Category: Investigative Reports

The Chinese mighty influence on the World Cinema According to @StatistaCharts, China is world’s Largest Film Market, overtaking North America with 47 billion yuan (7.4 billion USD) of box office revenue in 2021. Let’s discuss Chinese influence on the world cinema through its gigantic market and its economic influence! 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 Hollywood Studios are pressurized by China to indulge in censorship to suit the Chinese narrative. They thus indulge in self censorship, post release censorship and cutting out movies scenes before its China release. 𝗕𝗮𝗻 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘀 Dr Strange 2 was banned recently. The reason was a newspaper box of Dajiyuan the Chinese language EpochTimes (critical of Chinese authoritarianism) appearing in one shot of the movie. Following are some of the movies which suffered a similar fate. Recently, The Film Censorship Board of Malaysia (LPF) has banned a Hong Kong film from screening in Malaysia for allegedly glorifying violent protests and for its potential to affect Malaysia-China bilateral relations. The film, ‘May You Stay Forever Young’, depicts a 17-year-old girl’s attempt to kill herself during the massive anti-extradition protests in Hong Kong and her friends’ efforts to rescue her. 𝗕𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 Actor John Cena had to apologize to Chinese audience after calling Taiwan a country to avoid getting banned. Many other prominent artists, however, got banned in China in past decades. Show Tibet/Taiwan/Hongkong and get banned Any movie in the world cant showcase these nations as independent nations or nations under captivity. Even attending concerts for countries like Tibet will ensure a ban on the artist and all his/her movies. 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀 The 2015 sci-fi movie Pixel made it into China after removing a scene of aliens blasting a hole into the GreatWall of China. The makers put a scene where the aliens are smashing the Taj Mahal in India instead. 𝗕𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀 China also bans the broadcast of the Award Shows where an uncensored film is getting nominated/honored. Music Censorship 𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗲 influenced world cinema Many countries have objected to the release of the movies influenced by China. US Market vs the Chinese Market The growth of China in the movie world is significant. The stats show why Hollywood cant resist the Chinese temptation. The following data is from the year 2021. China finances Hollywood China finances many Hollywood movies and the number of movies it finance is on the rise. Chinese movies are also getting shelved!! Recently, a film “Hidden in the Dust”, which reflects the living conditions of the people at the bottom of northwest China, was taken off the shelves after breaking through the box office of over 100 million yuan. The reason for this has sparked heated debate. On July 8 this year, a Chinese reality film “Hidden in the Dust”, which has been withdrawn many times, was finally approved by the cultural department for screening. This small-budget film cost only about 2 million yuan, but within 60 days of its launch, it created an astonishing record of breaking the box office of 100 million yuan. However, before the film’s network key had expired, the film was removed from the theaters ahead of schedule due to reasons such as “catering to the West”, and Chinese streaming media platforms followed closely. Wang Ruiqin, former member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference of Qinghai Province, who lives in the United States, said in an interview that “Hidden in the Dust” just reflects the current situation of Northwest society. Which movie will surely get banned There is a 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗮𝗻𝘀. Just like Chinese influence on the world media and Chinese influence on the cultural narratives, the Chinese influence on the world cinema is also massive. Following are some of the common themes that gets banned by China. “Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.” Henry Louis Gates Jr Sources: Dr.Jenny Kin Jacobs compiled and curated this report jenny_kjacobs