Virginia Review of Asian Studies
TO SELL A NATIONAL TRAUMA: AFTERSHOCK AND THE
TRANSFORMATION OF THE CHINESE FILM INDUSTRY
HAN LI
RHODES COLLEGE
Abstract
As the first Chinese domestic film production to gross over RMB 500 million, Feng
Xiaogang’s Aftershock (2010) was a phenomenal cinematic and socio-cultural event in
2010. Straddling the boundary between commercial film and so-called “main melody”
film, Aftershock provides an intriguing case where key issues pertinent to the recent
transformation of the Chinese film industry can be examined. First, by looking into
Aftershock’s financing this article examines the changing investment strategies as well as
the dynamic interplay between governmental capital, privately-owned studios and
filmmakers in the post-socialist context. Second, this article considers the distribution and
exhibition of Aftershock to show how the film’s manipulation of “disaster” reveals a
renewed conception and practice of genre filmmaking. The third part scrutinizes the
narrative paradigms of this emotional film and discusses how Feng Xiaogang’s
appropriation of the conventions of family drama creates a political-commercial
conspiracy that generates significant appeal to Chinese audiences. By respectively
examining the production, circulation and consumption of Aftershock as well as situating
the film’s phenomenal success within the current socio-political context, this article sheds
light on the dynamics of ideology, commerce and art in the midst of China’s rapidly
transforming film industry.
Total box office receipts for Chinese films exceeded RMB 10 billion for the first time in
2010, up a stunning 63.9% from the previous year.1 Growing at multiple times the speed of
China’s overall GDP, the Chinese film industry is now the fastest growing film market in the
world. As the first Chinese domestic production to gross over RMB 500 million, Feng
Xiaogang’s Aftershock (2010) was a phenomenal cinematic and socio-cultural event. Aftershock
has received tremendous attention for good reason. First, portraying the 1976 Tangshan
earthquake, which claimed 240,000 lives and became the deadliest natural catastrophe in the
history of modern China, Aftershock evokes controversy over how the “scar” of the nation is
being revisited. Its timing – produced soon after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that left more than
85,000 dead or missing – further intensified the fierce discussion over the cinematic
representation of national trauma. Second, Feng Xiaogang, China’s most commercially
1
The total box office receipts announced by Film Administration Bureau of State Administration of Radio, Film
and Television (SARFT) was more than 13 billion RMB for 2011 and 17 billion for 2012. All data regarding the
Chinese box office referred in this article comes from the governmental announcements made on the SARFT official
website.
126
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
successful director, had previously established himself through his new-year-release (hesui pian)
comedies and his subtle satire on the authorial discourses.2 Therefore, his turn to the so-called
“main melody” (zhu xuanlü) film attracted attention from critics as well as general audiences.
This paper examines the recent structural transformations of the mainland Chinese film
industry through the lens of Aftershock. First, budgeted at RMB 130 million, an unprecedented
sum for a domestic production at the time, how is Aftershock financed? What do the various
financing arrangements of this film tell us about the changing investment strategies as well as the
interaction between municipal government, commercial sponsors, privately-owned film studios
and other parties of interest in this film project? Second, branded as China’s first IMAX disaster
epic, what do the production and promotional campaigns of Aftershock reveal about the
industry’s renewed awareness and practice of genre filmmaking? Most importantly, as a
tremendously successful “main melody” film, what does Aftershock reveal about the negotiation
between the “main melody” ideology and commercial appeal in the post-socialist context?
This article begins with an overview of the CCP’s proclaimed emphasis on cultural
enterprise in recent years – the socio-political context for the production of Aftershock – to
demonstrate how the CCP’s promotion of Chinese soft power influences its way of interference
with the cultural enterprise. Second, a series of events involving the distribution and exhibition
of Aftershock are examined to show how the film manipulates “disaster,” both in terms of film
genre and a national event, to its advantage. The third part scrutinizes the narrative paradigms
and the characterization of this tear-jerking film. In his adaption of the original novel of
Aftershock, Feng Xiaogang resorts to the conventions of family drama. By appropriating this
“Chinese” genre and deliberately valorizing the narrative paradigms, Aftershock manages to
converge state-party ideology with commercial and artistic appeal. This examination of
Aftershock links three respective yet interconnected aspects – production, promotion and
reception – in the current socio-political context. By exploring these key issues pertinent to
success of Aftershock, this article sheds light on the dynamics of ideology, commerce and art in
the midst of the dramatic transformation of the Chinese film industry.
Political Project or Commercial Film? The Genesis of Aftershock
The box office growth of the Chinese film industry has entered an accelerating stage,
especially with respect to domestic productions. Following 1994, when China began importing
ten Hollywood blockbusters annually through a “revenue-splitting” arrangement, the Chinese
2
Feng Xiaogang and his works have received considerable scholarly attention. For discussion of Feng Xiaogang’s
overall career, see Rui Zhang’s monograph The Cinema of Feng Xiaogang: Commercialisation and Censorship in
Chinese Cinema after 1989. Specific discussion on the new-year-release (hesuipian) phenomenon that Feng initiated
can be found in Jason McGrath’s “Metacinema for the Masses: Three Films by Feng Xiaogang,” Gong Haomin’s
“Commerce and the Critical Edge: Negotiating the Politics of Postsocialist Film, the Case of Feng Xiaogang,” and
Shuyu Kong’s “Big Shot from Beijing: Feng Xiaogang’s He Sui Pian and Contemporary Chinese Commercial
Film.” Dai Jinhua’s two talks regarding Feng Xiaogang on Bai jia jiangtan (Scholar Talks) is especially inspiring in
examining Feng Xiaogang’s recent productions.
127
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
film market has been significantly influenced by big Hollywood productions.3 Between 1994 1999, the imported blockbusters were pillars of the Chinese box office (Wan 50-56). Yet,
partially thanks to the Chinese protectionist policies governing the screen industry, the top ten
Chinese films outperformed imports for the first time in 2004 and this trend has continued till
2011.4 Domestic cinema, which is subject to, yet at the same time, reconfigures the larger
intellectual, socio-political and economic powers, has been exerting immeasurable influence
upon Chinese society in post-socialism era.
