Beijing keeps its film industry on a tight leash. Blockbusters like Aftershock are fine—if they toe the party’s airbrushed line.
With a star system in place, multiplexes springing up all over the country and domestically-made blockbusters on the screens, you’d be forgiven for thinking China's contemporary film industry is an unambiguously commercial affair. But like so much else here, the hand of the state casts a shadow over the neon glare of conspicuous consumption.
Yet China's Communist Party finds itself in a bind. Although it still views cinema as an ideological tool and maintains a tight leash on local productions, it also wants the domestic film industry to develop into a global commercial player.
So how can filmmakers navigate the apparently contradictory pressures of commercial success and politics, especially when the ideological position they’re expected to reflect is far from clear? One good guide could be in China’s most recent blockbuster—a homegrown movie that smashed box office records.
In financing, release strategy and content, the tear-jerking family melodrama Aftershock offers a potential guide for how a movie can be popular and politically ‘correct’ at the same time. Directed by the mainland's most popular director, Feng Xiaogang, Aftershock traces the repercussions of the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake, which killed at least 242,000 people in northern China.
The movie opened simultaneously on thousands of screens on July 22 and in less than three weeks had smashed all box office records for a domestically-made movie, with takings of RMB 532 million (US $ 78.3 million). The Tangshan City government stumped up for half the movie’s costs, while IMAX Corp. demonstrated the United States’ growing interest in the Chinese market as the other major investor.
And which movie did Aftershocksnatch the domestic box office record from? Another state-funded blockbuster, Founding of a Republic, which became the biggest domestically-produced hit in Chinese history when it was released just before the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic in September 2009. Produced by the state-owned China Film Group, the historical epic traces the final years of the Civil War that ended with the triumph of Communist forces over the Guomindang-led republican government. The film took around RMB 420 million (US $61.8 million) on the mainland.
On the surface, such figures imply a healthy domestic industry. But public popularity is only part of the reason for their success—local authorities also help to ensure healthy takings through massive levels of protectionism.
To make sure major local productions don’t have to compete directly with Hollywood, only 20 foreign titles are allowed to be released in mainland China each year under a revenue-sharing deal with state-owned distributors. Alternatively, films can be released outside this quota if they are sold to the distributors on a flat fee basis.
Either way, the arrangement guarantees only a handful of foreign titles make it to Chinese screens annually. Meanwhile, state-owned distributors have full control over their release, meaning popular Hollywood films are kept out of cinemas when key domestic works open, as well as during prime holiday periods.
Photo Credit: Walter Lim
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Sacramento
Tanner Boyle, there is no Chinese Michael Moore because China is doing a great job of creating jobs as attested to all the Westerners who cry China is stealing their jobs and also China is not involved in a war that was started based on lies and false evidence.
Peter
@Sacramento This is an completely irrational form of argumentation… you have got to be a leftist. It’s a great technique though. I’ll grant you that. It’s hard to argue with people when they throw you off balance with unrelated sentimental argumentation that doesn’t really relate to your argument. It also helps if what they are saying is plainly wrong. So typical.
Wangchuk
The propaganda films from China today are different than the ones produced in the 1950s & 1960s. In the earlier films the political propaganda was very overt & obvious. Landlords, KMT, Japanese, & American capitalists were all depicted as evil & corrupt. Peasants, workers & communists were all depicted as saintly & victorious. Mao was depicted almost like a demigod or messiah who saved China from the Japanese & the KMT & his extreme policies which killed millions of Chinese were ignored. Nowadays the propaganda is more subtle & more nuanced b/c they know modern Chinese audiences will ignore the over propaganda but might still be fooled by the subtle propaganda that mixes in truth w/ lies.
But it’s still there. The CCP needs to maintain a whitewashed version of history in order to retain its legitimacy to rule. If the Chinese people knew the full truth of the crimes the CCP & Mao committed against the Chinese people, and still do today, the people would revolt.
By the way, I’m not in any way defending Chiang Kai-shek & the KMT which was a corrupt & abusive govt & Chiang was definitely a dictator. He ruled Taiwan just as bad as he had ruled China. But if the KMT had won the Chinese civil war & Mao had lost, I think China would be genuine democracy today. Taiwan was ruled by the KMT & although they did commit atrocities in Taiwan, eventually the govt reformed & now Taiwan enjoys democracy & far more rights than PRC citizens.
The CCP’s problem is it opposes all political reform. They attack anyone who seeks to change the current system or advocates democracy for China & rule of law. They’ll allow a certain amount of personal freedom & economic freedom but they won’t tolerate any challenge to CCP’s monopoly of power & have jailed hundreds of Chinese people for merely calling for change & reform. Thus, the CCP continues making propaganda films that tell a false history of the CCP, Mao & China in order to try & convince the people that w/o the CCP there would be no new China.
Vic Williams
Hi,
> The CCP’s problem is it opposes all political reform
I think the Confucian pattern is quite like the Communist pattern, and these days we also have a factory do-it-all-the-same pattern. If we go back a 100 years we might see the same Confucian pattern maintaining itself. The Communist and factory patterns only overlay strength onto a basic cultural pattern. If what I am writing makes sense then it’s not a “problem” and instead is a cultural signature.
tanner boyle
Please let us know who the Chinese Michael Moore is. I look forward to watching his or her movies in the theatre soon.
Sacramento
Indigo, I agree that both can be judged but what I ‘ve continually have read on Aftershock by Western reporters is that it’s propaganda as usual and they’re upset by it. So I don’t think they look at their “propaganda” as bad as China’s. But the fact is freedom of speech in movies is not really the case here since we all know Chinese are exposed to pirated copies that Hollywood itself will agree China does nothing to stop it. So if it’s about free speech then they should be happy that Chinese are watching pirated versions of their movies. They’re not. Why? Because free speech is actually a cover. This is about money and nothing else. They only care about Chinese paying to watch their movies and has nothing to do with the right for Chinese to watch them because they do through pirated copies. Plus I don’t see a difference whether the propaganda id government or private. It’s propaganda! Westerners are nothing the hero and will sacrifice themselves for others that they portray in their movies. And they never portray their ugly history truthfully in movies. And they always throw in a fictional Westerner as the good guy when they do portray their ugly history.
indigo
Sacramento, I think it’s possible to judge both the US and China at the same time. What’s interesting, too, is that reconstruction after the Tangshan earthquake was a key strategy of legitimization for the new Hua-Deng regime after the end of the Gang of Four. So, ideologically Tangshan is a pretty durable topic.
Tex Long
“Toe” the line, not “tow” it. From early prize-fighting rules – a fighter who was knocked down had a certain amount of time (eventually, ten seconds) to get up and put his toe on a line drawn in the dirt by the referee.
Sacramento
David,
What do you call piracy of movies in China? Now all of the sudden we have to follow stereotypes of Communist control because it fits with the theme of this article. In China Western movies pop-up on DVD before they are even release into Western theaters. So are you going to tell me the Chinese aren’t exposed to movies the government doesn’t allow in theaters. In fact the average Chinese is propbably more exposed to the movies on pirated DVDs you claim are censored by the government than the ones allowed into theaters. The Chinese probably know more about Americans than Americans know about the Chinese. That’s just sad for a people who supposedly have all this freedom they don’t even bother using. Or just plain arrogance.
Austin
That is exactly what I was going to ask about…
bert
Yes, they know a lot about ‘Hollywood’ America. If that is true then who is more ignorant about who?