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Home , Be There or Be Square, Changchun Film Studio, Hengdian World Studios, Man of Tai Chi, Nirvana in Fire, Shanghai Film Studio

Mark Parascandola ONCE UPON A TIME IN Cofounders: Taj Forer and Michael Itkoff Creative Director: Ursula Damm Copy Editors: Nancy Hubbard, Barbara Richard

© 2019 Daylight Community Arts Foundation

Photographs and text © 2019 by Mark Parascandola Once Upon a Time in Shanghai and Notes on the Locations © 2019 by Mark Parascandola Once Upon a Time in Shanghai: Images of a in Transition © 2019 by Michael Berry

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-942084-74-7

Printed by OFSET YAPIMEVI, Istanbul

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of copyright holders and of the publisher.

Daylight Books E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.daylightbooks.org

4 5 ONCE UPON A TIME IN SHANGHAI: IMAGES OF A FILM INDUSTRY IN TRANSITION Michael Berry

THE SOCIALIST PERIOD Once upon a time, the Chinese film industry was a state-run affair. From the late centers, even more screenings took place in auditoriums of various “work units,” 1940s well into the 1980s, Chinese cinema represented the epitome of “national as well as open air screenings in many rural areas. Admission was often free and cinema.” Films were produced by one of a handful of state-owned film studios— tickets were distributed to employees of various hospitals, factories, schools, and Film Studio, Film Studio, , Xi’an Film other work units. While these films were an important part of popular culture Studio, etc.—and the resulting films were dubbed in pitch-perfect Mandarin during the height of the socialist period, film was also a powerful tool for education Chinese, shot entirely on location in by a local cast and crew, and produced and propaganda—in fact, one could argue that from 1949 (the founding of the almost exclusively for mainland Chinese film audiences. Foreign films were PRC) until 1978 (the end of the ), there was a blurring of limited primarily to titles from the socialist block, like North Korea, Albania, East what we might describe as popular culture, mass culture, and political culture. Germany, and the Soviet Union, where an entire generation grew up with classics During this period, the entire film infrastructure, from the Beijing Film Academy’s like Lenin in 1919 (Soviet Union, 1939) and The Flower Girl (North Korea, 1972) curriculum to the structure of the state-operated film studios, was all heavily alongside classic Chinese socialist films likeThe Song of Youth (1959) and The Red modeled after the Soviet Union. Films were certainly made to entertain, but their Detachment of Women (1961). While films played in traditional theaters in urban greater mission was to instruct, indoctrinate, and inspire.

6 THE REFORM ERA

The 1980s marked a time of renewal, reinvention, and transition for the Chinese The early 1990s was a period of transition and experimentation for the film industry. Deng Xiaoping’s Open Door policy led to a period of artistic industry. Riding on a string of major prizes at international film festivals in the experimentation and rejuvenation, which culminated in the “culture fever” of the late 1980s, the leading proponents of the Fifth Generation began to branch 1980s. In poetry, there was the innovative literary journal Today and the rise of the out into new areas, exploring provocative periods of Chinese history, from “Misty Poets”; in art, there was the Stars Collective; in literature, there was the the decadent world of Shanghai gangsters during the 1930s (Shanghai Triad, Scar movement, which examined the horrors of the Cultural Revolution; in music, 1995; Temptress Moon, 1996) to the political violence of the Cultural Revolution Cui Jian emerged as the father of Chinese rock and roll; and in film, there was (Farewell My Concubine, 1993; To Live, 1994; The Blue Kite, 1993). With this China’s first New Wave—the Fifth Generation. Directors like and new, broader historical canvas also came a new production models, the casting made a mark on the international film scene with standout works of a pan-Chinese cast in order to appeal to audiences in , , like (1984) and Red Sorghum (1988), which began to bring Chinese and overseas, as well as more sophisticated funding and distribution networks cinema to the international stage. Alongside the formal experimentations with film that began to challenge the traditional “national cinema” model. To Live was language, style, and form that the Fifth Generation were engaged with, the 1980s funded by Chiu Fu-sheng’s Taiwan-based Era International; Farewell My also welcomed a much broader palette of film genres—the reintroduction of martial Concubine was adapted by a novel by Hong Kong writer Lilian Lee, produced arts films Shaolin( Temple, 1982), science-fiction filmsDeath ( Ray on Coral Island, by from Taiwan, and featured Hong Kong actors like 1980), and suspense films Murder( in Room 405, 1980), and eventually paving the alongside PRC actors like . As the Fifth Generation moved into new way to a new breed of commercial comedies like The Trouble Shooters (1989). At global territory, the 1990s also saw the rise of the Sixth Generation, a group the same time, foreign films from around the world began to flood into Chinese of independent-minded young filmmakers who appropriated a documentary- cinemas (and televisions, which were suddenly beginning to appear in Chinese inspired aesthetic to record the dramatic social changes around them and the homes) with films like the Japanese thrillerManhunt (, 1976), which swept lives of marginalized individuals whose fates had been intertwined with those China and broke box office records when it was released there in 1979. changes, including artists (The Days, 1993; Bumming in Beijing, 1990; Frozen,

