China and Globalization through Cinema - Case Study Example

Examining China and Globalization Through Cinema Introduction China’s filmmaking industry is an industry definition and even a study of globalization. Globalization because it involves the social aspect of bringing together diverse cultures and has become an conduit for celebration of diversity; and economically because the industry has become a significant source of revenue to the government. As such, China has become a member of the WTO (World Trade Organization), and this participation in the world market means that tradition is subject to the terms of the WTO. As pertains to China’s film industry, China is obligated to reciprocate foreign film industries by opening its markets to receive and promote the film work of foreign countries. China’s filmmaking industry has had a significant impact on China’s economy and its participation in a global community. China’s Film Industry Background China’s film industry needs to be considered in a broader spectrum than mainland China, since there is the issue of films reflective of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia, West Europe, and North America.1 Nor can it be taken for granted that language is the common factor of Chinese film.2 Therefore, in thinking about Chinese film, we have to think in terms of the diaspora and beyond the Chinese language. This means Chinese film, outside of China, that would not be subjected to Chinese censorship, but nonetheless is Chinese filmmaking. It would not be until the 1960ss, when Chinese filmmakers would be allowed greater range of expression and artistic freedom. Success in creative expression was gained by small steps, and it was only due to the fact that film began to be seen as a viable economic staple that could reduce the cost of foreign imports and could be potentially profitable as an export that censorship eased somewhat. However, the closer a film was to reality, the closer it was censored.3 “Conformity and uniformity thus characterize socialist cinema. Unlike postwar cinema, the socialist system of centralized control quota production resulted in a conspicuous lack of distinct studio styles.”4 By the late 1970s, film had proven itself as an economic staple in China, and production of films increased from an annual feature production of four films in 1973, to 24 in 1975, 39 in 1976, and 20 in 1977, and 44 in 1978.5 Still, these films carried strong nationalistic messages and themes, but nonetheless represented a broadening of creative freedom, but more especially an emerging economic market that would virtually explode during the 1980s and the 1990s. By 1980, The Beijing Film Academy was reopened and accepting students.6 The students represented the “fifth generation that would emerge during the 1980s.”7 It is between 1979 and throughout the 1980s and forward that we see globalization make its impact on Chinese filmmaking and on film as an industry. Yingiin Zhang describes the period beginning in 1979 as bringing the “PRC, Taiwan and Hong together so as to foreground the parallel development of the new wave in filmmaking in all three Chinas during the 1980s. It dramatically changed the look of Hong Kong cinema and the way in which filmmakers there negotiated their colonial history and postcolonial prospects.””8 Colonialism has actually served as the launching point for post colonial Asian film and authors. Globalization and Chinese Filmmography Bringing together the PRC, Hong Kong and Taiwan in Chinese film represents the globalization of Chinese film because although each element of those three influences – especially Hong Kong, which was a British holding until its return to mainland China after the expiration of a hundred year lease; represents very different cultural traditions that during the 1980s came together, but exposed one another to the vast social differences between them. Those social differences were exploited on film, and the film, regardless of its censorship, served to bring the traditions of the three groups together through film. Herein begins the globalization of China on a social scale, even though their pursuit of filmmaking is an economic pursuit, especially during the 1990s and into the new millennium. “In terms of film industry, mainland China witnessed the rise of a blooming film industry and film market in the early 1980s. Relieved from decades of political repression, filmmakers of three different generations seized the rare opportunity of relative freedom to launch New Chinese cinema.” 9 “An important current study of globalization and its impacts holds that the global spread of economic liberalism and the concept of human rights have eventuated in new notions of citizenship.”10 It is the export/import of film that keeps the lines of communication between the outside dissidents and the people who continue within the confines of Communism open. This is the very reason China will see Communism fail; as film bring to the three Chinas the word, culture, and opportunities from outside China, into China, then China’s people will be aware and informed of the world around them. To that extent, they will purse an exchange of sorts through filmography. This is the peril that globalization presents to the government of China; and if China is going to pursue film as an economic product, then China is going to see filmography serve to undermine the Communist philosophy. From 1979 to 1986, Chinese filmmakers did not make films of international significance.11 By the time Chinese film was making its international debut with content significant to the international community, the Chinese filmmakers were the young and the middle aged filmmakers.12 One of the milestones in Chinese filmmaking history is the work of director Xie Tieli’s Taking the Tiger Mountain by Stratagem (1970). A Beijing Film Studio production filmed in China, the work is categorized