Global Hollywood and China's filmed entertainment industry

This dissertation explores the dynamic interplay between Hollywood and China's filmed entertainment industries, from the institutional, policy, and cultural perspectives, within the context of cultural globalization. While the study begins with an outline of the China-Hollywood interface before 1949, its focus is on the post-cold-war, contemporary period since 1994, when Hollywood re-entered China importing its blockbuster movies on a revenue-sharing basis. This project draws on the interdisciplinary approaches of political economy, cultural/cultural policy studies, and audience studies. It relies heavily on primary sources, such as government documents, press releases, public statements, and first-hand information obtained through personal interviews. It examines the major cinematic (i.e. distribution, exhibition, co-production and marketing) practices, and government/industry policies of the two sides in their uneasy embrace since the mid-1990s, and the broad cultural implications of Hollywood's steadily expanding penetrations in China. The investigation of the China-Hollywood interplay is largely situated in, and revolves around China's accession to the Worle Trade Organization, and entails Sino-US bilateral trade and Intellectual Property Rights negotiations, cultural diplomacy, and the role of the Motion Picture Association of America and the two governments.; This study complements existing scholarship on Chinese cinema which is dominated by socio-textual analysis. It also offers a case study on how national cinema intersects with the Hollywood-centered transnational media formation and on its connotations for national cultural identity and world cultural diversity. By recognizing the counter film flow and the resiliency of indigenous media culture on the part of China that exemplify the intricate global-local dialectic, this dissertation demonstrates a more complex mechanism at work for global cultural interactions and interpenetrations than the unidirectional simplicity conveyed by the notion of "cultural imperialism". Nevertheless, it argues that the increasing elements of commercialism that Hollywood injects into the Chinese national cinema, and the stylistic unification it brings to the world's film production, marketing and consumption are where Hollywood's "homogenizing" threat to national cultural identity and world cultural diversity ultimately lies. It also recommends that the Chinese government adopt policies that redress the art-commerce balance, to enhance China's distinct art cinema, and build a wholesome and sustainable national film industry.