Chinese films must draw on culture to compete

Beijing (CNS) -- Results of a survey released on Wednesday show foreign fans of Chinese films instantly recognize the names of director Ang Lee and actor Jackie Chan. In general, however, Chinese movies do not do well in the global market. It is felt that movie makers are obligated to produce work that is more culturally symbolic to survive global competition in the film arts.

These observations were made by Huang Huilin who headed up the survey on the global influence of Chinese movies conducted by the Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture, Beijing Normal University.

Looking at some top-of-mind measures, Ang Lee was the first pick of almost half of all interviewees. He is followed in the director category by Wong Kar-Wai and Zhang Yimou, both about 30 percent.

Chinese male actors are more favored than females: Jackie Chan got top place with 68.4 percent, icon Bruce Lee came next with 38.4 percent, Jet Li with 30.5 percent and Yunfat Chow with 29.5 percent.

Gong Lee and Zhang Ziyi are close contenders for most liked female actress, enjoying a popularity of 18.4 percent and 17.5 percent respectively.

Apparently, action, adventure and kung fu movies are the favorites, regardless of the age, education or language of the interviewees.

Chinese landscapes and architecture arouse some interest as symbols of China as well, but fail to touch on the essential elements of Chinese culture, said Huang.

Most interviewees (63.7 percent) expect more from movie publicity campaigns, about 35.1 percent are anticipating more novel ways to tell stories, and only some 11.6 percent want to see fresh faces among the directors.

1,450 questionnaires were sent out and 1,308 collected, from a sample that included American, British, French, Canadian, Australian, Indian, Japanese and Korean viewers.