as a “ballet.” Nonetheless, it was the first work of its kind, brining together the arts of dance and acting under the direction of Xie Tieli, and signaled a new direction in Chinese filmmaking.13 The film was what was referred to in filmmaking as “model play films.”14 “It is evident in the model play films that revolutionary romanticism overrode any concern of realism, and the artists were routinely blamed if they tried to use realistic makeup, costumes, and props. More than theatrical ritual, these films intended to erect the artistic models of ultra-leftist ideology for the entire nation.”15 During the 1970s, film in China was limited to this model play format, and continued to be about “Mao worship” on the big screen.16 Filmmaking of the 1970s, political though it was, continued to be a significant period for Chinese filmmakers because they had the opportunity to exercise directorial and cinematography techniques and choices that would serve them well later. Directors like Xie Tieli, having withstood the restrictions placed on his artistic direction, was able to persevere as filmmaking emerged in the 1980s with even more liberal directing and acting choices, and greater financial support from China’s filmmaking authorities.17 The period between 1976 and 1979 were deemed significant periods in the liberalization of film and filmmaking. The 1980s, deemed an era of reform, saw new work from director Xie Tieli, and drama that focused interpersonal relationships emerged in his film Father and Son of the Family of Bao (1983). Hong lou meng (1988), was a film that still reflected the lack of budget, but was based on an adaptation of a novel by the same title. Xie Tieli paved the way for dramatic film in China, and opened the doors to heroism, collectivism, and optimism in filmmaking.18 The films that came out of China during the 1980s were films starring Jet Li, The Shaolin Temple (1982). It was one of Jet Li’s first films, and one which brought to the big screen his amazing martial arts skills and abilities. Filmed in China, the film became a cross-cultural success when it played in the United States, where people seemed to have an insatiable film appetite for martial arts films. The dialogue between Chinese filmmakers and citizens is the exercise of artistic freedom and expression, and very different from the political constraints within which the older filmmakers had been forced to work within. To that end, we should look at the body of film work that is being generated from China in recent years. Much of that work, which has proven lucrative to the mainland, is of fantasy and action hero genres. But those films stay within the realm of acceptable Communist philosophy because they tend to depict feudal period or fantastical futuristic eras that really make no political statement. The feudal films are often thematically correct in that they depict the emperor or ruler as someone who is ruthless and destructive and demonstrate how the common people suffer under him. This is the theme that we find in the film Curse of the Golden Flower19. In Curse of the Golden Flower, the ruler is a man who is ruthless, a warrior, and who has discovered that his wife, the Empress, has betrayed him with his first son (whose mother is believed to be dead). The film explores the themes of family betrayal, the traditional role of women in China. It is also daring in its exploration of unintentional incest, and makes a strong statement condemning it. These are social messages that between 1949 and the late 1970s would not have passed Chinese censors. They are messages that go beyond the “language” of the film, and by way of creative and artistic statements serve to facilitate globalization. This film, and others like serve as the connection between a sequestered people and the rest of the world. Another film, Hero, starring martial arts expert Jet Li, is brought to the audience by American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.20 Hero is, again, the story of a emperor, who has been the focus of assassins because he has been a warrior emperor, and has brought pain to the assassins and their homelands. The film carries the message of loyalty, love, and tradition. It is heavy with martial arts and special effects, as are most of the Chinese films, which is highly successful in America. America, it seems, cannot get enough of the martial arts action combined with special effects as was seen in the acclaimed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.21 Just as the Hollywood film industry recognized the financial benefit in producing not just epics, but “B” movies too – more so in the earlier days of the industry than today; so China has followed suit. Not every production to come out of China has either the power of the national filmmaking industry’s financial investment as we saw in Curse of the Golden Flower, Hero, or Crouching Tigers, Hidden Dragons; rather in some productions, such as The 13 Cold Blooded Eagles (1993), the lower budget investment in the film is easily and quickly identifiable. First, the film has tendency to look overexposed in its lighting effects, indicative that the filmmaker, Choy Fat, did not have access to the budget nor the higher technology that is seen in the “epic” productions of director Yimou Zhang. Zhang is a more famous director, who is well received in Hollywood. Choy Fat is less well known, his productions are not proven financially viable on the scale as are Zhang’s. Therefore, Choy Fat’s films do not have the big name Chinese actors, nor the national investment that would afford him the opportunity to create an “epic” film at this stage in his directorial career. During his act ion scenes, Choy Fat does a lot of overhead shots, indicative of the fact that he probably had just one or two cameras to work with on this film. Also, the choreography in the martial arts scenes are lose, and he the director