Chinese Blockbusters and Culture Self-Confidence. Issue 2 (2nd April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Huiyu
• Is Part Of: Javnost =. Volume 27:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 140
• Page End: 153
• Publication Date: 2020-04-02
• Subjects: rise of China -- Chinese film -- commercial blockbusters -- culture self-confidence; Sociology -- Periodicals; Social history -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1080/13183222.2020.1727272
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1318-3222

Abstract

Abstract : Along with the market-oriented development of the Chinese economy in the reform-era, the country's once highly-political revolutionary arts and cultural realm has been transformed into commercialised mass culture. Specifically, the accelerated market-oriented restructuring of the Chinese film industry since 2000 has turned China into the world's second largest film market. At the same time, it has also led to the recent emergence of domestic commercial blockbusters that both bolster official values and enjoy successful market returns. Encompassing titles such as Wolf Warrior II (2017), Operation Red Sea (2018), The Wandering Earth (2019) and My People, My Country (2019), these films, not short of spectacular Hollywood-calibre visual effects, express the culture self-confidence of a rising Chinese nation as they reflect the cultural taste of a rapidly expanding new Chinese film audience.