International survey examines Chinese films' impact overseas

Poster of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. [Photo/Agencies]

Kung fu films can be very successful, like in the case of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

Directed by Ang Lee, it grossed $128 million in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing foreign language film in Hollywood history.

The raw spectacle of martial arts combined with Chinese characters, settings and costumes satisfied the audiences "orientalistic interest", without challenging their underlying perceptions about China.

AICCC said this has been a prevailing trend since they started the project in 2011.

"We started this project because we want to find out how Chinese culture is being received internationally, and films are the most visually effective way to show our cultures. There are studies on the impact of foreign films in China but not the other way around. Hopefully our study could shed some light on this," Huang said.

The survey certainly gives filmmakers in China something to work on, but for some this may be just one piece of the puzzle.

"It is one way of assessing the influence of the market of Chinese films. It's not the only way. And I think it works better in evalutating the awareness rather than the penetration of Chinese film products.One need to look at different results to get the whole picture. But this one is surely valuable," China Daily's columnist Raymond Zhou said.

Chinese filmmakers may have trouble promoting on the big screen, on the small screen however, the interest in China and its culture is growing.