would have done well to take a lesson from Hero, and keep the action scenes in tighter frame. Even so, Choy Fat does create several scenes in his action sequences when he accomplishes good directorial action; like when the hero of the film is falling down a cave shaft. The action of the character falling into the cave, hitting the rocks, and tumbling non-stop is very well shot, and actually makes you think there is more than one or two cameras used if not during the filming, during this scene. Also disappointing about The 13 Cold Blooded Eagles, is that the subtitles are poorly done, not showing the expertise of the better financed productions. A small complaint for the film viewer who loves the action of the Chinese martial arts films; and to that end you cannot say that Choy Fat does not deliver. While Yimou Zhang has said (during an interview with Tarantino) that these martial arts films do not go over as big in China as they do in America; to that end, Choy Fat’s film has an audience. This does not mean that Choy Fat does not have a future in Chinese filmmaking. Just as in early Hollywood directors rose to fame, it is highly likely that this director is merely in his directing early stages, and that with time, given China’s direction in national filmmaking, that the viewing public will see much more from this talented director. A film that stands somewhere between the “epic” of Curse of the Golden Flower, and B status of The 13 Cold Blooded Eagles, is House of Flying Daggers (2005). Another of director Yimou Zhang’s masterpieces, this film is another example of fine martial arts filmmaking and tough directorial challenges presented in that regard. Of course, Zhang, long proven for his directorial genius, once again delights the viewer with his tight shots of choreographed martial arts moves and action. There is no shortage of martial arts skill here, as each actor and actress possesses a capability and skill that lends itself to their individual performances. The cinematography and the directing really bring together the total cinematic experience here with skilled shots in difficult settings like the woods. In the many action scenes that are shot in the woods or bamboo forests – which actually serve as props in this film – is an accomplishment of aesthetics and skill in that there has to be a focus on a character or group of characters in these scenes where they’re employing the elements as tools, props, but not becoming lost in them. One of the finest demonstrations of pulling together all these elements – directing, camera work, acting, and the use of props, with, no less, the choreographed moves of the martial arts – is in the bamboo forest. This film may not have the “epic” budget, but in the bamboo forest scene when we have montage shots of assassins using the bamboo trees as catapults to attack our hero and heroine, it is martial arts filmmaking at its most challenging and best. It is not just mainland China that is making films. Hong Kong has its own filmmaking contributions and filmmaking circle of directors and actors and community. In terms of financing, overseas investments have become customary in all three Chinas, which initially supported art films, but now have ventured into commercial films as well.”22 Not only has it become routine and fashionable to “mix” stars cast in certain roles from Taiwan, Hong Kong and the mainland, but in some films – Memoirs of a Geisha – we find Chinese stars cast alongside Japanese stars. Like in Hollywood, it would not be good filmmaking sense to sacrifice the high recognition or talent an actor brings to a film, especially in the Chinese martial arts films. Acting great Jackie Chan, and director/actor John Woo both have contributed to the Hong Kong based film industry for china. John Woo has directed many American films, such as The Robinsons: Lost in Space (2004), Paycheck (2003), Mission Impossible (2000), and many more Chinese and American works. Kar Wai Wong is a director whose body of filmmaking work dates to the early 1980s, and who continues to make films today. Director Jeff Lau’s All for the Winner (1990), was a film that made a historical cash-in at the box office, earning HK41.3 million.23 Another box office success was Fight Back to School (1991), directed by Hong Kong based director Gordon Chan, which hit box office returns of HK$43.8 million.24 These box office financial successes were exceeded by Jackie Chan’s box office winner, Rumble in the Brox (1995), at HK$56.9 million in Hong Kong itself, not counting overseas earnings.25 The following table shows the financial contribution that Hong Kong films has made to China’s filmmaking industry; Table 8.1 Comparison of box-office revenues in Hong Kong, 1991-200226 Year Total films Total b/o (HK$) % of 1992 HK films HK film b/o (HK$) % of total b/o 1991 473 1,370,548,782 - 125 1,034,771,165 75 1992 503 1,551,635,638 - 215 1,239,581,506 78 1993 502 1,538,496,069 down 0.8 242 1,143,984,569 73 1994 474 1,384,072,992 down 10 181 960,278,990 69 1995 461 1,339,029,587 down 13 150 841,560,145 62 1996 430 1,222,300,348 down 21 116 656,574,397 47 1997 410 1,155,842,640 down 25 84 545,875,933 45 1998 453 1,071,720,257 down 30 89 423,907,097 39 1999 423 857,322,610 down 44 100 339,065,080 39 2000 568 952,940,585 down 38 133 346,107,474 36 2001 - 1,040,000,000 down 33 133 - - 2002 331 862,600,000 down 44 92 347,500,000 40 Sources: Shackleton 2003; Z. Qi 2002:84. Just as filmmaking in China has made the careers of directors, it has, too, created Chinese superstars who are well received not only in China, but in America and other foreign nations. Chow Yun Fat (Emperor) and Gong Li (Empress) in Curse of the Golden Flower are superstars in the realm of Chinese acting. Chow Yun Fat, an actor with a long list of appearances in Chinese films, recently cross-cultured over to play a role in the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007), as