‘Directed by Hollywood, edited by China’?

This chapter analyses the impact that shifting sources of box office growth are exerting on the messages Hollywood communicates about China to the Westernised world. It provides conceptualisations for Hollywood's ostensibly affirmative remaking of space and place regarding China, which is being driven by the increasing economic heft of the Chinese marketplace in film distribution. The chapter examines the widespread notion that Hollywood's decision to alter long-standing norms when it comes to popular geopolitical representation has allowed China to straightforwardly co-opt the dream factory as an adjunct tool of Chinese statecraft, especially soft power. It argues that, with access to this lucrative market at stake, recent large-scale blockbusters have apparently dispensed with hoary stereotypes of China and Chinese characters, instead offering a more ecumenical understanding of global political space that transcends the dominant paradigm of patriotism/enemy othering and, crucially, even allows for the accommodation and endorsement of Chinese strategic narratives.