7 1997), actors (Quitting, 2001), rock and roll musicians (Beijing Bastards, 1993), ENTER THE DRAGON the queer community (East Palace, 1996; West Palace, Men and Women, 1999; Things were gradually evolving and the Chinese film market was slowly opening The Old Testament, 2002), pickpockets and criminals (Xiao Wu, 1997; Blind up to new commercial genres, but it would take a more seismic shift to truly shake Shaft, 2002), and homeless children (Along the Railway, 2001). By largely up the industry and set China on the path to becoming the true juggernaut that it is circumventing the censors and the state-sponsored studio system, the Sixth today. The first step in that shift came in 2000 with Ang Lee’sCrouching Tiger, Hidden Generation cultivated an independent spirit that revealed a side of China Dragon. Although not strictly a PRC production, the film’s unprecedented record in previously hidden from the camera’s eye. the international box office set the Chinese film industry on a quest to reduplicate its success. One by one, China’s leading filmmakers set to making big-budget As the Fifth Generation went global and the Sixth Generation went martial arts fantasy films featuring A-list pan-Asian casts, astonishing wirework and underground, a new breed of commercial cinema was quietly rising in the computer-generated effects, stunning costumes and set designs, classically inspired mainland. Cutting his teeth as an art designer for Beijing Television Art Center scores featuring the likes of Itzhak Pearlman and Yo-Yo Ma, and increasingly and later as a screenwriter, would eventually emerge in the sophisticated production models to produce, distribute, and market these films. late 1990s as one of the most important pioneers of new commercial cinema in Almost overnight, the Chinese blockbuster was born: in quick succession, films like China. Through a set of highly successful comedies released during the Lunar Hero (2002), (2004), The Promise (2005), Curse of the Golden New Year, Feng Xiaogang created and conquered the hesui pian, or “Chinese Flower (2006), and The Banquet (2006) attempted to replicate the Crouching Tiger New Year Film” market in . With a string of hits like The Dream model. The Chinese film industry entered a new era, and in order to shoot these new Factory (1997), (1998), (1999), Sigh (2000), spectacle-laden films (along with an ever-increasing slate of television miniseries) a and Big Shot’s Funeral (2001), Feng redefined Chinese comedy and commercial new series of mega-studios began to pop up all over China. film. At the same time, Feng’s frequent production partner , founded in 1994 by Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei, was emblematic of Among this new breed of mega-studios, the most visible during the early 2000s the rise of a new group of multinational entertainment companies in China that was , a privately-owned production facility, which would began to wrestle the market away from the old state-owned film studios, many eventually be declared the largest film studio in the world. Founded in the 1990s of which became intertwined with new private equity firms. by Xu Wenrong, Hengdian World Studios has continued to expand and has served

