The Nanjing National Theatre Academy was founded in the fall of 1935 by Fang Chih as an organ of the KMT Central Propaganda Department.
Fang, working on behalf of the CC Clique, a powerful faction of the Kuomintang, envisioned the school as China's first ever institute of higher education in the field of drama espousing the principals of the New Life Movement.
The New Life Movement was the brainchild of General Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong Mei-ling with the backing of the Blue Shirts Society, the KMT's extreme right wing.
The original campus was located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Sanyong Lane (zh: 双龙巷) and the Nanjing Drum Tower.
With the outbreak of World War II, the school moved briefly to Changsha and then to Chongqing.