Mainland China may be an economic force, but its soft power is still lacking
For movie buffs and those old enough to remember, Chinese cinema in the twentieth century brings to mind certain films and genres. The 60’s were characterised by Huangmeidiao (黄梅调) musicals such as The Eterne (梁山伯与祝英台) and swordfighting classics such as Come Drink with Me (大醉侠) and One-Armed Swordsman (独臂刀). The 70’s evoke memories of soppy Qiong Yao (瓊瑤) melodramas along with the rise of Chinese cinema’s biggest names, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. The Hong Kong-dominated 80’s is perhaps best represented by that most iconic of images: Chow Yuen Fatt in a trench coat in John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow (英雄本色) trilogy.
One look at that list exposes a glaring fact: These are all movies made in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and none are from Mainland China.
“Chinese cinema historically caters to the diasporic demand for cultural identity,” argues Stephen Teo, Head of the Division of Broadcast & Cinema Studies at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University. “Mainland China as the purveyor of ‘Cultural China’ is more controversial than what Hong Kong and Taiwan did, due in no small measure to the traditional function of film in China i.e. propaganda.”
Chinese cinema as a cultural tool
A quick comparison between mainland and Hong Kong/Taiwan movies produced after the Chinese Civil War illustrates the point. Whereas the mainland produced movies such as Guerilla on the Railroad (铁道游击队) which depict the Chinese Communist Party’s struggle and eventual victory over wartime invaders, studios in Hong Kong and Taiwan focused on non-political aspects of Chinese culture such as Huangmeidiao and the ideals of chivalry and justice in swordfighting flicks. Box office history has proven quite emphatically which version of “Cultural China” the Chinese diaspora prefers.
The film industry in Hong Kong and Taiwan continued to export their own brand of “Cultural China” for much of the rest of the twentieth century, paying little heed to mainland China. All that changed with China’s emergence as an economic powerhouse.
“Due to economic realities, Hong Kong has to produce films that are also attractive and appealing to the mainland Chinese market,” Teo told Perspectives@SMU on the sidelines of his recent public lecture “Chinese Cinema and the Asian Century”. “A lot of what Hong Kong produces are co-productions. Because of CEPA, the idea now is to try to integrate the Hong Kong film industry into the mainland market.”
CEPA is the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Agreement, which effectively treats films produced in Hong Kong as domestic films, and thus are exempt from China’s foreign film quota. Even so, Hong Kong film companies find themselves having to accommodate mainland tastes, which manifest themselves in co-produced movies which draw upon Chinese history and/or feature mainland actors. Examples of such films include Red Cliff (赤壁) and Confucius (孔子) which cast big-name Hong Kong actors such as Tony Leung and Chow Yuen Fatt alongside mainland actors such as Vicky Zhao Wei and Zhou Xun respectively.
The main melody
Red Cliff was a box office success both within China and the international market, perhaps reflecting the appeal of its international cast and clever marketing. This strategy has been replicated in promoting what is known as “Main melody” or 主旋律 films, albeit with limited success.
“The term in China refers to a style of film that glorifies the Chinese Communist Party,” Teo explains. “A lot of these have been produced in the past few years, such as The Founding of a Party and Founding of the Republic. However, these movies did not do that well; in fact, they were not shown beyond China.”
According to a paper by Beijing Normal University’s Institute for International Communication of Chinese Culture, overseas revenue generated by mainland Chinese films in 2012 plunged by nearly half compared to the year before. US$172.8 million worth of fees and ticket sales were generated by 75 films in 2012, a far cry from the US$329.4 million that 52 films generated in 2011.
“I think there is a major move to make Chinese movies more appealing to the international audience,” opines Teo. “The trend now is for the industry to wean itself off politics in the past decade or so. But when it comes to party commemoration or the founding anniversary, then I suppose they have to come up with this kind of productions i.e. political glorification films. And obviously a major objective of the film industry is to produce this kind of movies to satisfy the government.”
Identity crisis?
Even as the Hong Kong movie industry – and indeed, Taiwan and the minor Chinese cinema markets such as Malaysia and Singapore – evolves to realign itself to mainland China’s version of “Cultural China”, younger mainland Chinese filmmakers are constantly reinventing what that means. While the more established “Fifth Generation” directors such as Zhang Yimou move into the realm of historical legend with movies such as Hero (英雄), “Sixth Generation” leading figures such as Jia Zhangke portray modern Chinese life in all of its grim reality.
How does the Hong Kong film industry deal with the identity schizophrenia of selling to the mainland but maintaining its own identity?
“Well Hong Kong is now already integrated to the mainland Chinese market, and a lot of people are lamenting the fact that Hong Kong cinema has lost its identity, which to some extent is true,” says Teo, “but Hong Kong still produces films that cling to a special identity, if you like.”
Teo gives the example of Cold War (寒戰), a police drama starring Aaron Kwok and Tony Leung Ka-Fai. Most of the other major roles were filled by Hong Kong actors, which gave the movie a more Hong Kong-centric feel. More importantly, it underlined the fact that Hong Kong is not just a part of China.
“The movie is all about the corruption within the Hong Kong law enforcement system, with a little reference to mainland China, but presenting the Hong Kong system as being different from the Chinese system,” says Teo. “After all, the return of Hong Kong to China is predicated on the idea of ‘one country, two systems’. So it’s a play on that.”
Dr Stephen Teo was the Keynote speaker for the workshop “Producing Chinese Cinemas in the 21st Century” that was held at SMU on July 1-2, 2013
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