Film co-production as soft power for the UK and China
Against the background of the landmark China-UK Treaty 2014, this research will lead to a transformative intervention in intercultural collaboration related to soft power through document analysis, semi-structured interviews and case studies from both Chinese and English sources.
This project specifically investigates films made under the Treaty 2014 to analyse three issues:
- What are the approaches to and critical thinking behind the practice of soft power from the UK and China?
- How do practitioners view their roles under the conditions of the Treaty?
- How do film co-productions jointly promote soft power for nations with distinctive political, economic and cultural systems such as the UK and China?
This fellowship will provide insights into the empirical and theoretical implications of film co- productions as soft power.
Some initial findings of the research have been presented in leading international conferences such as International Communication Association Annual Conference in the USA and International Association for Media and Communication Research Annual Conference in Spain in 2019. Journal Articles 'The Role of the Non-state Film Industry in Promoting China’s soft power' and 'Film Policy, the Chinese Government and Soft Power', are published in The Hague Journal of Diplomacy and New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, respectively. Within the next year, the project will lead to the publication of a special issue in Transnational Screens and a monograph.
This research project is conducted as part of an Leverhulme Early Career Researcher Fellowship (ECF-2018-571) awarded to Dr Yanling Yang. This is a 36-month project, with an end date of September 2021.