Captain Sao Feng. Also, the post production film The Children of Huang Shi (2007). Gong Li is an actress of high visibility in Chinese film, and has a cross-cultural list of film appearances in American films such as Miami Vice (2006) and Hannibal Rising (2007), and Columbia Pictures’ American made film Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), which received three Oscars. The importance of actors’ cross-cultural acting work and experiences is really important to globalization, because it affords other nations, other cultures, insight into one another at an aesthetic and artistic level. These films give rise to curiosities about one another that are healthy, friendly, and encourage cross-cultural dialogues. This cross-culture of acting demonstrates not just an appreciation of Chinese actors and film beyond China, but also the impact of globalization in that actors like Chow Yun Fat have become highly recognizable in venues other than in China, and are highly sought for their acting talents and abilities. Having discussed filmmaking and globalization on the social or community level, let us look at Chinese filmmaking from an economic global perspective. Some experts suggest that it will not be long before China’s film industry is competing on a one on one basis with Hollywood.27 “China’s accession into the World Trade Organization requires opening additional screens to films from the United States.”28 This means that China’s population’s exposure to the west is going to significantly increase, and even if the censors are successful in censoring politically sensitive material, there remains the language of film that cannot be censored because it derives from a creative source that inspires the mind to challenge, think, and explore. Nor is China showing signs of being concerned about the political impact the viewing of American films might have on the population. In fact, Chinese business and political leaders are very receptive of the American filmmakers, albeit somewhat cautious at this point, but unmistakably welcoming.29 The economic impact of doing business with Hollywood presents the Chinese challenges to their structural systems as pertain to “production, distribution, and exhibition of Chinese film.”30 The official political response to filmmaking in China tends to be one of muscle tightening. As previously mentioned, the late 70s and the 1980s and 1990s, but now in the new millennia we tend to see a tightening of that muscle again. Certainly not on the scale that it tightened in the 1950s; but a tightening of the relaxed muscle as compared to the mid 1990s perhaps. “The situation today can be characterized as a desperate crisis: admission sales have declined from 18,730 million in 1988, to 121 million in 1998, and the number of films made has dropped from 158 in 1988 to 88 in 1997.”31 These numbers need the framework of personal income, “which rose rapidly throughout the decade in question,” around them for the impact of their significance to be understood as the political muscle tightening.32 However Hollywood is an aggressive business animal and it wants its fair share of the Chinese market.33 To that end, as we consider the fact that the past two decades of pursuing a course of pseudo capitalism, we have to wonder whether or not China is prepared for the money-making machine that is Hollywood, which is eager to exploit Chinese film watchers. This is a question to which the answer will only reveal itself to us over time, but it is nonetheless one of the questions that economists who are closely watching the Hollywood-China relationship in that industry with curiosity. From a commercialization perspective, China’s film industry has experienced the most significant change only since 1993. China’s film industry has “faced a formidable pair of constraints, caught between the growing market pressures economic reform program and the Communist Party’s enduring political demands.”34 This is the relaxation and tightening of the muscle mentioned earlier, and once that muscle relaxes and forward progress is made, it is difficult to regress to a state of existence that has become technologically and economically outdated. This is paradox that globalization has created for China, and there is no better way of understanding that paradox than considering China’s film industry. During the 1990s China shifted to a market economy, but that economy was limited consumerism and consumer consumption, and did not apply to the political infrastructure.35 “The non-state sector became the main source of state revenue and formed a safety net for the reform of often troubled state owned enterprise.”36 It is, however, understandable that the reform was late reaching the film industry, but entrepreneurs recognized the opportunities and grasped them as they arose in the filmmaking industry.37 That is why we have not seen the muscle tighten economically, but the problem remains that the economics and the social aspects of liberalization and reform are inextricably intertwined. The drop in movie ticket sales is indicative not of a faltering economy, but of the choices that have been made available to the Chinese by way of technology.38 “The sluggishness in the film industry meant that it encountered fierce competition from more dynamic sectors of the entertainment business.”39 Television has expanded its role in the life of urban Chinese populations.40 Television in the rural areas of China has only become a household pastime in the past decade. One of the other impacts on ticket sales was China’s flourishing black market DVD industry. That activity has been the source of ongoing contention and negotiation between the United States and China since the advent of CDs and DVDs and laser technology.41 In the United States, Hollywood and the music industry have been very aggressive in protecting copyrighted materials, and indeed they should