China's encounter with global Hollywood from 1994 to 2008----Cultural policy, film modernity, and transnational partnerships

This dissertation critically and historically reviews China's encounter with global Hollywood from 1994 to 2008, analyzes the extensive cultural debate and resistance that occurred in China during this period, and evaluates changing cultural policy and counter-hegemony strategy of the Chinese government toward global Hollywood and American culture. During this period China began adopting an internationally conventional practice of revenue-sharing to import about ten foreign "megaproductions" per year (the number rose to 20 after China joined the WTO); most of these were American movies. These foreign megaproductions raised unprecedented interest among the Chinese audience, and brought about both vehement criticism and unreserved praise. A long-lasting debate on the validity of the government's policy to import Hollywood blockbusters to China and the meaning of these movies was also launched. Therefore, this historical period becomes the best period to observe how Hollywood films and American popular culture were received, resisted and discussed in China.;This dissertation hopes to examine the dynamics behind China's reception process, and probe into the complicated global-local interplay. Through China's case, it aims to investigate the relationship among global capital, the state, and the domestic industry, and to inquiry about the role of global Hollywood in China's cultural modernization project. The dissertation also attempts to analyze China's cultural dilemma and ambivalent perspective on globalization.;The dissertation intends to respond to the current debate in academic circles regarding cultural imperialism and cultural globalization. I argue that the conceptualization of the Hollywood and U.S. global influence should transcend the bi-polar way of analysis, but to focus on how peoples of other nations make sense of the U.S. culture and make use of it to fill their own national agenda and for their own modernization gains.;Based on the whole encounter process between Hollywood and mainland China, I hold that for China, or perhaps other similar developing countries, Hollywood and transnational capital is a double-edged sword that could possibly have both positive and negative impact on national modernization projects. I also contend that China's film modernity is largely unfulfilled, based on both industrial infrastructure--tangible/material dimension, and film texts--intangible/non-material dimension.