Futures of Chinese Cinema

With the burgeoning interest in Chinese film, this interdisciplinary collection investigates how new technologies, changing production constraints and shifting viewing practices have shaped perceptions of Chinese screen cultures. 

Futures of Chinese Cinema contains essays by international scholars considering new directions in Chinese cinema. After the devastation of the economic crisis, the uncertainty of the Hong Kong handover and the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989, the late twentieth century and beyond has seen the emergence of a number of fresh new works from the region’s film-makers. For the first time, scholars from film studies, media studies, history and sociology have been brought together in their focus on the concepts of technology and temporality in these films.


The book is innovative in its approach by arguing for a broadening of Chinese screen cultures to account for new technologies of screening – from computers and digital video to smaller screens (including mobile phones). It also examines time and technology in both popular blockbusters and independent, art films.


Chapters cover a wide range of topics in the cinemas of mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Chinese diasporas. The book also explores transnational connections, including little discussed Chinese–Japanese and Sino-Soviet interactions.