The Asia Film Company was established in Shanghai in 1909 by Russian born Jewish American businessman Benjamin Brosky (1877-1960),[1] and was the first company to produce dramatic films in China.
[2] Brosky left Shanghai in 1912 and sold his assets to two other Americans, Yashell and Suffert.
The company was dissolved in 1914, when the First World War caused a shortage of film stock.
[2] Brodsky left China in 1917 and briefly worked in Japan before returning to the United States where he became a theatre owner and changed his name to Borden.
It produced The Difficult Couple in 1913, the first feature-length film made in China, which was about arranged marriage, directed by Zheng Zhengqiu and written by Zhang Shichuan.