Media Polarization in Transitional Society: The Case of the Post-WTO Chinese Film Market

The Chinese movie industry provides an ideal context to examine the process and consequences of a transitional society from state socialism toward market coordination of economic and cultural activities. Since China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, the hitherto stagnant Chinese film industry has experienced several structural changes. Although there has been a steady resurgence as indicated by marked growth in film outputs and aggregate box-office revenues, the industry's revival occurred in a polarized fashion with substantial variation in the box-office earnings of each movie. While the uneven distribution of market share has widened throughout the 2000s, why and how the film companies and filmmakers in China have experienced contrasting fates have become a puzzle to be solved. In this connection, this paper takes the Chinese film industry as a case to explore how the mix of state and market influences evolved over the transition process and in what ways the film companies of different sizes and backgrounds have been affected by these changes. It will focus on the corporate business network governing the movie value chain and illuminates the conditions that enable the leading firms to wield power over the industry. By this, the current study intends to foster a more rigorous explanation for the changing dynamics of the power relations and social structure of the Chinese film market, and accounts for the dissimilar fortunes of film companies in the course of the market reform.