Several significant moves by the state government in 2010 greatly altered the orientation
of the Chinese film industry over the next decade. First, in demonstrating the state’s perception
of the role of cinema in cultural enterprise, the General Office of the State Council issued in
January 2010 “Guiding Opinions Concerning Stimulating Flourishing and Development of the
Film Industry” in order to directly designate the film industry as a nationally strategic enterprise
for leading economic and cultural reform. This guidance document, as part of the CCP’s twelfth
Five-Year Plan (2010-2015) indicates that the Chinese government will be highly active in both
supporting and regulating the Chinese film industry by increasing the supporting scale for
domestic production (both in terms of monetary investment and state policy), facilitating
construction of theatrical infrastructure, fostering the development of new fields in the industry
and encouraging Chinese films to “reach out” (zou chuqu).5 The latter aspect indicates a
culmination of the CCP’s decade-long effort to redefine film as a market-oriented cultural
commodity and a new area to continue expanding China’s “soft power” (Su 318-19; R. Zhang
104).6
The appearance of flagship “main melody” films like The Founding of the Republic
(2009) and The Beginning of the Great Revival (2011) certainly testify to the CCP’s increasing
emphasis towards cinema and its influence on mass public. Produced by the China Film Group
Corporation (CFGC), a state-owned and party-controlled studio, these two domestic “big
picture” (dapian) films demonstrate considerable compromise compared with the leitmotif films
produced in the 1990s in seeking to re-present the history of the founding of the CCP and PRC
and re-instill the spirit of nationalism. The cross-strait, all-star cast not only attracted audiences
of all generations (especially the younger generations who are the major cinematic education
target for revolutionary history in the new millennium), but also contributed to the illusion of a
3
After China entered WTO in 2001, the quota of imported films was been raised to twenty per year and this quota
remained through 2011. In February 2012 an agreement between China and the US permits 14 premium format
films (e.g., IMAX, 3D) to be exempt from the twenty film import quota, and increases the box office share of US
studios from 13% to 25%. It was anticipated that this landmark agreement will significantly increase the box office
of US movies in China, and the box office ratio of imported-to-domestic productions in 2012 has proved so (also see
footnote 5).
4
Since 2004 the box office receipts ratio of domestic to imported films has been roughly maintained at 55% to 45%.
The outstanding performance of domestic productions is partially due to Chinese protectionist policies, such as the
enforcement of “blockout periods.” For details, see Yeh and Davis, “Re-nationalizing China's film industry: case
study on the China Film Group and film marketization” (40-42). In 2012, due to the increased number of imported
movies, this ratio changed to 48% to 52%.
5
SARFT spokesman Zhu Hong met with the press and elaborated on the guidance document. See Zhu’s speech for
details regarding the “reach out” policy.
6
As scholars have observed, other soft power efforts from the Chinese government include funding English
language television stations overseas, establishing Confucius Institutes worldwide, promoting Chinese cultural
exhibitions, and hosting the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai (Chau 12).
128
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
unified greater China. Further, in contrast to the didactic mode of traditional propaganda films,
The Founding of the Republic discards the simplistic dichotomy of KMT and CCP, and attains a
degree of psychological depth in terms of depicting the key historical figures (Rao, “Jianguo
daye” 22). The newly adopted Hollywood fast-paced narrative and editing style blur the
boundary between “main melody” film and commercial film (S. Wang 25; Rao “Jianguo daye”
23).7 With its commercial packaging, The Founding of the Republic became the highest grossing
film in China in 2009, surpassing all Hollywood blockbusters for the year.8 Reviving and
reconfiguring this “revolutionary cultural resource,” The Founding of the Republic further
intensified the trend of redefining “main melody” film (Rao “Jianguo daye” 23).
To use The Founding of the Republic as an example is not to say that Aftershock, a local
government sponsored film (as discussed below), is the same as central government-sponsored
ones. Instead, the purpose is to demonstrate that the renewed conception of “main melody” film
– it could (and should) be commercialized in order to appeal to contemporary audiences – was
one of the main factors leading to the combination of Feng Xiaogang and the Aftershock project.
In 2007, Zhao Yong, then the Secretary of Municipal Committee of Tangshan, decided that
Tangshan, a northern city noted for its heavy industry, needed to re-brand itself in China’s
rapidly changing socio-economic landscape. With the Film Administration Bureau of State
Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) and CFGC serving as intermediaries, the
Tangshan municipality worked out a deal with Huayi Brothers Media Corporation, a leading
private film company and invited Feng Xiaogang to direct the film. Mediated by CFGC, the
Tangshan municipal government became the major investor in the film, providing 50% of the
total budget, with Huayi and CFGC contributing 45% and 5%, respectively (Li 47).9
Yet, the investments and corresponding yield are not as simple as these proportions
suggest. The Tangshan municipality contribution is accepted in a means called “profitable aid”
(youchang zanzhu) – a seemingly contradicting term created by Wang Zhongjun – the president
and CEO of Huayi. Out of the initial RMB 60 million contributed by the Tangshan government,
only 15% is considered as investment, whereas the remaining RMB 51 million is purely
“monetary aid” (zanzhu).10 In other words, should the Aftershock box office equal the total
investment, the Tangshan government would only receive 15% of the total money it contributed,
while the return on the Huayi and CFGC investments are prioritized (Li 48).11 Rather than
receiving monetary compensation, the Tangshan government sought mass promotional benefits,
anticipating that more than half of China’s 1.3 billion people would have heard of Aftershock by
7
Due to the phenomenal influence The Founding of the Republic caused in 2009, Dangdai dianying (Contemporary
Cinema) published a special issue on it. For more scholarly discussion on this title, see Dangdai dianying 11, 2009.
8
It should be acknowledged that the unprecedented box office “success” of The Founding of the Republic in 2009
cannot be separated from the extraordinary efforts made by the government to ensure high box office figures. A
significant part of this box office “success” was due to organized and even mandatory viewing sessions as well as
free tickets from work units.
9
In the contract, Tangshan Broadcast and Television Media Group represents the Tangshan municipal government
as the partner. In 2009, Huayi resold part of its share to Zhejiang Television Group, Media Asia Film and Emperor
Motion Pictures, which increased the total number of partners to six.
10
Later the Tangshan government added another RMB 10 million as a promoting fee.
11
According to the agreement, once the box office receipts exceed the total investment, the profit will be evenly split
between the Tangshang government and Huayi. Based on the investment ratio, if net profit reaches 120 million,
Tangshan government will be able to recoup all of the money it contributed.
129
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
the time the film was screened. In addition, the Tangshan government received the promise that
the film would appear in major international film festivals. Clearly, in this deal where the
financial risks and benefits among investors are unevenly distributed, the Tangshan government
was seeking something much greater than monetary reward from the project. Yao Jianguo, the
producer representing Tangshan during the film’s contract negotiation, noted that the Tangshan
government sought to change the long-standing impression of Tang as an “unsophisticated,
bulky, black, crude” (sha, da, hei, cu) city by re-presenting the image of Tangshan to both
Chinese and international audiences (Li 45). In other words, Tangshan is the “product” that is
strategically placed in Aftershock.
