Description
Money on and off the Screen: Subjectivity and Spectatorship under the Influence of Consumerism in post-2008 ChinaAs movies have become an integral part of the thriving consumerism in PRC, it is not surprising that films depicting experiences of consumerism also become successful in film market recently. This paper examines the experiences of money in contemporary Chinese commercial films through a case study of Lost in Thailand (Taijiong, Xu Zhen, 2012) and Hello Mr. Billionaire (Xihongshi Shoufu, Yan Fei and Peng Da Mo, 2018), and focuses on the correlation between subjectivity depicted in films and the spectator subjectivity under the influence of consumerism.
I identify two noticeable trends after 2008. First, the majority of movie theaters are now located in shopping malls, and the proportion of theatres in smaller cities and towns is increasing (Zhang 2020; Ho and Chung 2016). Second, since 2011, big-budget period martial arts films have faced failures, while comedies featuring wealth gap and heavy money-spending scenarios set in the present day have gained popularity in the market (Zhang 2020).
This study explores how the textual pattern of films changes in accordance with changes in spectatorship. Commercial movies require big budgets to attract consumers so that the audience can see “money” on screen. However, while the old martial arts spectacular fails, we observe the market success of explicit portrayal of money-spending, such as tourism in Lost, and mountainous piles of cash themselves in Billionaire. This paper argues that the new shopping mall and blockbuster configuration implies a new cultural logic, which shapes subjectivities on and off the screen through new experiences of money.
| Period | 7 Sept 2023 → 8 Sept 2023 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | United KingdomShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |