The New paradigms in the Chinese Film Industry: Liberalization, Digitalization, and the Creation of a Film Powerhouse

This dissertation examines the Chinese film industry from 2012 to 2022, a decade of rapid growth, digital transformation, and intensified political oversight. Structured around three paradigms, liberalization, digitalization, and the state project of building a film powerhouse, it explores how policies, industrial practices, and cultural narratives have reshaped cinema’s role in contemporary China. The study shows how market openness intersects with state regulation, creating a hybrid system where commercial aims, political mandates, and the persistence of an arthouse tradition coexist in tension. Digitalization acts as a disruptive force, altering production modes, distribution networks, and audience engagement. Meanwhile, the ambition to develop a film powerhouse reinforces cinema’s dual identity as cultural industry and ideological instrument, with blockbusters, co-productions, digital platforms, and resilient auteur filmmaking advancing different visions of national projection. Combining historical, industrial, and film-studies approaches, the dissertation argues that contemporary Chinese cinema remains a dynamic arena of negotiation.