Chinese film makers are divided into six "generations," dating from 1905, and Fang Zhuojun examines the creative periods and the directors of old Shanghai.

The season is coming, once again, when directors start reaching out to grab a bigger piece of the pie - the New Year's film market.

At this time last year, as many people recall, the film circle atmosphere was a bit tense because of rivalry between directors Zhang Yimou ("Curse of the Golden Flower") and Jia Zhangke ("Still Life"). Critics called it a "war."

First came criticisms about style and content, then they started digging at each other. Finally, it developed into a conflict between the whole fifth and sixth-generation directors, of which Zhang and Jia are representative.

Unlike their Western counterparts, Chinese film makers are identified mostly in groups. The term "generation" originated in the 1980s when it exclusively referred to the first graduates of the Beijing Film Academy after the national college entrance exam was resumed after the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

They are known as the fifth generation, and Zhang, together with Cheng Kaige and Feng Xiaogang, are the most representative.

Film critics identify six generations, going back to the birth of Chinese movies in 1905, the first generation, until today, the sixth generation.

The relationship between neighboring generations is usually master-apprentice, or sometimes rivals.

Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan are considered the "first generation" as they set up the original outline of Chinese movies.

Cai Chusheng and Sun Yu are the "second generation," known for the realistic depiction of daily life in the 1930s-40s.

Xie Jin and Shui Hua are called the "third generation" after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Xie Fei and Wu Yigong are the "fourth" who sought independent status of movies, setting film apart from the style of drama after 1979.

The famous "fifth generation" turned out lavish spectacles of old China.

Finally the "sixth generation" like Jia, Wang Xiaoshuai and Zhang Yuan, turn their attention to urban life in the late 1990s.

"The generation of directors is a unique term for Chinese cinema and it has a close connection with the social and historical background of China's development," says Professor Yang Yuanying in her book, "The Study of Chinese Directors."

"Individual directors are grouped in the same generation both for their similar ages and more important, their shared ways of artistic expression."