Cinema of China
The cinema of China is the filmmaking and film industry of mainland China, one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan. China is the home of the largest movie and drama production complex and film studios in the world, the Oriental Movie Metropolis and Hengdian World Studios. In 2012 the country became the second-largest market in the world by box office receipts behind only the United States. In 2016, the gross box office in China was . China has also become a major hub of business for Hollywood studios.
History
Beginnings
were introduced to China in 1896. They were introduced through foreign film exhibitors in treaty ports like Shanghai and Hong Kong.China was one of the earliest countries to be exposed to the medium of film, due to Louis Lumière sending his cameraman to Shanghai a year after inventing cinematography. The first recorded screening of a motion picture in China took place in Shanghai on 11 August 1896 as an "act" on a variety bill. The first Chinese film, a recording of the Peking opera, Dingjun Mountain, was made in November 1905 in Beijing. For the next decade the production companies were mainly foreign-owned, and the domestic film industry was centered on Shanghai, a thriving entrepot and the largest city in the Far East.
Pre-revolutionary period
The first domestically produced Chinese films to achieve financial success came out in 1921, most notably Yan Ruisheng, leading to increased investment in the film industry. In the early 1920s, China saw the establishment of several new film studios, such as Zhang Shichuan's Mingxing Film Company, with most popular films being at least partially based around established western genres. Following the May Thirtieth Movement, Chinese films began moving towards depictions of Chinese culture. This trend was manifested through the rise of "traditional costume films," including Romance of the Western Chamber, which dramatized classical stories, especially romances, and of the Wuxia genre. This tendency towards a more "Chinese" Cinema, as opposed to the earlier focus on westernization, was described as the campaign to "revive national cinema" by figures like Lo Ming-yau.From the start of the 1930s to the outbreak in earnest of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese cinema grew divided along political lines, primarily due to the ongoing Chinese Civil War and internal debates surrounding the invasion of Manchuria. After the Chinese government declared a ban on films related to the war with Japan, which were deemed "provocative," the "Left-Wing Film Movement," which had been founded by Communist-aligned literary circles, began to grow. While opposition to Japanese imperialism, as opposed to communist ideology, acted as the catalyst for the Left-Wing movement, most films of the movement emphasized class struggle over anti-imperialism. Supporters of leftist films included many established figures in the industry, such as Zheng Zhengqiu. Left-Wing film criticism promoted realism and didacticism, with the value of film seen as tied to its ability to reflect reality and spur political action. Consequentially, most Left-Wing movement films were heavily narrative-focused, and edited in the continuity style. Films associated with the Left-Wing movement include The Goddess, Song of the Fishermen, Crossroads, and Spring Silkworms.
Acting in opposition to the leftist movement was the "soft film" movement propagated by Liu Na-ou. Soft film was influenced by modernism, promoting an emphasis on camerawork and editing over the more narrative-focused films of the left, with the Kino-Eye technique of Dziga Vertov frequently referenced. Critics of soft film argued that prioritizing aesthetics over ideology was wrong in a moment of political crisis.
Main melody dramas
During the late 20th century, a period when socialist dramas were beginning to lose viewership, the Chinese government began to involve itself deeper into the world of popular culture and cinema by creating the official genre of the "main melody", inspired by Hollywood's strides in musical dramas. In 1987, the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television issued a statement encouraging the making of movies which emphasizes the main melody to "invigorate national spirit and national pride". The expression main melody refers to the musical term leitmotif, which translates to the 'theme of our times', which scholars suggest is representative of China's socio-political climate and cultural context of popular cinema. These main melody films, still produced regularly in modern times, try to emulate the commercial mainstream by the use of Hollywood-style music and special effects. A significant feature of these films is the incorporation of a "red song", which is a song written as propaganda to support the People's Republic of China. By revolving the film around the motif of a red song, the film is able to gain traction at the box office as songs are generally thought to be more accessible than a film. Theoretically, once the red song dominates the charts, it will stir interest in the film that which it accompanies.Main melody dramas are often subsidized by the state and have free access to government and military personnel. The Chinese government spends between "one and two million RMBs" annually to support the production of films in the main melody genre. August First Film Studio, the film and TV production arm of the People's Liberation Army, is a studio that produces main melody cinema. Main melody films, which often depict past military engagements or are biopics of first-generation CCP leaders, have won several Best Picture prizes at the Golden Rooster Awards. Some of the more famous main melody dramas include the ten-hour epic Decisive Engagement, directed by Cai Jiawei, Yang Guangyuan and Wei Lian; The Opium War, directed by Xie Jin; and The Founding of a Republic, directed by Han Sanping and Fifth Generation director Huang Jianxin. The Founding of an Army was commissioned by the government to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army, and is the third instalment in The Founding of a Republic series. The film featured many young Chinese pop singers that are already well-established in the industry, including Li Yifeng, Liu Haoran, and Lay Zhang, so as to further the film's reputation as a main melody drama.
The sixth generation
The post-1990 era has been labeled the "return of the amateur filmmaker" as state censorship policies after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests produced an edgy underground film movement loosely referred to as the Sixth Generation. Owing to the lack of state funding and backing, these films were shot quickly and cheaply, using materials like 16 mm film and digital video and mostly non-professional actors and actresses, producing a documentary feel, often with long takes, hand-held cameras, and ambient sound; more akin to Italian neorealism and cinéma vérité than the often lush, far more considered productions of the Fifth Generation. Unlike the Fifth Generation, the Sixth Generation brings a more individualistic, anti-romantic life-view and pays far closer attention to contemporary urban life, especially as affected by disorientation, rebellion and dissatisfaction with China's contemporary social marketing economic tensions and comprehensive cultural background. Many were made with an extremely low budget. The title and subjects of many of these films reflect the Sixth Generation's concerns. The Sixth Generation takes an interest in marginalized individuals and the less represented fringes of society. For example, Zhang Yuan's hand-held Beijing Bastards focuses on youth punk subculture, featuring artists like Cui Jian, Dou Wei and He Yong frowned upon by many state authorities, while Jia Zhangke's debut film Xiao Wu concerns a provincial pickpocket. While many Fifth Generation filmmakers have become darlings of mainstream Chinese culture, Sixth Generation filmmakers have often experienced harsh treatment by the state's censorship and regulatory system, despite their success at international film festivals and arthouse markets.As the Sixth Generation gained international exposure, many subsequent movies were joint ventures and projects with international backers, but remained quite resolutely low-key and low budget. Jia's Platform was funded in part by Takeshi Kitano's production house, while his Still Life was shot on HD video. Still Life was a surprise addition and Golden Lion winner of the 2006 Venice International Film Festival. Still Life, which concerns provincial workers around the Three Gorges region, sharply contrasts with the works of Fifth Generation Chinese directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige who were at the time producing House of Flying Daggers and The Promise. It featured no star of international renown and was acted mostly by non-professionals.
Many Sixth Generation films have highlighted the negative attributes of China's entry into the modern capitalist market. Li Yang's Blind Shaft for example, is an account of two murderous con-men in the unregulated and notoriously dangerous mining industry of northern China.. While Jia Zhangke's The World emphasizes the emptiness of globalization in the backdrop of an internationally themed amusement park.
Some of the more prolific Sixth Generation directors to have emerged are Wang Xiaoshuai, Zhang Yuan, Jia Zhangke, He Jianjun and Lou Ye. One director of their generation who does not share most of the concerns of the Sixth Generation is Lu Chuan.