Product placement is certainly not new in Feng Xiaogang’s films. Unlike traditional
broadcast advertising communications, product placement in films seeks to influence audiences
more effectively in an implicit way. As the director who almost single-handedly saved China’s
domestic film market before Zhang Yimou’s Hero in 2002, Feng Xiaogang is known for
resourcefully funding his films and his “unapologetic pursuit for profit-maximization” (Zhang,
2008, p107). In Big Shot’s Funeral (2001), a quasi meta-cinematic work that satirizes the
commercialization of the Chinese society and the privileged class, Feng Xiaogang skillfully
implemented product placements, while simultaneously making a blatant self-referential
mockery of the act (Braester 558-59 ). His Cell Phone (2003), a story focusing on a middle-class
man’s extra-marital crisis, created an ideal platform to showcase various electronic products and
services. The combined advertising fees that four companies – Motorola, BMW, China Mobile
and Mtone Wireless – paid for their products and services in the film totaled nearly half of the
film’s total budget. This proportion was unprecedented in the history of Chinese film (R. Zhang
142). In addition to brands and products, the placement of cities in recent Chinese cinema is also
not novel. As early as 2005 when making Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, Zhang Yimou
received a RMB 23 million investment from the municipal government of Lijiang to promote the
city, when the entire film project was only budgeted at RMB 60 million. This cooperative mode
initiated by Zhang Yimou has significantly influenced Chinese directors ever since. In Feng’s
box office hit If You Are the One (2008), the protagonists travel to Sanya and Hangzhou, a
deliberate arrangement to showcase the two cities’ travel and environmental resources.12 Yet,
despite these peer examples, Aftershock stood out as milestone in that the direct investment from
the local government accounted for half of the total film budget – hence granting the municipal
government an extraordinary degree of influence on the project. Compared to the product
placements in Feng’s earlier films, not only are the “products” placed in the film now changed
from commodities or firms to a single city, but also the expected return has changed from
(immediate) monetary reward to long-term gain of social-cultural capital.
A most pertinent change regarding the film’s title illustrates how the Aftershock project
has been geared toward this “advertising” purpose. The film is based on Chinese-Canadian
12
The municipal government of Hangzhou invested about RMB two million in Feng Xiaogang’s If You Are the
One. Apparently both parties seemed to have gained satisfying profits in this cooperation that they continued this
business mode in Aftershock. In Aftershock, Fang Da becomes a migrant worker in Hangzhou after graduating from
high school and eventually owns his own travel company while Fang Deng chooses to go to medical school there.
The investment from the city government is the key reason why Feng Xiaogang shot a significant portion of a
supposedly Tangshan-centered film in Hangzhou.
130
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
author Zhang Ling’s novel Yuzhen (lit. Aftershock). Yet, the agreement between the municipal
government and Huayi required the city name “Tangshan” to appear in the film title. Hence, the
Chinese title of the film is Tangshan da dizhen, literally “the big earthquake of Tangshan,”
which makes the English title – Aftershock – ironically more faithful to the original work.
Although the devastating earthquake is certainly the historical signature of Tangshan, the city
government inevitably does not want “earthquake” or “traumatic memory” to be the keywords of
the cinematic representation. Instead, the film focuses on the earthquake’s repercussions on an
ordinary family over the ensuing three decades. As a parallel to the travails of this family, the
film showcases in chronological mode the progression of Tangshan’s urban development over
the same time period. Resorting to an event that elicits national attention and sympathy,
Aftershock successfully combines political and commercial capital and hence makes itself an
excellent illustration of “marketing of a city” (chengshi yingxiao) (Mao 70).
In this sense, Aftershock is extremely representative of the current context of the Chinese
film market. First, as Aftershock demonstrates, the making of “main melody” film, a field that
could not be “contaminated” by commercialism in the past, has become increasingly marketoriented and profit-driven. In other words, socio-political pursuits are now purposefully
integrated with commercial elements for maximum influence. Also the understanding of “profit”
has gone beyond conventional definition of (immediate or short-term) monetary gains. Second,
Aftershock demonstrates a dynamic interplay between the different (and sometimes conflicting)
stakes of governmental capital, private studios, and filmmakers in the post-socialist context.
With the end of the monopoly of the state-run studios, privately-owned film enterprises have
earned considerable market share. Aftershock makes a case where the local government, serving
as a (major) investment entity, can cooperate with the commercial and filmic resources of private
companies and filmmakers to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome. In this cooperative process,
Aftershock is neither a straightforward top-down implementation of propagandistic policies, nor
are Huayi or Feng Xiaogang passive recipients of the governmental investment. With all its
complexity, Aftershock is rather a unique and innovative blend of social-political propaganda and
commercial pursuit.
This cooperative relationship became increasingly evident in 2011, the 100th anniversary
of the 1911 revolution that overthrew China’s imperial system. In commemoration, a group of
films on the revolution were released around October 2011, including 1911 Revolution
(marketed as Jackie Chan’s 100th film), 72 Heroes, The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake, The First
President and a cartoon film, Min’s 1911. Retelling the familiar story of the seventy-two martyrs
sacrificing their lives for what is historically known as the Revolution of Huanghua gang, 72
Heroes received support from the CCP Guangdong Provincial Committee, which saw a valuable
opportunity to market Huanghua gang. As a medium-low budget film, the CCP Guangdong
Provincial Committee and CCP Guangdong Municipal Committee accounted for almost half of
the film’s budget. Similarly, portraying the life experience of the celebrated female revolutionary
of modern China, Qiu Jin (1875-1907), The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake received cosponsorship from both state-owned media companies and the CCP Hangzhou Municipal
Committee. Even genre usually considered less important received similar attention. As a
cartoon film portraying the historical background of the revolution, Min’s 1911 features the CCP
131
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Hubei Provincial Committee’s Department of Publicity as one of the producing parties.13 This
sudden fascination with intertwining “mainstream” subjects, official support and market-oriented
practices is not without good reason. On the one hand, the authorities recognize that reinforcing
political solidarity and national sentiment can be enhanced through commercialized films. On the
other hand, the private companies acknowledge that “main melody” films could be highly
lucrative. The success of a series of the mainstream “dapian” since 2009 illustrates a two-way
traffic between the political and commercial capital in the matrix of the current Chinese film
industry, i.e. both the commercialization of the “main melody” films and “mainstream-ization”
of commercial films.14
Disaster Epic or Family Melodrama? Genre and Marketing of Aftershock
The substantial investment from the Tangshan government ensured the valorization of
Tangshan in the film. However, advertising effectiveness for Tangshan ultimately depends on
the film’s success. Also, unlike the Tangshan government which was mainly seeking a return on
social-cultural capital, Huayi primarily sought box office success for Aftershock. Therefore, how
to sell Aftershock became another top priority of the investors and filmmakers. This section
examines the marketing of Aftershock. In addition to continuing the mode initiated by big
productions like Zhang Yimou’s Hero – that is, an extravagant premier and widespread media
exposure – the promotional campaign of Aftershock demonstrates several recent trends
characterizing the Chinese film industry. The most prominent change involves how Aftershock
positions itself in the cinematic generic taxonomy and manipulates the idea of “disaster” to its
advantage.
