scholarly journals Obstacles to Using Chinese Film to Promote China’s Soft Power: Some Evidence from the North American Market

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-221
Author(s):  
Stanley Rosen
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Chinese Film ◽  
The North ◽  
Box Office ◽  
North American Market ◽  
Power Scale ◽  
Chinese Films

Abstract China’s use of film to project soft power has been unsuccessful. However, the generation of soft power through its film industry is not China’s highest priority. The pursuit of soft power, including through film, is much more directed toward the domestic audience in China, reflecting the greater importance of political and social stability, along with ensuring the patriotism of youth. Moreover, given the origins of the soft power concept and the methodologies used to evaluate countries on a soft power scale, countries that are not liberal democracies will never be able to score high on any soft power ranking. Using empirical data such as box office figures, and Chinese and Western media sources, it will be shown that the lack of success of Chinese films in overseas markets stems in part from structural reasons beyond China’s control, but also in part because of decisions made by Chinese state officials and the filmmakers themselves.

The circulation of Chinese film in New Zealand as a potential platform for soft power

2020 ◽  
Vol 176 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-92
Author(s):  
Ian Huffer
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Chinese Film ◽  
A Site ◽  
Hearts And Minds ◽  
Chinese Films

New Zealand is one of only a handful of countries worldwide in which Chinese blockbusters are regularly released in cinemas and has also been a site of increasing debate regarding China’s soft power. This article consequently examines the circulation of Chinese films in New Zealand, not only through theatrical exhibition but also non-theatrical channels, and considers how this might build a platform for soft power. It considers the balance between ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ mainland filmmaking, and between mainland filmmaking and Hong Kong, Taiwanese and diasporic filmmaking, along with the target audiences for these different channels. The article shows that, taken as a whole, the distribution and exhibition landscape for Chinese film in New Zealand builds a successful platform for the People’s Republic of China’s aspirations of winning the ‘hearts and minds’ of overseas Chinese, while also being characterised by clear limitations in reaching non-Chinese audiences in New Zealand.

scholarly journals Analysis of China’s Film Industry in 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Yin ◽  
Yanbin Sun
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Market Structures ◽  
Chinese Film ◽  
Window System ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Leading Position ◽  
The Matthew Effect ◽  
The Government ◽  
Film Market

Abstract The influence of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic impacted the global film market in 2020. Across the world, the Chinese film market was the first to recover and, as a result, assumed a leading position. This was because the government launched a return-to-work policy, the capital market became more rational, the integration of film companies accelerated, the film industry model trended toward centralization, and market structures underwent deep adjustments. Despite shrinking market space and declining film production during 2020, the industry produced films that remained diverse in genre and subject. Where the “Matthew effect” of accumulated advantage is much more acute in the film industry, a more diverse distribution approach has emerged in the field of new media. With box office returns approaching a ceiling, it has become more urgent to stabilize the quality of top films, enrich and enhance the competitiveness of genre films, and strengthen the theatricality of art films. It also became urgent to improve the film industry system, the product system, the market system, and the box office window system.

scholarly journals The Market for Films in Postwar Italy: Evidence for Both National and Regional Patterns of Taste

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-228
Author(s):  
JOHN SEDGWICK ◽  
PETER MISKELL ◽  
MARINA NICOLI
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Market Mechanism ◽  
Statistical Distribution ◽  
Regional Patterns ◽  
The North ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Postwar Italy ◽  
The Many ◽  
The City

The postwar market for films in Italy resembles those found in other developed capitalist economies, in which supply adjusts to demand through a set of institutional arrangements designed to maximize revenue for the film distributor. The outcome is a statistical distribution of revenues that manifests extreme levels of inequality, indicating that the hits of the day were “giants” in relation to the median film and enjoyed throughout the territory. By drawing upon film industry–sourced box-office data for five cities, Milan and Turin in the north, Naples and Bari in the south, and Rome in the center, we can observe the market mechanism operating at the city level, allowing the exploration of differences in preferences between the cities. A relative popularity index (RelPOP) is introduced to measure variation in film popularity across the five cities, and clear evidence is found to support the coexistence of national and local taste. This phenomenon is examined with respect to those films that were exceptionally popular throughout, and those with particular geographically specific audiences. The example of the many films that starred Totò, appealing in particular to southern Italian audiences, is highlighted and contrasted with the Don Camillo series of films that were set in Emilia Romagna and appealed differentially to filmgoers in the north.

