Censorship and the Cinematic Politics of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the Cold War

Kenny K. K. Ng*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

This chapter delineates the impact of film censorship and Chinese (PRC) cultural politics in screening modern China in the throes of the Cultural Revolution. Focusing on the geopolitical phenomena and transnational networks of Hong Kong, China, Europe, and America (Hollywood), it probes how Cold War cultural tactics and censorial measures affected the production, exhibition, circulation, and reception of transnational cinema on Maoist China at the peak of the Cultural Revolution. It examines how implicit governmental and explicit sociopolitical censorships got in the way of the shooting and production of The Chairman (1969) in Asia, a Hollywood-produced anti-Communist movie. It then turns to Michelangelo Antonioni’s documentary Chung Kuo: Cina (1972) that was banned in 1974 by the Chinese government amidst the geopolitics of the Cold War.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Palgrave Handbook of Asian Cinema
EditorsAaron Han Joon Magnan-Park, Gina Marchetti, See Kam Tan
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages307–327
Number of pages21
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9781349958221
ISBN (Print)9781349958214, 9781349959808
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Nov 2018

User-Defined Keywords

  • Cold War
  • Espionage
  • Censorship
  • Cultural Revolution
  • James Bond
  • Michelangelo Antonioni
  • Transnational cinema
  • Maoism

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