Making genre films is one of the important indicators of industrialized cinema. Film
genre as a narrative system and social force can greatly assist the filmmakers to position their
work in the market and accurately target specific audiences (Schatz 4-13). Chinese film has a
long and sophisticated history of genre filmmaking, which has been strongly influenced by
Hollywood since the 1920s.15 Yingjin Zhang’s panoramic study of Chinese cinema examines the
incipient Chinese genres of the 1920s, the “dominance” of Hollywood films in the 1930s, the
continued experiments with genre films in the 1940s as well as various genre explorations in
Taiwan, Hong Kong and PRC after 1949. Despite this long history and practice of genre
filmmaking, the context that is most pertinent to Aftershock is the Chinese cinematic landscape
after 1994, when Hollywood blockbusters reentered China. As Zhang points out, the indigenous
comedy, as represented by Feng’s new-year-releases have become a competitive new genre in
answering Hollywood’s imperial advance (Y. Zhang 284). In addition, at the beginning of the
new millennium, some Chinese filmmakers resorted to one particular genre – the costume
martial arts story – to reinvent Chinese cinema as transnational production and reignite the
13
More information regarding the films dedicated to the 1911 Revolution can be found at a topic discussion by Sina
Entertainment, “Shei gei xinhai xianli pian maidan” (Who Paid for the Films Dedicated to the 1911 Revolution),
October 12 2011. Available at http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2011-10-12/18173440553.shtml.
14
Rao Shuguang uses Feng Xiaogang’s Assembly (2009) to demonstrate how in recent years big commercial
productions have become more “mainstream-ized” (zhu xuanlü hua) (Rao, “Huayu dianying” 66-67).
15
In Chinese National Cinema, Zhang notes that early Chinese cinema experimented with a number of incipient
genres. Among them, opera movie and comedy came first, romance and family drama were popular in the early
through to the mid-1920s, and costume drama/historical films and martial arts films took over the market in the later
1920s (Y. Zhang 34).
132
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
domestic film market. A look at the reviving sophistication of genre filmmaking in this process
will provide a necessary context for the discussion of Aftershock.
As one of the oldest indigenous genres of the Chinese cinema, wuxia (martial arts
chivalry) film is often used to showcase Chinese history and its warrior myth (Teo 104-109).
Scholars have demonstrated how the development of Chinese cinema was intertwined with the
wuxia films and how this genre “as a signifier of Chinese national identity and cultural form”
has become a signature of Chinese-language film (Teo 105). In the new millennium, Chinese
cinema resorted to martial arts films as one of the means to revive domestic film market.
Following Ang Lee’s immense success with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Chinese
filmmakers began to seek both commercial success and international recognition through this
kind of martial arts epic. Successive attempts by China’s major directors include Zhang Yimou’s
trilogy Hero, House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), He
Ping’s Warriors of Heaven and Earth (2003), Chen Kaige’s The Promise (2005), Tsui Hark’s
Seven Swords (2005), Stanley Tong’s The Myth (2005) and John Woo’s Redcliff (2008). These
historical costume wuxia pictures boasted big budgets, transnational casts and crew,
extraordinary spectacles, exquisitely made costumes, astonishing visual effects and oriental
symbols (Dai, “Bainian” 114; R. Zhang 105). Even Feng Xiaogang, a director known primarily
for urban stories, followed suit in 2006 by producing a martial arts picture The Banquet and
became one of the successors of the “Zhang Yimou mode” (Dai, “Bainian” 120).
However, even among this collectively zeal in recycling and reviving the wuxia genre,
Chinese directors have been active exploring various possibilities with this genre – a clear
demonstration of their awareness of genre filmmaking. Among the period costumes martial
films mentioned above, none of them offers a duplication of the others. Made during the years
when Chinese audiences were completely fascinated by what was introduced to China as
“fantasy” (mohuan) theme (represented by The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia and
Harry Potter series), Chen Kaige’s The Promise created an exotic, magnificent and fantastic
world, and labeled itself the first “martial arts fantasy” (mohuan wuxia) production of Chinese
cinema.16 Borrowing the stories of Hamlet and Cao Yu’s Thunderstorm, respectively, Feng
Xiaogang’s The Banquet and Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flowers seek to mix the
exploration of human nature with wuxia elements. The most recent wuxia blockbuster –Tsui
Hark’s Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010) – successfully integrated elements
of thriller and detective story with martial arts action, resulting in the highest grossing Chinese
National Day season of the past decade. These on-going changes with wuxia film demonstrate
that the Chinese film industry, while collectively retaining the most reliable genre at their
disposal, have been actively and creatively exploring multiple varieties within this genre.
Accompanying the dynamics within the wuxia genre are Chinese filmmakers’
experiments with other established Hollywood genres. In fact, as a market devoid of, yet longing
for homegrown films of various genres, any attempts even with mediocre quality have the
16
One variant of the wuxia genre in the 1920s is “shenguai wuxia” (gods and demons martial chivalry film), which
integrates supernatural or mythical stories of gods, spirits or bizarre creatures with wuxia genre (Teo 99). However,
in the case of The Promise, the “fantasy” it referred to was “fantasy” phenomenon introduced by the recent
Hollywood production. In this transnationally produced “fantasy,” The Promise blurs the imagination of “China”
and turns the space and spectacles created in the film into a grand orient that includes imagination of Japan and
Korea (Dai, “Bainian” 119).
