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The article examines the theory of vernacular modernism in the development of cinema in Chongqing, China during World War II. It explores the role of Chinese cultural imagination in film theory and propaganda under wartime media ecology. It references the essay "The Infinite Cinema" by Li Lishui which was published in the Dianying jishibao in 1941 and proposes a new way of understanding vernacular modernism by presenting an alternative definition of cinema.

The article presents a historical overview of British government-run filmmaking in the colony of Hong Kong during the 1930s and 1940s. Particular focus is given to the struggle between the Colonial Office (CO) of the British Colonial Film Unit (CFU) and the documentary film movement in Great Britain known as Griersonian tradition, after the filmmaker John Grierson. Additional topics include World War II propaganda films produced by the CFU and the British Ministry of Information (MoI) to promote British aims in its colonies during the conflict and differences in film production in large and small British colonies.