scholarly journals Sino-US film coproduction: A global media primer

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 295-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiying Peng
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Consumer Demand ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Chinese Market ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Chinese Film ◽  
The World ◽  
Chinese Consumer ◽  
International Success

This China–US case study describes the negotiation between Chinese consumer demand and the growing Chinese market for cinema, the Chinese film industry’s aspiration for international success and domestic development, the Chinese government’s soft power ambitions and the largest and most successful film industry in the world – Hollywood. This article gives a brief look at the Sino-US film coproduction history, examines the root reason for the phenomena of ‘fake’ coproduction and analyses the challenges that hurdle the deep cooperation (‘real’ coproduction) process.

scholarly journals Broadkast of the film’s box office

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-37
Author(s):  
Irina G. Knyazeva ◽  
Daria M. Ivanova
Keyword(s):  
World Economy ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Investment Project ◽  
The United States ◽  
Chinese Film ◽  
Box Office ◽  
The World ◽  
Russian Film ◽  
Film Market ◽  
Market Volume

The film industry is a relatively young, but at the same time, promising and continuously growing branch of the world economy with a market volume of more than 100 billion US dollars. Russia is also an active participant in the global film industry. This is due to both the growth of film production and the growth of consumption of products of the world film industry. The possibility of obtaining high returns, which is accompanied by high risks, makes market participants, from producers to potential investors, to look for any ways to reduce the risks of investing in this industry. The film as an investment project has its own risks, profitability and other characteristics of any other investment project. That is why it is important to find a way to predict the success of this film project in the form of a forecast of its box office, as the main source of profitability. Because of the globalization process here are also importance of searching any universal tool for predicting the success of box office not only in the country of origin, but also beyond, in the territory of other countries. In this paper, the authors will select a universal tool for forecasting box office of both foreign films and films of domestic production in order to reduce investment risks of investing in the film as an investment project. According to the results of the research, the selected tool was tested in practice by creating an interface for its application in Microsoft Exel and then calculating the forecast of box office, finding the forecast error of two projects: the box office of a foreign film co-produced by the United States and Great Britain named "Three billboards on the border of Ebbing, Missouri" in the Russian film market and the film produced by Russian company "Ice" in the Russian and Chinese film markets.

A Cross-Border Life and Legacy: Zheng Lücheng

2020 ◽  
pp. 37-56
Author(s):  
Rowan Pease
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Lu Xun ◽  
Chinese Film ◽  
The North ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Southern Korea ◽  
Asian History

Zheng Lücheng (1914–1976) is famed in China as the composer of “March of the People’s Liberation Army” (C. Zhongguo renmin jiefangjun jinxingqu). Less well known, but of more interest to readers of this paper, is his “March of the [North Korean] People’s Army” (K. Inmin’gun haengjin kok), the official army march of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea until the late 1950s. Zheng was a transnational musician, crossing the shifting borders of Korea, Manchuria and China during turbulent years of war. Zheng’s is a fascinating story of revolution, migration, music, romance and diplomacy at a crux in East Asian history. In the 1930s, Zheng left southern Korea to join anti-Japanese forces in China; he studied and then worked in the Lu Xun Arts School in Yan’an—the crucible of Maoist cultural policy; he married a Han Chinese cadre; returned to North Korea to compose for the army, establish orchestras and conservatoires; was repatriated to China and almost immediately returned to Pyongyang with the Chinese forces. Finally, he returned for good to China as an army composer. A literate and wellconnected musician, he was adept at negotiating the power of nation states. Since Zheng’s death in 1976, his legacy has continued to cross borders. He is celebrated in a North Korean biographical film, The Musician Zheng Lücheng (K. Ŭmakka Chŏng Ryulsŏng; 1992) and in a Chinese film Going towards the Sun (C. Zouxiang taiyang; 2005). He is commemorated in exhibition halls, memorials and festivals in both China and in his birthplace in Kwangju, South Korea. Zheng’s story and music evoke nationalist sentiment, and at the same time are used in cultural diplomacy between these states. Drawing on interviews, archival documents and more recent materials, this examination of Zheng, who played such a central part in the creation of East Asian musical modernity in the mid-twentieth century, illustrates a fascinating interaction of nationalism, internationalism and, now, soft power.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study of English and Chinese Film Title Translation——from the Perspective of "Four Values"

