Don't be paranoid about a harmless foreign fairytale
- Source: Global Times
- [23:08 January 28 2010]
- Comments
By Zhang Yizhong
Illustration: Liu Rui
More than five weeks ago, I became the first in my class to see Avatar, the latest science fiction movie by James Cameron, and I have been telling my friends that it's a movie that they shouldn't miss.
The success of the movie was truly phenomenal. In his article, Wang Wen paints for us a vivid picture of the blockbusting scenes caused by the US-made film at the Chinese Film Museum in Beijing.
Here in Hong Kong, like everywhere else in the world screening the movie, it's been a lasting hit that shows little sign of weakening a month after its debut.
My friends and I simply enjoyed Avatar as an aesthetic feast. But Wang was disturbed by the fact that China's hard power, symbolized by the world-class cinema venue, is merely an avenue for US soft power, represented by the film.
In my view, however, Wang may have misinterpreted Avatar's impact, and so I want to comfort him by responding to his opinion piece.
Wang refers to a Beijing newspaper cartoon demonstrating Avatar's skill at looting the audience's wallets.
Despite the profiteering, nobody has been forced to go to a Saturday matinee, and the import and showing of a US movie are a long way from a robbery.
Audiences are flocking to Avatar out of choice and aesthetic pleasure, and because their friends are nudging them into going with them. They are not being forced by the long reach of US soft power.
Sure, Chinese aren't resistant to the appeal of Avatar. But why should we be? The film appears to me to be a reflection on the colonization of North America.
It conveys universal values but not ideological beliefs. The idea that all movies made in a country must be propaganda for that country's values is clearly both paranoid and wrong; movies, even massive hits like Avatar, reflect a wide variety of values, ideas and beliefs.
Look at Chinese movies that were massive hits overseas, like Zhang Yimou's Farewell, My Concubine or Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, and Hidden Dragon, they didn't represent uniquely "Chinese" values, but had, like Avatar, a universal appeal.
Would anybody in the West read their success as a sign of worrying Chinese cultural influence, or just as the deserved valuing of great movies?
After comparing the box office figures achieved by The Founding of a Republic and Avatar, which broke the records set by the former in one-third of the time, Wang hastily concludes that the defeat embodies not only a gap in GDP but also that in soft power.
I concur with Wang that GDP is a critical factor in deciding the best picture a country can produce. Avatar's budget of $237 million, 24 times that of The Founding of a Republic, is an intimidating amount no Chinese producer can afford. Nonetheless, I believe soft power played a trivial role in the making of Avatar.
