Probing into the Influence of American Culture on Chinese Culture from the Angle of Cultural Capital —— A Case Study of Hollywood Movies〔*〕

Zhang Yiying

(School of Foreign Languages　Southwest Petroleum University,Chengdu　Sichuan　610500)



Probing into the Influence of American Culture on Chinese Culture from the Angle of Cultural Capital
—— A Case Study of Hollywood Movies〔*〕

Zhang Yiying

(School of Foreign LanguagesSouthwest Petroleum University,ChengduSichuan610500)

Ⅰ.Hollywood — the representative of American cultural capital

The United States are gradually presenting the products of popular culture to the international society,such as TV programs,movies,magazines,books and so on,in order to gradually realize the goal of “westernization”.Many countries in the world,especially the developing countries with rather limited cultural capital,are getting unprecedented impact and pressure.Meanwhile,even some western countries express concerns and vigilance.Chirac,the former president of France,once issued a statement to inform the public of maintaining cultural consciousness when the world is facing the threat of single culture.〔1〕Hollywood movies have formed hegemony in media around the world and paved the way for the expansion of American culture.There gather 8 largest film companies like the Paramount,MGM and Warner Brothers in Hollywood,which quickly make the American movie industry,monopolize the market,and soon dominate the world market.Hollywood movies occupy the majority of the global ticket sales,and those entertaining movies with great investment become the pillars and new favorites of film companies.For instance,the release of Avatar became an instant hit and quickly earned $1.859 billion,creating the best record of ticket sales.Let’s calm down and reflect on the films in history.It is not difficult to find that Hollywood movies take up 85% of the global movies.About 450～599 film are released in American cinemas each year,and the annual value of the movie industry is more than $40 billion.However,the foreign movies that can really get to the film market of the United States account for less than 3%.〔2〕

Probing into the cultural implicature of Hollywood blockbusters,we can find that most of these films vividly display American cultural consciousness,especially the religious belief,hedonism and heroism.Through Hollywood blockbusters,the United States can make the world learn about the democracy,equality and freedom of its culture,thus bringing impact and perplexity to the ideology of other countries,especially those in the Third World.If this kind of movie culture consumption prevails,the audience in the world will go after the Hollywood movies and gradually lose their own national spirits,thereby seriously affecting the development of national culture and national movies.〔3〕

Ⅱ.The influence of Hollywood movies on Chinese culture and movie industry

1.Negative influence

(1)Capturing Chinese market share

Chinese movie industry has inevitably been influenced by the Hollywood movies.In recent years,Chinese movies have displayed the general characteristics of great investment and low output.Though there are only about 20 imported films annually,the revenue of them takes up a very high proportion of the share.〔4〕Moreover,the overall quality of Chinese films is not high and there rarely exists great ones.If we blindly pursue the quantity instead of the quality,imported films,especially Hollywood blockbusters,will definitely capture our domestic movie market and greatly hinder the development of national films.

(2)Raising the threshold of international movies

The Hollywood blockbusters are overwhelming.Therefore,the threshold of the international market threshold will certainly be lifted.Movies with national characteristics are difficult to find its place in the world film market.As Chinese movie industry is still in a weak position,it is more difficult for them to go globally and the market for Chinese films are becoming smaller and smaller.

(3)The loss of cultural capital

Hollywood film culture has been exported ambitiously,with its strong capital strength as a lure to take advantage of the Chinese cultural capital.Then it will make use of these cultural capital to exchange for more share in Chinese movie industry in order to gain excessive profits.〔5〕Obviously,the cultural capital of Chinese movies are in the risk of loss.

2.Positive influence

(1)Mature operating mechanism

The mature operating mechanism of Hollywood movies is guided by scientific orientation in every link,form the production to distribution,from the selection of actors and cinemas to the audience.Moreover,the ideology and aesthetic characteristics are significantly obvious,which can stably restore or express the content of the cultural spirit and social life.Therefore,Chinese movie industry needs to learn the operating mechanism of Hollywood movies and actively innovate the operation and management mechanism in order to enhance the overall operation level.

