Original Title: Research Report on the International Communication of Chinese Films Released——(Quotation)
How Chinese Films Spread Overseas into the Brain and Heart (Theme)
Xu Ying
With the continuous enhancement of China’s comprehensive national strength and international influence, and the innovative development of cultural communication concepts, many excellent Chinese films have gone abroad, not only outstanding in terms of immediate influence represented by the box office, but also represented by spiritual and cultural values. It also plays a sustained and far-reaching role in terms of long-term influence.
Recently, the “Research on the Long-term Influence of International Communication of Chinese Films-2022 Research Report on International Communication of Chinese Films” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”) hosted and implemented by the Institute of International Communication of Chinese Culture of Beijing Normal University was released in Beijing. The research team used the data of the IMDbPro platform, which is generally recognized by the world‘s film and television industry and is based on the composite indicators of millions of users to watch, search and interact, to conduct a series of scientific and meticulous mining and analysis, and to focus on overseas audiences in the past 10 years. , The Chinese film “Salvage” of Memories came ashore, and released a list of the top 50 Chinese films with long-term influence on international communication. Among them are the main theme films, art films, and commercial blockbusters; both classics and works that are not familiar to domestic audiences, bringing inspiration for the high-quality overseas dissemination of Chinese films today.
Focus on the common value of all mankind
The “Report” shows that among the top 50 long-term influence lists, many films focus on the common values of all mankind, such as peace, development, fairness, and justice, and transcend differences in ideology, social system, and development level. For example, the movie “Great! The data of “Youth” on the IMDbPro platform is very impressive. Why can this sports documentary born in 2020 be recognized by overseas audiences without big investment and big stars? In fact, many Chinese audiences do not know that China also has such a youth baseball team. Many people even think that baseball is a niche sport and know little about it. However, this sport is very popular in the United States. This film has been promoted by the century-old Major League Baseball, and it has entered the field of vision of many overseas audiences. The film tells the story of teenagers regaining love and dignity because of baseball. In terms of expressing the relationship between teachers and students and striving to change their personal destiny, it is similar to world movie masterpieces such as “Spring of the Cow Herding Class” and “Dead Poets Society”. The most important thing is the Chinese people’s own baseball story – not only the story of sports, but also the story of helping the poor first. Although the children in the film lost the competition in the end, they won sincere applause from audiences around the world.
Chinese films with significant long-term influence focus on advancing the story with plot changes or character development. For example, Chinese kung fu movies and martial arts movies are world-renowned. “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “Hero” and “Ip Man” and other films of this type with long-term influence have entered the overseas market relatively smoothly, but those that have lastingly touched people’s hearts and become anchors of memory It’s not a “fist”, but a chivalrous spirit that favors kindness and hatred, and values righteousness over profit. The “Report” believes that from the perspective of content production, Chinese films should actively create films that reflect contemporary real life in addition to martial arts films, kung fu films, etc. The external form has changed to an internal form such as empathy and resonance.
Actively respond to overseas concerns
The “Report” shows that among the top 50 Chinese films with long-term influence in international communication, there are a total of 23 film and television adaptations, accounting for as high as 46%, including 2 drama adaptations and 21 literary adaptations. The overseas dissemination of these films not only benefits from the excellent quality of the original works and the subtlety of the adaptation, but also the overseas dissemination of the novels will also feed back the film works. For example, the movie “My Name is Liu Yuejin” is adapted from Liu Zhenyun’s novel of the same name. Overseas, the number of translations and reviews of this novel ranks among the top among Liu Zhenyun’s works. Many foreign readers think that its narrative method is easy to accept. On the IMDbPro platform, the movie “My Name is Liu Yuejin”, which was released in 2008, has performed well since May 2012, which means that overseas audiences have been paying attention to this movie for the past 10 years. In recent years, the overseas dissemination of Chinese literature has been gaining momentum. The implementation of projects such as “Yangfan Project · Overseas Translation and Introduction of Chinese Literature” and “Silk Road Book Fragrance Publishing Project” have played a positive role in promoting the overseas dissemination of Chinese literature. Cultivating, deriving, and developing literature and other content that has already “goed out” is an important way for the overseas dissemination of Chinese films that cannot be ignored.
