China has been looking to its booming film industry in recent years to upgrade its so-called soft power campaign, in an effort to attract more Western audiences. The mainland is the world's fastest-growing cinema market, with box-office takings at 6,200 theatres up 64 per cent this year to 10.2 billion yuan (HK$12.4 billion), compared with last year. Ticket sales for the first six months of the year reached nearly 5.7 billion yuan, up nearly 18 per cent year-on-year. Jiang Wen's Let the Bullets Fly, starring Ge You , Chow Yun-fat and Jiang, smashed mainland box-office records, taking in 700 million yuan. Last year, 17 domestic films fetched more than 100 million yuan each in ticket sales. With 526 movies last year, the mainland was the third-largest film producer in the world, after India and the US. In 2003, it made fewer than 100 films. Even during 2009's global economic downturn, the film industry delivered robust economic performance, surprising observers. It had recently gone through a transformation in which 16 state-owned studios were restructured as businesses. As growing audiences sustain a booming industry, authorities are recognising the potential of film. Beijing sees it playing a role in its soft power campaign - influencing the world through shared cultural interests, rather than by military or economic force. This idea is embodied in the star-studded propaganda epic Beginning of the Great Revival, known on the mainland as The Founding of a Party. It was made for 70 million yuan to mark this year's 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Communist Party. The film is a flagship of soft power. It stars Hong Kong actors Chow and Andy Lau Tak-wah in a cast of 109 that also includes stars from Taiwan and the mainland. The formula has been repeated in another all-star epic, 1911, marking the centenary of the revolt that toppled the corrupt Qing dynasty. Released on the mainland last week, its legion of stars includes Jackie Chan, Winston Chao and Li Bingbing . Movies produced on the mainland are enjoying a measure of success overseas as well. More Chinese films were screened at international festivals last year than ever before, claiming a record 89 awards, according to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft). Last year, 47 films brought in 3.5 billion yuan in overseas sales - deals with distributors, rather than actual box office receipts. That was an increase of 723 million yuan from 2009 and another new high for the industry, according to Sarft. But Beginning of the Great Revival didn't do as well in the North American market, taking in just US$151,000, according to Sohu.com. 'Obsession with stars doesn't necessarily attract Western followers, as many movies lack cultural depth and artistic techniques,' said Professor Wang Ning, head of the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at Tsinghua University. Aftershock, by director Feng Xiaogang, made 673 million yuan at the mainland box office since it opened in July last year, breaking a record at the time. But the film, about the effects of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake on one family, failed in North America, making just US$60,000, said domestic media. Mainland leaders regard the culture industry, films especially, as a way to achieve influence overseas, believing that outstanding cultural products containing shared values that appeal to audiences overseas will lead them to embrace China, said Professor Zhou Xing, of Beijing Normal University's college of art and communication. For authorities, the unsatisfactory performance of Chinese films in Western markets has been widely noted. Minister of Culture Cai Wu told Xinhua in July that the nation's cultural exports relied mostly on traditional elements, such as Peking Opera or martial arts. But there is 'a lack of comprehensive and accurate understanding among foreign audiences about China', because exports of more modern films, books and musicals do not perform as well. The domestic movie boom has been accompanied by tighter controls, Yin Li , a director of the China Film Group Corporation and a deputy to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at a press conference during the National People's Congress in March. Few recent mainland movies have sold in overseas markets, with the exception of Zhang Yimou's Hero, which was released in the US in 2004 and made US$54 million there. Yin and Feng have lambasted movie regulators, arguing that censorship was detrimental to creativity and left filmmakers little choice but to avoid contemporary issues and make films about historical events. 'Being positive or negative has become the only benchmark to judge a film,' Feng said. 'Which of the world classic literature was examined as positive or negative?' 70% The percentage of domestic films produced by private film companies on the mainland
