%88%E6%95%B0%E9%98%85%E8%B5%84%E6%BA%90%E7%9B%98/%E8%89%BA%E6%9C%AF/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1%E5%90%8D%E7%89%87%E9%89%B4%E8%B5%8F%E8%BE%9E%E5%85%B8%28%E4%BA%8C%29.pdf) |\n| Release | Public release in July 1948[5](https://www.cntv.cn/program/dycq/20060210/101287.shtml) |\n| Running time | Reported as 116 minutes by the China Film Archive, 121 minutes by the Hong Kong Film Archive database, 120 minutes by 1905.com, and 115 minutes by Virtual Shanghai[4](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfa/gz/dymlcx/dy/2023060216092688268/index.html) • [6](https://www.dianying.com/jt/title/wjd1948) • [7](https://m.1905.com/Mdb/mdbDetail/filmid/356317/) • [8](https://www.virtualshanghai.net/films/collection?ID=198) |\n| Recognition | In 1995 the Shanghai Film Critics Association named it one of the \"ten great films of China's 90 years of cinema\" and awarded it the Shanghai Film Critics Award[5](https://www.cntv.cn/program/dycq/20060210/101287.shtml) |\n| Original title | *Xin he jia huan* (新合家欢, roughly \"New Happy Family\"), recorded in a 1971 People's Daily criticism article[9](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E4%BA%BA%E6%B0%91%E9%9D%A9%E5%91%BD%E5%8A%BF%E4%B8%8D%E5%8F%AF%E5%BD%93) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nThe protagonist Hu Zhiqing is a diligent, capable clerk at the Weida Trading Company in Shanghai. He handles import and export business by day and draws up plans for a company factory by night. The manager, Qian Jianru, is a fellow townsman and former schoolmate whose family had once been helped by Zhiqing's mother, so Zhiqing is trusted at the firm. His wife Youlan manages the household carefully, stretching his modest salary to keep the family of three fed[1](https://www.hfgcxx.com/upload/files/%E6%96%B0%E7%89%88%E6%95%B0%E9%98%85%E8%B5%84%E6%BA%90%E7%9B%98/%E8%89%BA%E6%9C%AF/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1%E5%90%8D%E7%89%87%E9%89%B4%E8%B5%8F%E8%BE%9E%E5%85%B8%28%E4%BA%8C%29.pdf).\n\nAfter the war the rural economy collapses, and Zhiqing's mother, unable to live in the countryside, comes to Shanghai with her second son Chunsheng and his family. The household, already strained by inflation and soaring prices, must now feed several more mouths; the crowding and expense sharpen a conflict between the mother and the daughter-in-law[1](https://www.hfgcxx.com/upload/files/%E6%96%B0%E7%89%88%E6%95%B0%E9%98%85%E8%B5%84%E6%BA%90%E7%9B%98/%E8%89%BA%E6%9C%AF/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1%E5%90%8D%E7%89%87%E9%89%B4%E8%B5%8F%E8%BE%9E%E5%85%B8%28%E4%BA%8C%29.pdf). Zhiqing asks the manager for an advance on his salary and is refused on a pretext. The wife leaves home in anger. Zhiqing picks up a lost wallet, is beaten as a suspected thief, and is sent to a hospital in a dazed state. As the family searches for him, the two women reconcile, and the family is reunited[4](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfa/gz/dymlcx/dy/2023060216092688268/index.html).\n\nA 2006 CCTV account describes the film's social spectrum in three groups: the bourgeoisie represented by Qian Jianru, the urban petty stratum represented by Hu Zhiqing, and the working people represented by the characters Xiao Zhao and A Zhen; through the Zhiqing family's sufferings the film depicts the misery of ordinary households in the postwar years[5](https://www.cntv.cn/program/dycq/20060210/101287.shtml).\n\n## Production and cast\n\nShen Fu both directed and co-wrote the film. He was born in 1905 and died in 1994; a Hong Kong government release on a 2005 retrospective of his work notes that he grew up poor, entered the Tianjin Bohai Film Company at nineteen as an actor imitating [Charlie Chaplin](https://www.edgepedia.org/charlie-chaplin), and later joined Shanghai's Lianhua Film Company as a writer-director, working alongside figures such as Fei Mu, Zhu Shilin, and Sun Yu[10](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200509/08/P200509080195.htm).\n\n**Casting.** The actor Lan Ma played Hu Zhiqing, and it was Lan Ma who recommended Shangguan Yunzhu for the leading female role; Shen Fu's films *Myriad of Lights* and *Hope in the World* both cast Lan Ma as the male lead[11](https://group3.ccb.com/chn/2012-05/09/article_2021082106140088176.shtml). Shangguan Yunzhu had been typecast as glamorous villainesses; in this film she played the gentle, forbearing wife Youlan, who clashes with the mother-in-law who has fled to Shanghai yet endures hardship out of genuine love for her husband[11](https://group3.ccb.com/chn/2012-05/09/article_2021082106140088176.shtml).\n\nThe China Film Archive holds a 1948 special-issue magazine cover for the film among its paper archives[12](https://www.cfa.org.cn/eportal/ui?pageId=1f454783a118468faed70705b06395ab).\n\n## Style and critical standing\n\nThe film's style is plain and unadorned, with what the China Film Archive synopsis calls a strong sense of real life[4](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfa/gz/dymlcx/dy/2023060216092688268/index.html). A Chinese film-history survey notes that the film links and contrasts urban and rural scenes and lives, widening the film's scope, and praises its vivid, full characters and its plain, natural, delicate technique[13](https://www.mvcat.com/movies/26541.html).\n\n**Realist school.