I would like to start my investigation of The City That Never Sleeps (Buyecheng, 1957, d. Tang Xiaodan, Jiangnan Film Studio) with two scenes that pronounce the change the “national industrialist” Zhang Bohan underwent.  After a series of montage sequences that highlight the 1935 cityscape of Shanghai, the camera quickly shifts to a crowed wharf, where the passengers of a just-arrived ship start to disembark.  Among them is Zhang Bohan, a young, handsome, and energetic returned student from the Great Britain.  With a confident smile on face, Zhang wears an elegantly tailored Western-style suit that sets him apart from the family members who are to greet him at the wharf.  In contrast to his shining outfit, Zhang’s father, brother, and cousin all wear traditional long gown, a one-piece outfit that highlights the “Chineseness” of the time.  As the plot further develops, the audience realizes that the shining suit not only symbolizes Zhang’s elite status but also implies his possession of direct experience of Western economic methods.  Zhang’s expertise in business and management is immediately tested when one Japan-connected Shanghai comprador offers to buy the “Patriot” trademark of the Daguangming Dyeing Mill.  Instead of submitting to the intense pressure from the Japanese, Zhang, after winning support from his father, decides to expand the family enterprise through acquiring his in-law’s spindles.  Equipped with a famous brand and newly acquired machines, the re-named Daguangming Weaving and Dyeing Mill is ready to compete with the Japanese domination of the cotton industry in Shanghai.

The second scene is preceded with a series of shots that show a jubilant crowd moving to new apartments and working diligently.  Accompanied by high-spirited music, the superimposed number “1951” indicates that China has been “liberated” for two years and workers have stood up and become maters of New China.  The sound of car horns introduces a repackaged Zhang Bohan, who chooses to stay in Shanghai despite being warned that the coming of the Communists may jeopardize both his life and his business.  Although still the owner of the Daguangming Weaving and Dyeing Mill, Zhang is now dressed in a tunic suit in the style of Sun Yet-sen, the customary fashion for a Communist cadre.  With a high collar and patch pockets, the Zhong Shan suit looks equally shining yet less out of context.  The conversation between Zhang and his brother, who missed his plane to Hong Kong on the eve of the Communist takeover and is also dressed in the same fashion as his elder brother, reveals that to a certain extent Zhang Bohan has also changed his attitude toward his employees.  No longer do we see a profit-driven industrialist who is merciless in firing the most outspoken worker before liberation.  Instead, he wants to be briefed about the complaints of the workers because “nowadays things have changed.”  As the car arrives at the Zhang mansion, the camera introduces an equally changed wife of Zhang, wearing not a tightly fitted qipao (as she usually wears in the first part of the film) but a Chinese style jacket with buttons down the front.