This book challenges the prevailing view of cinema and cinema culture that Hollywood/the US creates, produces and exports, with other countries importing, sometimes modifying and sometimes pirating 'original' American work. Instead the book argues that the 'original ideas' which underpin the moneymaking activities of the 'creative industries', and for which 'ownership' is secured through copyright, are often imported, 'borrowed' and modified by Hollywood itself from other cultures and national cinemas. The book considers especially Chinese and Korean cinema, and film 'piracy' in these countries, to show that ideas of cultural ownership and copyright are not as straightforward as they may at first seem, and that copyright is perhaps primarily a lever through which cultural control is exercised by the cultural big business of the dominant power.

Building a New China in Cinema introduces English readers for the first time to one of the most exciting left-wing cinema traditions in the world. This unique book explores the history, ideology, and aesthetics of China's left-wing cinema movement, a quixotic film culture that was as political as commercial, as militant as sensationalist. Originating in the 1930s, it marked the first systematic intellectual involvement in Chinese cinema. In this era of turmoil and idealism, the movement's films were characterized by fantasies of heroism intertwined with the inescapable spell of impotency, thus exposing the contradictions of the filmmakers' underlying ideology as their political and artistic agendas alternately fought against or catered to the taste and viewing habits of a popular audience. Political cinema became a commercially successful industry, resulting in a film culture that has never been replicated. Drawing on detailed archival research, Pang demonstrates that this cinema movement was a product of the era's social, economic, and political discourses. The author offers a close analysis of many rarely seen films, richly illustrated with over eighty stills collected from the Beijing Film Archive. With its original conceptual approach and rich use of primary sources, this book will be of interest not only to scholars and fans of Chinese cinema but to those who study the relationship between cinema and modernity.

Bringing together the most recent research on the Cultural Revolution in China, musicologists, historians, literary scholars, and others discuss the music and its political implications. Combined, these chapters, paint a vibrant picture of the long-lasting impact that the musical revolution had on ordinary citizens, as well as political leaders.

Bringing together the most recent research on the Cultural Revolution in China, musicologists, historians, literary scholars, and others discuss the music and its political implications. Combined, these chapters, paint a vibrant picture of the long-lasting impact that the musical revolution had on ordinary citizens, as well as political leaders.

This is a succint and well-written book introducing a truly interdisciplinary approach to the study of copyright and related issues in contemporary popular culture in relation to the current development of Asian cinema, and questions how copyright is appropriated to regulate culture. It examines the many meanings and practices pertaining to copying in cinema, demonstrating the dynamics between globalization's desire for cultural control and cinema's own resistance to such manipulation.

Focusing on the cinema of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and film 'piracy' in these countries, the book argues that ideas of cultural ownership and copyright are not as clear-cut as they may at first seem, and that copyright is used as a means through which cultural control is exercised by the cultural big business of the dominant power.

"Creativity and Its Discontents "is a sharp critique of the intellectual property rights (IPR)-based creative economy, particularly as it is embraced or ignored in China. Laikwan Pang argues that the creative economy--in which creativity is an individual asset to be commodified and protected as property--is an intensification of Western modernity and capitalism at odds with key aspects of Chinese culture. Nevertheless, globalization has compelled China to undertake endeavors involving intellectual property rights. Pang examines China's IPR-compliant industries, as well as its numerous copyright violations. She describes how China promotes intellectual property rights in projects such as the development of cultural tourism in the World Heritage city of Lijiang, the transformation of Hong Kong cinema, and the cultural branding of Beijing. Meanwhile, copyright infringement proliferates, angering international trade organizations. Pang argues that piracy and counterfeiting embody the intimate connection between creativity and copying. She points to the lack of copyright protections for Japanese anime as the motor of China's dynamic anime culture. Theorizing the relationship between knockoffs and appropriation art, Pang offers an incisive interpretation of China's flourishing art scene. "Creativity and Its Discontents" is a refreshing rejoinder to uncritical celebrations of the creative economy.