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The Socialist Film System

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The Formation of Chinese Art Cinema

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Abstract

This chapter describes the history and reforms of the Chinese Socialist film system, which conditioned the development of Chinese art cinema in the Reform Era. Based on central-planning and largely dispensed with a free film market, the Socialist film system was a stalwart component of Socialist mass culture. Due to the double cultural and economic roles played by cinema, the reform of the Chinese film industry took a more tortuous course than many other industrial sectors. The reform started tentatively in the 1980s, broke through in the 1990s, and finally went full blown in the new millennium. The transitional period of the 1990s effectively facilitated the rise of the second art wave and helped to cultivate its alternative character.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Zhang Jian, “‘Zai yan’an wenyi zuotanhui shang de jianghua’ fabiao 75 zhounian zuotanhui zhaokai” [Forum on the 75th Anniversary of the ‘Talk at the Yan’an Forum’ Held], People’s Daily, May 23, 2017, 12.

  2. 2.

    Bonnie S. McDougall and Mao Zedong, Mao Zedong’s “Talks at the Yan’an Conference on Literature and Art”: A Translation of the 1943 Text with Commentary (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1980), 75.

  3. 3.

    Ibid.

  4. 4.

    Ibid., 14.

  5. 5.

    Ibid., 65.

  6. 6.

    Ibid., 71.

  7. 7.

    Ibid., 73.

  8. 8.

    Ibid., 80.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., 69.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., 73.

  11. 11.

    Ibid.

  12. 12.

    Zhang Xianmin, Kanbujian de yingxiang [Invisible Images] (Shanghai: Shanghai Sanlian shudian, 2005), 10.

  13. 13.

    Gina Marchetti, “Action-Adventure as Ideology,” in Cultural Politics in Contemporary America, ed. Ian H. Angus and Sut Jhally (New York: Routledge, 1989), 185.

  14. 14.

    Paul Clark, The Chinese Cultural Revolution: A History (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008). Xiaobing Tang, Visual Culture in Contemporary China: Paradigms and Shifts (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015). Zhuoyi Wang, Revolutionary Cycles in Chinese Cinema, 1951–1979 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

  15. 15.

    Tang, Visual Culture in Contemporary China: Paradigms and Shifts: 32.

  16. 16.

    Ibid.

  17. 17.

    Shen Yun, Zhongguo dianying chanyeshi [A History of the Chinese Film Industry] (Beijing: Zhongguo dianying chubanshe, 2006), 136–37.

  18. 18.

    The 16 national-level film studios were the Beijing Film Studio, Changchun Film Studio, Shanghai Film Studio, Zhujiang Film Studio, Xi’an Film Studio, August 1st Film Studio, Emei Film Studio, Xiaoxiang Film Studio, Guangxi Film Studio, China Children’s Film Studio, the BFA Youth Film Studio, Tianshan Film Studio, Inner Mongolia Film Studio, Fujian Film Studio, Yunnan Film Studio, and Shenzhen Film Studio.

  19. 19.

    Ni Zhen, Gaige yu zhongguo dianying [Reforms and Chinese Cinema] (Beijing: Zhongguo dianying chubanshe 1994), 77.

  20. 20.

    It was established in 1951 as the China Film Management Corporation, renamed the China Film Distribution and Exhibition Corporation in 1958, and subsequently became the China Film Corporation in 1971. In 1999, it merged with seven other film institutions to form the China Film Group Corporation (CFGC), the biggest state-owned film group in China today.

  21. 21.

    Ni, Gaige yu zhongguo dianying [Reforms and Chinese Cinema]: 13.

  22. 22.

    This term’s translation is borrowed from Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh and Darrell Williams Davis, “Re-Nationalizing China’s Film Industry: Case Study on the China Film Group and Film Marketization” Journal of Chinese Cinemas 2, no. 1 (2008): 39.

  23. 23.

    Ni, Gaige yu zhongguo dianying [Reforms and Chinese Cinema]: 40.

  24. 24.

    Ji Hong, Xinzhongguo dianying shiye jianshe sishinian (1949–1989) [The Forty Years’ New China Film Industry Development (1949–1989)] (Internal Distribution), 156, cited in Shen, Zhongguo dianying chanyeshi [A History of the Chinese Film Industry], 195.

  25. 25.

    Xia Yan, “Zai xinzhongguo sanshiwu zhounian dianying huigu xueshu taolunhui shang de jianghua” [Talk at the Film Study Forum of the 35th Anniversary of New China], in Xia Yan dianying wenji [Xia Yan Film Essay Collection] Vol 2 (Beijing: Zhongguo dianying chubanshe, 2000), 182.

  26. 26.

    Shen, Zhongguo dianying chanyeshi [A History of the Chinese Film Industry]: 179. For details about the concomitant relaxation prior to Mao’s criticism, see 175–78.

  27. 27.

    Ibid., 192.

  28. 28.

    Ibid., 194.

  29. 29.

    Ibid.

  30. 30.

    David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 1.

  31. 31.

    Ni, Gaige yu zhongguo dianying [Reforms and Chinese Cinema]: 48.

  32. 32.

    The change was mandated by an official document, entitled “the Communist Central Government’s Decision about the Economic Institutional Reform.” See Shen Yun, Zhongguo dianying chanye shi [A History of Chinese Film Industry] (Beijing: Zhongguo dianying chubanshe, 2005), 211.

  33. 33.

    Document No. 1588.

  34. 34.

    Ni, Gaige yu zhongguo dianying [Reforms and Chinese Cinema]: 46.

