In 1986, the French philosopher Regis Debray said, "The power of rock and roll, video, blue jeans, fast food, news networks and television satellites is greater than that of the entire Soviet Red Army." ”
What he meant was that the transmitted Western soft power through cultural exports such as music and movies was widely seen as contributing to ending the hegemony of the former Soviet Union.
Nearly 40 years later, the object of Western rivalry has shifted.
Sino-US relations are on the brink of a new Cold War, and it remains interesting to see whether the Red Army can defeat Western culture (or vice versa) in China.
"Soft power" is difficult to measure, but data on viewing preferences for film and television can reveal trends.
The latest issue of The Economist, a veteran British magazine, titled "Hollywood is losing the battle in China", analyzes how the influence of Hollywood films in China has been declining year by year.
The Economist used data from the social platform Douban to analyze it, and their conclusion is that in China's domestic market, the balance is tilting in favor of China's soft power. Over the past decade, the share of Western films in China has declined significantly.
Although China only allows cinemas to show an average of 34 foreign films a year (which has long exceeded that number), users have rated tens of thousands of foreign films — presumably in pirated copies.
Between 2010 and 2022, 26,000 movie entries with ratings and a large number of views were listed on Douban. Of these, nearly 10,000 were in English (works from English-speaking countries can also be collectively referred to as Hollywood films), and 4,500 were made in Chinese mainland. The rest are mainly Europeans, Japanese and Koreans.
English-language movies accounted for 43% of total views during this period. China ranked second at 36%, followed by Japan (6%) and South Korea (5%).
However, these figures have changed dramatically over time – from 2010 to 2021, China's share rose from 21% to 55%, while the share of English-language films fell from 53% to 28%.
This change is not driven by China simply making more films – its share of the total number of films produced has only risen from 13% to 18%. (In 2022, China's film market is in decline, so the epidemic policy has limited the output of works, but after 2023, its number may return to its previous level.) ）
This trend cannot be simply attributed to the obvious improvement in the quality of Chinese films.
In fact, Chinese audiences rate Chinese-language films worse in 2022 than they did a decade ago – on average, Chinese five-star films lag behind Hollywood English-language films (see chart).
But what is confirmed is that over time, Chinese mainland's film works have been viewed more and more. There are many factors such as marketing campaigns, actor appeal, or changes in Douban user behavior, which can affect ratings and views.
Blockbusters have fueled China's growing dominance of the domestic market, with the ten most watched films each year accounting for 27% of all views. In contrast, though, the overall score below Hollywood suggests that while China is trying to build up its soft power against the West, its films and television productions are not ready to gain traction abroad.
In the early 2010s, English-language films dominated the Chinese film market, surpassing Chinese films in the top ten from 2010 to 2014.
But starting in 2015, Hollywood productions began to decline. By 2019, only one English-language film — Avengers: Endgame — made it into the top ten.
In the mid-2010s, China began to see highly successful themes that often featured all-star casts and earned huge budgets.
By the late 2010s, blockbusters produced by Chinese mainland dominated the charts.
Among Hollywood films, Chinese audiences have a strong interest in adventure themes, accounting for 46% of English-language movie views. In contrast, when it comes to domestic films, they prefer comedy, accounting for 44% of Chinese movie views.
A prominent example is "The Richest Man in Xihong," a local remake of the 1985 Hollywood film Brewster's Million Windfall, which tells the story of the male lead having to spend 1 billion yuan ($145 million) in a month to obtain inheritance.
"Domestic films" also particularly resonate with Chinese audiences. Films tagged with the genre accounted for 54 percent of Chinese movie views, slightly higher than the 50 percent who were labeled as feature films.
For example, "Young You", this movie tells the incredible connection between a girl who is bullied and a street gangster. In 2021, the film was nominated for the Oscar for Best International Film, an achievement that a Chinese-language film has not achieved since 2003.
Most notably, domestic filmmakers have also won audiences through the color of the main theme.
Wolf Warrior 2 is the second-highest-grossing film of all time in China and is so popular that the title has become synonymous with it internationally. The film tells the story of a former special operations soldier fighting a ruthless American mercenary in Africa with the slogan "Whoever offends my Chinese will be condemned from afar."
Another film, My Motherland and Me, shows what China has achieved since its founding in 1949. This film is the 7th most watched movie on Douban in 2019.
The Economist said that for Western audiences, such a theme film may look crude. But their popularity suggests that nationalist sentiment is having a big impact in China.
A growing number of homegrown films are shaping how a generation of Chinese views their country and its place in the world.
In the second installment of the Hollywood blockbuster Top Gun, Tom Cruise plays a U.S. Navy pilot who flies his F-18 fighter jet on a dangerous mission. The film was one of the highest-grossing blockbusters worldwide last year, but it was not introduced in China.
On the contrary, from April 28, "King of the Long Sky", which has a similar theme to "Top Gun", began to be released in China.
It's a standard theme film about the PLA Air Force pushing the limits of China's new jet aircraft Chinese the story of the People's Liberation Army Air Force — though the producers of "King of the Long Sky" will also point out that "Top Gun" was made with the support of the U.S. Navy.
Chinese films' efforts to beat Hollywood at the box office aren't always so blatant, but there's no doubt — they're succeeding.
Does this mean that Hollywood movies will fail in China?
Compile | Xiao Dong didn't understand much
This article is compiled according to The Economist, and some of the content has been deleted