Chris Berry, “Cinema: Reconsolidation of Party-State Hegemony in a Market Economy”. In China under Xi Jinping, eds. Hanna Kupś, Maciej Szatkowski, and Michał Dahl (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2024), 343–360.
Abstract
This account of the transformation of Chinese cinema under Xi Jinping proposes a reading from the margins to illuminate a larger story of reconsolidation of Party-state hegemony over the sector. Chinese cinema experienced an existential crisis in the face of American imports that took over the local market in the 1990s. Before Xi, relaxed government control enabled the sector to respond by commercialization of the mainstream industry and the emergence of a thriving independent sector. After Xi, the booming mainstream has been disciplined by enhanced censorship and intervention, leading to more “patriotic” but also entertaining films. The independent sector, which operated outside state censorship, has been driven almost out of existence. But, at the same time, a new “arthouse” trend characterized by solipsism has developed within the system’s censorship regime. The chapter will focus on the transformation of the independents into the arthouse, but it will place it in the larger context of sector-wide change.