** A Chinese-language history of cinema argues that, viewed in world-film comparison, Chinese cinema from the 1930s to the late 1940s, with *[Crossroads](https://www.edgepedia.org/crossroads-1937-film)*, *Street Angel*, *Myriad of Lights*, and *Crow and Sparrow* as representative works, saw a realist film school forming and maturing; Shen Fu's *Myriad of Lights* and Zheng Junli's first independent directorial effort *Crow and Sparrow* made the two men leading figures of that school, and both films became classics of Chinese film history[3](https://www.bnasie.eu/Asset/Source/bnBook_ID-60_No-1.pdf).\n\n**Haipai classification.** A 2015 study in the journal Cineforum classifies the film as a Haipai (海派, Shanghai-school) film, made at Kunlun during the [Chinese Civil War](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-civil-war); Haipai culture is described there as the dynamic, non-mainstream Shanghai culture contrasted with the dominant Jingpai (京派) culture, and the study treats the film as an example of how postwar Haipai films both inherited and departed from their 1930s predecessors[2](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002019900).\n\n## Reception over time\n\nThe film was publicly released in July 1948 and was widely praised by the press of the time[5](https://www.cntv.cn/program/dycq/20060210/101287.shtml). Its reputation has not been constant. In April 1971, during the [Cultural Revolution](https://www.edgepedia.org/cultural-revolution), a [People's Daily](https://www.edgepedia.org/peoples-daily) article by a Guangxi Teachers College criticism-writing group denounced the film as a \"poisonous weed\" produced by Yang Hansheng in the second half of 1948 under its original title *Xin he jia huan*, accusing it of masking class struggle; the same article records that after 1949 the film had been re-released as an outstanding film of the post-May Fourth era and published in anthology and single-volume editions[9](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E4%BA%BA%E6%B0%91%E9%9D%A9%E5%91%BD%E5%8A%BF%E4%B8%8D%E5%8F%AF%E5%BD%93).\n\nAfter the Cultural Revolution the film's standing recovered. In 1995 the Shanghai Film Critics Association listed it among the \"ten great films of China's 90 years\" and gave it the Shanghai Film Critics Award[5](https://www.cntv.cn/program/dycq/20060210/101287.shtml), and the Hong Kong retrospective of 2005 noted that it had repeatedly been selected among the hundred greatest Chinese-language films[10](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200509/08/P200509080195.htm). The China Film Archive has named *Myriad of Lights* among the classics slated for restoration alongside *The Song of the Fishermen* and *Spring in a Small Town*[14](https://www.chinafilmnews.cn/UploadFiles/file/20260513/202605130205212365.pdf).\n\n## References\n\n1. [万家灯火 entry, 中国电影名片鉴赏辞典 (二), PDF](https://www.hfgcxx.com/upload/files/%E6%96%B0%E7%89%88%E6%95%B0%E9%98%85%E8%B5%84%E6%BA%90%E7%9B%98/%E8%89%BA%E6%9C%AF/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1%E5%90%8D%E7%89%87%E9%89%B4%E8%B5%8F%E8%BE%9E%E5%85%B8%28%E4%BA%8C%29.pdf)\n2. [윤성민, 김서운, 이효인 (2015). \"A Study on the characteristics of Haipai Films – focused of Myriads of lights.\" Cineforum no. 21, pp. 113–140, KCI](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002019900)\n3. [东方好莱坞，中国电影事业的崛起与发展 (PDF)](https://www.bnasie.eu/Asset/Source/bnBook_ID-60_No-1.pdf)\n4. [万家灯火, 中国电影资料馆 修复经典 影片资料](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfa/gz/dymlcx/dy/2023060216092688268/index.html)\n5. [天真的朋友, CCTV.com 电影传奇 (2006)](https://www.cntv.cn/program/dycq/20060210/101287.shtml)\n6. [万家灯火 (1948), 香港电影资料馆影片资料库 (dianying.com)](https://www.dianying.com/jt/title/wjd1948)\n7. [万家灯火 Myriads of Lights (1948), 1905电影网](https://m.1905.com/Mdb/mdbDetail/filmid/356317/)\n8. [Wanjia denghuo (1948), Virtual Shanghai](https://www.virtualshanghai.net/films/collection?ID=198)\n9. [人民革命势不可当——批判阳翰笙的《万家灯火》, 人民日报 1971年4月23日 (Wikisource transcription)](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E4%BA%BA%E6%B0%91%E9%9D%A9%E5%91%BD%E5%8A%BF%E4%B8%8D%E5%8F%AF%E5%BD%93)\n10. [中國電影回憶　名導演沈浮與水華精彩作品十月放映, 香港政府新聞公報 (2005)](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200509/08/P200509080195.htm)\n11. [沈寂: 我知道的上官云珠（二）, 中国建设银行 光影 (2012)](https://group3.ccb.com/chn/2012-05/09/article_2021082106140088176.shtml)\n12. [电影文图资料, 中国电影资料馆 档案](https://www.cfa.org.cn/eportal/ui?pageId=1f454783a118468faed70705b06395ab)\n13. [中国影史经典片单, MVCAT](https://www.mvcat.com/movies/26541.html)\n14. [中国电影报 (2026年5月13日), PDF](https://www.chinafilmnews.cn/UploadFiles/file/20260513/202605130205212365.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1940s*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/myriad-of-lights", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/myriad-of-lights.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Myriad of Lights (万家灯火)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/myriad-of-lights. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Myriad of Lights (万家灯火)](https://www.edgepedia.org/myriad-of-lights)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/myriad-of-lights](https://www.edgepedia.org/myriad-of-lights). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Myriad of Lights (万家灯火)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/myriad-of-lights. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Myriad of Lights is a 1948 Chinese black-and-white drama directed by Shen Fu about a small Shanghai family strained by inflation and an influx of relatives." }