136 CINEMA, CHINA and always placing their families before themselves, and only marriage and moth erhood gives them substance and makes them worthy of respect. The changes relating to women as depicted in Hinchi films are merely cosmetic and continue to wield their image as largely decorative and secondary Sindhu Sara Thomas See also Lavant Dance and Film, India Further Reading Gehiawat, Agay 2010 Reframing Bollywood Theones of Popular Hindi Cinema. New Delhi Lal, Vinary and Ashis Nands 2007 Fingerprinting Popular Culture. The Mythic and the iconic Sage Publicanos India in Indian Cinema New Delht Odord University Press India Saart, And 2011 Indian Cinema The Faces Behind the Masks Oxford, UK: Oxford Univer- sity Press. Somanya, Bharwana 2012 Mother Maden Mistress Women in Hindi Cinema, 1950-2010 New York HarperCollins CINEMA, CHINA The rapid rise of Chinese cinema on the world stage in recent decades has attracted restructuring initiated by the Chinese government in 2001, China's film industry a great deal of attention. Thanks to the process of globalization and industrial has witnessed fundamental transformation and impressive development in the 21st century Viewed from a global perspective, the Chinese film industry has undoubt. edly become a force to be reckoned with in the international film market. Statistics frem 2006 suggest that China had become the world's second-largest film mar. ket, which was supported by the significant number of domestic productions and remarkable box-office gross. Next only to the United States, China has surpassed other countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, India, and Australia, which traditionally represented important film markets. As far as film production is concerned, not only blockbusters have thrived but also the humanistic concern and art-house aesthetics, credited to leading filmmak- ers of the Chinese Fifth Generation of filmmakers whose films have been popular both domestically and internationally in the past two decades, have continued in the new generations of filmmakers. For instance, Jia Zhangke's A Touch of Sin (2013) and Diao Yinan's Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014) have both won top honors at international film festivals such as in Cannes and Berlin. Although facing huge challenges down road, the Chinese film industry has certainly played an important role in the economic and cultural lives of people not only in China but also the whole world. the One way to gauge the spectacular growth of the Chinese film industry is to look at the data before turning to further discussion. As the second-largest film market in the world, China's box-office receipts in 2014 reached 29.6 billion Chinese yuan (or about USS4.76 billion), up 36.15 percent from the previous year, and they CINEMA, CHINA made up 13 percent of the global box-office gross total. In that same year, a total of 388 films were released, with 66 of them earning, over 10 million Chinese yuan (US$1.61 million) at the box office. Overall, the box-office receipts of domestic films accounted for more than 54 percent of the total gross, which stands at around 16.1 billion Chinese yuan (US$2.59 bilhon). The box-office record of 198 billion yuan (US$31 million) by a single film was established by Transformers 4 in 2014 and was then broken by Fast and Furious 7, which has earned over 2 billion yuan (US$32 million) at the box office in 2015. These numbers will be more illumi- native of the rapid growth of the Chinese film industry in the last 10 years when compared with data collected a decade ago. In 2002 the total box-office gross in China was 90 million yuan (US$14 million), which made up only 2 percent of the global box-office total. Back then, the average box-office take was only 2.5 million yuan (US$40,000). Indeed, the contrast could not be more dramatic. The transformative change in the Chinese film industry must be understood in the context of globalization and changes in government policy. After joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, China accelerated its integration into the international economic system. Recognizing the importance of film to both cultural and economic lives, the Chinese government issued a series of new poli- cies in 2001 that were specifically aimed at promoting the domestic film industry. The change in policy freed Chinese film from its previous function as a propaganda tool for the government and allowed filmmakers to focus on churning out enter- taining and commercial products. With the reorientation in official policy, the Chinese film industry's transfor- mation began in earnest in 2002. The market-oriented economy stimulated film production with its consumer-driven demand and competitive mechanisms. At the same time, the introduction of global cinema, especially Hollywood films, also Wong Kar-Wai Hong Kong's "poet of time," film director Wong Kar-Wai (1958-), first worked in TV and then as a screenwriter. He regularly collaborates with cinematographer Christopher Doyle and designer William Chang and is known for his improvisatory approach. His films often display a highly stylized use of set design and color and a distinct elliptical approach to editing. They frequently explore themes of loneliness, loss, memory, and displacement; critics have repeatedly traced these concerns back to anxieties over Hong Kong's identity prior to the British colony's 1997 handover to China. The pop culture-infused Chungking Express (1994) and Fallen Angels (1995) were Wong's first cult-classic hits overseas, but (anti) love stories Happy Together (1997) and in the Mood for Love (2000) cemented his reputation on the global art-film circuit, winning accolades at Cannes. Most recently, he returned to the wuxio (martial arts) genre with The Grandmaster (2013). Luke Robinson 137

