Section outline

  • This week will explore Chinese cinema in the transnational context. It will discuss transregional Sinophone film co-productions within East Asia, as well as China’s collaboration with Hollywood. Special attention will be paid to how transnational cinema gives rise to Chinese stars on the global stage, how PRC’s film censorship affects the Hollywood, and PRC’s ambition to strengthen its soft power through cinema.

    Screening: Hero, dir. Zhang Yimou, 2004

    Link to the film: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/014C658B?bcast=121349197


    Reading:

    Berry, C. (2010), ‘What is transnational cinema? Thinking from the Chinese situation’, Transnational Cinemas 1: 2, pp. 111–127, doi: 10.1386/trac.1.2.111_1

    Weiying Peng & Michael Keane (2019) China’s soft power conundrum, film coproduction, and visions of shared prosperity, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 25:7, 904-916,

    DOI: 10.1080/10286632.2019.1634062

    Additional readings:

    Berry, Chris. “Transnational Chinese Cinema Studies”, in The Chinese Cinema Book, edited by Song Hwee Lim and Julian Ward, BFI, 2017.

    Yuxing Zhou (2015) Pursuing soft power through cinema: censorship and double standards in mainland China, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, 9:3, 239-252, DOI:

    10.1080/17508061.2015.1049878