The cast of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." The film is considered as the highest grossing foreign language film in the history of Hollywood. (Photo : Reuters)
The latest results of a survey led by the Academy for International Communications of Chinese Culture (AICCC) show that kung fu movies remain to be the most popular among foreign viewers, but Chinese actors and directors still lack recognition worldwide.
The foreign viewers' love for kung fu can be represented by the success of Ang Lee's hit movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," which grossed up to $128 million in the U.S., becoming the highest-grossing foreign language film in the history of Hollywood.
According to China Daily, the raw representation of martial arts combined with Chinese characters, settings and costumes satisfied the audience's "orientalistic interest" without challenging their underlying perceptions about China.
AICCC stated that since the launching of the project in 2011, kung fu has been the top choice of the viewers.
"We started this project because we want to find out how Chinese culture is being received internationally, and films are the most visually effective way to show our cultures. There are studies on the impact of foreign films in China but not the other way around. Hopefully our study could shed some light on this," Huang Huilin, director of AICCC, told China Daily.
The results of the survey have moved Chinese filmmakers to improve their works, and some believe that it is just one of the solutions to the problem of China's film industry.
"It is one way of assessing the influence of the market of Chinese films. It's not the only way. And I think it works better in evalutating the awareness rather than the penetration of Chinese film products. One needs to look at different results to get the whole picture. But this one is surely valuable," China Daily's columnist Raymond Zhou said.
Interest in China and its culture is growing as more Chinese elements have been shown in some foreign films despite the problems Chinese filmmakers are facing on promoting on the big screen. This increasing international interest on Chinese culture has a great influence on China's flourishing economy.
The success of small screens, with the combination of Hollywood's professionalism and cultural skill of Chinese cinema, could be a breaking point for the success of the big screen.
Improving the delivery and finding fresh ideas will surely be a hard test for Chinese producers and filmmakers.
