Screen kiss in China: kissing performance and its social acceptability in Chinese feature films during the “Seventeen Years” period (1949–1966)

The claim that the “first kiss” on the screen in the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) appeared in Romance on Lushan Mountain (1980) needs to be corrected. This study argues that the first kiss on screen in the P.R.C. should be in the film Caravans with Ring, produced by Shanghai Film Studio in 1954. Besides, under the dual influence of traditional Chinese culture and mainstream ideology at that time, the depiction of kissing on screen, while broadening the scope of film expression, exceeded the cultural limits that the era could bear and construct. The portrayal of kissing in the production field, composed of writers, screenwriters, directors, and actors, and the audience field, including political leaders, film critics, media, and the public, created an intriguing arena of contention and perception. This highlighted the tension between artistic rules, subjective intentions, cultural traditions, and ideology, thus leading to a unique social acceptability of kissing performances.