Transnational Chinese Films

The Chinese film market is by now the second largest film market after Hollywood and its figures are rapidly growing. However, from the 1950s until the mid-1990s the Chinese film industry was a state industry that was not generating much profit. Which were the main phases of transition from a state industry to one of the major players in the global business? Moreover, Chinese films – from the early screenings at the Shanghai teahouses to recent globally successful titles – have raised questions of national and cultural identity. How have films articulated the narrative of China across the 20th and 21st centuries? How have Chinese films circulated nationally, in the Asian region and beyond? Through the lens of a set of films, the course will examine Chinese film and the film industry at different moments in the development of cinema in China, Asia and beyond. Without following a strict historiography/chronological perspective, the different topics will be approached from a multidisciplinary perspective so as to include discussion of transnational Chinese cinema, early cosmopolitanism and contemporary global film circulation.