8 as the backdrop for countless films and television miniseries. As the Chinese film film industry in general) is nothing short of remarkable. From 2012 to 2017, there industry continued its commercial expansion in the 2000s and 2010s, more studios were an average of nineteen new screens a day going up in China; and in 2017 were built, with many of them doubling as tourist attractions or theme parks, such a propagandistic ,Wolf Warrior 2, earned an astonishing $874 million as Zhang Jizhong’s Monkey King theme park, Shanghai Film Park, Zhongshan dollars at the Chinese box office—making it the most profitable film in Chinese TV and Film City, and Changchun Movie Wonderland. Perhaps most notable cinema history and speaking the future potential of China’s film market. among these mega-studios is Wanda’s Oriental Movie Metropolis, a sprawling production center in Qingdao that was announced with great fanfare in 2013 Once Upon a Time in Shanghai renders China’s expansive film production facilities and slated to overtake Hengdian as the largest studio in the world, however, just visible. Through his images, Mark Parascandola captures these sites and people as construction on the nearly $5 billion facility was nearly complete, financial that inhabit them, offering us fleeting images of classical Chinese costumes dramas, challenges forced Wanda to sell off portions of the studio—a telling parable about modern war films, Republican Shanghai, and the socialist past. It is also through the mythic rise and unforeseen challenges faced by the Chinese film industry. these images that contradictions lurking beneath the surface emerge as we witness a side of China that is both classical and modern, genuine and staged, glamorous As the nature of the Chinese blockbuster continues to transform, from martial and mundane, new and old, deeply tied to history yet continually being remolded. arts fantasies (Hero) to Republican kung fu films Yip( Man, 2008; Let the Bullets Fly, 2010), and from monster adventures (, 2015; Mermaid, 2016) to sci-fi spectacles The( Walking Earth, 2019), so the appetite for new sets, Michael Berry is Professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies and studios, and production facilities will undoubtedly continue to expand. As the Director of the Center for Chinese Studies at UCLA. He is the author of Chinese box office continues to grow and the seemingly unstoppable power of four books on Chinese cinema, including Speaking in Images: Interviews with Chinese commercial cinema leaves both its socialist roots and the independent Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers (2006) and A History of Pain: Trauma in Modern spirit of 80s and 90s behind, what is often invisible to outsiders are the massive and Film (2008). He has served as a film consultant and a production facilities that are responsible for creating the images we see on juror for numerous film festivals, including the Golden Horse (Taiwan) and the screen. Like Shenzhen, the mega-city in southern China with a population Fresh Wave (Hong Kong). He is also the translator of several novels, including of 12.5 million people, which began as fishing village four decades ago, the Wild Kids (2000), 1937: A Love Story (2002), To Live (2004), The Song of astonishing growth and expansion of these production studios (and the Chinese Everlasting Sorrow (2008), and, most recently, Remains of Life (2017).

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127

129 PHOTOGRAPHING BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE CHINESE FILM INDUSTRY Mark Parascandola

Five years ago, while I was living in China for a few months, I read that old Beijing Film Studio lot, a cathedral built for Zhang Yimou’s The Flowers of the sprawling China Film Group back lot, just outside Beijing, was open to War, and the bizarre theme parks of Changchun Movie Wonderland and Huayi visitors. The next weekend I found myself on the lot exploring deserted streets Brothers Movie World. Over a dozen sites are represented in the photographs of old Shanghai, traditional wooden houses set alongside flower ponds, and here, and there are many more around the country. incongruous classical monuments with grand columns and staircases. The place was eerily quiet, apart from a few crew members and a wardrobe van outside My previous book, Once Upon a Time in Almería: The Legacy of Hollywood in Spain one of the houses where a costume drama TV series was being filmed. It was (Daylight Books, 2017), explored a bygone era of Hollywood glamour amid my first introduction to a vast world of mainland Chinese cinema culture that, the geopolitics of the Cold War. Once Upon a Time in Shanghai, in contrast, looks apart from a handful of art films that made it to western screens, I knew almost toward the future. In 2018 China produced over 1,000 films and 15,000 TV nothing about. episodes. The Chinese film industry now makes more movies than Hollywood, and China is rapidly taking over as the world’s largest motion picture market. Since then, I have been researching, visiting, and photographing movie production sites around China: Hengdian World Studios, purportedly the world’s Across the country, entire towns have been constructed around making movies. largest production facility, the 1930s-era streetscape of the Shanghai Film Park, Local governments provide financing for these movie towns in hopes of the rustic Western Film City on the edge of the desert in Ningxia Province, the attracting business and tourism. The scale is unparalleled. Movie sets in China