133
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
potential to immediately become box-office hits in that realm. For example, Xu Jinglei, the
actress-cum-director, produced what she characterized as China’s first film dedicated to urban
professional females – Go Lala Go! (2010). Mixing fashion, career pursuits, office politics and
romance – all issues of great interest to today’s urban youth – this film dominated the 2010
Valentine's Day season and made Xu Jinglei the first Chinese female director whose work
grossed over RMB 100 million. Similar to this “urban romance” subject matter, Feng
Xiaogang’s If You Are the One (and its sequel in 2010) revisited marital issues addressed in his
Cell Phone and A Sigh (2000) with an addition of a pertinent concern in Chinese contemporary
urban society – urban overage youth’s the dating and marriage market. Similarly, Mysterious
Island (2011), a low-budget horror film that generated almost twenty times its investment in
summer 2011 demonstrates both the longing and capacity of the market for film of this genre.17
The homegrown comedy, Lost on Journey (2010), a film about two men’s troubled journey back
home during the “Spring Festival traffic” time (chunyun) transplanted “road trip” to the Chinese
countryside and branded itself as the first Chinese “road trip film” (gonglu dianying). Its sequel
Lost in Thailand (2012), a comedy that integrates road trip, adventure and farcical entertainment
has become the highest grossing domestic film with an astonishing box office of RMB 1.1
billion.18 Among all these examples, what Gao Qunshu, another Huayi affiliated director, said
about his Wind Blast most explicitly expressed some Chinese filmmakers anxiety regarding
genre filmmaking. At various occasions, Gao repeatedly mentioned that the value of Wind Blast
lies not in the box-office number, but in its experiment with commercialized genre filmmaking,
which, according to him, is the most effective way to battle the Hollywood big production.
Blatantly admitting that Wind Blast is “a genre film simulating the Hollywood style,”Gao
claimed that his ultimate goal is to create a formula – prescription for making genre films - for
Chinese cinema by making Wind Blast a “duplicable case” (Chen, 25 October 2010).Therefore,
in Wind Blast, the genre considered most unlikely to be transplanted to China – the Western –
found its Chinese counterpart. Featuring a rivalry between four police officers and four killers in
the wild west of China, Wind Blast combined elements in the narrative formula of the Western,
such as gunslingers, blood-and-guts heroic acts and landscape of the frontier with a Chinese
kungfu crime story, and created a hybrid out of this richest Hollywood genre.19
Consistent with this new direction in Chinese cinema, Aftershock is clearly another
highly successful experiment with making and marketing genre films. Due to its subject matter,
Aftershock promoted itself as a “disaster epic” (zainan dapian) – a genre rarely broached by
Chinese directors due to the high cost of computer generated (CG) effects. Since 1994, as
showcases of frontier of Hollywood special effects technologies, disaster films such as Twister
(1996), Titanic (1997), The Perfect Storm (2000) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004) have
routinely generated satisfying box-office returns in China. The latter half of 2009’s tale of
17
The success of Mysterious Island is not an isolated case. In fact, in the past several years, low-budget horror films
such as Deserted Inn (2008), Curse of the Deserted (2010), and Midnight Beating (2010) have all made over 20
million RMB at the box office.
18
Some critics even predicted that Lost in Thailand will surpass Avatar (2009) to become the highest grossing film
ever in China.
19
As some scholars have pointed out Chinese cinema has its own tradition of “xibu pian,” which literarily means
“films about the west.” Therefore some of the ethnographic art-house films depicting life in the west area of China
are also considered “xibu pian.” However, when Gao Qunshu talks about “xibu pian” he was explicitly referring to
the Western and Wind Blast is considered a commercialized mixture of the Western, the crime film and Kungfu film
(Rao, “Xibu dianying” 80-81).
134
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
impending global doom, 2012, is set in Tibet, demonstrating the producers’ clear awareness of
the consuming capability of Eastern audiences. Conversely, the Chinese films in the past decade
that qualify for this genre are quite limited. In 2003, the August First Film Studio produced two
films - Jingtao hailang and Profoundly Affecting, which drew materials from the 1998 Yangtze
River flood and nation-wide SARS crisis of 2003, respectively. In 2008 Feng Xiaoning’s Super
Typhoon (2008), drew on the typhoons hitting Zhejiang province in 2006 and 2007. A year
before Aftershock, August First also produced a title centered on an earthquake – Stands Still,
the Last Great Wall (2009). All four films, especially the latter two, were severely criticized for
their crude special effects, stereotypical moralizing and didactic scripts. In comparison,
Aftershock represents a significant breakthrough in the awareness and manipulation of making
genre films.
The innovativeness of Aftershock in this regard is revealed in several ways. First, its
publicity campaign accurately tapped into the pulse of the Chinese market. In a series of news
releases accompanying the film, it was disclosed that at least one-third of the film’s budget was
spent on the nine-minute CG earthquake scene at the beginning of film, using special effects
generated by CG companies from New Zealand, UK and Korea. Also, the change of the film
title had considerable impact on audience expectations. With the phrase “da dizhen” standing out
in the new title, the audience is (mis)led into believing the film is about the earthquake, rather
than the drama that develops in the aftermath of the tragedy. To further heighten audience
expectation for the film’s special effects, Aftershock became available in IMAX, which signals
mega-productions and dazzling effects to Chinese audiences. Although Aftershock was
converted to IMAX in the post-production process, it was the first non-English IMAX film to
emerge from a partnership between IMAX Corp. and a Chinese studio.20 This arrangement gave
Huayi the leverage to promote the special effects aspect of the film. In addition, thanks to the
agreement between Huayi and AMC Entertainment, a major U.S. theater chain, Aftershock
differentiated itself from the other Chinese films usually played in subtitle-friendly independent
theater houses by being exhibited in multiplex theaters alongside Hollywood blockbusters.
Although touted as featuring the best CG effects of any domestic production, most
audiences would agree that Aftershock is more of a family melodrama than a disaster epic.
Echoing the film’s promotional slogan “23 seconds, 32 years”, the CG earthquake scene lasts
only for a very short time at the film’s beginning, leaving the film proper a family melodrama
featuring a mother's three-decade-long struggle with the emotional repercussions of the
earthquake. Moreover, Aftershock misses what is most crucial for the generic narrative of a
disaster film – an ordinary man-turned-hero.21 However, the debate regarding the categorization
20
Aftershock is the first non-Hollywood film that used IMAX DMR (Digital Media Remastering) technology. This
special digital intermediate technology allows films shot on 35mm to be converted into IMAX format. In an
interview, Feng Xiaogang mentioned that the shooting process is all the same. All he needed to do was to provide a
copy of the materials to the IMAX Corporation after the filming ended. “‘Aftershock’ Opens IMAX Market to
Chinese Films,” Wall Street Journal, 23 July, 2010. Available at
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/07/23/aftershock-opens-imax-market-to-chinese-films/, accessed October
15, 2011.
21
“Tangshan da dizhen fei zainan leixing pian, ying shu jiating lunli dianying (Aftershock Is Not a Disaster Film
but a Family Melodrama).” 22 July, 2010. Available at http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2010-07-22/09493025524.shtml,
accessed October 29, 2011.
135
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
of film per se creates attention on the project, and despite such debate, Huayi accurately sensed
the need of the market and successfully manipulated the conception of this particular genre.