be aggressive given the financial losses that the music industry experienced in the short-lived life of file sharing services like Napster that allowed for free trade of music files.42 In 1995, China entered into an agreement with the United States to police piracy and afford copyright and licensure protection to intellectual properties.43 By the time China agreed to the protections, bootlegging music and films had become an industry in China, with factories operating solely to produce and distribute copyrighted material, and there was little anyone could do about it.44 However, in 1995 China claimed to take action against the illegal manufacture of CDs and DVDs; although there is really no way to be sure that the government does not actually profit from the illegal manufacture and sale of bootlegged materials. In 1995, American industry leaders said that they lost more than 2 billion dollars in sales as a result of China’s piracy, and alleged that China was actually exporting the bootlegged materials.45 While these are but a few of the problems that have surfaced in doing business with China, the fact remains that China has become a partner with the world community in free trade. China is fast becoming an economic force in the world market, and as such, a member of the world community. But, just as China has ripped off the intellectual property of the west, China is experiencing its own dilemmas over intellectual property theft.46 Also, the censors still work in China. “. . . filmmakers told us that in 80 percent of movies changes are insisted upon by the censors, sometimes of a minor puritanical nature, sometimes the classic insistence on a more upbeat ending,” especially if that ending is altering a political perspective. 47 Conclusion In conclusion, there is no doubt but what has been demonstrated here is that the film industry has had a significant impact on China’s globalization, and that it can be expected to continue to have that impact on China. As the opportunities for exchange between China and Hollywood become more accessible and available, globalization of China on a social scale with its economic globalization is inevitable, and there is no doubt but that we will witness the fall of Communism in that country. Economic globalization cannot be separated from social globalization, and as China adjusts itself to economic globalization, it will be forced, by the world community, to adjust itself to social globalization as well. The world community will cause China, by way of economic reciprocity and access to the world markets, to comply with human rights and personal freedoms for its citizens. These are not conditions that will be forced upon China. China took the step into globalization on its own accord in order to realign a failing state economic system and structure. Having done that, China cannot now turn back the clock of time to a time where the state has control of a failing economic policy and is responsible for businesses and enterprises that do not work to support the economy or its population. The film industry in China has always flourished, even when the economy was failing.48 Technology and economic improvements in the country have in fact impacted the film industry in recent years, but that can easily be reversed with trade agreements that allow not just American films, but other foreign films into the country. The Chinese people, like people of other nations, are anxious to experience cultural exchange, even if it is facilitated via the big screen. China recognized the need to change a failing economic system, they will, too, recognize the need to change a failing social system. The film industry is but a front runner among the industries that will soon be partnering with the Chinese in business ventures that will bring both sides expanded profits. It is, too, an opportunity for the artists to have their work viewed by a larger audience. It will result in cross-cultural artistic collaborations, and it will lead to the need for China’s population to have more freedom in their lives so that they can follow the course of consumerism where it leads them. This is globalization, and the film industry has been an integral part of China’s economic and social globalization indoctrination. References Jihong, W., & Kraus, R. (2002). Hollywood and China as Adversaries and Allies. Pacific Affairs, 75(3), 419+. Retrieved April 26, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002508468 Lee, Ang, Director, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Motion Picture (Sony Pictures, China, 2000). Napster Lives; but Once Free File-Sharing Service Now Charges a Fee. (2003, October 29). The Washington Times, p. C09. Retrieved April 26, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002020804 Schiffrin, A. (1988, February 6). The New China - No Turning Back. The Nation, 246, 158+. Retrieved April 26, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002135925 Semsel, G. S., Hong, X., & Jianping, H. (Eds.). (1990). Chinese Film Theory: A Guide to the New Era. New York: Praeger Publishers. Retrieved April 26, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=26190688 Solinger, D. J. (2001). Globalization and the Paradox of Participation: The Chinese Case. Global Governance, 7(2), 173. Retrieved April 26, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001029554 Tarantino, Quentin, Director, Hero, Motion Picture (Miramax, China, 2006). Woellert, L. (1996, June 18). China Agrees to Police Theft of CDs, Software: Sanctions off; Pirate Factories Shut. The Washington Times, p. 1. Retrieved April 26, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5000549095 Yimou, Zhang, Director, Curse of the Golden Flower, Motion-Picture (Sony Pictures, China, 2006). Zhang, Y. (2004). Chinese National Cinema. New York: Routledge. Retrieved April 26, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108243465 Read More