  35. 35.

    Ibid., 48.

  36. 36.

    Ibid., 50. The statistics for box office revenue had yet to become an important industry standard in the early 1990s, thus the number was unavailable.

  37. 37.

    Ni, Gaige yu zhongguo dianying [Reforms and Chinese Cinema]: 54.

  38. 38.

    See Zhongguo dianying nianjian 2000 [China Film Yearbook 2000] (Beijing: Zhongguo dianying chubanshe, 2001), 26. The document confirms that the domestic films took less than one third of total box office revenue.

  39. 39.

    Zhongguo dianying nianjian 1996 [China Film Yearbook 1996] (Beijing: Zhongguo dianying chubanshe, 1997), 23.

  40. 40.

    Ni, Gaige yu zhongguo dianying [Reforms and Chinese Cinema]: 82.

  41. 41.

    Shen, Zhongguo dianying chanyeshi [A History of the Chinese Film Industry]: 224, 225.

  42. 42.

    Ni, Gaige yu zhongguo dianying [Reforms and Chinese Cinema]: 78.

  43. 43.

    Yin Hong and Ling Yan, Xin zhongguo dianying shi, 1949–2000 [A History of New China’s Cinema, 1949–2000] (Changsha: Hunan meishu chuban she, 2002), 153 and 199.

  44. 44.

    The SARFT’s Ninth Five-Year plan followed the national Five-Year plan model. The Chinese central government has been implementing Five-Year plans to project economic development since 1953.

  45. 45.

    The government’s funding originates from the following sources: (1) 5% of the national exhibition revenue, (2) 1.5% of the total national television commercial revenue, (3) 30 million RMB/year from CCTV Film Channel, and (4) the propaganda fund from the central and local governments at various levels. See Song Weicai, Zhongguo dianying chanye fazhan yanjiu [On Chinese Film Industrial Development] (dissertation 2002), 72.

  46. 46.

    See the full text of “Film Administration Regulations” and its English translation at http://chinaentertainmentlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/2001_SC_No.342-Film-Admin-Regs.pdf, Ying Ke Law Firm, accessed December 10, 2017.

  47. 47.

    Xue Yunzhe, “How to Predict the Box Office Revenue of 2017,” Shanghai zhengjuan bao, March 3, 2017, http://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2017-03-13/doc-ifychavf2522492.shtml, accessed December 10, 2017.

  48. 48.

    Bai Ying and Shi Jingnan, “2017 nian zhongguo dianying piaofang 559 yiyuan; tongbi zengzhang 13%” [Chinese Film Box Office Revenue Totaled 559 Hundred Million Yuan; A 13% Increase Compared to Last Year], Xinhua Net, December 31, 2017, www.xinhuanet.com/2017-12/31/C_1122192404.htm, accessed March 1, 2018.

  49. 49.

    Zhongguo dianying nianjian 2001 [China Film Yearbook 2001] (Beijing: Zhongguo dianying chubanshe, 2001), 2.

  50. 50.

    Ibid.

  51. 51.

    Industry Research Center of Chinese Film Professional Association, 2009 Zhongguo dianying chanye yanjiu baogao [2009 Research Report on Chinese Film Industry] (Beijing: Zhongguo dianying chubanshe, 2009), 7.

  52. 52.

    Yin Hong, “2012 dianying chanye beiwanglu” [A Memo of Chinese Film Industry in 2012], Film Art no. 2 (2013): 9.

  53. 53.

    Yin Hong, “2016 dianying changye beiwanglu” [A Memo of Chinese Film Industry in 2016], Film Art no. 2 (2017): 36.

  54. 54.

    Yin Hong, “2005 dianying changye beiwanglu” [A Memo of Chinese Film Industry in 2005], Film Art no. 2 (2006): 8, 11.

  55. 55.

    Yin Hong, “2007 dianying changye beiwanglu” [A Memo of Chinese Film Industry in 2007], Film Art no. 2 (2008): 16.

  56. 56.

    The other Chinese private company Orange Sky Media Group was listed on the Hong Kong Exchange Market in 2008 after merging with publically traded Hong Kong company Golden Harvest.

  57. 57.

    He Tianjiao, “zhongying shangshi shouri gujia zhang 44%” [China Film Price Went up 44% on First Trading Day], Diyi caijing, August 9, 2017, http://www.yicai.com/news/5059548.html, accessed December 10, 2017.

  58. 58.

    Yin Hong, “2013 zhongguo dianying chanye beiwanglu” [A Memo of Chinese Film Industry in 2013], Film Art no. 2 (2014): 7.

  59. 59.

    Yin, “2016 zhongguo dianying chanye beiwanglu” [A Memo of Chinese Film Industry in 2016], 36.

  60. 60.

    Tang Rong, “Sanshinian zhongguo dianying tizhi gaige licheng huigu (xia): quanmian kaifang shiqi de zhongguo dianyingye (1999–2008)” [A Review of the Thirty-Years of Institutional Reform of Chinese Film (Part 2): The Chinese Film Industry in the All-Round Open Era (1999–2008)], China Film Weekly, October 16, 2008.

  61. 61.

    Yin, “2016 zhongguo dianying chanye beiwanglu” [A Memo of Chinese Film Industry in 2016], 40.

  62. 62.

    Ibid., 34.

  63. 63.

    Wang, Revolutionary Cycles in Chinese Cinema, 1951–1979.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures Lafayette College, Easton, PA, USA

    Li Yang

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Yang, L. (2018). The Socialist Film System. In: The Formation of Chinese Art Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97211-4_2

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