Labeling Aftershock as a disaster epic is only one of the several successful promotional
aspects of the film. As Chinese filmmakers have gradually come to realize, filmic promotion is
not limited to activities taking place once the filming has ended, but is instead is a process
occurring throughout the preparation, production and post-production process. During the
preparation of Aftershock, Feng Xiaogang called for a nation-wide collection of props in the
name of both restoring the historicity of the 1970s and 1980s and reducing the film’s overall
budget.22 The Aftershock production team cleverly set up a website soliciting the donation of
bicycles, clothing, household items and appliances bearing the memory of the generation who
experienced the trauma.
Figure 1 and 2: snapshots of the webpage that Aftershock production team set up to solicit
the donation of household items from the 80s and 90s.
For a film budgeted on this scale, cost savings from reproducing the props is probably
merely an excuse. Whether the team eventually obtained the authentic items they were seeking
is also not as important as the publicity this collection campaign served to create. On the one
hand, the call for the material artifacts from the 1970s to the early 1990s (regardless of whether
the producing crew really received or used them) lent the film an aura of historical authenticity.
On the other, the organized nation-wide collection campaign further publicized the film and
generated both considerable anticipation and promotional buzz well in advance of the film’s
eventual release. Also, as the snapshots in Figures 1 and 2 illustrate, the production team mainly
sought items pertinent to daily activities. By invoking the memory of everyday life in the past
two decades, the Aftershock production team subtly displaces the traumatic memory of the
catastrophe with a collective warm nostalgia for the past.
In addition to mobilizing the entire country, Aftershock especially involved the
government and citizens of Tangshan throughout the project. For instance, the filmmakers made
a special effort to recruit local people who survived the earthquake as film extras. Emphasizing
their first-hand experiences and genuine emotional connection, Aftershock translates their nonprofessional status into one of a priceless element of the film. Prior to the film’s national
premiere, the entire cast organized a special premiere in Tangshan Stadium and screened
Aftershock for 15,000 Tangshan citizens. A 33-meter-wide, 15-meter-high silver screen – the
22
For details of this collection, see the website: http://tsddzzhengji.hbpictures.com.
136
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
largest silver screen in the world – featuring high level optics designed to support showings on
massive screens was used. The premiere ceremony, running from 7:00 pm until 2:00 am, was
partially aired live on China Central Television’s movie channel (CCTV-6) and Phoenix Satellite
TV. The audience wore blue or orange T-shirts distributed by film’s sponsors which read
“Tangshan Moves the World” (Tangshan gandong shijie). The premiere ceremony was “a salute
to the Tangshan people and a remembrance of the 240,000 victims by the 1.3 billion Chinese,”
said Wang Zhonglei, president of Huayi Brothers. “It also shows respect to the stricken city by
its country.” As is evident, throughout each stage of the production process – preparation,
filming, promotion and exhibition, Aftershock went beyond a singular film project to become a
national collective social event. Involving various media, the film sought to target audiences of
different regions and generations. Further, endowing a film with the ability of healing national
trauma and boosting national sentiment, Aftershock displaced the traumatic memory with the
“positive power” (zhengmian liliang) that the film claims to transfer.
Universal Humanitarianism or a “Chinese” Ethical Story? The Narrative of Aftershock
What exactly is this “positive power?” How does the filmmaker present this
“positive power” and how is it received on the audience’s end? The “positive power” in Feng
Xiaogang’s recent films has been an interesting subject for critics. Known for his light-hearted
comedies, Feng made an unexpected transition with Assembly in 2009. Featuring a politicalmilitary subject rarely touched by Feng, the individual seeking an acknowledgement from the
authorities receives reconciliation with the latter at the end. In Aftershock, by telling how a
mother is forced to make a “Sophie’s choice” regarding the safety of her two children, Feng
Xiaogang claims to explore and review a universal humanitarian spirit.23 However, if one takes a
closer look at Aftershock, underneath this seemingly universal emotion is a nexus of the political,
cultural and artistic pursuits that speaks to the social psychology of Chinese society. Despite the
media hype of Aftershock as a disaster epic, when it comes to the actual film, Feng tells a story
that could integrate the “main melody” ideology and the maximal appealing power to the largest
possible audience. In closely reviewing the narrative of Aftershock, one can see that Feng
Xiaogang deliberately appropriates the paradigm of ethical drama in his cinematic adoption of
Zhang Ling’s novel. This kind of family drama “would foreground human sufferings (in
particular those by miserable women and children) and resolve seemingly irresolvable problems
by way of coincidences and compromises” (Y. Zhang 26-27). In Aftershock, on the one hand,
Feng Xiaogang, re-invented the character of the mother Li Yuanni according to the traditional
ethical values and use the tribulations of her life as the narrative momentum, while on the other,
he infuses the film with elements eulogizing party-state ideology. It is exactly through Feng’s
manipulation of the “clichés” that bespeaks the “Chinese mentality” that Aftershock generates its
tremendous appealing power.The biggest change from the original novel to the film is that the
emphasis of the narrative switches from the daughter, Fang Deng, to the mother, Li Yuanni. In
fact, the most successful part of this family drama is the hagiography of the mother – a female
character deliberately modeled after the stereotypical images of “chaste wife and virtuous
mother” inherent in Chinese literature. In Aftershock, while facing the dilemma of choosing
23
In various interviews, Feng Xiaogang and the leading actors of Aftershock discussed their view of the film as a
work about universal, eternal humanity. See Ma Rongrong and Xu Yanan’s respective interview with Feng
Xiaogang –“Wo xiangxin shanliang yeyou liliang” (I believe that goodness has its power) and “Rendao zhuyi
zhagen zai gutouli” (Humanitarianism in the blood).
137
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
between two children, her choice of the son over the daughter echoes the collective unconscious
of a patriarchal society. After the husband Fang Daqiang dies in the earthquake trying to save his
wife, Li Yuanni lives an ascetical life, rejecting any sort of material enjoyments. She raises her
son alone and rejects another man’s pursuits. Her chastity and celibacy, in addition to being her
most evident virtues, are also celebrated as redemptive actions for her guilt over the death of her
daughter and husband. Later when her the son gets married and Li’s identity changes from
daughter-in-law to mother-in-law, all of the hardships she experiences from raising the son alone
are rewarded in the way that all matriarchs in traditional Chinese families are – the son’s
unconditional filial piety even at the expense of separating the baby with his wife.24 In terms of
characterization, the tribulations of Li’s life furnish both emotional fluctuations and narrative
momentum. Here we see how the change of the narrative focus works to the appealing power of
the film. The original novel focuses on Wan Xiaodeng’s (Fang Deng’s counterpart in the novel)
twisted experience after the earthquake; saved by her foster parents she held a grudge against her
mother for 32 years. The focus of the original novel is the private narrative of her inner realm.
