Chinese Cinema's Economic Reform From the Mid-1980s to the Mid-1990s

Since the mid-1980s, the Chinese audiovisual industry has gone through a series of institutional reforms aimed at decentralization and marketization. The reform measures from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s affected the general trend in film production and criticism during the period. The outcome of film reform has been the commercialization and privatization of the Chinese film industry and the surge of entertainment pictures. Meanwhile, the global popularity of Hollywood pictures (re)defined what counted as quality films for Chinese audiences. As such, the industrial structure and market practice institutionalized by Hollywood have become the new model for the Chinese film industry. Approached from an institutional perspective, this article gives major attention to the structural formation of the market and the audiovisual industries, that is, the industries' ownership and control related to state policy.