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China has a pretty good system for taking down copyrighted subject matter illegally stored or posted online without the approval of the copyright owner. This is the first in a series of posts looking at online takedowns. In this post we provide a general summary of the regulations that establish the takedown procedures for copyrighted Read More

The latest twist in Xi Jinping’s vision of wholesome Chinese culture involves Chinese celebrities pledging their adherence to morally upstanding conduct. It would be difficult to imagine a similar scene in Hollywood, with, say, Jennifer Lawrence and Warner Brothers CEO Kenji Tsujihara proclaiming their intention to behave according to government directives. Yet that is exactly Read More

As reported last week, the Motion Picture Association of America has signed an agreement with China Film Group Corporation that will allow US rights owners to realize more money from film exhibition in China. Read More

China’s National People’s Congress issued a draft of the Film Industry Promotion Law for public comment on November 6, 2015. The law is to apply to “film activities” such as film development, production, distribution and release within the PRC. The published annotations indicate the law is intended to simplify the regulation of screenplays, film productions and Read More

Over 20 years ago, Zhang Zhao was a bicycle delivery man working his way through film school at New York University. One day, the Shanghai native bought a ticket to Farewell My Concubine, his countryman Chen Kaige’s 1993 epic movie about Beijing Opera players caught up in mid-century political turmoil. “[The movie] made me cry Read More

Dalian Wanda Group chairman Wang Jianlin (a.k.a. China’s richest man) is perhaps the leading representative for the realization of the “Chinese Dream,” a vision of a revitalized national greatness that takes global soft power as a central theme. Yet even as Wang’s empire reaches around the globe, his words are being curtailed back home. Last week, Read More

Zhang Yimou's next film, "The Great Wall," due out in November 2016, is an unlikely departure for him and for China—a mega-budget English-language picture co-produced by Le Vision Pictures and China Film Group in China with Legendary and Universal in Hollywood, and starring Matt Damon, a big Chinese monster, and the most Chinese of landmarks. Read More

In the recent high-profile public relations battle between artist Ai Weiwei and Lego, significant attention has been directed to the toy behemoth’s rapidly growing business interests in China. Read More

Just days after the recent publication of the full transcript of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s major speech on arts and culture from October 2014, the country’s top leadership gave further indication that Xi’s retro vision of patriotic and morality-infused entertainment is meant to have an actual impact on China’s cultural scene. On October 20, the Read More

If he’d had the time after meeting American captains of industry in Seattle and Barack Obama at the White House, Chinese President Xi Jinping might have ducked out at the close of his United Nations appearance and into a New York movie theater to check on how China’s other soft power ambassadors—its movies, not its Read More