Do you know Guan Hu (53)? Probably not. Guan Hu is a Chinese director and screenwriter. His latest work is a bombastic war film about an epic battle in the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). Title: «The 800». You probably don’t know either. But you should. The strip grossed $461 million worldwide in 2020, making it the highest-grossing film of the year.
The Chinese wave of success continued in 2021: With “The Battle at Lake Changjin” and “Hi Mom”, two of the three most successful films in the world came from China. Only “Spiderman” attracted more visitors to the screen last year. With 1.16 billion tickets sold, China has also become the world market leader in the film business – overtaking the USA.
What’s happening?
A country is getting closer to its goal. At least that’s what the US journalist (“The Wall Street Journal”) says Erich Schwartzel (35), who published the non-fiction book “The Red Carpet” on Chinese film politics in February. His thesis: China not only wants to become the dominant world power economically and militarily, but also wants to replace the USA as a cultural superpower. At least in the home market, Chinese films are now setting the tone. As the success of “The 800” shows, which attracted crowds to the halls, especially in China.
In order to succeed, China has geared its film industry towards mainstream tastes. “Chinese films have become more commercial and less propaganda,” says Schwartzel. They also offer Chinese viewers what Hollywood cannot offer: identification. Schwartzel says, “It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Chinese audiences prefer Chinese films because it’s the stories, actors and scenes that they recognize.”
Nothing works in Hollywood without China
While China is becoming more and more independent of Hollywood, the opposite is happening there: the US film industry is increasingly dependent on Chinese investors to finance expensive blockbusters. But that has its price. If a cast or dialogue is not satisfactory, the People’s Republic intervenes unashamedly as early as the script phase of a new film. Hollywood usually gives in: “Adhering to China’s wishes is usually the lesser evil than a lack of funding,” says Schwartzel.
The most recent example of China’s censorship: the blockbuster “Top Gun” with Tom Cruise, where a Taiwan flag had to be retouched on a flight jacket. But actors can be toxic, too. As an example, Schwartzel cites the actor Richard Gere. A self-confessed Dalai Lama supporter, his career stagnated as China’s film market began to gain international prominence. In terms of content, too, China has a clear idea: the People’s Republic should not be associated with weakness. Because of this, a James Bond scene filmed in Shanghai had to be cut: the anonymous security guard who was shot dead during a robbery was Chinese.
Swiss films are also censored
Switzerland is also feeling the effects of China’s censorship. As a contribution to the “Month of Francophonie”, the Swiss embassy in Beijing invited to the screening of the Swiss film “Olga” at the end of March. The film portrays a Ukrainian gymnast in 2013 living in exile in Magglingen, Bern, preparing for the upcoming European Championships when the Euromaidan uprising erupts in her hometown of Kyiv. China intervened without further ado and canceled the performance. The “NZZ” suspected that the film was probably too sensitive for China against the background of the Russian war of aggression.
And yet the Swiss film industry is greedily looking to China. “Heidi” is a role model. With 700,000 admissions in China, “Heidi” was by far the most popular film with Swiss participation in 2019. Almost half of all international theatrical admissions of a Swiss film were generated in China that year. But what exactly the Chinese will see is not always clear. An insider from the Swiss film scene says that you don’t always know how the film will end up being shown in China. Anything that doesn’t fit will be cut away. Nevertheless, the industry association Swissfilm, together with the Federal Office of Culture and Pro Helvetia, set a country focus on China from 2019 to 2021 in order to increasingly promote Swiss film programs there.
China’s strategy is working
Everyone wants success in China. However, the success of Chinese films in Europe has so far been limited. “The West is not very receptive to films from China,” says Schwartzel. “The 800” has brought in just one million US dollars outside of China. In certain developing countries like Kenya, on the other hand, Chinese productions are attracting increasing interest. According to Schwartzel, this is part of a strategy: “China knows that the cultural market offers a lot of potential for influencing opinions.”
According to Schwartzel, China wants to use its national entertainment industry to propaganda accompany the country’s political rise. China’s cultural takeover follows a script that was written some time ago. Goal: “Hollywood should be played out.”