Feng Xiaogang’s New Year Films : Industry, Regulation, Humour and Authorship

This book offers not only an in-depth study of Feng Xiaogang as a cinematic auteur but also a comprehensive and informative discussion of the industrial transformation of mainstream Chinese cinema under party-state regulation from the 1990s to the 2010s. It argues that Feng is not simply a commercially and artistically successful auteur but also a strategist who manages to achieve such success by his ability to negotiate governmental and market expectations. The negotiation facilitates his New Year filmmaking and dynamically affects the textual form of the resulting works. Feng engages in this textual construction, through which he delivers his own interpretations of the Chinese film industry’s state-led commercialisation, cultural policy, film regulation, and even political campaigns, establishes his authorship and restores his creative authority. Through this book, readers will comprehend the edges and limitations of auteur studies in order to understand the current cultural landscape of the film industry.