136 CINEMA, CHINA and always placing their families before themselves, and only marriage and moth erhood gives them substance and makes them worthy of respect. The changes relating to women as depicted in Hinchi films are merely cosmetic and continue to wield their image as largely decorative and secondary Sindhu Sara Thomas See also Lavant Dance and Film, India Further Reading Gehiawat, Agay 2010 Reframing Bollywood Theones of Popular Hindi Cinema. New Delhi Lal, Vinary and Ashis Nands 2007 Fingerprinting Popular Culture. The Mythic and the iconic Sage Publicanos India in Indian Cinema New Delht Odord University Press India Saart, And 2011 Indian Cinema The Faces Behind the Masks Oxford, UK: Oxford Univer- sity Press. Somanya, Bharwana 2012 Mother Maden Mistress Women in Hindi Cinema, 1950-2010 New York HarperCollins CINEMA, CHINA The rapid rise of Chinese cinema on the world stage in recent decades has attracted restructuring initiated by the Chinese government in 2001, China's film industry a great deal of attention. Thanks to the process of globalization and industrial has witnessed fundamental transformation and impressive development in the 21st century Viewed from a global perspective, the Chinese film industry has undoubt. edly become a force to be reckoned with in the international film market. Statistics frem 2006 suggest that China had become the world's second-largest film mar. ket, which was supported by the significant number of domestic productions and remarkable box-office gross. Next only to the United States, China has surpassed other countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, India, and Australia, which traditionally represented important film markets. As far as film production is concerned, not only blockbusters have thrived but also the humanistic concern and art-house aesthetics, credited to leading filmmak- ers of the Chinese Fifth Generation of filmmakers whose films have been popular both domestically and internationally in the past two decades, have continued in the new generations of filmmakers. For instance, Jia Zhangke's A Touch of Sin (2013) and Diao Yinan's Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014) have both won top honors at international film festivals such as in Cannes and Berlin. Although facing huge challenges down road, the Chinese film industry has certainly played an important role in the economic and cultural lives of people not only in China but also the whole world. the One way to gauge the spectacular growth of the Chinese film industry is to look at the data before turning to further discussion. As the second-largest film market in the world, China's box-office receipts in 2014 reached 29.6 billion Chinese yuan (or about USS4.76 billion), up 36.15 percent from the previous year, and they CINEMA, CHINA made up 13 percent of the global box-office gross total. In that same year, a total of 388 films were released, with 66 of them earning, over 10 million Chinese yuan (US$1.61 million) at the box office. Overall, the box-office receipts of domestic films accounted for more than 54 percent of the total gross, which stands at around 16.1 billion Chinese yuan (US$2.59 bilhon). The box-office record of 198 billion yuan (US$31 million) by a single film was established by Transformers 4 in 2014 and was then broken by Fast and Furious 7, which has earned over 2 billion yuan (US$32 million) at the box office in 2015. These numbers will be more illumi- native of the rapid growth of the Chinese film industry in the last 10 years when compared with data collected a decade ago. In 2002 the total box-office gross in China was 90 million yuan (US$14 million), which made up only 2 percent of the global box-office total. Back then, the average box-office take was only 2.5 million yuan (US$40,000). Indeed, the contrast could not be more dramatic. The transformative change in the Chinese film industry must be understood in the context of globalization and changes in government policy. After joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, China accelerated its integration into the international economic system. Recognizing the importance of film to both cultural and economic lives, the Chinese government issued a series of new poli- cies in 2001 that were specifically aimed at promoting the domestic film industry. The change in policy freed Chinese film from its previous function as a propaganda tool for the government and allowed filmmakers to focus on churning out enter- taining and commercial products. With the reorientation in official policy, the Chinese film industry's transfor- mation began in earnest in 2002. The market-oriented economy stimulated film production with its consumer-driven demand and competitive mechanisms. At the same time, the introduction of global cinema, especially Hollywood films, also Wong Kar-Wai Hong Kong's "poet of time," film director Wong Kar-Wai (1958-), first worked in TV and then as a screenwriter. He regularly collaborates with cinematographer Christopher Doyle and designer William Chang and is known for his improvisatory approach. His films often display a highly stylized use of set design and color and a distinct elliptical approach to editing. They frequently explore themes of loneliness, loss, memory, and displacement; critics have repeatedly traced these concerns back to anxieties over Hong Kong's identity prior to the British colony's 1997 handover to China. The pop culture-infused Chungking Express (1994) and Fallen Angels (1995) were Wong's first cult-classic hits overseas, but (anti) love stories Happy Together (1997) and in the Mood for Love (2000) cemented his reputation on the global art-film circuit, winning accolades at Cannes. Most recently, he returned to the wuxio (martial arts) genre with The Grandmaster (2013). Luke Robinson 137