Censorship and Countercensorship in Chinese film industry

• In Event: Understanding U.S.-China Coproduction: Theory, Policy, and Industry

Abstract

This paper explains how censorship of film industry in China differs from that of censorship over media and Internet content production. It argues that film censorship is more extensive and legalistic, and thereby more difficult to subvert. Film producers are subjected to constant official screening at every step of the process, and are also encouraged to produce more propagandistic films that feature nationalistic films. The paper further examines some strategies of counter-censorship or defiance in Chinese film industry through the case studies of three films that have pushed the boundaries of the political in different ways. The three films are a documentary The Chinese Mayor (Zhou Hao, 2015), a fictional production Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke, 2015) and a social-media investigative feature film Under the Dome (Chai Jing, 2015). It further contextualizes this creative defiance in the larger palette of resistance practiced by Chinese media professionals and social media users.

Author

• Maria Repnikova, Georgia State U