130 are not plywood facades, but monumental fortresses, mazelike palaces, and costume dramas of the Qing dynasty, conflicts of the nineteenth century complete towns and urban neighborhoods of multistory buildings. They have Opium Wars, gangsters in 1930s Shanghai, or resistance under the Japanese more in common with Cecil B. DeMille’s City of the Pharaoh of a century ago occupation. Because so many movies and TV dramas share the same backdrops, than with today’s digital production factories. filmmakers are able to reuse these locations, instantly recognizable to Chinese audiences, over and over. Historical settings are so prominent, in part, because The movie towns are in a constant state of flux. The larger sites often host ongoing censorship in China limits the scope of acceptable themes. multiple productions at once, while at the same time tourists mill about taking selfies and couples pose in period dress for engagement photographs. Light I am especially intrigued by the tension between truth and fiction in these construction hums in the background, as streets and palaces are reconfigured movie towns. Films and photographic images can provide a vivid sense of and storefront signs and architectural details are swapped out. In revisiting reality, even when they are based in fiction. Yet these film sets are mere these sites over time, I have seen them torn down, rebuilt, and decked out for phantoms of the real world. They are constructed from a hodge-podge of the next show. incomplete cultural fragments devoid of context—props, architectural details, signs, and billboards. They were not designed to stand on their own, but simply There is a formula at work here. The large-scale outdoor sets reflect specific to suggest a narrative, extending only far enough to sustain the illusion. In the episodes in China’s history—ancient battles of the Warring States Period, end, they are brought to life by the stories that are projected onto them.

131 Selected Film Production Sites, Mainland China*

Changchun

Changchun Movie Wonderland

China Film Group

Beijing Film Studio

Beijing Zhenbeipu Western Film City

West Taihu Film & Television Base Nanjing Huayi Brothers Shanghai Movie World Shanghai Film Museum Shiqiu Film & Shanghai Film Park Television Base Huzhou Film & Television City Ningbo

Hengdian Xiangshan Movie & Television Town Hengdian World Studios

Guangzhou

Zhongshan Movie & Television Town

*Locations are approximate

132 NOTES ON THE LOCATIONS

BEIJING FILM STUDIO newest additions comprises several city blocks of a North African streetscape The original studio in central Beijing was used for classic films such as The Last built for megahit action film Wolf Warrior 2 (2017), in which a former elite special Emperor (1987) and Farewell My Concubine (1993). The back lot is now closed and ops soldier saves a group of Chinese nationals caught up in a rebel attack in slated for demolition, though some sections of the sets remain, rapidly decaying an unnamed African country. The set was reused for the less-acclaimed China and overgrown with weeds. Salesman (2017), with Mike Tyson and Steven Seagal.

CHINA FILM GROUP STATE PRODUCTION BASE HENGDIAN WORLD STUDIOS The China Film Group Corporation is the largest state-owned film production Reportedly the world’s largest film production facility, Hengdian World Studios and distribution company in China. It is the only official importer of foreign films is made up of several distinct film villages, including a full-scale replica of the to China and has had a hand in numerous large scale co-productions bringing Forbidden City, a massive ancient walled fortress, traditional lakeside towns, and foreign stars to China, including Matt Damon in The Great Wall (2016) and a neighborhood of Hong Kong and Guangzhou colonial streets. A once-remote in Man of Tai Chi (2013). The production base in Huairou, outside small town, Hengdian has exploded in the past ten years. The majority of the Beijing, includes state-of-the-art digital production facilities, sixteen sound stages, studio’s revenue comes from tourism—an estimated 12 million, mostly domestic, equipment and props warehouses, and large outdoor studio lots. One of the tourists visited in 2016. The Guangzhou streets came first, constructed for the

133 1997 historical epic The Opium War, backed by the central government and SHIQIU FILM AND TELEVISION BASE the most expensive Chinese production at the time. The heavily fortified Qin The local Shiqiu town government, outside Nanjing, took on the cost of Imperial Palace was used for director Chen Kaige’s The Emperor and the Assassin constructing a Roman Catholic cathedral for Zhang Yimou’s Flowers of War (1998), Zhang Yimou’s Hero (2002), and the Silk Road action filmDragon Blade (2011) with Christian Bale. While the site apparently failed to attract other large- (2015) with , John Cusack, and Adrien Brody. The re-created scale productions, the cathedral remains among landscaped green lawns and is Forbidden City is most known today as the location for the TV drama The Story now used for weddings and special events. The war-torn Nanjing streetscapes of Yanxi Palace, the world’s most Googled TV show in 2018. have since been demolished.

