China's film industry: crisis or transition?

Abstract

After three long decades of devastating political movements that followed on from the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Communist Party began devoting itself to economic reconstruction from the late 1970s. The stormy economic reforms that started in 1979, achieved tremendous successes in the rural areas and soon swept to urban centres, One government priority was now to open China up to the outside world. A related aim has been to reform China's economy through market-based policies and mechanisems. Along with these economic achivements, the reforms have also affected other aspects of society, such as customary life-styles, beliefs, values and traditions. The Chinese film industry which, since the founding of the People's Republic of China has operated as a mass medium serving China's state socialism, has been one of the sectors undergoing change as a economic reform. The Communist Party used the film industry as a tool for political education and propaganda; accordingly it created and financed centralized structures to make, distribute and screen films. Under the impact of market forces that bureaucratic framework has by now largely broken down, but a commercially viable system of production and distribution has yet to effectively evolve to take its place. In market-oriented economies, film-making is largely a business, usually a heavily­ capitalized business that of necessity constantly seeks to identify, stimulate and respond to consumer demands. It requires shrewd commercial judgment and often involves an element of risk-taking. Only in recent years, however, have the Chinese government and the film industry paid attention to the commercial nature of the film industry. The Chinese film industry and its governmental regulators are still trying to come to terms with film-making as a demand-driven commercial enterprise. "China's film industry is in a period of transition," commented Wu Mengchen, president of the China Film Import and Export Corporation in late 1995. "One of the main characteristics is that it is changing from a welfare-state mode to a money-making mode. Since the mid-1980s, when the Chinese government and film industry first began emphasizing the profit element in film-making, both critics and the media have repeatedly expressed the view that a crisis(weiji) was developing that threatened the contemporary Chinese film industry. The question this paper attempts to address is whether or not there is a crisis, or whether the Chinese film industry is simply experiencing a changing economic and cultural pattern. There is no doubt that, in the post-Mao period of economic reform, serious problems of financing and administrative disruption have occurred in many sectors of society. But perhaps the film industry, like other industries in China, is simply undergoing a prolonged but salutary experience of being exposed to market forces and can be left eventually to achieve whatever level of functioning and profitability it proves capable of The problems, however, involve more than economics and finance. As a propaganda tool of the Communist Party, Chinese films previously never achieved success as a serious art form; art was always subordinate to film's heavy-handed political message. But, in the last few decades, a number of Chinese films have startled critics and captivated audiences around the world. Some have been submitted to the Academy Awards (Oscars), Cannes, Berlin and other international film juries from which they have received unprecedented acclaim and attention. Chinese cinema has now repeatedly shown that it has world-class potential as a producer of quality films, but political and bureaucratic controls still hamper innovation and distort filmmakers' choice of content and treatment. To realise its potential, the Chinese film industry needs to free itself of many government controls and many financial uncertainties and problems that persist in the wake of the collapse of the old industry framework. Such problems include forcing studios to produce shoddy 'entertainment films' for quick domestic returns, with the result that potentially vast Chinese audiences are not being attracted back to the cinema, or are being turned off cinema in favour of alternative forms of entertainment, or are boycotting Chinese­ made movies in favour of Hollywood and Hong Kong imports. At stake is more than a profitable domestic industry and prestigious international market. The Chinese film industry has a unique potential to project Chinese identity and talents abroad and make them accessible to the world. In addition, a vigorous and independent film industry could be uniquely valuable in helping the Chinese people to understand and come to terms with past traumas, and to progressively redefine themselves in this period of rapid economic and social change. The alternative to a financially viable indigenous film industry seems, on present indications, to be a low-output industry producing generally low-grade films, dependent on foreign investors to finance its quality productions, and increasingly vulnerable to domination not only by foreign imports but also by foreign cultural models. In exploring these questions, this paper aims at examining the status quo of the Chinese film industry. First, this paper will summarize arguments by Chinese scholars and critics which support the notion that contemporary Chinese cinema is experiencing a crisis. Essays dealing with this topic published in various Chinese periodicals such as Dianying yishu (Cinema Art), Dianying pingjie (Film Review), Dangdai dianying (Contemporary Cinema), Liaowang (Vision) and so on, from 1986 to 1996, state the major reasons for this perceived crisis as follows: the rapid decrease in box-office receipts; the closure of many film theatres; the tenuous position of major fllm studios and the harsh reality of internationally-acclaimed Chinese films which are box-office failures in China itself Second, I will give an analytical account of the Chinese film industry, from the perspectives of history, politics and culture. I will discuss how the old system of the Chinese film industry is out of step with Deng's reforms, and how new problems have resulted from film industry reform itself. Certainly, there are some sensitive issues that have not been aired in the Chinese media. Chris Berry, for example, argues that even though financial problems exist, Chinese new wave cinema is not only attacked for its commercial failure; also involved is state political policy.2 Paul G. Pickowicz holds that the post-Mao state retreated from the film industry, but "they never really gave up control Miklos Haraszti argues that artists, under modern socialist regimes, were placed in a comfortable 'velvet prison', with better housing, higher incomes, foreign travel, and access to restricted publication and films. As a result they became part of the political elite, although the process caused some artists to believe that they gained independence or autonomy from the state. Consequently I will discuss Chinese film-making and the 'freedoms' it has enjoyed in the economic reform era of 1979-1996. As 80 per cent of the Chinese population live in rural areas, the discussion in this chapter will focus on film distribution and screening in the countryside and how this huge market has diminished. The paper will go on to examine how the Chinese film industry has faced unprecedented competition not only from alternative entertainment, such as television or video, but also from pirated films and videos. Third, this paper attempts to analyze whether so-called entertainment cinema (yule yingpian) and co-produced film ventures (hepai yingpian) 5 which were adapted for Chinese cultural, political and economic realities have helped ameliorate the situation. The guiding idea behind the creation of Chinese entertainment cinema has been inspired by Hollywood. This paper will briefly analyze the Hollywood film industry in comparison with the Chinese industry from a cultural and commercial perspective, as well as in terms of its economic underpinning. My discussion also includes Hong Kong, as it has been one of the few places able to challenge the impact of Hollywood movies. The conclusion looks at contradictions between China's deep-rooted socialist bureaucracy and the new 'socialist market economy' as well as differences between traditional cultural norms and foreign influence. According to Deng Xiaoping's political program, China is experiencing an unprecedented period of economic reconstruction that has seen the introduction of 'a socialist market economy' in place of a centrally planned economy. The Chinese cinema, as one of many Chinese industries, is facing a multitude of unresolved difficulties which have emerged as a result of the new economic policies. There are no clear-cut answers as to whether this model of reform will work for China.