Chinese cinema in the age of advertisement: The filmmaker as a cultural broker

China Quarterly

Volumn , Issue 183, 2005, Pages 549-564

  Braester, Yomi ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADVERTISING; CULTURE; FILM; MARKET;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST;

EID: 30944470015     PISSN: 03057410     EISSN: 14682648     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0305741005000354     Document Type: Article

References (30)

1. On Li Geng, see Zheng Xin'an, Jingtou li de shangpin: Zhongguo youxiu guanggao daoyan quan jilu (Merchandize in the Lens: A Full Record of Masterful Chinese Advertisement Directors) (Beijing: Shijie zhishi chubanshe, 2003), pp. 70-90.
2. "Zhou Xingchi + Feng Xiaogang = daxia + dian xiaoer?!" ("Stephen Chow plus Feng Xiaogang equal martial arts master and inn attendant?!"), http://ent.enorth.com.cn/system/2002/03/11/000286869.shtml (visited 17 October 2004).
3. Yomi Braester, "Tracing the city's scars: Demolition and the documentary impulse in New Urban Cinema," in Zhen Zhang (ed.), The Urban Generation (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006).
4. "He wei 'dawan,' 'dakuan'" ("What are 'dawan' and 'dakuan'" ), Zhongguo gonghui caihui (Trade Union Financial Affairs of China), No. 1 (1994), n.p.
5. Wang Jing, "'Culture' as leisure and 'culture' as capital: The state question and Chinese popular culture," Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 69-70.
6. For the term "cultural broker," referring to a person who mediates between groups of differing cultural backgrounds, see for example Clifford Geertz, "The Javanese Kijai: The changing role of a cultural broker," Comparative Study of Society and History, Vol. 2 (1960), pp. 228-249.
7. Jonathan Rosenbaum, Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Limit What Movies We Can See (Chicago: A Capella, 2000).
8. Some filmmakers who have access to industry records doubt, off the record, the commercial success of some of Feng Xiaogang's films; in other cases, such as Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers, the numbers tell little, since no other films were allowed to be screened during the first weeks of the film's theatrical release.
9. Fang Zhenming, "Zhongguo haishi yao kaifang: Fang SOHO Zhongguo dongshizhang Pan Shiyi" ("China still has to open up: An interview with Pan Shiyi, general manager of SOHO China"), Wenhua, September 2004.
10. http://www.cosred.com/cosred/index.php (visited 10 October 2004).
11. My thanks to Sasha Welland for drawing my attention to the connection between Wu's film and the real estate project.
12. Tang Yuankai, "Movie makers at crossroad," http://www.bjreview.com.cn/ 200435/Nation-200435(B).htm (visited 7 January 2005);
13. Geoffrey Macnab, "I'm not interested in politics," http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,,1374950,00.html [The Guardian, 17 December 2004] (visited 7 January 2005).
14. Mi Jiashan, "Discussing the troubleshooters," Chinese Education and Society, Vol. 31, No 1 (Fall 1998), pp. 8-14.
15. For the same reason, the original Chinese title, Dawan'r de zangli (Big Shot's Funeral), was shortened to Dawan'r, since it was deemed inauspicious to mention a funeral on New Year's Eve. According to Feng, he omitted reference to death after being hospitalized in the middle of the shoot: Feng Xiaogang, Wo ba qingchun xiangei ni (I Gave You My Youth) (Wuhan: Changjiang wenyi chubanshe, 2003), p. 184.
16. My thanks Lihong Tang for clarifying Feng Xiaogang's use of Stephen Chow's New Year film formula.
17. "Galaxy of stars come out for film awards in China," http://english.people.com.cn/200210/23/print20021023_105536.html (visited 20 December 2004).
18. Shujen Wang, "Big Shot's Funeral: China, Sony, and the WTO," Asian Cinema, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2003), pp. 145-154.
19. The combined campaign is described in detail in a forthcoming essay by Jing Wang.
20. Feng Xiaogang, personal interview with the author (Beijing, 19 July 2002).
21. Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (New York: Routledge, 1994), pp. 85-92.
22. Feng Xiaogang, personal interview.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Feng Xiaogang, I Gave You My Youth, p. 186.
26. As Ying Zhu notes, PRC cinema in the 1990s has become not only more commercial but also more local, relying on the domestic market: Ying Zhu, "From New Wave to Post New Wave: Chinese fifth generation cinematic transition, Asian Culture Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 2 (summer 2000), pp. 13-47.
27. "Beijing gets tough on relics protection," http://www.china.org.cn/ english/2004/Jul/102624.htm (visited 7 January 2005).
28. "Outdoor ads banned in Beijing's special areas," http://www.beijingportal.com.cn/7838/2004/09/14/207275512.htm [Beijing Portal, 14 September 2004] (visited 7 January 2005);
29. Liu Li, "Beijing to continue ban on ads in Tian'anmen," http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-04/13/content_322739.htm (visited 7 January 2005).
30. Feng Xiaogang, personal interview.