Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

China’s film industry has had a number of major
shakeups since the mid-1990s that have substantially
changed its infrastructure. By the early 1990s the studio
system was already disintegrating, but it was hit even
harder when state funds were cut sharply in 1996.
Replacing the studio system are a number of independent
production companies that are owned privately, either
jointly with foreign investors or collectively. Also having
an impact on the industry was the breaking up of the
China Film Group’s monopoly on distribution in 2003.
In its place is Hua Xia, made up of Shanghai Film Group
and provincial studios, China Film Group, and SARFT.
A third factor that transformed Chinese cinema was the
reopening in January 1995 of China’s film market to
Hollywood after a lapse of nearly half a century.
Initially, ten ‘‘excellent’’ foreign films were to be
imported yearly, but as the United States pressed for a
wider opening up of the market, holding China’s anticipated
entry into the World Trade Organization as a
bargaining chip, the number was increased to fifty and
is expected to rise further.
Other significant changes came about soon after
1995. In production, restrictions on foreign investment
have been considerably loosened, the result being that the
number of international coproductions has grown at an
accelerated pace. An overhaul of the exhibition infrastructure
was implemented by SARFT after 2002, with
goals of upgrading the sorry state of rundown theaters
and remedying the numerous prohibitive restrictions
exhibitors face. China pushed forward with multiplexes
and digitalization, bypassing more conventional means of
exhibition. Because of the enormous profits to be realized,
US companies, particularly Warner Bros., became
prominently involved in the Chinese exhibition circuit.
Censorship is still strictly enforced, although modifications
of the censoring process (especially of script
approval) have been made and a ratings system considered.
Previously banned films can now be shown, and
filmmakers have been encouraged to participate in international
festivals. Government authorities and film personnel
have tried to contend with the industry’s problems
by encouraging foreign producers to use China as a place
to make movies, and by upgrading technologies, changing
promotional strategies, and advancing the profession
through the creation of more film schools and festivals.
China
These film reforms resuscitated an industry that was
in dire straits after 1995, with the result that the number
of films made has increased to more than two hundred,
some attracting international attention and success at the
box offices. But many problems remain, including loss of
audiences to other media and other activities, the high
prices of tickets, and rampant pirating. As China’s film
industry panders to Hollywood and commercialization,
the biggest concerns are what kinds of films will be made
and what about them will be Chinese.
SEE ALSO Hong Kong; National Cinema
FURTHER READING
Berry, Chris, ed. Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes. London:
British Film Institute, 2003.
Chow, Rey. Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography,
and Contemporary Chinese Cinema. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1995.
Hu Jubin. Projecting a Nation: Chinese Cinema Before 1949.
Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2003.
Kong, Haili, and John A. Lent, eds. Centennial Reflections on
Cinematic China. White Plains, NY: EastBridge, 2005.
Kuoshu, Harry H. Celluloid China: Cinematic Encounters with
Culture and Society. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press,
2002.
Li Suyuan, and Hu Jubin. Chinese Silent Film History. Beijing:
China Film Press, 1996.
Marion, Donald J. The Chinese Filmography: The 2485 Feature
Films Produced by Studios in the People’s Republic of China
from 1949 through 1995. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1997.
Ni Zhen. Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy: The Genesis of
China’s Fifth Generation. Durham, NC: Duke University
Press, 2002.
Semsel, George S., ed. Chinese Film: The State of the Art in the
People’s Republic. New York: Praeger, 1987.
Tam Kwok-kan, and Wimal Dissanayake. New Chinese Cinema.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Zhang Yingjin, ed. Cinema and Urban Culture in Shanghai,
1922–1943. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.
———, ed. Encyclopedia of Chinese Film. New York: Routledge,
1998.
Zhu Ying. Chinese Cinema During the Era of Reform: The
Ingenuity of the System. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.
John A. Lent
Xu Ying
SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM 277