(2)Developing brand awareness

Hollywood movies are of high quality,attracting a large number of audiences in the market.The key is that they focus on developing brand awareness,attempting to infiltrate impact and even control the culture of other nations while maximizing profits at the same time.Confronted with the increasingly fierce market competition,Chinese films need to maintain the core competitiveness,keep strong vitality.It is quite necessary to improve the consciousness of national culture,to refine national characteristics,to vigorously create brands of Chinese movies,and to expand brand awareness and reputation in order to attract more audience.

(3)Abiding by the rule of globalization

Hollywood movies fully grasp the trends of the market,effectively bringing in human resources and global landscape resources,thus obtaining huge box office revenue.While Chinese films are featured by rich emotions,delicateness and beautiful pictures,all of which reveal the flavor of Chinese culture.If we need to present these characteristics to the international film market,the key is to follow the rule of globalization,make full use of foreign resources to fulfill our own development,fill the gap of operating capital,and effectively integrate into the global market,so the new development opportunity will appear for Chinese movies.〔6〕

Ⅲ.The development strategy of Chinese movie industry —“learning from American movies to compete with them”

1.Adjusting the structure of movie industry

When it comes to the total revenue of American movie industry,especially that of Hollywood movies,screen marketing accounts for 20% while the marketing off screen (post-movie products) accounts for 80%.Only when a film obtains huge box office revenue,it is likely to offer incentive for post-movie products and further develop a value chain of the movie industry.At present,Chinese movies depend on ticket sales for profit,but well-made movies are quite rare and the commercial value of post-movie products is not well developed.In the shooting stage,the preliminary work includes market research,planning,testing and creation,etc.While due to the lack of professional research firms,the research is not scientific and precise enough.As for film distribution and screening,the lack of experience,limited advertising promotions,immature selection of cinemas and lack of budget,all these factors make it difficult for integrated marketing in every stage.In the phase of developing post-movie products,the common practice in China is to subsequently publish novels or shoot TV series,but the lack of ideas and creativity makes it difficult to obtain long-term profit.Therefore,the domestic movies need to develop a professional and mature value chain so as to make reasonable allocation of resources and maximize the interest.Secondly,the basic strategies of Hollywood film firms are to effectively integrate the stages of film production,distribution and screening,to combine channels with content,thereby directly strengthening the connection between the product and the market,which not only maximize the interest,minimize the cost,but also naturally raise the input-output ratio of the movie industry.But in fact,the structure of Chinese movie industry is not reasonable.The film distribution and screening are supposed to be connected,but the film production in China is independently completed,which fails to consider the connection between film production,film distribution and screening,and makes the operating procedure of the whole film difficult to be linked naturally.This structure not only impairs the economic vitality of domestic films,but also hinders the steady,effective development of movie industry.Some of Chinese great film companies can effectively learn from the integration pattern of Hollywood movies,integrating resources,deepening the specification of labor,making the brand known and improving the efficiency to control the total cost of the whole industry chain.In 2003,Xi’an Huayi Company was restructured,then Taihe Film Investment Co.,Ltd,Xi’an Film Co.,Ltd and Xi’an Mingle Communication Co.,Ltd were established.The establishment of Xi’an Huayi Company effectively facilitated the structural adjustment of Chinese movie industry,promoted the mutual complementary of resources.But on the whole,the movie industry in our country has just started,it still lacks a mature system for guidance,and there are many aspects to explore and learn.It is essential to continue adjusting the industrial structure,to establish and improve the value chain of the movie industry.

2.Making sound regulations for the development of movies

The key of making up for market malfunction is to improve the industrial policy.Only sound industrial policies can promote the super development of domestic film industry and improve the competitiveness in the international market,thereby making the industrial structure more advanced and reasonable and optimizing the allocation of resources.The reason why Hollywood movies attract such a large number of audiences in the world is that it has set up the massive movie industry and the industry continues developing with the driving force of industrialization and business rules.Industrial power and commercial rules permeate in every single part of the production,distribution and screening in Hollywood.Although the Chinese government has issued a number of relevant policies and regulations to support and promote the development of the movie industry in recent years,the domestic movie industry is still in the primary stage.The policies and regulations are not perfect and piracy is rampant,which harm the benefit of the film publishers.Therefore,it is necessary to establish and improve the industrial policies,ensuring the legitimate and sound development of the film market.

