In the December 12 edition of the Toronto Star, reporter Murray Whyte writes about China’s recent interest in leveraging culture to expand the country’s “soft power.” Lantern Films founders Zhao Dayong and David Bandurski were interviewed for the article.
A portion follows:
But the burgeoning media and culture landscape should not be mistaken for a blossoming of personal expression. “This has nothing to do with the vibrancy of culture, or the diversity of culture,” says David Bandurski of Hong Kong University’s China Media Project. “It’s all about soft power.”
Bandurski’s safe distance in Hong Kong – though technically part of China, it remains, for the time being, outside its policy strictures on freedom of expression – allows him a rare analytical view from close up.
Take, for example, China Film Studios’ blockbuster offering, timed to the 60th Anniversary of Communism this year. Called The Founding of the Republic, it’s a high-priced deification of Mao’s rise to power, complete with repatriating cameo star turns by a slate of Hong Kong superstars, including Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Chow Yun Fat.
“If you look at it from the outside, you see a flowering – it’s so good, so slick,” Bandurski says. “They want a renaissance, but they want it to happen under party control. But the whole notion of cultural reform coming from the centre of an authoritarian system should clue you in: It’s just not how culture is produced.”