HUAYI BROTHERS MOVIE WORLD SHANGHAI FILM PARK Founded in 1994 by brothers Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei, Huayi The Shanghai Film Park is based around a full-scale replica of Nanjing Road, Brothers Media Corporation is a Chinese entertainment conglomerate including Shanghai’s famous shopping high street, circa 1930s. An oddly diverse set film and television production studios, a talent agency, a record label, and a of film and video productions have made use of the set, including Ang Lee’s movie theater chain. Huayi Brothers opened their first theme park in July Lust, Caution (2007), Kung Fu Hustle (2004), The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon 2018 in Suzhou, China, after six years of construction and at a cost of over $50 Emperor (2008), video artist Isaac Julien’s Ten Thousand Waves, and even a million. Similar to Disneyland or Universal Studios, the park is based around Prada commercial directed by Chinese artist Yang Fudong. The park remains the company’s major creative properties, including the Detective Dee film series. a go-to site for spy and gangster TV dramas set in early twentieth-century Huayi Brothers has announced plans to open up combined film studio and theme Shanghai. park sites in other cities around China.

134 XIANGSHAN FILM AND TV CITY recognition. Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum (1988), starring Gong Li, and Wong The Xiangshan studios opened in 2005 on an undeveloped peninsula of fishing Kar-Wai’s Ashes of Time (1994) were also made here. villages south of Ningbo for The Return of the Condor Heroes (2006), based on the Wuxia novel by Jin Yong. The site was also used for Chen Kaige’s historical ZHONGSHAN MOVIE & TELEVISION TOWN drama Sacrifice (2010) and for the popular TV series (2015). A Located in Guangdong Province next door to the childhood home of Sun Yat-sen, Republic of China section added later was used in the ill-fated WWII film Air first president of the Republic of China. The town is based around landmarks Strike (2018) with Bruce Willis. The production was hampered by delays, cost from Sun’s life and travels, including a London police office, an English church, overruns, and a tax evasion scandal involving actress Fan BingBing before it was the San Francisco Chinese Expats Club, and the family’s residence in New York. widely panned by critics. It was created by the local government for the shooting of a 2001 biographical TV drama. ZHENBEIPU WESTERN FILM CITY Constructed on the ruins of an old fortress outside Yinchuan, in northwestern China near the edge of the Gobi desert, the Western Film City has been used in numerous epic historical films. Writer Zhang Xianliang first promoted the site as a film location after spending time laboring on a nearby farm during the Cultural Revolution. The 1982 filmThe Herdsman, based on a story by Zhang, was the first feature film made here and one of the first Chinese films to get international

135 LIST OF PLATES

Page 16 Pages 26–27 Cover Music Video Shoot Gate of Supreme Harmony Live Action Movie Show China Film Group State Production Palace of Ming and Qing Dynasties Huayi Brothers Movie World, Suzhou Base, Beijing Hengdian World Studios

Page 28 Pages 4–5 Page 19 Photo Studio Shanghai circa 1937 Film Set Chairman Mao Impersonator Palace of Ming and Qing Dynasties Huayi Brothers Movie World, Suzhou Xiangshan Film and TV City, Ningbo Hengdian World Studios

Pages 20–21 Page 31 Pages 10–11 Tour Group Story of Huang Feihong Tourist Show Yangsong Town Welcome Sign Palace of Ming and Qing Dynasties China Film Group State Production Huairou, Beijing Hengdian World Studios Base, Beijing

Page 12 Page 23 Page 33 Changchun Film Production Studio Sign Enthroning of the First Emperor Filming for TV Drama Series Changchun Movie Wonderland, Palace of Emperor Qin China Film Group State Production Changchun Hengdian World Studios Base, Beijing

Page 24 Pages 34–35 Page 15 Meridian Gate Between Takes Entrance Palace of Ming and Qing Dynasties China Film Group State Production , Beijing Hengdian World Studios Base, Beijing

136 Pages 36–37 Page 52 Waiting for the Entrance Cue Page 43 The Sincere Company Department China Film Group State Production Base, Alley Store Beijing Shanghai Film Park Shanghai Film Park

Page 39 Page 44 Hengdian Micro Film Lighting Gear Page 55 Palace of Ming and Qing Dynasties China Film Group State Production Roosevelt Hotel Hengdian World Studios Base, Beijing Shanghai Film Park

Page 40 Extras Page 47 Page 56 Qing Ming Shang He Tu Extras on Break Cinema Hengdian World Studios Xiangshan Film and TV City, Ningbo Xiangshan Film and TV City, Ningbo

