ABSTRACT
This book believes that the American film industry has been able to help domestic cinema in some cases and oppress it in other cases, depending on how the domestic film industry has responded to the influence of Hollywood. Focussing on the case of China, this book addresses how the Chinese film industry responded to the American film industry in the 1920s and 1930s. It explores the formation of the Chinese film industry and the role America played in the process of that formation. This book demonstrates that as China commenced and consolidated its own film industry in the early twentieth century, it consciously responded to the American film industry. The expansion of the American industry in China and the emergence of the domestic film industry shows that the latter does not necessarily diminish in the shadow of Hollywood. By contrast, the case of China in the early twentieth century illustrates the proposition that a domestic film industry could emerge and achieve growth along with the expansion of the American film industry in the local market.