However, in the film as the focus changes to the mother’s experience, the story becomes an
ethical drama where family vicissitude and ethical redemption appeal to wide audiences.
Along with switching the narrative focus, Aftershock also adopts a linear plot, and
simplifies the story by omitting vague and dark elements in the novel. Since the focus of the
original novel is Wan Xiaodeng, most of the changes in Aftershock involve her. In the novel, for
example, her foster father – an accountant working in a state factory – harasses her during her
high school years. Yet in Feng’s film, not only is the plot of harassment removed,25 but the
identity of the foster father is transformed into an integrated, caring PLA officer, clearly aiming
to glorify socialist heroes. The betrayal by Wan Xiaodeng’s husband and the run-away of Wan’s
daughter are also conveniently deleted from the script while warmer, emotion evoking elements
such as how life is restored after the disaster are emphasized. Feng Xiaogang also concludes the
film with a typical “all-end-in-happiness” (da tuanyuan) ending. As typical of family dramas,
seemingly irresolvable problems are usually resolved by way of coincidences, the family is
eventually miraculously reunited (Fang Deng and Fang Da meet each other when assist in the
rescue efforts following the Sichuan earthquake) and the mother and daughter resolve their pain
and resentment built up since Yuanni’s fateful decision. Although Feng Xiaogang and his crew
emphasize that the “positive power” of this film is a mother’s unyielding love to her children and
the resilience to live through catastrophe, we see that in addition to this humanitarian spirit this
power is also a deliberate invocation of the values catered for Chinese audience. In this light, in
juxtaposition with the Hollywood imports, Aftershock is indeed a “big production with Chinese
characteristics” (zhongguo shi dapian).
To accompany the linear plot, Feng Xiaogang presents a grand narrative of Chinese
history over the past thirty years. As a “main melody” film, he captures the most significant
24
This in fact creates the biggest irony of the film – that when Yuanni’s mother-in-law wants to take Fang Da away
she eventually sympathized with Yuanni and left Fang Da with her.
25
Whether this subplot is completed removed from the film may be debatable. Some audiences would think there
are several awkward moments involving the father, the foster mother and daughter. For example, when Fang Deng
wakes up from a nightmare one night, the father such as when he visits her at the university) which may be read as
unexplained, and undeveloped, “aftershock” of the thematic of sexual molestation and abuse explicitly developed in
the original novel.
138
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
socio-political events since the Tangshan earthquake, such as the death of Mao Zedong, the
restoration of the college entrance examination, the opening-up reforms, the take-off of the
market economy, the emergence of migrant workers, the return of Hong Kong and 2008 Sichuan
earthquake. Unlike Zhang Ling’s novel, whose narrative flashes back and forth between 1976
Tangshan and 2006 Toronto with insertion of Wan’s college life in the late 1980s and early
1990s, the narrative of Aftershock is conducted in strict chronological order, as are most of Feng
Xiaogang’s films. This chronological order provides a narrative stability and easiness for the
wider audience to comprehend and enjoy the film, and also creates a feeling of progression. The
indication of the year (1976, 1986, 1995 and 2008) is always accompanied with an establishing
shot of the Tangshan city, where the change of the city landscape not only serves as an
advertisement of Tangshan but also demonstrates the development of Chinese society in the past
30 years. This way Aftershock parallels the family verisimilitude with the state-favored “main
melody” values.
Overall, dealing with the theme of the devastating earthquake, Aftershock faces an
inherent predicament of whether it will serve as a proper tribute to the dead, or revive old
traumas. The film seeks to resolve the problem by displacing the national tragedy with a family
drama. The heart-wrenching plot provides a channel to vent the most tragic memories and
deepest sympathy (R. Wang). Meanwhile, the family’s trajectory of “suffer – separate– recover reunite” mirrors the country’s “catastrophe-recover-develop.” In this sense, the story is very
“Chinese,” – not that it addresses ethnographic essentials, but that it is a political-commercial
conspiracy with the artistic manipulation of the narrative paradigms that carries the most
appealing power to Chinese audiences.
Concluding Remarks
The last decade before 2000 witnessed the production of dozens of “major revolutionary
historical films” such as The Decisive Turing Point I and II (1996) and The Opium War (1997).
As Yingjin Zhang points out, due to substantial subsidies, shooting leitmotif films actually
helped the studios and individual directors accumulate political capital without incurring any
financial burden (Y. Zhang 285-86). However, most of these “main melody” films failed
miserably at the box office. In the new millennium, the fledgling relationship formed by culturalpolitical authorities, private film companies, and individual directors has undergone yet another
transformation. Aftershock, together with some of the other films produced in similar style
demonstrates the arrival of a “xin shangye zhuliu dapian” (new commercialized main melody big
production) involving more diversified investment strategies, transnational production and
commercialized promotion and exhibition. In this kind of cooperation, the local authority
exchanges monetary investment with socio-political returns, the private companies are
encouraged to produce ideologically acceptable and commercially viable films, and the directors’
complicity in this regard grants them the expected rewards. Drawn on national memory,
Aftershock demonstrates how the socio-political agenda intertwines with commercial pursuits,
and how privately-owned studios collaborate with authorities to maximize the appeal of their
films.
The most recent release of Zhang Yimou’s The Flowers of War (2011) continues to
explore the dialectics of political endorsement and the forces of commerce. Mainly funded by
New Picture (Xin huapian) studio, which has been working with Zhang Yimou since Keep Cool
139
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
(1997), The Flowers of War received substantial support from CCP Jiangsu Provincial
Committee as the film draws on the national trauma of “the rape of Nanking.” The film’s basic
representation of the Japanese atrocity grants it the label of politically correctness. The casting of
Christian Bale (which probably inspired Feng Xiaogang’s casting of Tim Robbins and Adrien
Brody in Back to 1942) and the transnational production team further testifies to the state
authority’s strategic adjustments to “reach out” through Chinese big productions. Feng
Xiaogang’s most recent release – Back to 1942 (2012) revisits the Anti-Japanese War period
with a focus on the devastating famine in Henan province that claimed more than three million
people.26 In the context of rampant commercialization, marketization and collaboration with
leading Chinese directors, it is expected that the politics in the films will only exacerbate the
politics about the films.
References
Braester, Yomi (2005) “Chinese Cinema in the Age of Advertisement: The Filmmaker as a
Cultural Broker.” The China Quarterly183, pp. 549-64.
Chau, Jennifer (2010) The Chinese Film Industry's Soft Power Implications. Unpublished MA
thesis. University of Southern California.
Chen Yiyi (2010) “Gao Qunshu tan Xifeng lie: wo zuode shi xiao longxia dianying” (Gao
Qunshu on Wind Blast: What I Made is an Experiment), October 25. Available
http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2010-10-25/09283124573.shtml, accessed October 29, 2012.