Page 41 Page 49 Extras Tourists Page 57 Qing Ming Shang He Tu Palace of Emperor Qin Department Store Hengdian World Studios Hengdian World Studios Xiangshan Film and TV City, Ningbo

Page 42 Props Pages 50–51 Pages 58–59 China Film Group State Production Base, Nanjing Road Willie’s Theatre Beijing Shanghai Film Park Shanghai Film Park

137 Page 60 Story of Huang Feihong Tourist Show Set Pages 70–71 Page 78 Guangzhou and Hong Kong Streets Lunch Break Wedding Photo Shoot Hengdian World Studios Shanghai Film Park Shanghai Film Park

Page 72 Page 80 Page 63 Street Scene Streetscape Stunt Show Guangzhou and Hong Kong Streets West Taihu Film and Television Base, Huzhou Film and Television City Hengdian World Studios Changzhou

Page 73 Page 81 Page 65 Waiting for Action Streetscape Props Guangzhou and Hong Kong Streets West Taihu Film and Television Base, Shanghai Film Park Hengdian World Studios Changzhou

Page 66 Page 75 Page 83 Gangster TV Drama Between Takes Classical Facades Shanghai Film Park Xiangshan Film and TV City, Ningbo Xiangshan Film and TV City, Ningbo

Page 69 Page 77 Page 85 Green Screen Photo Shoot Kungming WWII American Air Base Shanghai Film Park Shanghai Film Park Xiangshan Film and TV City, Ningbo

138 Page 96 Page 86 Hong Kong Welcomes Queen Pages 104–105 Military Rally Scene Elizabeth II Shanghai Circa 1937 Film Set Xiangshan Film and TV City, Guangzhou and Hong Kong Streets Huayi Brothers Movie World, Ningbo Hengdian World Studios Suzhou

Page 89 Page 97 Page 106 Extras Kwong Sang Hong, Ltd. Building Photo Studio Xiangshan Film and TV City, Guangzhou and Hong Kong Streets Zhongshan Movie & Television Ningbo Hengdian World Studios Town

Page 91 Page 99 Page 107 Extras Dream of Bund Film Park (Under Shanghai Circa 1937 Film Set Xiangshan Film and TV City, Construction) Huayi Brothers Movie World, Ningbo Hengdian World Studios Suzhou

Pages 92–93 Page 101 Page 109 Space Labyrinth Crown Salon House from A Herdsman’s Story Changchun Movie Wonderland, West Taihu Film and Television Zhenbeipu Western Film City, Changchun Base, Changzhou Yinchuan Page 110 Page 95 Page 102 Village Set Detective Dee Themed Area Shanghai Circa 1937 Film Set Guangzhou and Hong Kong Huayi Brothers Movie World, Huayi Brothers Movie World, Streets Suzhou Suzhou Hengdian World Studios

139 Page 120 Winchester Cathedral, from Flowers Page 111 of War Page 129 Diorama Shiqiu Film and Television Base, Ruins of Studio Back Lot Shanghai Film Museum Nanjing Beijing Film Studio, Beijing

Pages 112–113 Pages 140–141 Treasure Hunter Movie Set Page 121 Dream of Bund Film Park (Under Zhenbeipu Western Film City, English Cathedral Construction) Yinchuan Zhongshan Movie & Television Town Huayi Brothers Movie World, Suzhou

Page 115 Dragon Bones Page 123 Zhenbeipu Western Film City, Props Yinchuan Beijing Film Studios, Beijing

Page 125 Page 117 Sound Stage 15 Fortress Walls China Film Group State Production Xiangshan Film and TV City, Ningbo Base, Beijing

Page 118 Pagea 126–127 Africa Streets Set Construction Outside Sound Stage 6 China Film Group State Production China Film Group State Production Base, Beijing Base, Beijing

140 141 142 143 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to many friends, colleagues, and family members who have helped me get to know China and its culture, especially Liz Yuan for bringing me to China to work. The China Culture Center in Beijing helped me to make connections and gain access to the art and film communities. Katt Wang and Kuai Sim Ho provided research and translation help. Thanks to Frank Van Riper, Glen Echo Photoworks, Blackrock Center for the Arts, Shangtuf Image and Art Club and the Naiman International Photo Festival for supporting and exhibiting this work

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