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Playing to the World's Biggest Audience: The Globalization of Chinese Film and TV
 
 
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Playing to the World's Biggest Audience: The Globalization of Chinese Film and TV [Paperback]

Michael Curtin (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Book Description

0520251342 978-0520251342 August 2, 2007 1
In this provocative analysis of screen industries in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, Michael Curtin delineates the globalizing pressures and opportunities that since the 1980s have dramatically transformed the terrain of Chinese film and television, including the end of the cold war, the rise of the World Trade Organization, the escalation of democracy movements, and the emergence of an East Asian youth culture. Reaching beyond national frameworks, Curtin examines the prospect of a global Chinese audience that will include more viewers than in the United States and Europe combined. He draws on in-depth interviews with a diverse array of media executives plus a wealth of historical material to argue that this vast and increasingly wealthy market is likely to shake the very foundations of Hollywood's century-long hegemony.
Playing to the World's Biggest Audience profiles the leading Chinese commercial studios and telecasters, and delves into the operations of Western conglomerates extending their reach into Asia. Advancing a dynamic and integrative theory of media capital, this innovative book explains the histories and strategies of screen enterprises that aim to become central players in the Global China market and offers an alternative perspective to recent debates about cultural globalization.

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Playing to the World's Biggest Audience: The Globalization of Chinese Film and TV + Communication in China: Political Economy, Power, and Conflict (State & Society East Asia) + Brand New China: Advertising, Media, and Commercial Culture
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Rises impressively to the challenge of examining film and television throughout greater China in all its complexity."--Times Literary Supplement (Tls)

"[A] compelling new study . . . . with entertaining anecdotes about government censors, Canto-pop stars, dodgy dot-com billionaires, and triad stand-over men sprinkled throughout . . . . [An] important work indeed-ambitious and interdisciplinary in scope, and a great read to boot."--Senses of Cinema

"Anyone wanting a comprehensive survey of recent and emerging developments in the television systems of Chinese-speaking territories . . . should read this book at the earliest opportunity."--Jrnl of Communication

"Based on solid historical material and extensive interviews, this book provides readers with a panoramic analysis of the Chinese film and TV industry. . . [It features] a rare combination of market and cultural analysis."--Chinese Journal of Communication

"An important work that successfully integrates film and television studies across the Diaspora reach of the 'global China market'."--The China Journal

From the Inside Flap

"Professor Curtin has woven solid research and interesting tales into a compelling analysis of cultural geography that will make an important contribution to the literature of international communication."--Chin-Chuan Lee, City University of Hong Kong

"In this timely and fascinating examination of the screen industries of 'Global China', Michael Curtin draws on in-depth interviews with key industry players to provide, for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of the extraordinary rise of film and television industries across Chinese-speaking Asia. In so doing he provides a compelling account of how these media industries represent a powerful alternative path of media globalization to that of the West. This will be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics and complexities of globalized media production. But more than this, his deployment of the concept of 'media capital' and his stress on the particularities of culture, creativity and location offer important political-economic and institutional underpinnings for a more rigorous approach to understanding wider patterns of cultural globalization."--John Tomlinson, author of Globalization and Culture

"This is one of the best books I've encountered. Curtin's scholarship is superior and his approach is highly innovative. Playing to World's Largest Audience is a pioneering work in understanding globalization and Chinese media. It will have major impact in numerous fields."--Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh, author of Taiwan Film Directors and East Asian Screen Industries

Product Details

  • Paperback: 353 pages
  • Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (August 2, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0520251342
  • ISBN-13: 978-0520251342
  • Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #494,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars rising global presense of Chinese films, December 28, 2007
This review is from: Playing to the World's Biggest Audience: The Globalization of Chinese Film and TV (Paperback)
I write this from Los Angeles, which has the Hollywood film industry. It has dominated world cinema since its inception. Yet in this book, Curtin suggests that the expansion of Chinese film and TV might one day make it a serious global cultural competitor.

He analyses the current geographic distribution of Chinese output. Until recently, it was mostly Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. While mainland China had been making movies for decades, the hitherto insular nature of the Chinese economy relegated its film output to mostly China itself. But the burgeoning rise of the overall economy and its opening to global trade has also expanded the scope of Chinese films. This is perhaps the most interesting part of the book. Much of the future projected growth emanates from China.

The quality of the films is also described as rapidly improving. Due to larger budgets, which in turn is a functioning of greater real spending power by Chinese audiences. It has meant that the cheesy, low budget kung fu and romance films are increasingly sidelined.

The discussions about Singapore and Taiwan are interesting, certainly. But those are largely saturated (and small) markets.

The only missing feature of the book is the minimal discussion about animation. The technology for this is now largely available to Chinese studios. While the latest animation techniques are still dominated by American studios, there might be a trend of diminishing returns. Thus, there might be good prospects for a global Chinese animation industry. Akin perhaps to Japanese anime.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
purple storm, creative migration, idol dramas, media hub, topflight talent, sociocultural variation, local movies, terrestrial stations, driver films, independent studios, video piracy
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Hong Kong, Golden Harvest, Media Asia, Hollywood Takes Charge, Warner Bros, Warner Village, Shaw Brothers, Run Run Shaw, Reterritorializing Star, Southeast Asia, Strange Bedfellows, United States, Local Audiences, Global Satellites, Cinema City, Pan-Chinese Studio System, Capitalist Paternalism, Problem of Content, Hyperproduction Erodes Overseas Circulation, Cross-Strait Production, News Corporation, Panregional Efficiencies, China Star, The Promise of Broadband, Wellington Fung
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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