Dai Jinhua (2005) Feng Xiaogang zouhong zhimi (On Feng Xiaogang’s Popularity), Bai jia
jiangtan, China Central TV (CCTV) Channel Ten, February 3.
—— (2005) Feng Xiaogang gui lai (The Return of Feng Xiaogang), Bai jia jiangtan, China
Central TV (CCTV) Channel Ten, February 4.
—— (2006) “Bainian zhiji zhongguo dianying xianxiang toushi” (A Look at Chinese Cinema at
its 100th Anniversary). Xueshu yuekan 38 (1), pp.113-121.
General Office of the State Council (2010) “Guanyu cujin dianying chanye fanrong fazhan de
zhidao yijian” (Guiding Opinions Concerning Stimulating Flourishing and Development of the
Film Industry). 25 January. Available at http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/201001/25/content_1518665.htm, accessed October 29, 2012.
26
Back to 1942 is still in theater when this article was being written. So far the box office return
for this film was lower than expected. Some critics attributed this situation to the confusing
(self-) positioning of Back to 1942 in the film genre taxonomy, which certainly merits another
study.
140
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Gong, Haomin (2009) “Commerce and the Critical Edge: Negotiating the Politics of Postsocialist
Film, the Case of Feng Xiaogang.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas 3 (3), pp.193-214.
Kong, Shuyu (2003) “Big Shot from Beijing: Feng Xiaogang’s He Sui Pian and Contemporary
Chinese Commercial Film.” Asian Cinema 14 (2), Spring/Summer, pp.175-87.
Li Wei (2010) “Tangshan da dizhen: yici zhuliu jiazhiguan de zhuti cehua” (Aftershock: A
Thematic Conspiracy of Mainstream Values). Sanlian shenghuo zhoukan 29, pp. 44-51.
Ma Rongrong (2010) “Zhuanfang Feng Xiaogang: wo xiangxin shanliang yeyou liliang”
(Interviewing Feng Xiaogang: I Believe Goodness Has its Power). Sanlian shenghuo zhoukan
29, pp.52- 56.
Mao Jiani (2010) “Zheshi yige keyi da manfen de chengshi yingxiao tuiguang anli-fang Ye
Maozhong yingxiao cehua dongshizhang Ye Maozhong” (This Is a Full-mark Marketing case of
Promoting a City - Interviewing Ye Maozhong). Zhongguo guanggao, September, pp.70-71.
McGrath, Jason (2005) “Metacinema for the Masses: Three Films by Feng Xiaogang.” Modern
Chinese Literature and Culture 17(2), Fall, pp. 90-132.
—— (2008) “New Year's Films: Chinese Entertainment Cinema in a Globalized Cultural
Market,” in Jason McGrath (ed.), Postsocialist Modernity: Chinese Cinema, Literature, and
Criticism in the Market Age, pp.165-202 (Stanford: Stanford University Press).
Rao, Shuguang (2008) “Huayu dapian yu zhongguo dianying gongye” (Chinese-language Big
Production and Chinese Film Industry). Shanghai daxue xuebao15 (6), pp.60-69.
—— (2009) “Jianguo daye qishi lu” (The Revelation of The Founding of the Republic). Dangdai
dianying11, pp.20-29.
—— (2010) “Xibu dianying lilun piping youkui yu xibu dianying chuangzuo – jianping zuowei
leixing de xibu pian Xifeng lie” (The Critical Theories on Films about the West Fall Behind
Their Production – Also on Wind Blast as a Western). Dianying10, pp. 80-81.
Schatz, Thomas (1981) Hollywood genres: formulas, filmmaking, and the studio system (Boston,
Massachusetts: McGraw-Hill).
Su, Wendy (2010) “New Strategies of China's Film Industry as Soft Power.” Global Media and
Communication 6 (3), pp. 317-322.
Teo, Stephen (2010) “The Martial Arts Film in Chinese Cinema: Historicism and the National,”
in Ying Zhu and Stanley Rosen (eds), Art, Politics, and Commerce in Chinese Cinema, pp. 99109 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press).
141
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Wan Ping (2005) “Jinkou fenzhang yingpian shinian piaofang fenxi” (Analysis of the Box Office
of Revenue-splitting Imported Blockbusters, 1994-2004. Beijing dianying xueyuan xuebao 6, pp.
49-59.
Wang, Rujie (2011) “The Aesthetics of Retroactive Memory: Feng Xiaogang's Aftershock and
the Historical Film.” MCLC Resource Center Publication. Available at
http://mclc.osu.edu/rc/pubs/wangrujie.htm, accessed December 10, 2012.
Wang, Shu (2010) “Jianguo daye:quanqiuhua yujing xia geming wenhua de ziyuan zaizao yu
shishi heli” (The Founding of the Republic: The Revival of Revolutionary Cultural Capital and
Epic Narrative in the Context of Globalization). Dianying wenxue 3, pp. 25-27.
Xu Yanan (2010) “Feng Xiaogang jiexi da dizhen: rendao zhuyi zhagen zai gutou li” (Feng
Xiaogang on Aftershock: Humanitarianism in the Blood), 14 July. Available at
http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2010-07-14/22473017371.shtml, accessed October 29, 2012.
Yeh, Emilie Yueh-yu1 and Darrell William Davis (2005) “Re-nationalizing China's film
industry: case study on the China Film Group and film marketization.” Journal of Chinese
Cinemas 2 (1), pp. 37-51.
Zhang Ling (2010) Yu zhen (Aftershocks) (Beijing: Shiyue wenyi).
Zhang, Rui (2008) The Cinema of Feng Xiaogang: Commercialization and Censorship in
Chinese Cinema after 1989 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Univ. Press).
Zhang Shougang (2010) “Tangshan da dizhen shi yibu ‘wei zainan pian’” (Aftershock is a Fake
Disaster Epic), 28 July. Available at http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2010-07-28/15263032420.shtml,
accessed November 30, 2012.
Zhang, Yingjin (2004) Chinese National Cinema (New York: Routledge).
Zhu Hong (2010) “Guangdian zongju xinwen fayanren Zhu Hong jiu guanyu cujin dianying
chanye fanrong fazhan de zhidao yijian da jizhe wen” (SARFT Spokesman Zhu Hong speaks on
(Guiding Opinions Concerning Stimulating Flourishing and Development of the Film Industry).
29 January. Available at
http://www.sarft.gov.cn/articles/2010/01/29/20100129110306240375.html, accessed October 30.
2012.
Zhu, Ying (2007) “Feng Xiaogang and the Chinese New Year Films.” Asian Cinema 18 (1).
Spring/Summer, pp. 43-64.
142