Pre-Owned Directory of World Cinema: Directory of World Cinema: China 2 (Paperback)

Since publication of the first volume of Directory of World Cinema: China (2012), the Chinese film industry has intensified its efforts to make inroads in the American market. Studio executives reflects nostalgically on crossover hits such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), In the Mood for Love (2000), Hero (2002), Infernal Affairs (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Kung Fu Hustle (2004), and strive to emulate their success. Yet since 2011, the overseas revenue for Chinese movies has dwindled. Homegrown blockbusters such as Taiwan’s You Are the Apple of My Eye (2011) and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (2013), Hong Kong’s Love in the Buff (2012) and Vulgaria (2012), and Mainland China’s Lost in Thailand (2012) and So Young (2013) fortify domestic markets, but have proven too “local” for successful North American export (Frater 2013). Arguably, China does not need to chase the US market, for the Mainland’s market growth surges year on year. Indeed, while the China market mushrooms, the North American market has shrunk. Moreover, China’s annual production output remains healthy, and the daily expansion of screens in second- or third-tier cities attracts audiences whose tastes favor domestic films over foreign imports. As veteran Hong Kong producer Raymond Chow puts it, “China is a very big place…it is the ideal market” (Chow 2013: A4). In sum, Chinese executives would be justified in prioritizing pan-Asian markets as their major revenue source.

Yet China covets the North American marketplace (just as Hollywood covets the Mainland box office). The US remains the world’s largest film market, hence potentially highly lucrative; and, as Patrick Frater notes, some Chinese companies seek “the prestige and brand enhancement that comes from being a Hollywood player” (Frater 2013). The 2012 acquisition of US theatre chain AMC and visual effects house Digital Domain by Chinese firms (Wanda Group and Beijing Galloping Horse) testifies to the global ambitions of China’s powerhouse film industry. Further, several recent Chinese movies thematize a desire for success and fulfillment in the United States. Domestic megahit Finding Mr. Right (2013) mounts a fairytale vision of Chinese fulfillment in America, and interpolates allusions to Hollywood romance fantasies Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and An Affair to Remember (1957). Hollywood, in turn, has an extensive history of representing China – and the Chinese in America – on US movie screens. What follows is a sketch of this controversial history. Even Hollywood’s apparently “positive” depictions of Chineseness typically yield ambivalent results; but I conclude by surmising that China’s recent economic rise heralds a shift in the cinematic representation of Chineseness – in both Hollywood and Chinese movies