What is Chinese-Chinese? The films and music out of Hong Kong and Taiwan are in the Chinese language and are Chinese in aesthetics and culture. That is the crux of this cultural "soft power" and it had no real affect the fate of Chinese Indonesians. The rise of the PRC's economy was what changed things.
Agree with your second statement on American propaganda. But for China to match the US shrills everywhere is simply impossible until China gets richer. China needs to get wealthier so the weight of its market will eventually allow its firms to establish overseas.
The Chinese box office will eventually create enough wealth for Chinese cultural exports in the future.
These are the top grossing non-English films, they are OVERWHELMINGLY Chinese.
en.m.wikipedia.org
As I said earlier, you ask any American or even Westerner to name an Asian in movies and 90% will say Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan or Jet Li.
The Cantonese movies and Taiwanese drama does sounds different and has different aesthetics,and that's positive aspect of China compared , its accent and aesthetics is more mainstream-friendly than Taiwanese or Cantonese of hongkong.Korean movie in satori accent will never hold the same aesthetics as their more mainstream accent does.
I like the Bruce Lee,Jackie Chan they are icons,everyone like them,but their appeal and influence is completely different than the special type of influence the Korean actors does in this day and age,the Bruce lee and Jackie Chan belong to an era where actors were made to entertain using any antics ,now the celebs in east Asia are vetted based on their ability to make people stan and shell money on them . Bruce Lee is larger than life character a legend in his own level bar none.Jackie Chan is everyone's favorite action hero that they grew up with.
I'm not denigrating any of them,I'm pointing out that things have changed,Jackie chan Bruce lee did the job required of them in the limitation of their era,but in modern world of today,there are almost perfection lvl celebs churned out by Korea .
I like Jackie Chan but he didn't help make Asians seen as hot & sexy as the Korean celebs do. Given a choice I'll take the later because ,Hollywood has always propagandized against asian,in every demeaning way,despite Jackie Chan & Bruce lee's popularity,they simply added the stereotype of weee0000000eeeaaahhh kungfoo .
Korean added the swoon factor,they helped people from all over the world that were blinded by crude western propaganda ,to open their eyes and see things in a more worldly way .
The Chinese box office will eventually create enough wealth for Chinese cultural exports in the future.
These are the top grossing non-English films, they are OVERWHELMINGLY Chinese.
But that can also serve as negative,Chinese producers ,just like the Japanese, might lose the incentive to improve upon and cater to global audience ,and resort to cliche chinese stuff that only locals will consume due to cultural affinity rather than quality.
Meanwhile Korea, which believe ,to sustain their industry or to make big profit they have to cater toward bigger economies and global audience ,had kept refining themselves till they hit the right balance where Korean culture could be exported for global audiences.
Japanese movies produced in 30s and even under American occupation was much superior in narration, script and direction than Chinese mainstream movies ,so I don't believe boxoffice=/= quality.
It's the tradition and practice of artistry,effort ,and perfectionist mentality that matters. The squid games or parasite wasn't produce it thinking they will dominate oscars or netflix,they did honest work with no effort left from their side.Success takes on its own.
Incompetent production teams can always flounder millions on crappy work,regardless of box-office success.China has produced some jems,but China really have to overhaul the industry and invest in improving quality of screenwriter and directors. China produces stuff at a breakneck pace without much preparation,that has to change.
For me it's easier to read some philosophy books than construe a historical chinese drama or movie,bc it is so confusing and incoherent,this too boring. Chinese should go train in Korea or US and return than use local aesthetics to create a new style or create a new vetting system where only the best are given the opportunity. The Current style of Chinese movie /drama making will not match up to Hollywood or korean stuff. Chinese variety shows actually improved because they hired Korean directors,and it would be better of the expertise had also rubbed off.
Whatever this beijing film academy is ,it's reduced to soviet-style community theater talent-producing factory.It's vastly inferior to another east asian film academy.They should be ashamed at their lack of progress in producing talents.
But it's not easy with censorship breathing down their neck. China will never be able to create some of the highly sensitive and radical plot like Korean does .Idk,if parasite or a squid games, would have gotten green light for production in China,China even cracks down on drama like yanxi palace,one of the most successful drama in SEA.
So ,,better not take it as granted that magically chinese stuff with dominate Korean or Hollywood.
