ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the role of Chinese-language film festivals in London as sites of Chinese soft power. As part of this latter strategy, festivals with connections to government institutions have been established overseas. Their aim is to raise the profile of the PRC film industry abroad while also bringing state-approved cinematic product to a foreign audience. In London, however, small film festivals specializing in Chinese-language film have sprung up alongside these government-organized events. While these latter festivals are in no sense state-managed, they can provide us with some insight into how non-state actors connect to Chinese government soft power strategies. Using two case studies–Filming East and the Chinese Visual Festival – I explore the ways in which the organizational model and programming patterns of these festivals suggest alternatives to the top-down, monological model of soft power that is assumed as its default mode of operation. In doing so, I show how individuals and events with no direct connection to the Chinese state can both participate in, and reframe, soft power strategies and discourse in ways that draw upon, and sometimes even advance, their own life experience and interests.