3.Improving the quality of movies and the market competitiveness

The quality of movies,to a great extent,determines the market competitiveness and vitality of movies.Hence,it is an inevitable choice for domestic movies to improve the quality so as to achieve sustainable development.Thus,we should focus on training technical personnel and improve the technology in film production.Meanwhile,we can also host various seminars and training to popularize film technology and to share film operating experience,thus offering the staff more opportunities to exchange learning,making them master more skills,eventually enhancing the innovative thinking and creative capability of the technical team.The introduction of management talents from abroad can build a bridge in cooperation with foreigners and promote the development of foreign market.In addition,advanced technology can be effectively applied to the movie industry.We can learn from the successful experience of Hollywood movies,integrating network technology,digital technology,information technology and other new technologies with film production and screening,in order to improve the quality of domestic movies and to enhance the market adaptability and resilience.

4.Maintaining strategic partnership with foreign media giants

At present,the growth of American movie industry depends largely on the increase of foreign investment and multi-national corporations.In 2004,the international media giants like Sony and Warner Brothers entered cinemas and film production field in China.China Film Group Corporation,Time Warner and Hengdian Group signed contracts to set up joint-venture film companies.In addition,Huaso Film&TV Digital Production Corporation was established.Through the strategic cooperation with foreign media giants,Chinese film companies can still hold the share control on the one hand,and instantly increase funding on the other hand,which are beneficial for China’s film and television companies.They can learn from the mature production and distribution experience of foreign media giant to improve their own competitiveness with adequate fund.Meanwhile,through cooperation with foreign companies,Chinese movies will be easier to find ways to enter foreign markets and win success.

5.Making movies with Chinese characteristics according to the market demand

Domestic films are gradually revealing similarities with Hollywood movies in the process of competing.The reason is that we simply follow the pursuit of creating visual spectacle or the implementation of fast cultural consumption while we forget the essence of traditional culture.In both the international and domestic market,Chinese movie industry generally has not become strong enough for competition.Therefore,with the accelerating pace of globalization,in order to adapt to the demand of the film market and to effectively enhance the market competitiveness,the key is to effectively combine the market elements with the essence of Chinese traditional culture and to establish a unique national brand,which demonstrates not only the national cultural foundation but also the innovation.How to set up the national brand of domestic films?First of all,we need to admit the differences between Chinese culture and western culture,find out the characteristics of national culture,improve our national emotions and consciousness.Then,based on the national cultural foundation,we effectively learn from advantages from foreign films and build up film brands with Chinese characteristics,thereby fulfilling the ultimate goal of learning from others to compete with them.

Ⅳ.Conclusion

With the accelerating pace of globalization,the Chinese movie industry should follow the principle of “harmony without uniformity”.On the one hand,we should be aware of the differences between domestic and foreign culture,adhere to our cultural foundation and resist foreign cultural invasion.On the other hand,we need to have a global vision,effectively learn from foreign movies and fulfill the cultural diversity.We are convinced that the development potential of domestic movies is great,but we need to continue exploring to make them grow quickly.The amazing prospect is ahead,yet constant efforts are needed.

(Translated by Huang Qiuyue)

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In this paper,we study the features and implicature of Hollywood movies from the angel of cultural capital,identify development indicators of the Hollywood movie industry,thereby putting forward the future development path of Chinese film culture.

cultural capital theory;American culture;Chinese culture;Hollywood movies

About the author：Zhang Yiying (1983—),lecturer of School of Foreign Languages of Southwest Petroleum University,research direction:Second Language Acquisition,American Culture.

〔*〕This paper is supported by Young Scholars Development Fund of SWPU (200831010070).