This kind of “leveraging strength” is not only reflected in the two-way empowerment between literary and artistic categories, but also in the selection of movie genre elements. The “Report” shows that biopics, which have not received sufficient attention in the creation of domestic genre films, should become an important starting point for the international dissemination of Chinese films. Among the top 50 Chinese films with long-term influence in international communication, the characters reflected in films containing biographical factors such as “Ip Man” and “The Day After Leaving Lei Feng” are the objects of overseas attention. Ip Man, who promoted Chinese Wing Chun to the world, as Bruce Lee’s master, is a representative figure in the world‘s recognition of Chinese martial arts. The film “Ip Man” has effectively inspired overseas imagination of Chinese martial arts. In the past 10 years, overseas viewers have continuously searched, browsed and interacted with the materials related to the movie “The Days of Leaving Lei Feng” on the IMDbPro platform. In fact, for decades, there have been voices overseas who have questioned whether the character Lei Feng really exists, and the movie “The Days of Leaving Lei Feng” is not a panoramic display with the hero and model himself as the protagonist, but with Lei Feng’s comrade-in-arms Joan Anshan “unintentionally”. The incident of “fault and mistake is too big” led to Qiao Anshan’s persistence in the belief of “If others don’t believe, I have to believe! If others don’t learn, I can’t not learn”, which enhanced overseas understanding of Lei Feng. There are also “Born Out of the Sky”, which focuses on before and after the explosion of China’s first atomic bomb, and “Armageddon 3: Battle of Pingjin”, which shows the war of liberation. stay tuned.
The “Report” believes that literature and art are the best way for different countries and nations to understand and communicate with each other. As a form of literature and art that is widely loved by people from all over the world, movies are often hailed as national business cards and “ambassadors in iron boxes”. Chinese films should use the form of literature and art to actively respond to people, events, and objects of concern overseas. This is also the key to testing the ability, wisdom, and level of Chinese filmmakers.
Emotional expression is concise and restrained
The survey found that although some films advertised with emotional labels such as “sweet”, “abuse”, “burning” and “cool”, although they have achieved good performance in the domestic market, their long-term influence in international communication has not been satisfactory. Afterwards, word-of-mouth and popularity fell off a cliff. Most of the Chinese films that have been selected into the top 50 for the long-term influence of international communication are condensed and restrained in their emotional expression: “Everlasting and Everlasting” presents the burden and patience of two families in a calm and soothing manner; “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” Li Mubai’s love in the film is also forbearance and restraint. In the rivers and lakes constructed by the film, what is more important is not the shadow of swords and swords, but the sophistication of human feelings hidden deep in the heart. Huang Huilin, dean of the Institute of International Communication of Chinese Culture, believes that these works “contain the fullness and richness of the content, as well as the clarity and accessibility of the form. Through the integration of the two, they form an internal connection, thereby arousing the recipient’s attention with real life performance. move”.
Abuse of sensationalism, excessive entertainment, etc. will inevitably damage the richness of character, the reality of details, and the rationality of narrative logic, which will invisibly dilute the “true feelings”. Emotional arousal is not only related to feeling, but also depends on different ways of thinking and value judgments. Looking around the world of movies, films such as “A Separation” and “Little Shoes” all maintain a calm and objective attitude, achieving the effect of “listening to thunder in a silent place”. The practices and experiences of films from various countries also bring inspiration to the overseas dissemination of Chinese films and the promotion of the influence of Chinese culture.
Among the external indicators to measure the influence of film and television works, the immediate influence reflects the process of the work entering the ears and eyes, while the long-term influence reflects the process of entering the brain and heart. Chinese films must not only “go out”, but also be able to stand, spread, and stay, to achieve long-term spiritual harmony with overseas audiences, to bring profound ideological inspiration, and to help Chinese films better stand on the top of the world‘s art Forest.