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. p120
Author(s):  
Jialiang Chen
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
International Markets ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Functional Equivalence ◽  
Evaluation Standard ◽  
Chinese Film ◽  
Common Trend ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Cultural Exchanges ◽  
Chinese Films

With the deepening of cultural exchanges between China and western countries, interaction and dissemination of film works have become a common trend. A film title is the "eye" of a film; therefore, concerning the differences between English and Chinese languages, film title translation should not only convey necessary information about the films to the corresponding audience in the target language, but also arouse the interest of the audience to achieve a satisfactory box office. Based on the theories of functional equivalence and communicative translation, and especially the evaluation standard of film title translation—the realization of "four values", the thesis makes a comparative analysis of English and Chinese in film title translation and evaluates it with evidence from the successful experience of C-E (Chinese to English) and E-C (English to Chinese) film title translation from 2016 to 2019 in order to provide references for C-E film title translation under three translating techniques, thus promoting the value of title translation and the entrance of Chinese films to international markets.

When a beautiful daughter-in-law meets Africa: Translating Chinese films and television programmes for the African market

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haina Jin
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Chinese Film ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
African Film ◽  
State Administration ◽  
Cooperative Relationship ◽  
Chinese Films

There has been a long-standing cooperative relationship between the Chinese film industry and African film industries since the 1950s. In recent years, more and more Chinese film and television studios have sought to sell their products abroad, which has meant investing in translation. In order to project the image of a modern China with a rich cultural heritage, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) launched the ‘Sino-Africa Film and Television Cooperation Project’ to promote the translation and dissemination of Chinese films and television products in Africa. As a result, two models for this translation process have emerged: one government sponsored and one commercial. This article will use the translation of Chinese film and television programmes for Tanzania as a case study to analyse how each model is institutionally organized, their target audiences and approaches to distribution and the content of the resulting translations.

scholarly journals Global film market, regional problems

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 312-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Richeri
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Know How ◽  
Chinese Film ◽  
Hollywood Films ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Market Fragmentation ◽  
Film Market ◽  
Regional Problems

In the global film market, China is gaining more and more importance. The Chinese box office and film admissions are growing year after year and Chinese film and related companies are able to make business more and more abroad. On the contrary, US and European film markets are flat and the production costs of their film are growing. Both are trying to enter the Chinese film market and cooperate with Chinese film companies. The article reviews the Hollywood strategies towards China and analyses the advantages and problems that will be found following this way and the reason why China is interested to cooperate with Hollywood. But also, in that case, there are advantages and problems to analyse. The place of European film industry and market is different because Europe has a lot of problems to deal with: industry and market fragmentation, little cooperation among member states, lacking distribution of European film outside national markets and too large box office share of Hollywood films. European companies would like to improve cooperation with China, but they have few financial resources to invest in co-productions, they do not have blockbusters to push the China box office and they have no know-how to offer for gaining on the global film market. They can only offer cultural, artistic and creative competences, but is that what Chinese film industry is looking for?

scholarly journals China’s Cinema Watchdogs on the World Wide Web

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-59
Author(s):  
Lara Herring
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Chinese Cinema ◽  
Private Industry ◽  
Employment Contracts ◽  
Chinese Film ◽  
Box Office ◽  
The World ◽  
Media Channels

Online communities play an important role in the development of the Chinese film industry in several significant ways. Taking social media as its focus, this article explores three areas of influence; promoting transparency, critiquing and policing. In China, the leaking of private industry documents, such as employment contracts and memos including information about incentives put forth by the State, are shared on social media with the intention of helping to ensure the opacity and integrity of the industry. Furthermore, where State-run media channels in China are heavily censored, film critiques are made possible through less-restricted social media sites such as Douban. Finally, this paper explores the role that users of social media play in policing distributors and cinema chains who are accused of committing box office fraud when Chinese film industry personnel and cinemagoers use social media to call out malfeasance. Thus, this paper contributes to existing research interested in State intervention in the Chinese cinema industry and the consequences of that intervention.

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