Hollywood's global strategy and the future of Chinese cinema

The rise of capitalism, the emergence of multinational corporations, and the arrival of the information society paved the way for the emergence of the global economy. In the words of Anthony Giddens, we are living in a new “world system.” In this system, capitalist countries led by the US enjoy hegemonic power over the political, economic, and cultural resources of the world. Since its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), China also has to abide by a new set of rules set by the big players in global market. As far as the American film industry is concerned, globalization has brought into being a deterritorialized, temporally and spatially compressed economic system through which Hollywood conquers the world film market. As a cultural manifestation of American economic power, Hollywood is bound to have a deep impact on Chinese cinema, and its influence will infiltrate other arenas of social, political, and cultural life. This is especially true if we understand cinema as a cultural product and a symbolic system that maintains a nuanced and complexly symbiotic relation with the system of values and culture of a nation.